Aspies For Freedom - Diagnosed and Female Aspies

Congrats. Was it your first official DX then?

What is the price on closure these days?

You are lucky to be near a specialist clinic. I live in the worst state in the nation for getting any sort of psychological diagnosis; this is both a realization and the opinion blatantly stated by professionals in the area. You? You get the Tony freakin' Attwood Clinic. Bah!

$380 is not bad, I'd do that.

jewelie Wrote:

ED2003 Wrote:

Congrats. Was it your first official DX then?

What is the price on closure these days?

Where I live in the USA it costs about two thousand dollars. But that was a joke? Closure, priceless and impossible. Diagnosis, pricey.

A joke? Heh, only if you're American Wink . I live in "The Great State of Louisiana", the epitome of failure.

Everytime I hear about children recently being diagnosed with asperger syndrome, its always boys. I also have noticed while most men with asperger syndrome were diagnosed in childhood or adolescence(Often a misdiagnosis with something else-at age 3 I was misdiagnosed with PDD-NOS in 1982 and it wasnt until 1991 that I got the aspergers diagnosis from a child psychiatrist), most women who are officially diagnosed were diagnosed in adulthood. Moreover, many aspie women say that they knew themselves that they were different but their abnormalities went unnoticed by adults. It almost seems like asperger syndrome affects women less severly, or at least in a less obvious way than it affects men.

Life Behind Glass is quite an easy read with lovely small paragraphs and a nice simple writing style. It has some really good things about how she grew up feeling quite alone.

aliceinOz Wrote:

So Bella, it sounds like you are working your way through the booklist at a pretty decent pace. Care to do a review of each of the books you have read - I haven't read them and would be interested in what you think, what you like about them, what you learn, and what, if anything, bothers you.

Good idea. I'll give it a go. I still have to look through the local library to see what I can find so I don't have to buy them all, presently I only have the Donna Williams one (which I haven't read much of yet) and Life Behind Glass.

Life Behind Glass I actually really enjoyed. Her experience was different to mine. One thing with that book is it's not very long, so it doesn't go that in depth into her experiences, just touches on the surface of a bunch of experiences in all stages of her life - from younger years, to teenage, to studying and being too clingy with the friends that she made, to getting married, having kids, moving to a new country, being admitted to a mental institution with depression and being put on drugs. The depression experience I could relate to. She describes my disconnected feeling of feeling like all I am is a head. She also describes difficulty with remembering instructions.

Well Gosh Darnit! :mad:
It seems as though you people have completely ignored and/or deliberately overlooked my Post!!!!
Id really like some input about this.... Sad

Tong_Duurai Wrote:

Well Gosh Darnit! :mad:
It seems as though you people have completely ignored and/or deliberately overlooked my Post!!!!
Id really like some input about this.... Sad

It seemed to me female experiences had already been covered in this thread, but I think it's wrong to say females are affected less severely.
I think the reason for females being diagnosed later in life is that the DSM for Aspergers has been designed for males.
Also I know for me I was just considered socially awkward.  I was quiet and never really fitted in, but I was accepted into female groups as the quiet member, the one they could boss around and take advantage of.
I know my husband was completely different in that he sat in the library in lunch and didn't care to try to fit in, but the reason for his diagnosis was he didn't conform to stupid school rules.  The school didn't like that, so he was diagnosed at 15.  I conformed to everything. My aim was generally to not be noticed much.

I also have been in a mental institution with severe depression... it was noted that I was not the normal case of depression and they didn't understand some of my behaviours, but it was still taken as just depression.  I even saw psychiatrists afterwards and they would just convince me that my problems came from my difficult childhood and I really wasn't so different from other people.  My not fitting in and being like other people thing was just in my head to them.  This is why I still had problems later down the track...

grizeldatee Wrote:

It's been a long road to get there, hasn't it? I am happy for you, Bella, and look forward to reading your perspectives. And thanks for sharing the reading list -- it has been copied into a text file for future reference. Smile

Thanks grizeldatee and everyone for your support. Hope the reading list is helpful. Smile

Batman55 Wrote:

woman from mars Wrote:

In a nutshell, I think that it is expectations, lack of expectations & lack of awareness by the authorities which cause females to pass unnoticed through the system.
I believe that we will soon see a huge change in the statistics.

