How much did you spend on testing for your diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

Adult Diagnosis: £1,000 (about $2000)

I personally don't see what's so important about getting an official diagnosis. I mean, the person who knows the most about you is... well, you.

Considering this is a neurlogical thing, we can't show physical symptoms, how would a doctor know? They watch for our responses and put a few check marks on a clipboard, then decide from there? What a waste. And even if you are officially diagnosed, wouldn't that do more harm than good? I mean, alot of people are very ignorant/unknowledgable about AS. And when you get a job they pull up your medical records, they would see "Asperger Syndrome" or "Autism" or whatever the doctor put down, and unless they were more knowledgable on the subject (which most likely they are not), they will instantly say, "Oh, he's ret*d. Can't have the job."

Honestly I may be totally wrong, but I'd imagine that's what would happen.

Hail and well met, nomad21:

Perhaps most people would get an official diagnosis for legal reasons when it comes to such paid benefits as living skills therapy.

You also make a good point about how subjective on a good day and, among the less careful, downright arbitrary it is to come up with a diagnosis.

I was lucky in that my parents, without a diagnosis, fought to have paid speech therapy provided to me through the school system. (Even luckier in that speech therapy went hand-in-hand with my interest from a young age in foreign languages ... so not only did the therapy correct my English pronunciation, it also gave me the tools to learn to pronounce Spanish, French, Klingon, or pretty much any language with a certain amount of proficiency.)

And yeah, when it comes to job hunting, it's a cutthroat competitive world out there. A label like "Aspergers" or "Autism" would definitely tend to invite trouble even in our "politically correct" world where people are allegedly "tolerant." You'd likely get a polite "Sorry ... You're 'overqualified' for the position" or "Sorry, but the position is no longer available/has already been filled."

I'm on TennCare, which in Tennessee, here in the USA, is like welfare. So far I haven't paid anything, thankfully. Because I'm still in therapy and I would have paid out a lot of money so far.

It costs money? *feels like an idiot for not knowing this* Then again, I'm pretty sure that my mom's health care program paid for it. That must be the case, because I don't remember her every mentioning it costing anything. Then again, I may be wrong. I'll have to ask her later.

-Mist

Uh..., no. The behavior that we exhibit are the physical symptoms professionals look for; the neurological "damage" to our brains gives us a distinct way of physically interacting. It's like a template that can be applied of any human, and any human with said template will show the physical signs. This isn't physical in the sense of broken bones; this is physical in a lack of eye contact, odd voice characteristics, and the million and one other signs and symptoms we all will display.

I never filled out any forms, they watched how I physically interacted.

I was ranting and got carried away... that is very true, I completely forgot all those things were physical.

Got my diagnosis for free. Sorry, but the scandinavian health system is far superior to the american.

I tend to agree.

!st evaluation done by psychologist who works with people on the autistic spectrum: $600 (not covered)

2nd evaluation by psychiatrist who works with people on the spectrum: $500 (I think) paid by insurance

3rd Evaluation by neurologist: This was just a couple hours, and I think cost $400, not covered.

4th evaluation by neuropsychologist: $1300, not covered.

And still no AS or autism diagnosis.

Sweet FA. God bless the NHS.. though they did take their time. Took me a full year to get to the diagnosis. Oh, and the money it cost on rail and taxi fares to the place in Sheffield.

then go to page 1 of my thread, scroll down..and you'll see why it was important to me.