they said im less than 1% likley to be autistic.
they said i have clenical depression/adhd/low confidence.
did this happen to anyone else?
anyoen who knwos me knows how obsessivley i studied autism, knows i ave every obvious "sign" of it, knows im far from depressed, my 'hyperactivity' is actually stemming, and i am very very extroverted.
what is WRONG with these people?! my own doctor didnt even test me, a girl did becuase he didnt even show up that day, and she told me that he was going to evaluate her notes and my tests. that means someone i never met even breifly daignosed me with three things i quite obviously dont have.
sounds like a scam to me, i want to call, and tell him if he does not retest me PROPERLY for free i will press legal charges.
That sucks so much. I hate that we have to rely on strangers to box-up our entire minds. The diagnosis should take a long time, a psychiatrist should be taking there time to really get a feel for your personality.
they didnt take any tiem at all, it was liek a two hour test with someoen who wasnteven my phsycologist. he never met me.
Did your parents or someone who can back up your developmental details come along?
(If not then they've not done it properly. I'm not even sure they'd be allowed to do that to a minor, anyway. Examine them without parental permission etc.)
Frankly, if this doctor is irresponsible enough to "diagnose" you without seeing you and just going by notes, you DEFINITELY don't want this doctor retesting you.
I say request your money back and then get a second opinion from someone who actually knows what they're doing and will value you enough to MEET with you.
I feel your anger and pain. I hate quacks. And there's loads of 'em out there who do actually have degrees but it's quackery in the case of ASDs because so few have the experience necessary. So they're just playing doctor.
Make sure to do your homework though. Really search around, even phone-interview diagnosticians to make sure you find the one who is the most experienced in your area. And make sure they're not just acquainted with pre-adolescent kids but know their teenage and adult high-functioning ranges well too. Also, I don't know if you're male or female, but if you're female, make sure they've got a lot of experience dxing females.
I've finally got "an appointment" to be assessed. It turns out that it's actually going to be 3 appointments over 4 weeks! Despite that meaning I'll have to wait longer to hear what I already feel I know, I'm glad for the fact it should come out more accurate. Just hope that, during the first visit, I like the docs who will be evaluating me. Nothing like going back to head docs or counsellors who don't get you from the start! Blech!
My first appointment is April 3rd. I can get back to you on how it progresses. In the meantime, I truly hope you can get a proper resolution to your problem! I agree that you should be able to state your case for getting your money back; and not because you don't agree with the diagnoses but because of the shoddy fashion in which it was made!
they said im less than 1% likley to be autistic.
they said i have clenical depression/adhd/low confidence.
did this happen to anyone else?
anyoen who knwos me knows how obsessivley i studied autism, knows i ave every obvious "sign" of it, knows im far from depressed, my 'hyperactivity' is actually stemming, and i am very very extroverted.
what is WRONG with these people?! my own doctor didnt even test me, a girl did becuase he didnt even show up that day, and she told me that he was going to evaluate her notes and my tests. that means someone i never met even breifly daignosed me with three things i quite obviously dont have.
sounds like a scam to me, i want to call, and tell him if he does not retest me PROPERLY for free i will press legal charges.
To me this sounds like a case of narrow-minded ineptitude on the part of whoever saw you that day.
I would try to follow the suggestions of others in this thread; you want someone who is experienced and seen a whole range of spectrum disorders, including atypical Asperger's in adults (of which I suspect I am.)
A lot of these people are far from qualified to diagnose autism properly, if you must deal with quacks, deal with professsional quacks.
A quote from the show House:
"I have a headache.
Its my only symptom.
I go to see three doctors.
The neurologist tells me its an aneurism.
The immunologist tells me I've got "Hay Fever."
The intensivist can't be bothered, sends me to a shrink, who tells me that I'm punishing myself because I want to sleep with my mommy.
Pick your specialist, you pick your disease."
Not a "disease" in this case, but you kind of get the picture
Also, autism is more recent than most areas physicians and psychologists have had to research.
Oh, and sorry about the last part of that quote, I didn't realize that it said all that.
Also, autism is more recent than most areas physicians and psychologists have had to research.
More recent? If a psychiatrist is that old, they'd probably be too old to practice! 
Too detailed however, yes that is true.
(This is a copy from my post in the Time Out forum. It got posted there by mistake, but it should've been in this subforum.).