Not to be cynical, but why would these things change if it is the women who can get through unnoticed--with less pressure to conform--than the men? Remember that Asperger's description in the DSM has a "the disturbance must be disabling" clause in it... not those words specifically (too lazy to look it up now) but something very much to that effect.

There is not any less pressure to conform as a female. Although being shy is accepted more in females there is still that pressure to overcome the shyness and to conform even in small ways. I know for me I was accepted but as far as conversations went, it took a lot of effort for me to think and follow the conversations of other people and actually find the right timing to get in... but in putting in that effort, I was accepted as a part of the group, even though I didn't say much, sometimes I said something. Basically I was just considered 'nice'.

featherways Wrote:

A thought: Is an assessment for everyone in the population useful? I think so. I work in an office where arguably more than half the people are fairly far along the spectrum - it's highly specialised work...and I've lost track of how many times I've observed behaviours from them that makes perfect sense to me (no clue what to do at social events, a love of routine, repetitive movements/obsessional hobbies, no idea how to improvise, in a panic if routine changes etc). Other people just think they're rude/eccentric/odd/antisocial. If I hadn't have known what I was looking at, and found ways to make it easy for them to succeed rather than fail, it could really have affected their chances of a successful career.

I don't know that a diagnosis would be useful to everyone. I have a friend who is undiagnosed, and I have yet to bring it up with him. I think knowing about it would help him to overcome some of his social insecurities and confidence problems, but I don't think an actual diagnosis would help much. I have two family members that I am educating about Autism as well. I think unless there are major problems, then a diagnosis won't be helpful, but a self-diagnosis would be.

two tests and lots of questions? wow, I'm really glad for you, did they also do a child history with your parents? I wonder, what are your interests, mine is art, and handedness, at one point it was beetles, but I had to choose between either art or beetles, and the pull was very strong, so I chose art, because thinking about them all the time was giving me a horrid headache.

Bella Wrote:

It does feel good to finally have a firm nod, but mostly this means that when I go to professionals to get help with my anxiety I can get help that is actually suited to me, rather than generic help. That was pretty much the main reason for pursuing the diagnosis. I just found going to people they tried to just assume the problems that I am having because a person who normally displays anxiety would be having those problems.

I'm not a particularly fast reader, but thankfully I did get a pamphlet on a local autism resource centre. I agree with you completely Tigger. I don't have the money to buy them, but I do have a bit of time to do some reading. Smile

It will be interesting to see what else comes of the female/male difference in Aspergers. I think they are currently doing research, because it seems that the higher rate amongst males is really because females can generally blend in easier. It seems just to be a cultural thing... in that generic male culture is harder to blend into.

Hope the appointment goes well ocampo. The best advice I had was to write lots of your thoughts down about why you have Aspergers. I didn't use them in the interview, but it did make things clearer to be able to answer the questions.

hundred4ever- they didn't interview my parents. But I was asked questions about childhood and told them things I remembered and that my mother had told me.

What sort of art are you talking about?

One of my main interests is writing. I also do a bit of photography and have other interests that come and go.

Good luck Jewelie. Yes, it is hard to find someone who knows enough about Aspergers to be able to properly diagnose someone. I hope you can educate them enough.

likedcalico Wrote:

Hi Bella, what made you decide to in for a diagnoses?

Why did you feel a diagnoses would be important to have?

Just asking.

I got a diagnosis because I was having anxiety problems and a few other problems and I had tried to seek help from professionals, but without a diagnosis they were all treating me like I thought normally. I also found a place that specialized in Aspergers/Autism, but the only way I could get in to see one of their psychologists was with a diagnosis... So that's why I did it.

It doesn't change who I am... just a label that helps in me getting help for some of my problems.

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