The value of an official diagnosis
I kept thinking that I couldn't know for sure if I had AS until I was officially diagnosed. But... I was diagnosed for a disorder for insurance reasons (Borderline for DBT therapy) and that doesn't mean I really have it because I was diagnosed. That leads to a dilemma where I can't be sure EVER if what I am experiencing is autism-related, or just intelligence related, or just a personality type even if the mental health doctor diagnoses me. A therapist diagnosed me but mental health says it's invalid, then pretty much ran me away from the therapist because the therapist didn't do the type of therapy mental health wanted them to do. They wanted to give me AS therapy but mental health wanted them to do DBT.
What am I suppose to think about this stuff?
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Crazy Bird Lady!! !
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FINALLY diagnosed with ASD 2/6/2020
IMO you should only consider a diagnosis for impairments. If you feel impaired in the way the DSM describes, you likely should be diagnosed. As you've kinda implied, when you go past this the diagnostic criteria you may start applying traits that may be related simply to personality etc. I feel that I've seen this quite a bit on WP.
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I don't quite understand the situation described in the OP... is it that you have a formal autism diagnosis and a bogus Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis that a therapist applied to you strictly for insurance purposes? And now another institutional team of some kind wants to reject the Boderline diagnosis and therapeutic approach because they don't think it's appropriate? I feel like in trying to understand the OP, I end up making things up and I don't know if I got it right or not.
In any case, I sort of disagree with what you are saying Norny... it's true that the diagnostic criteria are used to make the diagnosis, but that doesn't mean that autism doesn't have an impact on many areas of persons mental functioning including personality traits. Just because some of those traits are not diagnostic and may be shared with other diagnoses or neurotypical people, that doesn't mean that there aren't patterns of those traits that regularly show up in ASD.
All the experienced clinicians I have discussed or whose writing I have read about this talk about the symptoms that meet the diagnostic criteria as a baseline, not some sort of limit to autism's impact. The scope of autism is described as the diagnostic criteria plus, not the diagnostic criteria only.
Or maybe I misread what you were saying?
In any case, I sort of disagree with what you are saying Norny... it's true that the diagnostic criteria are used to make the diagnosis, but that doesn't mean that autism doesn't have an impact on many areas of persons mental functioning including personality traits. Just because some of those traits are not diagnostic and may be shared with other diagnoses or neurotypical people, that doesn't mean that there aren't patterns of those traits that regularly show up in ASD.
All the experienced clinicians I have discussed or whose writing I have read about this talk about the symptoms that meet the diagnostic criteria as a baseline, not some sort of limit to autism's impact. The scope of autism is described as the diagnostic criteria plus, not the diagnostic criteria only.
Or maybe I misread what you were saying?
You got it backwards, I guess I was confusing, mental health diagnosed me with borderline for insurance purposes, while the therapist diagnosed me with autism and mental health was mad because the therapists were suppose to be treating me for borderline, not autism.
People that say I have AS even say I'm not impaired by it now, but as a child I was and I'm told I got "better", but I'm still a person with noticeable oddities. But as a child, I also had symptoms of Childhood Bipolar, and that didn't get better, so that is what they are trying to treat now.
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Crazy Bird Lady!! !
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Avatar: A Shiny from the new Pokemon Pearl remake, Shiny Chatot... I named him TaterTot...
FINALLY diagnosed with ASD 2/6/2020
If by "diagnosing for insurance purposes" you mean putting a DSM code down on the insurance papers for billing? That is not a diagnosis.
EDIT: Or perhaps it is a kind of diagnosis--it indicates that the person providing the service thought that was the diagnosis and is treating it. It is not the same as a full assessment, though. Maybe some other WP member can give an accurate view of this--I just realized that what I thought I understood may be partial and inadequate.
EDIT: Or perhaps it is a kind of diagnosis--it indicates that the person providing the service thought that was the diagnosis and is treating it. It is not the same as a full assessment, though. Maybe some other WP member can give an accurate view of this--I just realized that what I thought I understood may be partial and inadequate.
The doctor thought I would benefit from DBT therapy but I needed a diagnosis of Borderline in order to get it. They sent me to the therapists. The therapist suspected I had AS (I didn't even bring it up to her) and instead of putting me in DBT therapy, I was sent to another therapist who specialized more in autism, gave me the RAADS and AQ scales, and even diagnosed me. My mental health doctor didn't like this and called the therapist's diagnosis invalid and persuaded me to go to another DBT therapy, that didn't last long though because I was hospitalized for bipolar and I didn't want to go back to DBT because it wasn't helping.
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Crazy Bird Lady!! !
Also likes Pokemon
Avatar: A Shiny from the new Pokemon Pearl remake, Shiny Chatot... I named him TaterTot...
FINALLY diagnosed with ASD 2/6/2020
Wow! I can see why this would leave you unsettled! I don't understand why the doctor thinks the therapists diagnosis is wrong just because of the bipolar -- bipolar can be a comorbidity with ASD. The doctor must have some reason to think this is not the case. I think you need to get another opinion from another doctor, if possible. That can help you to evaluate the conflicting information you already have. Maybe ask each of them about how to get a second opinion.
I agree with that but I don't think somebody should be doing this if they don't think they meet the DSM criteria. It is a baseline but it must be met, rather than just having a bunch of traits that may or may not be related to AS.
I have a ton of traits often described on this forum as related to AS, but I don't have AS.
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I agree with that but I don't think somebody should be doing this if they don't think they meet the DSM criteria. It is a baseline but it must be met, rather than just having a bunch of traits that may or may not be related to AS.
I have a ton of traits often described on this forum as related to AS, but I don't have AS.
Deciding a patient needs a treatment and writing a diagnosis to get the treatment rather then writing a diagnosis to be accurate to the DSM guidelines is a good example of non black and white NT thinking. This is common practice in psychology and medicine in general.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I agree with that but I don't think somebody should be doing this if they don't think they meet the DSM criteria. It is a baseline but it must be met, rather than just having a bunch of traits that may or may not be related to AS.
I have a ton of traits often described on this forum as related to AS, but I don't have AS.
Ahh, OK. Then I completely agree.
It makes no sense to talk about all sorts of non-diagnostic characteristics as if they might somehow tip the balance toward diagnosis if you don't meet the basic criteria. It is interesting to see the evolution of those criteria to reflect changing understanding of the core issues (e.g. the inclusion of sensory issues) There is some interplay there--but the central impairments/deficits are the definitive features of the spectrum and if you don't have them then you're not on it.
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