Wow! From I was 13 to when I was 14 mother never shut up about how I might have this or that... she concentrated mostly on autism. I was dragged down to the adolescent clinic at 13 and diagnosed to my face by a shrink that asked me what was wrong-- didn't even ask my mother. He asked me if it was okay if he told my mother and I stupidly said yes. Maybe if I had said no I wouldn't be on this board, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise! When I was 14 my mother brought me back to be diagnosed-- again, nice and polite to my face (i.e., the guy was arrogant! Not that much but a little!) I don't know if my mother would have gotten me diagnosed behind my back just by talking to a shrink, ahd I refused to go down there... I think testing is required, at least a conversation. If someone had just talked to me and not told me they were a shrink, I would have been diagnosed with mild mild AS. I would not have let all my AS hang out!
Years before that my mother told people, including me, that she knew I wasn't autistic like this "stupid" woman had said, and that she KNEW I could do normal school (the woman had said that maybe I should be in a special school). One or two times she said that maybe I WAS autistic. The subject was dropped though.
I chose to go down to the shrink a few months ago for my depression diagnosis and other diagnoses because I honest-to-goodness needed it. I still don't have any official diagnoses, at least as far as I know. I never did ask if I was already diagnosed with depression... or if he simply doesn't want to bother since I'm medicated and therefore it shouldn't be an issue, or something.
18 Sep 2007, 4:26 pm
