New diagnosis uncertainty

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I participated in a study recently, and the professionals reclassified me as "qualifying on the autism spectrum, but not severe enough to warrant an Asperger's diagnosis (I feel the need to state that he failed to capitalize "Asperger's).

I was diagnosed as autism spectrum, PDd-NOS. I was diagnosed as Asperger's in my youth, and I took many classes outside of school to make it better. I have done so well that I don't qualify as Asperger's, but that's no longer a part of the DMV, so it doesn't matter.

I was also diagnosed with Tourette's, which surprised me. I do have one vulgar tic, and some others along with motions. Perhaps I have misunderstood Tourette's. I say "f**k you" involuntarily, including around the children I work with, and I can't stop it. I also have many involuntary utterances and motions.

Dear lord! I have lots of questions - the first one is 'how were you recruited onto the study - are you an active member of an autistic community?' Secondly, 'why and how was the study instigated, and how was it funded - what were the credentials of the professionals involved?' Thirdly, 'did you expect to be re-diagnosed, and in what way does it matter to you, if at all, that your diagnosis has changed?'.

I am in no way any kind of expert in these things, but I seem to recall that there is more to Tourette's Syndrome than verbal and physical tics.

Finally, how are you allowed to continue to work with children if you frequently tell them 'f**k you'?

This doesn't make any sense, especially because it's a recent study. There is no AS as a diagnosis anymore. Furthermore, how does one qualify for ASD, but NOT for AS? AS is commonly (although not necessarily) thought to be on the high-functioning side of the spectrum.

Also, since ASD is a spectrum, where does it get so severe that these people think it ends and turns into Asperger's Syndrome? Do they not know that it's ALL autism and a spectrum describes the observations about the behaviors the most accurately? It's usually this: "XXXX's testing indicates the presence of ASD, but is not severe enough to be labeled with classic autism." I know it's not correct, but this is what people usually think. In fact, when I had my ADOS testing done, they still technically had both ASD and classic autism. The cut off score for ASD was 7, and the cut off for autism was 10. I scored an 11, yet if I was diagnosed back when I was a child, I would have been diagnosed with AS (or not at all).

The OP might reside in an area where the ICD-10 is used. Aspergers still exsits officially as a diagnosis in these areas. Even in areas where the DSM 5 is in effect some clinicians are still diagnosing people with Aspergers. I have read posts here to that effect. I have personally heard Kate Palmer head of GRASP claim the same thing two weeks ago.

I'm not really sure what the new "scale" for the autism spectrum is like? I was diagnosed last year, a few months after the DSM-V came out, so my official diagnosis is "autism spectrum disorder" but my doctors regularly call it "Asperger's" (which is almost certainly what my diagnosis would have been if I had been evaluated under the DSM-IV). So it could be possible to fall on the new spectrum without meeting the criteria for what would have been AS previously?

It's also just possible that whoever did the evaluation isn't all that familiar with autism; none of my doctors before the age of about twenty had any idea of what autism was really like.

And finally, yeah, that sounds like it might be Tourette's (I'm not a doctor, but I know the basics of the condition).

I just assumed when the OP said "I have done so well that I don't qualify as Asperger's, but that's no longer a part of the DMV, so it doesn't matter.", that it was a typo and he actually meant DSM. Perhaps I assumed too much information.

You are probably right, the OP probably does live in a area where the DSM is the manual used.

You should not lose your diagnosis of a developmental disorder if you qualified as a youth just because you learned how to cope as an adult. In the DSM IV PDD-NOS was "less Autistic" the then Aspergers in the sense that for Aspergers you to have all the core Autistic traits, PDD-NOS was used when you had some of them.
Point remains is that some clinicians are still doing what they want.

He was also diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, which is the only diagnosis now. You're right; they continue to do what they want. I still fail to see how he isn't severe enough for AS, but can be diagnosed with ASD and PDD-NOS. Do these people ignore evidenced-based medicine? Perhaps they meant that PDD-NOS is a subtype of ASD, but that's not how the DSM reads.

You're also right that you shouldn't lose a diagnosis because you can blend in or you caught up in some ways developmentally. Our brains will always be this way. Being able to be higher functioning doesn't mean you are no longer on the spectrum. Your traits are simply less severe. Ugh....I hate this idea that we are still put into one of 3 categories. I usually don't say aspie anymore because of it. It's all autism. My traits are what the focus shod be on, not superficial categories that the majority of us probably don't fit into because our level of functioning depends on which traits you look at.