MRI Confusion

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Hello all. I had a MRI done about a month ago because I have constant headaches and I wanted to know why. At age 15 or 16, I was diagnosed with Asperger's. This week, I got the MRI results back. The results were rather confusing. But me being me, I did some digging online, and came to a shocking possibility. I may have been misdiagnosed all these years. I am not 100% certain that I have, but it's starting to look that way. And I'm starting to feel like my whole life is a lie. I'm going crazy. Where do I go from here? My neurologist wants me to do another MRI for my neck/spine, which I really don't want. I'm supposed to see him again on the 31st. I guess I can wait until then for answers. I'm scared, and I don't know what to do.


Thanks for helping.

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I'm not sure what you're asking.

What did your MRI show?

I'm interested to know what condition would be anatomically visible on an MRI and also mimic autism. Please give us an update, nikkiDT.

I don't feel, if you don't happen to have Asperger's/autism, that your life has been a "lie," per se.

If this occurred, it's more like a "mistake," rather than a "lie." A "lie" is a willful untruth, in my opinion.

I hope everything becomes clear to you soon.

I'm sorry you received a mistaken diagnosis, if this is in fact what happened.

Also, it might not necessarily be a misdiagnosis, but rather a different level of description.

AS is diagnosed by looking at symptoms. If you have a certain pattern of symptoms, you have AS, regardless of the reason why.

Structural brain anomalies are diagnosed by the structure of the brain, regardless of what symptoms are associated.

If you have both a structural brain anomaly and symptoms of AS, they don't preclude each other. You just know what most likely caused your AS.

It's true: many people do not have symptoms with Chiari's Malformation. There's a few types of Chiari's, too.

I had an MRI on my back a few years ago and I think it's an amazing and wonderful technology, but the images and related data can be hard or impossible for a layperson to interpret. I would rely on your doctor to interpret the results and get a second opinion if you are not happy with the information your doctor gives you.

If your doctor is asking for a second MRI as a follow up, I think you should certainly do it--the situation is that the doc saw something in the first MRI that poses a question that can only be answered with another scan. He probably really needs the data from the second scan to fully understand what is going on. Why would you not want to get the information that's needed to make your medical situation clear?

Regarding the "my whole life is a lie" feeling--it just isn't true. Your experiences and perceptions are what they are, regardless of the medical cause of any of your symptoms. You will not stop being you because the underlying mechanism behind of some of your traits turns out to be something different than you had believed up to know.

Please take good care of yourself and try not to be afraid. I would suggest not researching possible interpretations of the tests without first discussing them in depth with the doctor. It's too easy to scare yourself with partial information from the internet.

Good luck. Be well.

It is uncomfortable. I'm not claustrophobic, but I began to feel that way in that machine. And the noise is awful, but it only seems to go on forever--eventually it is over. And there is no better way to see what is going on with internal structures of a certain kind.

It's possible that your original diagnosis was correct and you also have another condition which has been revealed by this test.

In any case I wish you well and hope getting through this experience isn't too horrible.

If a Chiari malformation is suspected, you should get a standing MRI. I am not sure why you think that Chiari would mimic Autism...but it is certainly known to cause headaches, particularly in the back of the head.