It's offical... I now join your ranks

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Having posted here since july, kind of hanging on the outside looking in at all of. I finally found out this morning that the road I was on did not have a dead end......

This morning I had my meeting with Dr. Altekruse, a clinical psychologist at the counsleing center here at oshkosh. I asked him about his experience, and he said in the past ten years, he seen roughly two dozen people with it. After filling out some forms and other things, I meet doctor Altekruse and we both sat down. I told what I thought my problems were, gave him a bit of history about myself. He asked me quite a few questions about family history, history of mental illness and other things. I told him about my problems with other people, my social interaction problems going back over the years, as well as my other idiosyncracies. Once we got done with that, he went and got his copy of the DSM-IV-R, or the "bible" as he called it, and he went thru the criteria going back over things asking me critical questions, as well as "trick" questions to try and rule out anything else. After this was all done, I asked him what his opinion was.

"You definately have aspergers syndrome...."

I then asked him about getting the DX offically.

"I can do that for you too."

Next time I see him will be on Oct 1st, then we will discuss stragedys for dealing with this, as well as myself getting an offical write-up.

So I can now say "I have it too..."

good for you mate. takes away a lot of self doubt doesnt it? I went through 18 months of 'knowing' I had AS without being able to prove it, the nagging voice in the back of my head that kept saying I was just trying it on to excuse myself, the scepticism of others etc before being told by the clinical psychologist last week after all the tests etc that I definitely have it. I too am waiting for my next appointment for details, suggestions for management etc...

nice one

dunc

That's great How long did the appointment take?

Well I went through forty odd years without hearing about AS; I'm now convinced most "experts" dont know their a*** from their elbows...you may have found someone who tells you what you wanted to hear, but that doesn't make it true!

What ever your intend your post to mean, I went into to the place NOT wanting to hear "you have aspergers syndrome". I did NOT do or say ANYTHING to try and con him into saying "you have aspergers syndrome".

What I DID do was to tell him about the problems I had in my life. I DID NOT tell him about any of the research I did, NOR did I tell him about this site, but becasue of the research I've done, I was able to give him a VERY CLEAR PICTURE of who I am.

When he went thru the DMS-IV-R criteria, the questions he asked WERE ABOUT AS INDEPTH AND CRITICAL as one could get. And it took OVER AN HOUR to go through it. And at no time during my session did he claim to be an "expert" on anything.

In fact, during the interview, he tried to trip me up by asking question to try and get me to contradict myself since his first thought was that I actually had schizeophrenia.

The simple fact is: the first time I read about aspergers syndrome, I realized almost instantly that this is me, and thru almost a month of research and reading about aspergers and autisim, did I finally come to the conclusion that I suffer from this. This, unlike the many other things I read thru in an attempt discover why I was different from others, where I was able to quickly rule them out.

What kind of questions did he ask to rule out schizophrenia? I thought they have delusions, see things, hear things that aren't imagine things that are not. How could that be confused with Asperger's?

I would like to get an official opinion, but to be honest, I am terrified that they will label me as mentally ill rather than aspie.

He asked me several different questions along the lines of "Do I want to have friends or do I not want to have friends?"

I told him I'd like to have friends, but I had troubles with getting, keeping, and managing friends. After all of this was over he said I didn't have any schizoid tendancies based on the answers I gave him, cause his experience told him that aspies want friendship, but have troubles getting them, vs schiziods who can make and keep friends, but don't have any desire to.

He also querried me about delusions and seeing and hearing things. I flat out told him that no, I've never had any of those.

Oh. There is a difference, IIRC, between schizoid and schizophrenic.....the main similarity is in the name...

schizoid - marked by withdrawal and inability to form close relationships

schizophrenia Definition: [n] any of several psychotic disorders characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact

Well, I guess they both involve withdrawl from social contact. Hmmm.....

I've known several people with Schizophrenia and from what I've seen the social withdrawal is different than in people with Schizoid Personality. Their (Schizophrenics) paranoia levels tend to fluctuate and during periods of high paranoia they start believing that people are going to harm them or a loved one. As a result they avoid the ones they fear or withdraw completely from society. During periods of low paranoia or in the company of people they don't perceive as a threat, they can be very friendly, outgoing people.

Also, a big difference between AS and psychotic disorders like schizophrenia is awareness of differences.

For example, I've posted on here many times that I sometimes wonder if I am really human since I don't really think I experience the world like other humans do. However, I KNOW that I am human - when I look in a mirror I know that I see a human and that that particular human is me.

