20 Mar 2012, 4:45 am
BruceCM wrote:
Um, you don't, generally, go straight to a psychologist, then? It's usually through your GP. On the NHS, bear in mind that they will do an official report &, if you goto such a person, they might decide you need to be diagnosed, whether that's what you went to them for or not. But, either way, the report will still be on your records. Which may or may not be a problem & it's not as 'bad' as a diagnosis. I'll risk saying they'd almost certainly agree with your OCD, though. 
I wouldn't go to a psychologist here in England though. I'm moving back to Sweden in the end of June so I figured if I want to, I'll go to one then. Not sure how it works in Sweden but I'll definitely try to find out before talking to anyone. If I'm going to.
This might be a stupid question, but can one have both OCD or AS at the same time? I've heard it's quite common to have AS and ADHD/ADD but I haven't heard that much about AS and OCD.
20 Mar 2012, 5:49 am
Yeah, I'm a bit 'obsessive', although they haven't yet wanted to diagnose me with OCD. It's possible to have anything else with AS but, as you must have found, being at least a bit 'obsessive' is an AS trait, anyway. Look up Asperger's or Autism & comorbids, if you like, for more info. Obviously, I can't advise at all about Sweden's system, you'd know much more about there than I do! Best wishes with it all. 
20 Mar 2012, 6:35 am
BruceCM wrote:
Yeah, I'm a bit 'obsessive', although they haven't yet wanted to diagnose me with OCD. It's possible to have anything else with AS but, as you must have found, being at least a bit 'obsessive' is an AS trait, anyway. Look up Asperger's or Autism & comorbids, if you like, for more info. Obviously, I can't advise at all about Sweden's system, you'd know much more about there than I do! Best wishes with it all.
Yeah, I don't know if they'd give me the diagnosis OCD either, even though I'm clearly obsessive when it comes to certain things. But that might, like you said, just be an AS trait.
Ha, well, I don't know anything about Sweden's system either. I'll have to read up on it.
20 Mar 2012, 6:52 am
I'm pretty sure you could get that diagnosis, if you wanted. Obsessive has it's positives & negatives, of course. It'll still end up being you that has to decide what is & isn't worth obsessing about & sort out how to deal with it, with or without a diagnosis. How do you think a diagnosis will help you with it? 
20 Mar 2012, 6:59 am
BruceCM wrote:
I'm pretty sure you could get that diagnosis, if you wanted. Obsessive has it's positives & negatives, of course. It'll still end up being you that has to decide what is & isn't worth obsessing about & sort out how to deal with it, with or without a diagnosis. How do you think a diagnosis will help you with it?
But I don't have violent or 'impure' thoughts or worry about causing others physical or mental harm etc. What I obsess about is having things in the right order or do stuff in the right order. I also have to check taps, light switches, locks, the stove and things like that before leaving the flat or before going to bed, in order to prevent dangerous stuff from happening. I also count things a lot. Like when walking up and down the stairs, or my steps when walking outside etc. Involuntary. That kind of stuff. Then I obsess about my special interests. But that's another kind of obsession, in my opinion. What do you obsess about?
20 Mar 2012, 7:08 am
rebbieh wrote:
Halligeninseln wrote:
To rebbieh
Regarding diagnosis and at the risk of going off topic, I did actually go for a diagnosis with a psychiatrist in January. She said basically "What makes anyone think I would be able to decide if you had that or not?" and sent me away. So I feel really bad when people on the internet just tell people to "get a diagnosis" as if it's merely a matter of going to a psychiatrist and finding out if you have it and that if you don't have a diagnosis it's your own fault. It isn't. A few months before that I got myself interviewed by a worker at an autism centre for children and young people. He said it was obvious I had AS but I'm assuming he was wrong until proved right (since he is not officially qualified to make a diagnosis). Ironically, the psychiatrist would have been professionally qualified to give me a diagnosis although she knew nothing at all about it whereas the health worker at the autism centre did not have a doctor's degree and could not make a diagnosis, just say what he thought on the basis of his experience. He (the health worker) also said that many people are disappointed with the whole process of diagnosis, though I didn't ask him what he meant by that exactly. I'm supposed to be on the waiting list to go on the waiting list for a diagnosis at a university clinic in a year's time but I think they've forgotten me or lost my application because I should have been given a date by now. Yes, there is actually a waiting list for the waiting list. It's a strange phenomenon, all these people (like us) who identify with AS when maybe we don't have it, or maybe we do, or maybe we half have it and half not.
