Second Thoughts On Diagnosis!

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I keep saying this....

Come to Portland and sign up at my clinic for grief therapy. You'll get nailed right away if you are one. I could easily have had a DX in 4 sessions or even less if I wanted one. Now, all I'd have to do is pick which one of the PsyDs to sign the form.

Last edited by kfisherx on 22 Mar 2011, 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

They come here because we have a sh***y system that pays out tons of money that won't disadvantage them the way it does the nearly 50,000,000 people who have no medical care.

I already addressed "as far as I have been able to discern." Feeling that something is true doesn't make it true. I don't understand why you're unable to make factual arguments and appeal so much to emotion* without facts to back your arguments up, but I find it hard to let them stand without a response.

* I don't think emotion is bad at all, but arguments need substance as well as feeling.

Y'know, at first I laughed when I read the first sentence. But then I realized that that's what it might boil down to! And even though they might just do adult assessment, it's still geared toward children as far as the assessment paperwork is concerned!

This should be interesting

Last edited by Surreal on 22 Mar 2011, 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

K - tell your doc's to sign themselves up for human cloning - NOW. They need to get in on the ground floor... I honestly wish that intelligent well versed docs would sel themselves to their own community. So many clinics need to know what they know. Private practice is full of well educated professionals. How do we get their expertise down to the local, public health level where the need is the greatest?

Calling it as I see it since 1968...

I have many issues of my own - as described ad infinitum ad nauseum here on WrongPlanet. There seems to be such a wide variety of expression of the diagnostic criteria in various people as is seen in people here!

Funny thing is that with other people who know me, they can pick out one or two things that directly relate to Autism Spectrum Disorders in general, but no one has ever put all those things together. The only time that has happened is when I landed here!

Last edited by Surreal on 22 Mar 2011, 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That sounds like BS to me, I question any organization that claims to exist to 'help' people that charges a fee like that. Seems like this organization cares a little bit more about filling their pockets then helping you or anyone else, but thats just a personal opinion.

Roughly 50 million people, IIRC. Fifty million people, which an incredibly advanced country is apparently prepared to leave to rot because they can't pay for a shiny corporation to keep them well.
Not being able to buy a new TV is one thing, but not being able to buy your own life back takes it to a whole different level.
What's really saddening to me from a UK perspective is that for health, this "can't pay, don't get" approach is defended.
I'm not forced to use the public services here; I can just as easily pay for it privately if I wanted to. Or if could afford to - which I can't.

...whereas we do have the distribution system - yet it's slowly but surely being broken up and shipped off to private companies to the benefit of no-one except those private companies.
I think we're sliding down a very nasty slope.

Exactly.
Just to be clear, though - I have no issue whatever with qualified people going where the money is, but it's a horrible injustice when those who really need help become excluded just because they can't pay.


Oh well, I'm done with this detour.
We now return to your regular broadcast.

Yes, and third thoughts and fourth thoughts, etc., etc., etc. Several months after receiving my diagnosis, I'm still trying to decide whether it was the right thing to do.


I had to fill out tons of paperwork, too, for my diagnosis. About 40 pages worth in the end, I think. Yeah, it took a big commitment on my part to get through it all. And paperwork is what I do all day, every day...



You do realize that you're not going to leave TouchPoint with a diagnosis, right? Lots of people seem bothered by the "takes about an hour" aspect of the message. Why should a preliminary assessment take more than an hour? You're not going to see a doctor or anyone qualified to give you an official diagnosis, you're not going to get an "answer," there's nothing definitive about it. You could take the AQ Test in about ten minutes and quite likely come out with just as good a preliminary assessment. In fact, that may be what you do when you show up at TouchPoint. You can do that for free on your own, however.


No one's going to "decide" anything or make any kind of "judgment." Someone's going to write up some serious-sounding stuff to make it appear that TouchPoint has earned its $400. And then you'll be sent on your way.


