Getting diagnosed in the US

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I have a question, not sure if this is the proper section for it. Does anyone know how an adult goes about getting an official diagnosis for AS? I'm having a heck of time finding any info online that is actually useful. I don't have a regular doctor, or psychologist, or anything like that. I don't have the money for it and talking to people about my issues scares the hell out of me. I will if I have to, but I just don't know where to start. I go into the local subsidized clinic once every three months to get a refill for my antidepressants, but I only see a Nurse Practitioner, not a doctor. I asked her about getting officially diagnosed, but she doesn't have any experience in that area (autism or AS), and so had no idea where to refer me or even really where to go for info. How does someone get the ball rolling, where do you start? Everything I've been able to find online either applies to children or other countries.

In the US, you want to find a private psychologist experienced with aspergers diagnosis and pay cash. Then don't tell anyone. If the insurance companies get wind of it, then you'll be uninsurable and getting health insurance will be next to impossible.

BTW, I haven't had to take a single antidepressant pill since I got a Ninja 250 and started riding regular.... Just sayin....

We found the person who diagnosed me by going to the local autism resource center and saying we were looking for someone to diagnose an adult. They recommended the person I saw.

My diagnosis did go through insurance. My insurance knows about my diagnosis. I'm getting OT and such covered by insurance.

This may seem like a a strange question, but why do you even want to get diagnosed? What good will it do? You are who are and nothing will ever change that, so who cares what others think? So you are a little weird. I am as well. What's the real problem? Most people out there in the world don't really care, as long as you are not in their face about it, and are not physically or verbal abusing them in some way.

Sucks for people that don't have enough cash to find a private psychologist.....though if I did I don't think I'd keep it secret as I don't have insurance anyways and probably never will be able to afford any or even get approved for it. If anything my reason for wanting a diagnoses is to try and get SSI.

Anyways to the OP, I am not sure how to get diagnosed with anything let alone AS.......maybe see what sorts of resources are available in your area. But it seems like a lot of times its counseling that is mostly offered and well counseling is nice and all but in my opinion it does not really get to the root of the problems nor provide an actual diagnoses. I've found a potential mental health center thing in my area that might be able to help me with that......but not sure what they'd have in your area.

Why do you want SSI anyway? Don't you want to go out and be a productive citizen? Is Aspergers that disabling that one can get SSI from it?

It's my PTSD, Depression and Anxiety are the main reason for wanting SSI. Though the aspergers is not without its own difficulties either so having that certainly does not help with any of those issues.

Personally:

Yes I want to go out and be a productive citizen. And yes, I'm that disabled.

you might try contacting your local department of health and human services. They have a mental health department that deals with autism. I do not know if they will help at all, but they might know a way to get help.

Do you qualify for medicaid?

Not unless I can get diagnosed and declared disabled. Being a single male with no children, disability is the only thing that could possibly get me medicaid.

As for what cavendish said, yes, I am that disabled. I live with my parents and am usually so terrified of social interaction or being around other people that I won't even check the mail unless the sun has gone down. I frequently go an entire week without stepping outside even once, trips to the grocery store can sometimes be so overwhelming, I get dizzy and almost blackout, leaving to go sit in the car while the person I'm with finishes the shopping. When I was younger, I was able to go out more and was able to occasionally hold down a job for a few months, but I also drank pretty heavily which was what made me able to handle social settings more easily. Alcohol doesn't really agree with me anymore, the effects don't last like they used to and the hangovers get worse and worse as I get older, so I don't drink anymore.

I'm looking for an official diagnosis because I'm hoping to get some form of SSI or SSDI so I might be able to live on my own. My parents are getting older and beginning to have health issues of their own and shouldn't have to keep supporting me like they have been, not to mention I live in the basement which stays cold and damp pretty much year round and tends to make me sick with colds and allergies a lot of the time. I'd love to go out and be a productive member of society, but people generally aren't willing to hire you if during the interview you start stuttering and just saying "um" repeatedly because you suddenly forgot the basics of the only language you know because you're so terrified. I went to college for a while, but as time went on, my social problems got worse, so I switched to online only classes, which still failed because the university I went to had requirements about participating in forum discussions with your classmates that I wasn't able to do. The only reason I'm participating on the forums here is because I'm at the end of my rope and I've actual found some people who seem to understand some of what I've gone through. I know no one else like me outside of my mother, to a far lesser degree and always just figured I was broken. I've done the whole suicide thing but chickened out at the end due to my catholic upbringing, which I don't even believe in but the idea I could be wrong and burn forever scares me enough to make the few attempts unsuccessful.

I've bounced back and forth between doctors over the last 16 or 17 years, none of them seemed to care much beyond sticking me with the latest antidepressant. I would give them a couple symptoms of what I go through then would end up freezing up in front of them, so they pretty much all thought I was social phobic and depressed. One thought I might be bipolar type ii, another said that wasn't it, it could be borderline personality disorder. I was a psych major, I know those aren't what I have, but I get so choked up in front of doctors that I just sit there and nod when they talk and answer questions with simple "yes/no" answers. But not once has any of them ever bothered to actually run tests on me outside of a blood test once to check my thyroid and I get too paralyzed to insist on them testing me to come up with some form of actual diagnosis. I don't even care if it's AS or not, I really just want to know why a person as smart as I am is so incapable of basic tasks that everyone else takes for granted. I don't give a damn what other people think, the diagnosis isn't for them. I want to know for myself so I try to fix the shambles that is my life. I have parts of many different kinds of disorders but then other parts that don't seem to fit at all, and I've been doing this dance for so many years that I start thinking maybe its not even real, it's all in my head and I'm just brain damaged or something.

So yeah, an actual diagnosis seems kind of important at this place in my life.

In my uneducated opinion part of your DX should be social phobia. I think that would give you a greater chance of getting SSI than AS.

it occured to me today if someone insulst me even over the internet I have a hard time not punching every inanimate object around, but on a job that would be horrible it could freak out the customers and give me a terrible reputation...so yeah I just really don't know what to do and I'm thinking of applying for SSI but I don't know. Sometimes I feel like it would just be easier if I wasn't here and maybe by college loans would get forgiven and my parents would have no responsibility to pay it.

mmm This is suicide talk... sorry you are so depressed. You ought to see someone about being depressed.

My understanding is that college loans don't get forgiven. Your parents cosigned and if you are "gone," your debts will live on.

It depends on which financial institution holds the loan. Quite a few of them will forgive the loan if the primary on the loan dies. And death isn't necessary for loans to be forgiven, persons with disabilities can frequently have them forgiven as well. One of my mother's best friends recently had hers forgiven as she is in a slow and steady state of liver failure and can hardly walk to her car without becoming utterly exhausted, thus unable to work. Just be aware that if you do get loans forgiven, you have to still pay taxes on that amount as it is viewed as income. That's something they don't tell a lot of people and so they get a nasty surprise come April.

Over 85% of Asperger's people are unemployed. Most of the rest are marginally employed with jobs that are probably inadequate to support themselves. So the answer is yes, it is that disabling. Disability should be automatic for anyone suffering from Asperger's.

Second, there are many different ways that people can be productive citizens. Employment is not the only way.

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