Regarding diagnosis and at the risk of going off topic, I did actually go for a diagnosis with a psychiatrist in January. She said basically "What makes anyone think I would be able to decide if you had that or not?" and sent me away. So I feel really bad when people on the internet just tell people to "get a diagnosis" as if it's merely a matter of going to a psychiatrist and finding out if you have it and that if you don't have a diagnosis it's your own fault. It isn't. A few months before that I got myself interviewed by a worker at an autism centre for children and young people. He said it was obvious I had AS but I'm assuming he was wrong until proved right (since he is not officially qualified to make a diagnosis). Ironically, the psychiatrist would have been professionally qualified to give me a diagnosis although she knew nothing at all about it whereas the health worker at the autism centre did not have a doctor's degree and could not make a diagnosis, just say what he thought on the basis of his experience. He (the health worker) also said that many people are disappointed with the whole process of diagnosis, though I didn't ask him what he meant by that exactly. I'm supposed to be on the waiting list to go on the waiting list for a diagnosis at a university clinic in a year's time but I think they've forgotten me or lost my application because I should have been given a date by now. Yes, there is actually a waiting list for the waiting list. It's a strange phenomenon, all these people (like us) who identify with AS when maybe we don't have it, or maybe we do, or maybe we half have it and half not.
Did she actually say "What makes anyone think I would be able to decide if you that or not?" and send you away? That's not very helpful.
What I'm thinking about doing is going to a psychologist and talk about all of this and see what he/she says. Not necessarily to find out if I have AS or not (which we've established they might not be able to tell me anyway) but to see if I've got something else. OCD for example. That wouldn't surprise me either. I don't know how it works here (in the UK) but back home in Sweden the kind of psychologist I'm thinking about going to isn't qualified to give me an AS diagnosis anyway. You have to go to one and then get referred to someone who is qualified. Which there's a long waiting list for. Anyway, I haven't made up my mind about it. Still just trying to figure out what my options are.
Hej! Jag visste inte att du är svensk. Varifran komma du i Sverige? Jag var lärare i Malmö under tre ar vid slutet av attitalet. Var en sköna tid för mig. Etc etc. (My keyboard can't write Swedish properly).
The psychiatrist said "Wie soll ich das wissen? Warum hat sie (ie my GP) Sie zu MIR geschickt?". Which means more or less the same as what I wrote. I didn't bother to translate the exact words in my post, choosing instead to convey the overall message of the half-hour interview I had with her. That was after I had shown her a sheet of paper on which I had described the current state of things regarding my search for a diagnosis. It was a horrible experience because she sat there exuding self-confidence and I felt strongly that she had contempt and distaste for my life history while I explained things like stimming, special interests, social isolation, chaotic work history, social overload problems etc etc, She had a picture of her two young children on her desk which I felt may be OK for a business person to have on their desk but not for a psychiatrist, who is dealing with people who quite possibly DON'T have a happy family situation and quite possibly aren't functioning successfully in society, otherwise why would they be seeing a psychiatrist? At the end of the interview she did offer me an "Überweisung" for psychotherapy (I think one gets eight sessions, if you can actually find a therapist, which one usually can't) with the proviso that they wouldn't be able to tell me either if I had AS and that to be accepted for therapy I would need to show a willingness to change, which misses the point completely because what I was looking for was a professional opinion and not to be therapised at my age (I'm fifty-eight). I could write on and on and on about this topic so I'll end the post here.
20 Mar 2012, 7:25 am
20 Mar 2012, 7:25 am
rebbieh wrote:
BruceCM wrote:
I'm pretty sure you could get that diagnosis, if you wanted. Obsessive has it's positives & negatives, of course. It'll still end up being you that has to decide what is & isn't worth obsessing about & sort out how to deal with it, with or without a diagnosis. How do you think a diagnosis will help you with it?