The way this is set up means that you must get a second opinion -- or a real opinion or however you want to phrase it.


There's really no requirement that you turn the diagnostic process into some existential death spiral. You could actually look at it in a win-win kind of way: either you get a positive diagnosis which you can use to get the kind of real help you need (win) OR you find out you don't have something that no rational human being would want to have (win). Isn't it kind of ridiculous to think that you need a positive diagnosis to somehow justify the time you've spent here? The rest of your life is a long time to live with that diagnosis.


What can I say? It's a lot more challenging to make glasses than it is to guess at someone's AS status and collect $400. Something tells me that your own self-assessment (maybe combined with an AQ score?) would be a better predictor of what a doctor would ultimately conclude. I'd find a professional and pass on these folks if I were you.

I've had to deal with a fair number doctors over the years, and one thing I've noticed with doctor's/provider's reputations is that they can vary a lot depending on how similar you are to the person you're asking. I.e. if you ask a parent who is good, they'll usually tell you who has been good for their kids; if you ask another doctor or a pharmacist, they might go by professional reputation (which may or may not correlate with what is good for patients), or affiliation with a big-name institution (which also might or might not be good), and so on.

It actually seems easier to find out who is a good plumber (due to online things like "Angie's list") than who is a good doctor, unfortunately.

Oh, and like RainingRoses said -- the part about them not providing a diagnosis, but fobbing off the responsibility on your doctor? I dunno, but that sounds fishy. I'd worry that my doctor could say, "well I don't know..." and not just not do it because he/she doesn't feel like it, or say, "I'm not qualified to do that; that's what you went to specialists for" and leave me in a Catch-22.

There's a local service that does free autism screening for adults, with a referral to a psychologist for diagnosis. $400 seems a lot to just screen for the possibility of autism.

An hour for a diagnosis? Thats too long, I am waiting for the drive thru clinic.

I think kfisherx may be able to help you out there!
Wish it was as easy as Portland over here.

The medical care I get in Washington (I'm about...120 or so miles north of kfisherx, I think) is consistently surprisingly respectful to me. I always expect the worst and people are kind and helpful.

Similar in Portland, when I lived there. And I mean none of this was "private" health care but being on public health care. I've had commercial insurance for maybe four months out of my entire adult life.

Thanks, RainingRoses!

The part about not getting an actual diagnosis but something to go further with was really helpful in understanding the process.

That's just the point! There's something going on that cannot be explained by saying I'm neurotypical. Like I said, different people I know can pick one - maybe two qualities or things they know about me that relate to ASDs, but nobody has ever put it all together. I have taken the AQ Test repeatedly and consistently score 35-38. The AQ alone cannot be used to corroborate a diagnosis because the answers can be manipulated. It's the fact that other people can (and do) bear witness to various things about me that makes me fairly sure. Of course, if you mention ASDs, these people who nothing about ASDs will say that I can't possibly have that while at the same time wondering aloud why I can't just _______________ (fill in the blank). For instance, why can't I get into a steady relationship. And my answer is always the same: I don't want to; being around somebody like that makes me feel crowded and that person will eventually complain that I'm emotionally unavailable.

Rudy Simone's Help4Aspergers website was really scary because her list of traits is an the most exact description of me yet. Many of the things she's said about Relationships are things I've said VERBATIM before I even knew what ASDs were!

What I'm saying is that the only OR would be that I find out that someone who has known me for all of AN HOUR thinks I don't have something no rational human being would want to have. It's not a matter of wanting to have it; there's always been something there. Maybe it's a matter of wanting some closure and a way to frame how I approach life or even getting appropriate support.

As you said, my own assessment combined with the AQ score might be a better predictor of what a doctor would ultimately conclude. But I'm all caught up in wanting to do things "the right way" and all.

Last edited by Surreal on 22 Mar 2011, 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd love to take you up on that as I have a friend who stays a couple of hours away in Yakima Valley, Washington! I could rent a car and drive on down! LOL