jos
The clinical diagnosis I got from a psychiatrist in the 80s was "endogenous depression disorder." I'd have been better off being diagnosed with AS but that didn't exist then.
I don't think that I have a mental disorder.
Seems like a lot of therapy is oriented around the concept of adjustment. This isn't bad, necessarily, but to do it well requires the right sort of self-knowledge. And finding the right environments where the person's strengths are a good match for what's needed and expected.
Dunno if you're familiar with Myers-Briggs temperaments but if so, imagine the difference betweeen sticking an INTJ into an ESFP-dominated environment versus, say, and INTJ-dominated environment.
The whole identity politics issue is interesting. I see it kind of like:
I'm asexual
I'm female
I'm aspie
versus:
Not...
I'm a person who's not having sex
I'm a person with female gender
I'm a person with asperger's.
But if I got cancer, I'd probably go with I'm a person with cancer or I have cancer rather than I am cancerous.
...I would like to know what I (as a mental health professional) could do to make clients with suspicions, such as those posted on this board, more comfortable with utilizing mental health resources...
Listen.
Listen some more.
Keep listening.
I had a couple of referrals where I'd see someone for maybe half an hour (once it was with someone who was on call and who answered his phone to take queries from the ward/ER several times in the middle of what was supposed to be my assessment) and on the basis of that (and reading about my previous 'diagnosis' which I firmly believed was a misdiagnosis), they would venture an opinion. They were wrong.
Yes, read through the notes, but keep an open mind. Bear in mind that if you only take regard of the notes, you may be basing your assessment/diagnosis on a previous misdiagnosis.
Bear in mind that lots of people who self-diagnose as Aspies will have done a tremendous about of research, and they will also have considered what they have learned in the context of their life experiences, they will likely have run through a mental check list and if they're telling you they believe they're Aspie it's likely because they know the DSM-IV criteria and meet sufficient of them for a diagnosis.
It makes me laugh that even though I know me, I've known me for more than 30 years, a random medical practitioner will meet me for half an hour and think they know me.
Which takes me back to: listen.
Don't assume, ask.
I tried to explain to medical practitioners who weren't expert in diagnosing AS in adults why I believed I was Aspie, but they were so full of themselves and their 'expertise' they didn't listen to me.
I was eventually referred to someone who does have expertise and had the diagnosis confirmed. That process of confirming what I already knew took around four years. Four years of seeing 'experts' who were ignorant, before finally finding one who wasn't.
As I checked out your board, I noticed that many members here are suspicious of mental health professionals, professional opinions, and AS.
Not suspicious. Mostly frustrated.
I fear the internet leads people to "go it alone" sometimes when reliable and useful resources are nearby and accessible.
For most people the resources are not available, not affordable. If the family physician does not know what autism is then there is going to be no referral to another professional who does.
Some people do not want official diagnosis status because it will affect their job security, parental custody etc.
What help offered for employment referrals where I live is totally useless for people over age 25. The disability office deals with employers who want to hire people in wheelchairs and don't understand about us at all.
Treatment for anxiety, depression or separate disorders that a person can have along with autism could be beneficial.
Social skills training can only take a person so far and it is very tiring to keep up the facade.
We need acceptance by other people as autistics. We do not need to change our autistic traits to suit others.
I think mental disorder is something that has too many negative connotations in the avarage Joe's mind to be used on something that connects people on this forum. Autistic people might be just as offended as others if they are said to have a mental disorder. Autism is something neutral to us, mental disorder may not be.
So I wouldn't say we come here because we are victims of autism, rather that we come here to meet others with similar situations or personalities.
I think people feel condition to be a neutral word, neurotype is OK on AFF but maybe not understood as well in other places related to autism. Neurotypical is by the way a word that has been invented in autistic sub-culture and has apparently entered scientific language.
He may come back reading, but not necessarily replying.
Thank you. The file opened in Excel fine, but the macros were disabled due to my security level. I would need to adjust it.
Let's see:
Let me start out by saying that I am a diagnosed aspie (just last year). As a child of the 1950s and 1960s, I was subjected to all sorts of mental treatments for my supposed schizophrenia (the most common diagnosis of aspies under the DSM-I and DSM-II). Today, I am a tenured college sociology professor.
Me? I can't be diagnosed autistic, as I am not defective.
I am gwynfryn, and I am autistic; and you can reach me on gwynzkind@yahoo.co.uk
"Self-diagnosis doesn't tell a thing"
That's how I read it.
I hope that people note that the term above, "each individual" includes 'diagnosticians.'
Quoted for truth and wisdom.
Take the clown who decided I had Multiple Personality Disorder - having read through the DSM4 and done some research of my own, I really don't fit it at all. BUT this guy was a proponent of EMDR and believed that EMDR could cure MPD, so he conveniently 'diagnosed' me with something his favourite toy could fix.
What sort of mental health 'professional' sees someone for an hour a week for the better part of a year and DOESN'T NOTICE THEY'RE AUTISTIC!?!?!?!?!?!?!
It's because they're only seeing what they want to see. They're looking through:
a filter that is composed of their thoughts, feelings, and memories.
By the way, the Pdoc I'm seeing now, who diagnosed me with Aspergers, is actually an Aspie himself. He's the only psych I've met who's not full of crap and up themselves.
And another thing....
Another reason self-DX, or at least self-examination and self-knowledge, is desirable is that most 'diagnosticians' frankly don't have a *** clue.
I drifted through the mental health system for a decade before anyone noticed I was autistic, and I actually fit the usual criteria quite closely (except for having the impertinence to be female.) If I'd been content to line up like a nice little sheep and have some "expert" stamp me with whichever label was fashionable that season, regardless of how poorly it fit, I'd never have found out what I really was.
We definitely throwed some unnecessary nasty comments at him.
We threw some uncomfortable truths at him, too.
If someone believes they are Aspie and does not want treatment or any type of benefits what is the benefit of assessment?
Self knowledge. That's what we've been discussing for the last seven pages.
For the record, I AM officially diagnosed, but am not receiving any "treatment of benefits". Does that mean the diagnosis process was a waste of time?
And if so, why? Because some psychologist in a hundred thousand dollar motor car isn't creaming a hundred dollars a week out of me to offer some empty words?
Ok, ok.
Just saying he was probably eager to learn that's all.
Treatment OR benefits. Dang typo.
Anyway, the point was I've received great comfort from knowing what I am. If someone can reach that comfort WITHOUT having to go through the expensive rigmarole of getting officially diagnosed, why should we deny them?
Yeah, Jos, stick around, I say!
I think that conversations of this sort are good.
(me--undiagnosed, not having major problems right now, have managed to work through most of the AS-related problems I had when younger--at that point assessment might have done me some good but it wasn't on the radar).
Fair do's... I apologise for using this thread to have a rant about incompetent quacks.
But if I am uncomfortable with "utilising mental health resources", that's the reason. I just don't trust the people pushing them. My personal experience is that only one in ten psychologists or counsellors, and no GPs at all, are even capable of identifying Aspergers.