A person who is psychotic may look in a mirror and literally, for more than a couple of seconds, not know who they are - or look in the mirror and really and truly see a werewolf or something . . . this is not a theoretical concept for them - but truth.

I may say that it feels like someone has shocked me when they touch me, but that is an allegory for me. To someone who is psychotic it may truly be that they believe that someone has shocked them on purpose because the person is mean and part of a government plot.

Does that make sence?

By the way, congrats to Scoots5012 - it was so exciting for me to discover all the things that I had always thought were just pecularities to me and realize that they are the result of something that has a name . . .

It is such a relief not to think 'I feel that way (or don't is more accurate) because I am a horrible person . . .' but to think 'Oh - that is one of those things that happens because my brain works differently than other people's . . . ok . . .'

"Schizophrenia" literally translates to "split mind." Because of this, a lot of people believe schizophrenia is actually multiple personality disorder, or dissociative identity disorder. What it really means is that there is a breakdown of communication between a person's thoughts and feelings and the outside world. Things that seem to be coming from the outside world may in fact be coming from within their mind, and vice versa. They may not be able to connect emotionally to the outside world, or may not be able to make sense of their thoughts or communicate them properly. The result can appear to be similar to AS, because schizophrenics often have "flat affect" and "innapropriate speech and response to stimuli," and may either be or appear unemotional and be withdrawn from people. For awhile, when I was in Jr. High, I was afraid I might be developing schizophrenia because I display "flat affect" and have little to no emotional response to many things. However, I don't have delusions or hallucinations, so now I'm fairly certain I am not schizophrenic, and that AS is a probable cause for my differences.

Edited to add: I'm glad that you were able to finally get the confirmation you needed, Scoots. I'm sure it must remove a lot of self-doubt.

[quote="animallover"]I may say that it feels like someone has shocked me when they touch me, but that is an allegory for me. To someone who is psychotic it may truly be that they believe that someone has shocked them on purpose because the person is mean and part of a government plot. quote]

Actually I get shocked almost frequently by touching people or from car doors. I think some people are just more susceptible to static electricity than others. I heard it might have something to do with having dry skin...
Anyway, you may be right- it might be a government plot, I'll have to look into it.

Back on topic: All the best with your continuing assessments, Scoots. I hope it helps you as you continue to understand your self.

This is totally off topic - but I saw a show on discovery channel or discovery health or something that showed that some people actually are positively electrically charged and can do things like make street lamps go off when they go under them - it is actually doumented, though no one has any clue why it is . . .

But I doubt that these are the people that are shocking you - maybe it really is a government plot . . .

I've always noticed too that during winter I seem to have an excess of electrons in me. When I was in third grade I was in class room that had carpeting it, during the winter time when ever I would get up to do something, I'd rub my feet on the carpet and then touch the desk with my finger to give myself a shock. I was fascinated by the concept of static electricity.

December 31, 1991: I was at a new years party that was held by one of my fathers friends, I was playing super nintendo with his son (the same one who commited suicide 9 years later), and as I was taking my turn playing one time, he snuck up behind me and shocked me in the back with a jolt of static electricity. Not being deterred, when his turn came, I rubbed my feet on their carpeting for a good 30 seconds or so and snuck up on him and gave him the shock of his lifetime, right in the butt too!!



I felt the exact same way back in june when I first discovered it.

It was meant as a general caution (sorry if that wasn't clear!) and in Scoot's case the dx is probably correct. There again, I've encountered several "diagnosed" Aspie, who have suspiciously un-aspie attitudes! What's more, in such cases they are determined to hang on to the diagnosis, so it seems to have an attraction to many (though real Aspies tend not to care about how they are labelled...).

As to the DSM-; "bible" it may be, but clear and unambiguous it isn't. Any doctor who takes it at face value, without realising it needs interpretation, can reach wrong conclusions. The distinction between AS and Schitzoid Personality is a good example; the only clear difference is in motivation, but how can anyone be absolutely sure about that (especially when examining a child, say)? After years of rejection an Aspie may well decide he doesn't "want" friends and believe this to be true, so how could a doctor tell if it's really so?

Diagnosis is not a precise science (nor, at present, does it show signs of becoming one; in fact AS seems to be becoming a "catch-all", as one correspondant put, it for many possibly unrelated disorders) and caution is merited. Self analysis may be the most reliable in the long run, so if you really need to know, never stop studying!