Highest functioning I have ever seen

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Said a doctor I went to see months ago. That really bothered me. He pointed out I made great eye contact. I dont even remember what his face looks like lol. Apparently I did really well at looking at him. I wanted to get my point across, I did not go in there for him to tell me how well I am for being autistic. I have dealt with enough doctors treating me like I am crazy cause I cant get what I want to say out that I rehearsed my lines for a week before seeing him and the whole time out in the waiting room (that he was late for). I am proud I got it all out and it was an accomplishment for me. I felt he was telling me I was lying cause I said I was autistic and I did not present my 100+ symptoms to him the first 5 minutes I was in the room with him. People like him make me think its all in my head and maybe they are right. Then I go home and read about autism and say... Nope, still autistic.

Anything happen like that to anyone else? I dont want to say that being "high-functioning" is harder than not, but it is very hard to deal with stupid people who think I should be acting a certain way and if I am not, then I have the wrong diagnosis.

My ex fiance today told me I am bipolar and I am using the excuse of autism to get my way and not have fault with anything. I could have died... really i wanted to down a bottle of pills that he would think that way of me. I was diagnosed as Bipolar at age 15. I have taken pill after pill after pill, therapy after therapy and nothing helped. If anything, I felt more angry after the therapy sessions and then disappointed when the medications wouldnt work. I never gave up and had my psychiatrist put me on something different every time i did not get a result... I wanted my pain to stop, my meltdowns and my rude words/behavior. I CRAVED being normal. So I did everything I could. Then my son was showing signs that were similar to what i did as a kid that, as a preschool teacher, I have rarely if ever saw in children his age. So I decided to look them up to see if they were related to being bipolar. The things I typed in led me to Autism. My son is so borderline that they wont give him a diagnosis till they see him in school with other kids. He was accepted into the school board school system! Anyway, during the search I did an aspie test and got 178/200 Aspie. I cried. I then did research and dug really deep into everything and found out that THIS was me. No doubt. Since then I have gottent he ASD diagnosis and my fiance could not handle it. He thinks I am lying. I thought he would be happy about the news. I thought we could go to counseling together and both learn about it together but apparently he did not think that was a good idea.

So, because I dont look autistic, "LOOK"..... He does not believe me, the doctor I felt questioned it, but my psychotherapist and my psychiatrist that put me through the evaluation said there is no doubt, and they both dont see any bipolar traits other than my meltdowns and disorganization.

Has anyone else gone through this stuff?

I will never understand how some medical professionals can rebuke a diagnosis in five minutes- that took YEARS to get the first time.

exactly!

Any doctor that thinks they can see a condition in someone within five minutes should lose their license.

Sounds like you need a higher functioning doctor.

I was assessed for one minute on the spot at a gas station after I was evicted from my house (long story). He told me I was schizophrenic (I was just stoned) and they put me in an unmarked police car and hauled me away for four months in a psychiatric ward. I came out 40 pounds heavier because there was nothing to do in the hospital.

I've had a nurse say 'but she can speak' to my mom during a massive meltdown I was having. So, my mom started bitching at her about how just because I could talk doesn't make me any less autistic. I mean, could the nurse not see the severe meltdown I was having? (It started because she wanted to put an IV in me, and I started freaking out.) She also wanted to have two security guards hold me down while sedating me with a needle. We ended up denying treatment and walking out after that. My dad was even pissed off when he heard about what that nurse wanted to do to me. She didn't care one bit that I was autistic nor did she believe I even had it.

My first diagnosis only took about five minutes after about twenty minutes of filling out forms by an assistant. They asked me questions to rule out schizophrenia, and then the conclusion was autism.

The doctor might be use to seeing people who have obvious speech /functioning problems.

I laughed at that, thank you for that split moment of smiling.

well when you have lived your whole life without the diagnosis, and having teaching as a special interest, you learn to talk to people. My first year teaching my director made me take classes on dealing with parents because I would ignore them and only speak to the kids, and then classes on how to "sugar coat" things because I was too blunt and upset the parents in my room. She said I was amazing with the kids and it would be a shame to let me go. I learned a lot my first year of teaching, it was hard work but I know how to speak to people now. So if he really wanted to diagnos me in 5 minutes maybe he should have met me 10 years ago

some folk think "presenting well" papers over a lot of problems. IMHO that superficial mindset is what is behind so much of America's troubles today.

well said

Sounds like something you want a doctor to tell you.

But, you know.

Depends on how it was presented. In this situation I was in the middle of telling him my symptoms and he focused on that one. Which made me feel like he was questioning my diagnosis. It did not feel like a compliment if that is what you are implying.

Failing to spot Autism and thus misdiagnosing people is COMMON especially for adult women. It is a rare women here who has not been misdiagnosed several times before finding a person who got it right. If they have found that person at all. The schools and insurance companies are looking to cut down on Autism diagnosis to save money. The people with Aspergers/ higher functioning autistics are particularly looked at with suspicion because of an extreme increase in diagnosis in that part of the spectrum in recent years. If it is doable find a person who specializes in ASD for all ages and genres.

Bi-Polar is a known co-morbid of Autism. It is possible you are both.

What too many docs and therapists fail to understand is that some days are good days for us, some days are bad days for us, and some are in between, and the same Asperger/Autistic patient can appear very different depending on what type of day we are having. We have very real neurological processing problems, so on bad days we have a harder time with processing input and output, while on good days, we do better. Our emotional condition, stress levels, and general health can make more or less demands on our processing abilities at different times, leading to different outcomes at different times. Unfortunately, too many docs just don't get it, and don't seem to want to get it, either.