Misdiagnosed?

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Have any of you felt that you were not properly diagnosed when you were tested for AS? I was tested last year and the Psychologist said that I was "borderline" aspie but not completely there. He basically told me that my issues were just part of "who I am" and that he basically couldn't do anything for me. I dropped the subject after that and haven't thought about it anymore, but lately I've decided that I'm not happy with this result:

My interactions with him involved an initial meeting where he asked a bunch of questions and took notes while I answered. After that, we setup and appointment for me to get tested that started at 8:30 a.m. and lasted all day. First of all, I was REALLY tired that morning due to the test being so early and I wasn't at my best performance. As the day wore on and I was subjected to more and more pointless tests, I started to get impatient and careless to the point that I didn't care anymore. I think that I bombed the last few tests because I wasn't paying attention anymore and just wanted to get the hell out of there. Also, he told me that my math ability was "below average" and that he thought I had a "math disability". My problem with that is that the math tests were over many higher-level math concepts that I've never even been exposed to (higher calculus, etc.) since I've never gone beyond algebra in school. If I've never even seen something before, how am I supposed to be tested on it?

Anyway, my diagnosis as an "almost, but not quite" aspie was based on the testing and I feel that it was not very accurate. I would like to see another professional and get another opinion before I give up on the idea that I may have AS. Have any of you experienced something like this?

My parents had me diagnosed as "gifted" when I was little. That definately counts because it really resulted in me getting messed up in the school system. It was a disaster. I am wary of labels to this day because of it.

yes,misdiagnosed as a toddler [by paed. specialists in two hospitals],and misdiagnosed age nineteen [by mental health team who gp said were the only ones he could think of who were experienced in autism,yet....they had never worked with autism,who never wanted to know history from parents,or the previous notes from the hospitals or schools,he never assessed any difficulties [such as having no useful speech till teenage years,extreme reactions to change and sensory input,extreme meltdowns and lack of awareness a lot of the time]and concentrated on the interest in computers,in that one session,he diagnosed as and adhd and multiple learning difficulties.
an autism speech therapist later spent a year with am,assessing am and also compiled it all into a book.
he unformally diagnosed am with classic/kanners autism [unable to formally give it,as he does not have the authority in the council LD team,but he probably has more experience with autism and adult autistics than any other specialist in manchester,need people like him in NHS assessment],and questioned whether the adhd was as bad as what the original pysch. said,and that a lot of the severity of adhd could have come from the sensory and processing problems instead.


it is very easy to be misdiagnosed,if definitely going for reassessment,make sure it's a ASD specialised pyschologist who is experienced with adults,and not mental health pysch,they're useless for developmental or learning disability assessment,their expertise is in pyschiatric and mental illness,although depending on where live it might be impossible to choose.

During my first evaluation this "Aspie specialist" diagnosed me as “non autistic” because I came to her office with a hot pink backpack. Her theory was that because some autistic people have sensory issues with bright colors anyone wearing a bright hue could not possibly be autistic.

She clearly failed to take into account that I was a young teenage girl and that maybe the pink hue didn’t bother me sensory wise.

Anyway to make a long story short I told my mother she was a quack and we never went back to her office.

think she needs a lot more training in ASD,well,when say a lot,mean just any...at all,that would be a start.
sounds like she doesn't even know ASD is a spectrum.

did go to another pysch after that?

After my initial evaluation I went to another therapist who wasn’t even qualified in the filed of autistic disorders and he recommended that I should undergo testing for Aspengers after 3 sessions.

Like I said a lot of so called AS specialists are quacks. Always seek a second opinion.

Last edited by AspieGurl on 10 Oct 2007, 7:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I have had many misdiagnoses since I was a kid. Now, they tell me I have Asperger's Syndrome and it explains everything I
have struggled with... and learned to deal with for so long. I was also, told by a psychologist at the Medical College where I was finally diagnosed correctly that I will always have a difficult time obtaining support services for AS because I behave more like a Neurotypical person than an Aspie.

I think the older you are the harder it is to get a correct diagnosis. If you aren’t labeled autistic during your toddler years no doctor will take you seriously. I was 10 or 11 when I figured out I was autistic but it took 3.5 years before I could get any official title; also being a girl did not help my case either. If I was emotional it was because I was over sensitive if I was aloof it was because I was shy nothing I did was a tell-tell sign of my condition because I didn’t act out aggressively like the boys did in school.

I’m still disappointed in the school system for not catching my plight earlier because if I had gotten the help I needed when I was in elementary school I would be able to function more productively today.

I suppose the school/ government/health care professions deem it our faults because we can’t fit into their text book description of what AS is.