So how do you get diagnosed?

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My psychiatrist said something about psychological testing. She said that she's a general psychiatrist, not a developmental psychiatrist, so she wouldn't know about autistic disorders. The therapist I saw in her office said something similar. She just wanted to talk about things that don't matter to me at all, while avoiding everything that actually does bother me, and charge $120 an hour to do it. (Not seeing therapist anymore... seeing psychiatrist for meds) I fit the diagnostic criteria for AS, but someone who doesn't know about autistic disorders can't diagnose me, can they? And if only developmental psychiatrists can diagnose it, how can an adult get a diagnosis?

Do you have to go through all sorts of crazy and subjective psychological testing to get diagnosed? My prior experience with psychological testing wasn't good.. It involved being told that a Rorschach administered by a grad student and evaluated by someone who had never so much as spoken one word to the subject was completely objective and that if you saw fire, it meant you were bad, bad, bad, no exceptions, even if you're a girl scout desperately wishing to be at camp instead of the hellhole treatment center where all this is happening.

I've been looking around on some of those autism help web sites, but they seem kinda limited.. and I don't really know what I'm looking for.. and there's also just not much in this area. There are all these phone numbers to call for referrals.. but I sooo hate making phone calls.. I'm so bad at it and the person on the other end always seems to want to tell me that there's nothing they can do to help and everything is hopeless.. I always get off the phone wanting to curl up and die, it's so depressing. Apparently there's something about how I talk on the phone that makes whoever I called want to tell me there's no help for me. And I don't quite know what I'm asking for anyways.


[About the therapist, it really isn't her fault, most of the actual trauma issues I have come from really bad mental health professionals in the past, and not many therapists are going to be comfortable addressing that. So of course she wanted to divert it to relationships... I had a past relationship that was bad/abusive and incredibly complicated and interesting, so if I even addressed it, she'd be fascinated and permanently sidetracked by that.. so therefore she figured that that's what I "need to talk about".. despite the fact that I'm in love with an absolutely wonderful man who actually understand me (yea, a man who can understand me, scary, huh?)... so talking about past bad relationships in therapy would do nothing but divert it from anything actually helpful. I think she may not approve of my current relationship because he's older than I am, and she wanted to turn that into something Freudian about my father, but really, if you were going to try to relate Kris to my father, it would be more in the fact that he's an engineer who enjoys telling idiots who don't know what they're talking about that they're idiots who don't know what they're talking about, and very little to do with age. Also that an engineer is, basically, an aspie without major dysfunction... and they have to be a bit older before they become confidant and comfortable with themselves. My psychiatrist said that therapy is supposed to make me miserable, that's how to know that it's working, but then the therapist said that I should come in more if I get too overwhelmed.. even though it was therapy that was contributing to my being overwhelmed. Obviously she thought I was getting something out of it that I wasn't.]

autism specialist, you need to see one.

I went through a local non-profit Counseling & Guidance Center. I'm told State Universities sometimes have Psyche eval facilities available to the public.

On the issue of counselors who don't seem to be much help, I think when you're trained to deal with fairly neurotypical patients with classic issues, Aspies must be a bit of a puzzle. We don't think within the same logical loops as most and have what I know often seem to be inexplicable limitations when it comes to altering behavioral patterns or even acting on what seems perfectly simple advice.

Like McCoy working on an injured Spock ( Ouch! sorry for the stereotypal cliche, but it's apropos), you can only do so much when the internal organs aren't in the same familiar places.

it took me a month of phone calls to find out that I need to see a neuropsychologist with experience diagnosing adults on the autistic spectrum. once I knew that, I quickly found several who work with adults.

my insurance company was very helpful in finding one who is actually covered under my insurance. now my shrink is working to get me an appointment.

Are there autism specialists who work with adults? How do I find one? It looks like they're all geared towards kids. And won't it be a problem that I'm female?




I went through hell and back just to find a psychiatrist who wouldn't tell me I'm horrible, and who would keep me on the medications that help without putting me on antipsychotics (despite the fact that I've never been diagnosed with any psychotic disorder, and react horribly when taking them as sedatives.)

As far as I can tell, there's nobody even half competent in southern Maryland who doesn't charge an arm and a leg, and the one who is, I'm already seeing, she just doesn't know anything about what's actually wrong with me!

What if I do go to someone else, and they're worse? I mean, the therapist I saw was nice and seemed like she might be fairly competent if she knew anything about my problems... but I can't afford to pay $120 an hour to educate her, and even if I could, I don't think that's what she really wants to deal with anyways. She wants to stay in her comfort zone of talking about relationships and parents and self-esteem. I need to quit with the therapists worried about self-esteem and figure out what my strengths AND weaknesses are so I can work with them, and somehow stop blaming myself for the stuff I can't control.. even if past "professionals" have told me I should.

Maybe I'll ask Kris to call one of the autism referral services for me.. I just can't get up the nerve to do it myself.. I keep staring at the webpages..

I don't know about autism specialists working with only adults. Even if they are geared towards kids I think finding a specialist willing to see you regardless is going to be your best bet. I mean, every psychiatrist I've seen doesn't know enough about autism enough or will diagnose you with something different that can be treated with medication, 'cause that's what they are there for. You can go to a psychiatrist or psychologist, however, and ask for referal to see someone who specializes in autism. That is what I did but I didn't end up going to either. I got one for a place that only does autism and riley hospital. Because I'm still school-age I received a free evaluation from the local school instead, though. Autism specialists costs a lot of money though if you don't have insurance.

You might try contacting one of the Asperger's support groups in Maryland and ask them if there are psychiatrists or psychologists that they would recommend to diagnose ASDs in adults. When I was living in Massachusetts and was looking for a doctor to diagnose me, I contacted the local Asperger's support group (AANE -- Asperger's Association of New England) and was directed to a very competent psychologist who diagnosed me with AS and NLD.

I have found a few web sites of AS support groups in Maryland:


Maryland Asperger Advocacy and Support Group (MAASG):

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/suppMD.html


The Asperger Adults of Greater Washington:

http://www.aagw.net/


Anne Arundel County Asperger Support Group:

http://www.aacaps.org/


I found these three web sites on the first page of Google, but there may be even more support groups than these. The search phrase I used was: "maryland aspergers group"

~ Caterina

Hmmm.. I dunno, but this coming Wednesday i'm taking the whole big psychological test thingie(IQ, personality, etc.) to see whether or not i'll be diagnosed with AS. My regular psychologist doesn't really specialize in developmental disorders as far as i know(but does seem quite knowledgeable and is basically convinced that i have AS), but another person at the same center is going to be testing me. I would guess that it's because she probably has more experience with developmental disorders(and she doesn't know me, so she wouldn't be biased), but i'm not sure if that's it or not. But this definitely isn't a psychological center solely devoted to developmental disorders... so i think you'd probably be able to find psychologists who are very experienced in developmental disorders, even among those who see a variety of clients. Maybe you should just call up some or check out their websites and ask how experienced they are with Autism and Aspergers and whether or not they have diagnosed people?