Wrong Asperger's Self-Diagnosis

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First Psychiatirst: You couldn't have that! that's something diagnosed in children and there's no pill for that and this is a place that gives pills.

Current one: After discussing why I think I have it. Ok perhaps you do have Apserger's Syndrome. (Few months later when getting a written report to return to college) So you are diagnosed with a mood disorder and Asperger's right? Me: Yes (I fealt OMG he actually listened to me rambling, on having AS.) YA!

Wow! 1st psychiatrist sounds like he needs his license revoked! That is why I was always skeptical of psychiatrists. Mind you, I am only basing my experience on one, but that one pushed pills EVERY time we were with him and CONTINUOUSLY threatened to throw me into an asylum (without my parents' knowing he was telling me that!)

Let's see:

"I don't think you have it. You can socialize on the internet."
"I don't think you have it. You don't act like Rain Man."
"I don't think you have it. You have had friends ever in your life."
"I don't think you have it. You can make eye contact."

Anyone remember any other ridiculous reasons?

"She's not autistic, autistic people wouldn't be able to communicate through typing like that, they just don't communicate at all!"

(Not from a diagnostician, but from a non-psych doctor who I was seeing on an emergency basis for a broken toe or something like that. Meanwhile he wouldn't speak to me, just about me to the person who was helping me. So I began saying things like "Wow, he hasn't read a medical journal on autism in the last 20 years..." in the third person about him, and he was really pissed off then.)

You don't have a monotone voice.
You don't stim.
You have a job.
You're in a relationship.

(gleaned from this site, not from personal experience.)

I recall someone (and maybe more than one someone) here saying that she was told that she was too good looking to be autistic.

Okay, so an intelligent, well educated (yet still clueless) medical professional assesses you - if you are an adult with Asperger's, or any other form of autism, but do not present with the typical children's symptoms then you obviously don't have autism in their eyes. If that holds true - then why do we bother to put kids in social training, speech therapy, OT, occupational therapy,etc... if autistic children are incapable of learning those skills.

If they expect adults to present like children then obviously they must believe those skills cannot be learned.

Or, maybe, just maybe, they have no clue what autism looks like after those skills have been learned because children are cut off from much of their intevention care as they enter adulthood...

Y'know...it would SEEM to me that it is UTTERLY irresponsible to make a snap judgment about somebody and an issue they MIGHT have by making sweeping generalizations with no effort to look at the issues BEHIND the issue.

A person can APPEAR to be completely "NORMAL" in many respects. But then, a RESPONSIBLE diagnostician would begin to look for holes in what is "APPARENT" at the surface:

You got through school: but your teachers noted that you had significant issues with being able to interact with other students, including group assignments. In college, your practicum supervisor noted that "X seems to be in his/her own little world most of the time."

You're married: ...and it's on the rocks because you seem distant and uninvolved according to your wife despite saying you love her and making verbal acknowledgement of the problems between you and her.

You have a job: there is a lot of tension between you and others there because you don't "fit in" with them. Your contentment with being alone and seeming disinterest in other people is offensive to others who seem to expect everybody to "be friends" and socialize. You are more interested in your work. At the extreme, you've been bullied by supervisors and co-workers or even fired from every job you've ever had.

You have friends: But even they notice something different about you. In fact, everybody seems to notice some difference you have from "everybody else," but nobody has ever taken the initiative to put the pieces of this puzzle together to get a complete picture.

You have empathy: Misinterpreted(?). The lack of ability to reciprocate emotions and social cues meaning that you seem disinterested in other people. You might, in fact, be very interested in other people, but unsure of how to reciprocate. And because you are confused by this, you do lose interest or appear aloof. Worst case: you come off as stuck-up. You are unable to initiate or maintain conversation most of the time.

If these are correct, and a PROFESSIONAL doesn't take the time to explore such issues, then that's NOT very PROFESSIONAL.

Shouldn't they be reported on something like AngiesList?