background:. I was developmentally delayed, severe speech problem. So much so that they thought I was mentally ret*d and was put in special education. My mother even signed a release paper and a researcher put out a "Case review" article about my condition(my mom doesn't remeber what I was diagnosed as). I then scored in the top 1% on math and reading a standardized state wide test, much to my school administrators surprise, and was allowed to be with the normal classes. At 12 y/o I became depressed and have continued to battle with depression for almost 2 decades.
The presentI am almost finished medical school, 3 more months and people will have to call me doctor and magically I will be treated with more respect. How does this relate to this forum?
Well for years I was told by family/friends that I had aspergers but I just brushed them off thinking they were trying to fit me in an easily explained box. Then during my second year of medical school, psychiatry block, I was reading articles stuck in our notes because I was having trouble focusing. The article was from the NY times and was about the journalist discovering he had aspergers and how much it explained his life. The article made me very upset, so much so that there were tears coming down my face, because of how much I identified with the writer. I was upset that all these features that I thought were unique and that my mindset was just wierd. I talked to the head of psychiatry who scheduled an appointment to see me. We talked, and she agreed that I had aspergers or a form of high-functioning autism. This was a little surprising as I have seen psychiatrists for 18 years pretty much constantly, been diagnosed as Major depression(duh), OCD, Bipolar(oh come on), schizotypal but never autism.
Now, I am more accepting of it, except I become very angry when I see "cure autism" commercials. I tell people without even thinking that I have aspergers and I have had different reactions. From good: "oooh thats why you act like that/said that" to bad: a line on one of my evaluation forms "Cannot keep a professional distance from clinical staff". I have also had different experiences from my classmates and have been shaped in different ways because of my mind structure.
Beyond Oddly. The same course director who diagnosed me having aspergers also "2 pced" me, meaning committed me to a mental hospital against my will, a year later *AND* was my psychiatry clinical course director. She suggested I write an article about Aspergers and medical school.. But my writing skills, as you have experienced, don't really trap and interest readers.
08 Jan 2010, 4:47 pm
Great!