Just finished my diagnosis
In my last thread about my diagnosis (about half a year ago) I posted about my first conversation I had with my psych. After that talk I sprouted my concerns here that she didn't know anything about stimming (and I even kept it simple by calling it 'repetitive moments done at random') or it's relationship to AS - and she even had the DSM-IV lying in the closet behind her!
That made me doubt about wether I should pursue the diagnosis at all with this person. I did though, telling myself that she may have seen other features as vital indications for AS.....or at least moreso than stimming, which made her unable to recall that feature instantly. At least that was what I hoped.
Turns out I was wrong. Based on the several tests I did she concluded that I couldn't have AS, because in comparison to people with AS I have too much social intelligence. According to her, people with AS aren't like that - they are oblivious to what the world thinks of them unless someone tells them about it or shows it to them. 'Like the man with AS who was here (in the office) early in the morning. Unable to dress properly, and continuously looking the other way when I spoke with him'.
So the image of AS what she had was based on an 'extreme' or 'stereotype' version of it, rather than taking the effect of adaptation into account.
She did point out that I match with the criteria for AS (in this case, the criteria she knew), but based on my 'high' level of social intelligence I just couldn't have it. Instead, I was moderately-to-highly introverted.
I didn't went into discussion about it afterwards, figuring that it wouldn't make sense anyway. I mean, I already told her beforehand that all of the social skills I adopted were learned through practice and memory - nothing goes on 'intuition'. That I've acquired alot to pass off as n[/align]ormal to most people isn't that exceptional; at 22 years old, I've have enough experience to survive as an independent being in this world. But she insisted.....
It made me doubt myself for a whole afternoon, for no logical reason as I've been through the criteria and several tests a great amount of times for 2 years now....and indeed, at the end of day I concluded that if she was right I'd make one hell of an aspie-impersonator.
Some doubts remained though, naturally regarding the level of the psychiatrist should I be tempted to reassess my diagnosis with someone else. They may have their qualifications to call themselves professionals, but I don't know what to expect anymore. Of course not all of the psychs will be like the one I had, but as I can't get a glimpse of their knowledge about adult AS individuals I don't know if they're good either. To me it's a vital thing to know, as their personal interpretation of it can influence their defined diagnosis....and thus may lead to a wrong conclusion.
At the moment I don't have the urge to prove her wrong; I don't think it matters anyway. As the ones close to me (family/friends/co-workers) accept me for who I am, it's ok.
In the upcoming weeks I'll try to find a good way to explain AS to them. There's a chance they might call me crazy, but my behaviour won't change. I'm not going to push it in their faces all the time after I told them, I'll just hope that as time goes by the information sinks in and they'll finally have that enlightening moment.
If that moment doesn't come? So be it. They can be as much of a critic of my behaviour as they want, as long they don't expect to sit through all of it for the rest of my life. I have better things to do.
Moral of the story:
Don't settle for just any psych specialized/with knowledge of autism, but in any case ALWAYS review their conclusions thoroughly for yourself.
It took me years to get diagnosed in part because I didn't show a lot of "stims", had some social intelligence and was "too emotional". The diagnoses I got included clinical depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and towards the end, it looked as if I would get diagnosed with "Borderline Personality Disorder".
Unfortunately, there are still too many practitioners out there who are either ignorant that autism is a spectrum or are not willing to have an open mind on the subject. Others are concerned that giving an official diagnosis will lead to that person being discriminated against in the workforce and other places.
One of the things I was not able to understand until recently was that I had (and have) just about no idea how other people think and feel. It doesn't mean I don't care -there is just some kind of missing link in the brain. I can't picture how they think.
It took me years to get diagnosed in part because I didn't show a lot of "stims", had some social intelligence and was "too emotional". The diagnoses I got included clinical depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and towards the end, it looked as if I would get diagnosed with "Borderline Personality Disorder".
Unfortunately, there are still too many practitioners out there who are either ignorant that autism is a spectrum or are not willing to have an open mind on the subject. Others are concerned that giving an official diagnosis will lead to that person being discriminated against in the workforce and other places.
One of the things I was not able to understand until recently was that I had (and have) just about no idea how other people think and feel. It doesn't mean I don't care -there is just some kind of missing link in the brain. I can't picture how they think.
I also don't show a lot of stims and I am also known to be highly expressive of my thoughts/emotions in some contexts. I wonder if I should even bother trying to get diagnosed, as I can't really afford a "second opinion" because I don't have medical insurance to begin with. And then I wouldn't want it to take years.. what good is that?
What do you think?