How often should a child diagnosed with aspergers see Dr?

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Hello,

I was diagnosed with aspergers when I was 5, I am 17 now. I was wondering how often should I have seen my specialist Dr? I only saw him probably once every 5 years - the last time I saw him was 2010. Should these checkups be more regular because in my opinion my Dr has been totally useless?

Thank you

What's the doctor supposed to do? There's no cure for Asperger's and the only way to deal with the condition is to adapt your lifestyle to deal with the particular list of symptoms you have.

Should a cure for AS be found I'm sure that they'll contact you.

I saw the doctor who diagnosed me once a year from the ages of eight to eighteen. Then she stopped seeing me as she was a children's health professional and I had become an adult. She has since retired. Since the age of eighteen, I have not had any specialist doctor for my Aspergers even though the depression and anxiety I have only manifested themselves to a distressing extent in my adult years.

Cure isn't the point. Aspie children need various kinds of therapy to help them learn the things that don't come easy if you have autism. Speech/language for communication, occupational therapy for self-care, social skills lessons, organization help, job training. Having to put all that together by yourself can be ridiculously hard and take forever without help.

As for how often, I think that depends on how you're doing. If you're seriously behind and having problems, you might someone as often as weekly. Some autistic kids have therapy every day--though that's more like specialized lessons than like medical treatment. On the other hand, once a month or even once every six months can be perfectly fine if you're doing well; once every few years, for people who are doing well and don't need meds.

Don't be ridiculous it wasn't to 'cure' it, I went for support to improve my social skills. Now at 17 I have had to undergo a total mental divorce by myself with very little support. Within the past year I have gone from pretty much not speaking… to speaking!

I see a specialist doctor (psychiatrist) once every three months. But I'm also on medication for other things (mental illness) and although my diagnosis is NVLD (though I am going through testing for an ASD) I would imagine it would be similar because NVLD is kind of similar to AS. I don't really get treatment for it though, just a social skills group once when I was younger. But to answer your question, yes, sometimes it's a good idea to see your doctor a little more often than once every five years... Or maybe a lot more often... Depends upon the person, really.

I never saw a doctor about my autism as a child because I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my 40s. It didn't kill me.