Self Diagnosis Issues

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Hello everybody.

I was concerned about my mental health (I have been hearing voices and have been increasingly audio-sensitive) and reading up on schizophrenia, but not everything was adding up. I was cross-referenced over to a Wikipedia page on AS and everything seemed to describe me perfectly. Well, you know the symptoms, you're here. Also, I took an online test which says I don't have it, but I already knew what they were looking for and I know where I skewed the results.

Anyways, as in any diagnosis situation, I'm going to be honest here. I take some recreational drugs that either are causing or at the least are exacerbating the existing issues. I tend to believe the latter since I've had most symptoms since childhood. I'd like to hear some sort of feedback on this issue since I haven't found any online literature on the subject as of yet.

Also, I'd like to know more about what kind of pharmaceuticals are commonly used and what, if anything, the government might do assistance-wise or otherwise (USA, CA).

If in fact I do have a form of AS, I'm not worried about it. Just like many with AS apparently do, I compensate for whatever deficit I have through logical reasoning, and have done fairly well with myself in this manner.

Thanks for any help in advance, I'm sure I have more questions, but I figure this is a good start.

My advice is to stop taking the drugs for a while to find out what symptoms are natural and which are artificial.

After that you should probably see a professional for a formal diagnosis.

From what little you've said though if it is AS you probably have something else mixed in there as well since auditory hallucinations are not common in the autistic spectrum (unless those are being caused by the drugs).

As for medication there is no real treatment for autism and results are hit or miss for many of the things that different individuals have found to help (works for some not for others).

Most of us just treat whatever associated problems we may have such as depression.

I'm not saying you are ASD since I'm not a diagnostician and don't know much about you. But psychosis occuring in ASD isn't uncommon. Sometimes it can be more of the schizophrenic psychosis, othertimes more a stress-induced delusional psychosis.

Also, you may want to make sure that these are not actually seizures. Epilepsy is very common in ASDs and can involve sensory hallucinations. If so, antipsychotics wouldn't help you but instead antiepileptics (and I also HIGHLY recommend stress reduction techniques and cutting out the drugs; with these, no matter whether you're schizophrenic, ASD, both, or something else entirely, stress always worsens functioning).

Fraya,
No drugs isn't really an option. Maybe in a few more months when my business is making money rather than losing it, I will be able to afford some real medication for my chronic pain and concentration problems. The hallucinations are the only new symptom I have, so I can probably attribute those to drugs like you mentioned already.

For the sake of thoroughness, I'll just list all my symptoms I've had since childhood:

Audio/light sensitivity
Disordered speech
Social problems (mostly solved, but still struggling)
Dependency on logic
Tics and Stims (many)
Really bad handwriting
Clumsiness

These all seem general to me, possibly even caused by a head injury I sustained when I was 5. So I guess a professional is my best option, which I won't be taking.

I was a cognitive science major for a couple years, so I'll probably ask one of my old friends about it when I talk to them next.




Sophist,
I have experienced muscle spasms and what possibly may have been seizures, but I attributed those to lack of food (I was homeless when I experienced the possible seizures). I ignored them out of fear of coming across as a hypochondriac (which I'm definitely not by the way). It's good to know that these might actually be related.

Sounds like AS but as was said we cant really give you a definitive answer.. no one can really even a professional can only give his opinion.

In the end though it doesn't really matter. If you feel like you fit in around here then stick around like I said there are no real treatments for autism itself so theres no benefit from a diagnosis except as reassurance that your not a freak and not alone.

Oh and thanks Sophist I had forgotten about epilepsy I agree that is a possibility but isnt it pretty rare for the hallucinations to not be accompanied by rather severe disorientation?

Last edited by Fraya on 30 Apr 2007, 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Starting to hear voices is a sign of psychosis - this *can* happen in autistic spectrum disorders (the NAS in the UK attributes this to a high percentage of people who also have traits of manic depression) but is not common or typical.

Also, sensitivities are usually present from earliest childhood and can often "get better" over time (desensitized), although intense stress can probably make them worse. However if this has only developed since you started hearing voices then regardless of what else there might have been in the past, your current problems are likely to be linked with psychosis or stress and need a lot more attention than an AS self-diagnosis

Noetic,
Oh, there's definitely stress. And yes, the voices are a recent development in maybe, the last 3 months, although I can remember one specific incident when I was maybe 8, but that was most likely just an anomaly. The sensitivities are getting worse, not better, and I'm taking much less drugs than I did in previous years with no significant change.

Fraya,
I'll continue to treat the symptoms and just be aware of a possible underlying problem. Knowledge of its existence alone may prove to be the additional help that I need. All in all I'm a pretty friendly guy, so if I choose to stay, I'll try not to just come here because I'm needy. Well, you know what I mean

What drugs are you talking about? I'm confused, because if your "psychotic" symptoms are getting worse then how can there be "no significant change"?

Welcome to WP and don't worry we're all a little needy sometimes just say whats on your mind and we'll do what we can to help.. even if all that might amount to sometimes is sharing similar stories and sympathy.

Not necessarily. I have somatosensory hallucinations with my seizures and I usually just get simple partial where there is no impaired consciousness.

I don't know any percentages unfortunately, Noetic, but the ICD does state (and I've experienced similarly from my own life) that there's a significant amount of Aspies who experience psychosis in the teenage years and early adulthood). Unfortunately, as with the DSM too, they don't state the nature of the psychosis and what it comprises. For myself, there were no hallucinations but a delusional perspective instead.

It would be something interesting to go into more indepth and study.

If you're suspicious that you may have AS, the best solution would be just GET A DAMN DIAGNOSIS.

No need to get feisty. I have just this afternoon started to think this way. Give me a couple days to pay closer attention to my habits first. I'll be able to catch the difference.

Some drugs can induce psychotic symptoms such as hearing voices. Methamphetamine in any of its forms are notorious for that. I'd go to Erowid and do research on the substances you're using to see if hearing voices could be caused by them.

"Significant minority" (or "occasionally" as worded in the ICD-10) does not mean "common" nor "typical" or even "significant" (minus the minority, as that implies 10%, 20%+), and as highlighted above I was referring to ASDs overall with the "statistics" (Stupid NAS removed the page that mentions the exact details when they reshuffled their site )

Last edited by Noetic on 01 May 2007, 3:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

And why would that be?