Can generalized anxiety disorder cause similar symptoms?

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I've visited 3 therapists who all seem to think I have generalized anxiety disorder - I agree that I have many features of it, but I don't think it explains everything. They all assure me that it is ridiculous to assume I have any type of autism spectrum disorder, but they also assure me I have good voice intonation and seem coordinated when I've been told many times I walk awkwardly and talk monotonously to the point where when I try to sound excited people think I'm being sarcastic and get insulted. But the main things I feel are unexplained by just anxiety are my positive obsessions (not things I'm afraid of, but things I take great joy in obsessing over) and my stimming. The therapists try to claim I do these things to feel in control of my anxiety, but neither of those things increase in times of stress, and in fact seem to come out more when I am relaxed. Stimming doesn't make me feel controlled - it's just a way to expel my excitement when I'm thinking of something really intensely in my head. Has anyone else been told they have this, and can this cause significant stimming and intense but enjoyable interests?

When I was seeing a therapist, what we focused on was the traits that were shared in common with generalized anxiety disorder and executive dysfunction issues. They were the primary ones that I knew were troubling me, so it makes sense to learn to handle those. However I went to a person that specializes in autism so that she would have knowledge and skills on addressing my particular expression of GAD.
I think that could make a big difference in how effective the treatment of GAD would be. I didn't pursue an official diagnosis of AS mainly because I am very high functioning and that particular diag wouldn't really get me access to the types of help I need.

The shrink I went to many years gave me the GAD thing, even though I did inquire about AS as a possibility. His conclusion was based(upon what I consider to be very faulty reasoning), that I couldn't think I was AS because "I" thought so. Didn't test me at all, or go through the DSM-IV criteria...

While I don't disagree that I have an anxiety problem, to me it's like ignoring the real cause of my issues and just trying to treat my symptoms. Like you say, it just doesn't explain everything different about me.
I say my anxiety problems were a side-effect from being treated differently during childhood by peers because of my AS behavior.

I would suggest that if you see someone again, do NOT just take their word for it. Make them scientifically prove it. Test you, quiz you, go through the DSM-IV (or whatever it is that is used where you live) and go over each of the diagnostic criteria and take note of how it applies to you, or not.
If they won't take your concerns seriously, leave them. Don't pay them a dime.

Don't you love it when "experts" discredit your reasoning and applied knowledge, substituting their judgment for yours without adequate justification?

They are more of an expert on you than you are?

IMO- take what therapists and doctors who don't specialize in AS say with a grain of salt, because there is an excellent chance they are wrong, or not informed about AS, and simply refuse to acknowledge that they are wrong and uninformed because of their arrogance.

If you've given your reasoning for suspecting a broader problem, and you've pointed out subtle deficits you know are there, but the response of your therapist or doctor is to discredit that insight then they are probably the ones who have a problem with being wrong about something.

BTW- I think your reasoning on this is excellent, and I suspect you are right.

I believe 2 of the therapists I visited had AS backgrounds. The first said people with AS are the geniuses at MIT who don't care about having friends, the second simply assured me that I wasn't autistic and was being ridiculous. She said I had excellent eye contact, intonation, and communication skills. I don't expect a diagnosis of AS because I am not nearly severe enough - AS isn't a thing, it's just a group of extreme symptoms given a name. I still believe I am on the spectrum and simply have drastically reduced behaviors, and would like recognition of having autistic tendencies, or if not that, then OCD, because something is wrong besides anxiety.

You and I are probably very alike. I have wondered if I have GAD at times. I have major anxiety over normal life events, but I will sometimes get stuck on a particular fear. For example, when my oldest daughter was very small I had major anxiety when she rode in the car with someone other than me. Now- I didn't really do anything about the fear except silently suffer, because I couldn't tell anyone "my daughter cannot ride in the car with you because if she does I know she will die in a car accident", because that is crazy. I was terrified of car accidents- but only for my family- not for me. I wasn't afraid of anything related to me. I would drive anywhere at any time of the night and not be afraid. I actually do still have the car accident fear for my family, but it is not as debilitating as it was.

