Wrong Asperger's Self-Diagnosis

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Sounds like the doctor has never heard of AS?

It's good to go to a doctor who specializes in it or has experience in it and knows a lot about it.



Before my my AS diagnoses I had all these labels:

Behavior problems
poor social skills and innaproppiate behavior
Cluttering
ADD
Sensory integration dysfunction
Dyspraxia
OCD
Language Processing Disorder
And I found "learning disability" being written in my IEP from when I was in third grade saying I had it severely. I don't think it's severe.
Autistic characteristics
Possible ADHD
Multiple handicapped

I would feel that regardless of expertise, people can get it wrong and would get a 2nd and 3rd opinion. I would not tell the others about the dx the first person gave me at all. Psychology is not like math, there isn't always an exact answer. You can take information and try to plug it into the DSM-IV criteria but the ultimate dx is still in the hands of the examiner/psychologist/physician, so there is a certain amount of interpretation. Since no two people on the spectrum are alike, it can be difficult to dx especially certain adults who have learned and applied during the meeting some of the social skills that are expected in the particular society in which they live (i.e., proximity to another person, amount of eye contact, etc.). Psychs and doctors are not all knowing. I can almost guarantee that if you were to go to two other specialists, you would not get the same host of diagnosis as you did with this person. If you did, I would be extremely surprised.

Something similar happened to me. I've come to veiw it like this:

1. Diagnosis of mental conditions is a bit odd. Problems like that don't fit into nice little sets of diagnostic criteria in reality.
2. I think of myself as having Asperger's traits, rather than Asperger's syndrome now. I've decided that my social skills are okay, so I'm not a proper Aspie, but because Asperger's explains so many things about me, it would be silly to say I don't have traits of it.
3. Asperger's isn't curable. Many people know very little about it (some doctors included!). Aspies can be very different and have very different diffuculties. Is a diagnosis that important?
4. Psychological problems like anxiety are curable, or at least treatable. I need to recover from my anxiety and other psychological problems. They make my Aspieness worse. When I'm better, I'll still be Aspie-ish, but I won't feel like it's so awful.

I don't know if that helps you at all. I don't know how similar/different your situation is.

At first I'd be sad, but I'd go to another doctor or psychologist as the first one may not be right.

The first diagnosis I received was from a psychiatrist who said I suffer from moderate-to-severe depression. When I asked about Asperger's, he admitted he didn't know much about Asperger's. In his defense, many psychologists are taught little about Asperger's, which is why it's best to get diagnosed by a specialist.

I would have brought up Asperger's myself at the office.

I still have lingering doubts about my "assessment". This could still happen to me...I just don't have the money to pursue a "real" diagnosis. It could be that um...howyousay..the specialist who assessed me was just an enthusiastic sort who thinks everyone is an aspie.

Flakey was just saying to me today, based on a little reading he had been doing, and compared to the other Spectrumy people who hang around at our place that he thinks I am more of a PDD-NOS person than an Aspie...even though he is no expert, and certainly not a doctor.
He has said this forever...that there is definitely something "wrong" with me, but he does not think I am an Aspie....

I had to argue with him about how it runs in my family, and how women present it differently than men and blah blah blah....

I know of a lady who was young/her mom was taking her to a guy in their neighborhood (in the late 50's). It was always dirty but they called him Doc. She had a skin problem with rashes on her legs so his fix to help was to poor turpentine into a tub with water and scrape the rashes open and make her soak in the stuff. Apparently he wasn't a doctor, but he would always sing a song about "all the kids will always say, old doc (name here) went to hell"...


Second opinions are nice.

Actually, why sometimes a psychologist with PsyD and many more qualifications don't really know about AS?

I'm sure it'd bother me as I'm always right (I don't understand how someone could be wrong about such). I'd then argue with said professional and clinically diagnose myself in front of him, to point out his error and lack of expertise (again, I'm always right).

The only other that would remotely fit me is...Schizophrenia of an unusually rare age of onset (infancy), and I'd actually rather that than [my] Autism. But eh, we don't get to choose these things.