Have you "fooled" psychiatrists?

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I suspect this may be less frequent now, with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) becoming more part of psychology and medical curricula, but probably still continues. I can tell you that back in 2003, shortly after my diagnosis and while I was still in my late 20s, I had to educate a psychiatrist on Aspergers; at subsequent sessions, he told me "you don't seem to have full-blown symptoms, or it's very slight...I wouldn't know from my interactions here with you that you had Aspergers". I took it as a more objective observation, unlike the layperson responses that "you don't seem to have Aspergers" because often the subtext of such a statement is that any kind of mental illness is taboo/stigma and not up for discussion, so the other person will dismiss it right off the bat to get you to change the subject. Not so with psychiatrists. However, there is the "observation bias" in that whenever you attempt to measure or observe something, you inadvertently influence it too. For example, when you are monitoring your computer's CPU use, the monitoring instrument also takes up CPU, or when you go to your doctor for a checkup and have your blood pressure measured, it may be higher than what it usually is because of increased anxiety on your part that your GP might discover something unhealthy.

So was it too that when I was in the shrink's clinic, I knew that he wasn't going to summarily reject me, as did women I went on dates with, or interview panels, or housemates and potential friends, etc. So my behaviour must have been more relaxed, less anxious, less emotionally detached and so forth; I consciously practiced emotional expression and recognition, used normal intonation, spoke freely about things without fear of insulting someone due to lack of ToM. I suppose that's what can make high-functioning autism so damn hard to diagnose sometimes, or why people assumed that I was intentionally being perverse to get attention, and all those other misplaced interpretations.

My GP however, who I'd been with since the late 90s, had never heard of Aspergers and when I told him he read up on it, he was more enlightened about it and interested and said that it explained a lot of my behaviours, and that he didn't hold it against me and praised my struggle to get better. He even told during subsequent visits from 2003 onwards that I had improved dramatically and I had no reason to doubt him, he'd always been honest and upfront with me. Since I was holding down a good job in CS/IT and had a steady girlfriend, that reaffirmed things (although I still received the odd criticism). But all of which is to say, if a medical practitioner thinks you don't have AS, it is most likely sincere and not some social politeness or ignorance on their part, at least that's all the more so these days when ASD has more awareness.

I believe it was for those very reasons that the only professional (a therapist) I ever asked ended up declaring I do not have Asperger Syndrome. So, I would say he was fooled by my preceding half-century of adaptation and improvisation as a chameleon while trying to live with something I had known nothing about.

The nature of this thread is victim blaming.

You people are not the problem. The problem is the clinicians not understanding how autism presents in adults, or not agreeing with the expansion of the diagnostic criteria. And while things are changing for the better these problems are still widespread. A psychologist well versed in autism in adults would look for masking, coping, "pretending to be normal" etc. They would try and find out how you were as a child.

Oh, don't get me wrong - he accepted that I had Aspergers and had found adapting mechanisms, which he believed got me to the point where it was "very slight" to the point where I could blend in and pass as NT. He wasn't being flippant or dismissive, he was being objective in his duties, which is something I frankly found refreshing. After I told him of my struggles in my earlier years, he didn't try to gaslight me. Also remember that this was 2003; today there'd likely be less instances that elude psychologists.
I would agree with your greater point that some clinicians are flippant and let their subjective bias overrule better (objective) judgement, basically reducing themselves to laypeople. Adhering to the same popular vibe that ASD is just a "fad diagnosis" from entitled whiny socially awkward people who expect people to accept them without "trying harder". I've had a couple of quack-shrinks like this, both before and after my AS diagnosis, and got the hell away from them.

My psychologist is clueless about autism. Sadly this means I can't see her anymore because she blames me for my problems as if I'm not trying and it makes me feel bad and misunderstood.

Sadly they don't have to be educated about autism. There's a few self proclaimed specialists in autism in the country but there's no quality control whatsoever and they cost a small fortune.

All we can do is raise awareness and hope one day life will be more fair for us.

The school professionals throughout my educational career believed there was something different about me, but nobody gave me a diagnosis or a plan of action. Nobody knew about autism/Asperger's when I was growing up. The label given out at the time was "hyperactive."

I once had a psychiatrist convinced I was bipolar instead of ADD because I'm not hyperactive, and she could only equate hyperfocus (which makes you temporarily awesome) with mania (which makes you think you are temporarily awesome)... fired her.

On the flipside... my son was tested for ASD when he was 4ish, but he completely messed with one of the three shrinks testing him, because (as we warned them) as soon as he found the nature of the test he would start to try to break it on purpose (usually to elicit laughs). The minority report showed him as low IQ and NT, which has been demonstrably laughable since before he could crawl, but it was enough to cause the other two professionals to change their diagnosis...

6 months later we got a proper diagnosis, in several minutes, by a panel of people who basically saw what we always saw, and were professionally insulted at the guy who had assessed him before (they noted VERY early on that my boy would identify simple tests as such and do them wrong on purpose)...

I always suggest you know what your talking about before you ever involve a doctor... the flipside is you have to be subtle about your knowledge... Doctors can get offended if you come to them already knowing the answer.

no though psychs had me fooled with everything but autism, until coming out with and formally diagnosing aspergers, is apparent of the actual counselling methods ruling out everything else first. Similar with neurology looking for the likes of epilepsy, Wilson's Disease and brain damage, (blood tests, mri, etc.) before the tourettes conclusion, as some of those are more common and likely when presented with tics.

Heck, yes. Before Asperger's was in the DSM, any diagnosis would be wrong and dangerous. One time, I changed personalities half way through an interview to throw the guy off.
My current counsellor, who helps relatively well, was still shocked to learn recently that for me, Theory of Mind has always been a slow, conscious process.