cellardoor wrote:
i have read a lot about people going for a diagnosis and bringing information from their childhood, like reports and doctors notes.
is this necessary? i mean to be diagnosed do the doctors have to get in contact with your childhood doctor and family?
i would really like to not have them involved when and if i go for a diagnosis.
well your history is crucial to your diagnosis i believe. i was thought to be AS from the age if 12, but the diagnosis was not available then, so i was left with the earlier diagnosis of HFA until i was 24 (1996) and then i was diagnosed as AS.
i drove drunk 3 times when i was in my early 20's, and my lawyer noted (from my medical records) that i was HFA, but the notes also said that i was obviously an example of AS, but could not be diagnosed due to the fact that it was not in the DSM at that time.
the lawyer sent me to be assessed for AS and it was a process that took about 6 weeks.
there were many notes and papers about me because i spent many years in the "psychiatric system" when i was a child, and they were very valuable to my diagnosis. also, my parents and sisters all had interviews with the doctor and he interviewed them about their experiences of me as a baby and a child.
the doctor also gave me many tests like showing me pictures of "scenes" where i was to write a short story describing the scenes.
he got me to watch a movie with a laser pointer aimed at me eye. this pointer's beam was diffracted by my eye movement in a way that another computer could trace on a screen the superimposition of lines of where i looked during the movie.
the results were indicative of autism (not necessarily AS, but it was a fundamental test for autism anyway).
eg: there was a tense scene where someone came into a room with a gun. then the camera focused on someone else who pointed his finger at something.
my eye track results revealed that my focus was on his arm, and followed it to the tip of his finger, and then it dropped suddenly to the floor below his hand and darted around to fixtures and power outlets on the skirting boards etc.
that was one "fail" that my doctor told me after i asked him about my results in that test.
whatever.... in australia, it is necessary to truly have been tested and found "conclusively" to have autism in order to be diagnosed, and i think in america, they just sign the slip with abandon so you can get a pension maybe.
i do not know, but i find it odd that some other diagnosed autistics in other posts have so little testing to be diagnosed as AS.
some people i have read say that they are "going for an appointment tomorrow" to discover whether they are AS.
then they report they are AS after that appointment, and it is "celebration" time for them.
i do not believe them, but i am told the diagnostic procedures in other countries can be scant, so i reserve my opinion.
i am not very well in the head tonight i am sorry.
26 Jun 2009, 4:56 am