But I don't have violent or 'impure' thoughts or worry about causing others physical or mental harm etc. What I obsess about is having things in the right order or do stuff in the right order. I also have to check taps, light switches, locks, the stove and things like that before leaving the flat or before going to bed, in order to prevent dangerous stuff from happening. I also count things a lot. Like when walking up and down the stairs, or my steps when walking outside etc. Involuntary. That kind of stuff. Then I obsess about my special interests. But that's another kind of obsession, in my opinion. What do you obsess about?
If it was just obsessing about your special interests, that'd be AS (plenty of people do have interests & get obsessive about them, without being Aspies, too, of course). The rest would definitely be OCD, sorry. Mostly, I obsess about my interests but we're talking about you, here.
"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." you know that one? Can we skip a lot of waffle & leap to that approach to Autism, do you think? As they're needing to reconsider their 'explanations' already!
20 Mar 2012, 7:30 am
BruceCM wrote:
rebbieh wrote:
BruceCM wrote:
I'm pretty sure you could get that diagnosis, if you wanted. Obsessive has it's positives & negatives, of course. It'll still end up being you that has to decide what is & isn't worth obsessing about & sort out how to deal with it, with or without a diagnosis. How do you think a diagnosis will help you with it?
But I don't have violent or 'impure' thoughts or worry about causing others physical or mental harm etc. What I obsess about is having things in the right order or do stuff in the right order. I also have to check taps, light switches, locks, the stove and things like that before leaving the flat or before going to bed, in order to prevent dangerous stuff from happening. I also count things a lot. Like when walking up and down the stairs, or my steps when walking outside etc. Involuntary. That kind of stuff. Then I obsess about my special interests. But that's another kind of obsession, in my opinion. What do you obsess about?
If it was just obsessing about your special interests, that'd be AS (plenty of people do have interests & get obsessive about them, without being Aspies, too, of course). The rest would definitely be OCD, sorry. Mostly, I obsess about my interests but we're talking about you, here.
"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." you know that one? Can we skip a lot of waffle & leap to that approach to Autism, do you think? As they're needing to reconsider their 'explanations' already!
Ok, so then it's probably possible I show both AS traits and OCD traits. I don't think I only show signs of AS or show signs of OCD.
I should probably stop analysing myself so much. I feel very self-absorbed. Ha.
20 Mar 2012, 7:46 am
You noticed!? You are a girl, not a guy, right?
20 Mar 2012, 7:58 am
BruceCM wrote:
You noticed!? You are a girl, not a guy, right?
You are a girl, not a guy, right? I'm a girl, yes, so? Sorry anyway. Didn't mean to rant. I do that a lot when confused. Or thinking out loud.
20 Mar 2012, 8:11 am
No problem, you were just in danger of analyzing yourself to death, is all!
20 Mar 2012, 8:13 am
BruceCM wrote:
No problem, you were just in danger of analyzing yourself to death, is all!
Ha, no. I've been over-analysing things my whole life - I'm used to it
20 Mar 2012, 8:30 am
Great! I'm in too many other forums to dedicate much time to this one. Feel free to use the email buttons if you want to chat more, it'd be easier. Or PMs, if you prefer. Otherwise, I'm probably out of this thread, as it seems done & best wishes with it all. 
20 Mar 2012, 8:43 am
20 Mar 2012, 9:32 am
RazorEddie wrote:
It is pretty common to have a mix of both. I didn't realize a number of things I do such as checking switches and locks were OCD type behaviors until recently. It's funny, I accepted AS without any qualms but I resent OCD and am now consciously trying to minimize that side. For instance instead of repeatedly checking I've locked the front door I carry my keys in my hand until I've locked the door then put them in my pocket. If the keys are in my pocket I must have locked the door so I don't really need to check it. Most of the time it works.
Edit: Looking at the DSM IV for Aspergers, one of the criteria is (B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals. That could describe many OCD type routines. To be diagnosed with OCD I think the routines have to have a significant effect on your life.
Edit: Looking at the DSM IV for Aspergers, one of the criteria is (B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals. That could describe many OCD type routines. To be diagnosed with OCD I think the routines have to have a significant effect on your life.
Question is, what is "a significant effect" ? I mean, how much do you have to think of/do something before it has a significant effect on your life?