You know, people who practice anything service-related, such as doctors and psychologists, are always several steps behind basic research. They practice in a 5-year knowledge vaccum.

If I had your experience, I'd tell the therapist quite clearly that they don't know as much as they think they do, then I'd show them reserch on Asperger's and Broader Autism Phenotype. And then I would ridicule them for their ignorance.

I worry more for myself than anyone - I feel kind of bad about it. When I do something I'm ashamed of, even if it's not extremely horrible, my small amount of fear escalates into the worst possible scenario until I truly believe that is going to happen and start to prepare myself. It's awful because my latest fears are ones I can't talk to others about because they are hurtful or embarrassing - i.e. that I had a lot of trouble keeping secrets before the last few months, and revealed deeply personal things about people that I had no right to. I'm terrified of someone finding out what I said about them, and the only way to get rid of that fear is to confess to them, which i just can't do. With fears like "omg, was that bump a person?" when I'm driving, I get over it as soon as I see my car isn't dented or anything, or I get over my hypochondriac fears once I get aclean bill of health. But for fears that I can't just have invalidated, that could crash down at any time - someone finding out a secret I told, me being investigated for something, me going crazy, are the ones that are just eating me up. I just keep waiting for them to happen and can't plan for or enjoy the future because I expect my life to fall apart at any moment, even though I've done nothing all that awful and have no reason to expect that I'm going to lose my mind. Where would you suggest I get this AS research?

Quirky, I can really relate to those obsessive fears! There are so many times I think to myself, "I am just waiting for the next bad thing to happen.." and I can make myself physically illwith anticipatory fear. I keep saying "what if? what if" I don't know if it helps to know that you are not alone, but if it does, be assured, you are not alone.

I have had obsessive fears since childhood. I don't know if you are old enough to remember the cold war, but I was a little girl in the 1980s, and I lived in a small town near a military base. Every noon an emergeny siren went off. It was called the noon whistle. It is kind of absurd to use an emergency siren for something as innocuous as a town lunch bell, but that's what they used it for. Well, I would cover my ears and have panic attacks everyday from that siren, because I would think about the Russians bombing us. I knew the Russians were not bombing us, but I still had that horrible fear.

I thought of something after my last post. The therapist you saw who told you that you "couldn't be on the spectrum" because you had good eye contact and body language. That reminds me of what it's like trying to diagnose kids today. There are lots of kids who demonstrate joint attention and who make eye contact who end up being on the spectrum. She is wrong to assume that those traits determine whether a person is on the spectrum. What you need to be on the spectrum is to demonstrate core social and communication deficits, and to also demonstrate some type of behavior steretypies. The stereotypies can also be expressed in obssessive positive interests and in anxiety.

When children are diagnosed, it is often considered essential to observe them among their peers. In fact, I would go so far as to say you only know if a person is autistic by observing their behavior in a social group of their peers. That is where the core deficits are expressed. I would say that the make or break criteria for autism is whether you can easily and comfortably relate to many people in a group.

Hmm. Our psych didn't observe our child in a group of peers. Just from watching him and interacting with him, and then asking us 3 hours of developmental questions that we had trouble answering. He seems to do well in groups, actually. He tries to control the group, is very didactic in his manner with them, and I'm worried how he'll adapt when he starts school in a few weeks. First grade is a different kettle of fish.

Acutually, can less severe cases be diagnosed without seeing the child in school, over a period of weeks at least? Our boy is dying to start school. He feels so proud and important. I'm very worried of him being disappointed, but we're very excited for him. He's done well in kindergarten, but that's quite protected as an environment.

I still have the same fears and nightmares about my kids and accidents in general. My biggest fear was someone kidnaping them if I ever failed for a single second of watching over them. I was one of those hyper-vigilant mothers who controlled her kids' every move. My daughter (NT) rebelled, of course, and still partakes in risk-taking behavior for some reason, but my son (AS) doesn't. He isn't afraid of every little thing like I am, asnd this scares me because he won't take things seriously - things that could hurt him. He wants to move to New York City and the very IDEA of my overly-sheltered son being alone in that giant pit of iniquity terrifies me.

Aspeger's often presents like this. Being controlling of the group is not considered socially adaptive, so even though he is not withdrawn, I would not say he was doing well in the group in he dominates the conversations or activities.



When you get a medical diagnosis from a Dev. Ped., no, they aren't going to do a peer observation. My statement is more theoretical. Even though the Dev. Ped. is not going to visit your child's school, they will ask questions about social interaction, and it would behoove them to have on hand an observation report from the school- and the school always does very thorough peer observations when they give their educational classification. (Or they do if they have a quality special ed. program)

OMG we are twins!!

I can't let my 12-year old (NT) get off the bus unless somebody is watching her. She has to be watched getting off the bus, because if nobody watches her then a child molester may be waiting for her at the bus stop to kidnap her. I guess there are not a lot of parents who are that obsessively vigilant about making sure that no child molester ever has any opportunity to come within 100 feet of their child, but I am. I have been like this with all of my girls from the day they were born. I can never not know exactly where they are or I panic.

It is difficult because I am at work when she gets off the bus, so I have to rely on her older sister to watch her. Suffice it to say, during the school year I have at least 20 minutes of horrible anxiety every single day wondering if my daughter will survive getting off the bus.

My oldest one is 18, and she leans more to the ASD side in personality, and luckily for me she is very risk-averse. She's never gone off to wild parties or anything. She has a boyfriend she has talked to and been close to since she was 14. They are both gamers. That's fine with me- no risk from drunk drivers out on Saturday night, no fear about her dating multiple people. I think my 12 year old is going to end up a lot more rebellious of my protectiveness over her, though.

Then you might as well have it.


It could be those people's fault, ya know. It could also be that you showed yourself without those traits when the therapists saw you, so they could only attribute them to the anxiety of being in a social setting.


That does sound as if you described "it makes me feel in control" with another words.

Strong Interests are not exclusive to aspies, they are also something from creative types, you could have anxiety disorder and be a creative type at the same time, you could have generalized anxiety disorder AND AS. If you do not agree with these three guys' opinions then find one that's specialized in AS, but I got to say, if after looking for more opinions they still don't give you the AS, you might as well not have it. These guys are the ones whoe invented AS, so it is their call to decide who got it or not.

I don't expect an AS diagnosis because I don't think I'm severe enough to fit the criteria. But I do think my issues have an autism-basis instead of simply an anxiety one. It's not that thinking makes me feel so crazy that I have to stim to let it out - that's control. It's that I can't seem to access the deep thought part of my brain without stimming while I'm doing it - it requires too much concentration and the concentration blocks out my ability to think and concentrate at the same time unless I stim. Idk how to explain it. But I've seen people talk about stimming out of feeling overwhelmed, frightened, and out of control, and I don't relate. But when I see people talk about it as just something joined with their obsessions - I can't think about the things I love the most without doing it - I totally relate. It's just like a necessary biological process - not an urge I can't control. By controlling the topics I'm thinking about, I can control it, but when I go into deep thought I need to stim or my mind will just stay in the moment.

I would tend to agree you probably do have GAD, but that it may be co-morbid to ASD. If I understand you right, Quirky, that is what you are saying as well.

Here is what I'd do if I really, really wanted to have the idea validated. Go to Google and search by "scholar". Insert the search term "Broader Autism Phenotype". Read the most recent articles. Look at the names that appear. See if any particular university or researcher shows up often. Go to the University website and find the study author's email.

Send a short email and say, "Hi, I'm interested in your research in the area of BAP because I really think I may fall within that category, and it's important to me to find out if I do. Can you recommend a knowledgeable practitioner who could evaluate me? Or, is there any on-going clinical research I may be able to participate in? Thanks very much."

You have a good chance of getting a response from someone.

Here is an example of an article:[url]http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=FD39BE34F0F87A67632DA36144BF8503.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=117469[url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=FD39BE34F0F87A67632DA36144BF8503.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=117469]Article[/url]

GAD can mimic the anxiety that's caused by having an ASD (anxiety from an ASD can be due to not understanding the world that one lives in, all of the chaos, lack of control/structure, sensory bombardments, social failures, etcetera), but that's it.