Going in for a diagnosis next month-what do I do to prepare?

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I surprised no one has suggested this yet ...

Knock back several pints all quick in a row, or a coupla shots of single malt scotch.
Pop some mind altering pills, valium will do in a pinch.
Smoke a little of that devil's dandelion.
Then stagger in, mumble a lot, stare off into space, mention Star Trek a LOT, keep twitching, and before you know it, you got a DX ! !!

Err...well, I think I'll just go in as I am

I did discover that I've already made a handful of notes about all this from stuff I've written on this form, so I'm just going to throw this stuff on my Palm and bring it with me. Might help. That's about all I can think of to get prepared.

Try not to worry to much about this, they will tell you what they need, just be honest and straitforward with them. They will not try and humiliate you, their job is to help and they've prabably done this many times before. They will use the DSM or ICD critera, review your developemental and medical histories, need to eliminate other possible disorders, possibly test IQ (particularly compairing verbal and preformence IQ), maybe order an EEG, they have standard tests they can use and various resources. Its a long prosess and you can't prepare for it. The good thing is there's no way for you to mess up.

Thanks! I've got some random stuff I've written about on this forum saved to my Palm, so if worse comes to worse maybe that'll help too.

And crud, I hope I don't have to take another IQ test. Especially since my IQ has probably fallen massively. I'll be completely embarrassed.

This psychologist told my mom that they shouldn't have been giving me an adult IQ test when I took it last (15).

AAAARGH!! !!

I just got back from the psychologist. Was there from roughly 8:15-2:30.

I'm worried that it was a colossal waste of time. He didn't ask me ANY QUESTIONS related to Asperger's! Nothing. The only things that might be related I mentioned by accident (like the smell of the students in a class being one reason I couldn't finish it).

I couldn't get to sleep last night because I was nervous about this, so I think that made me weirder than normal too. I didn't know how to mention anything, bring it up.

The word ASPERGER'S was never even MENTIONED. He asked me nothing, or almost nothing about anything to do with social stuff, and nothing about any symptoms, or anything!

He had me do these things that I guess was an IQ test. First asked me to define words, which I did really horribly at. Had me try to say what was similar about too words, which I did pretty badly at too I think. He'd ask me "anything else you can say about it"? Did these block things which I guess I did okay on (at least I finished them), although I would have done better if I wasn't asleep. My brain wasn't fully clicking, and I sat on one of them probably a minute after I actually had it, because it sort of looked different to me.

Then I told him there was probably stuff I was supposed to be saying to him, but I didn't know what. He asked me what and I just said I didn't know (couldn't think of anything, my mind went blank during all this). Then away from him I took a bunch of tests, only I think they were all just standard psych things.

The first was computerized, had me matching "cards" to these four symbols (the pattern was pretty easy to figure out, although I clicked too fast on one and got it wrong-and you had to get one wrong every time the rules changed...except maybe not, maybe you could somehow work out that the rules were going to change, but I didn't...)

Next I did a ton of scantron-type tests. There were a lot of questions (well, 30 out of almost 600) that I wasn't able to answer on one of them. They had to bring him in after lunch, and he didn't seem to understand why I couldn't answer them, just said stuff like "go with your gut instinct" and things. Well, I don't HAVE a gut instinct if I don't understand the question or can't relate it to my life.

Like a bunch I had trouble with were "how are you X compared to your friends". Well I don't HAVE any friends, so how do I answer? I can't answer that question. One was "Do you like dramatics?"

Huh? What the heck is a "dramatic"? How do I know if I like them if I don't know what they are? Apparently only I have problems with this.

He acted like he'd never had someone have trouble answering these things before! After he came in, and said this stuff, and seemed rushed, I ended up calling my mom from in the room, to ask her to explain the questions to me. I sort of worked out answers based on what we could translate the question to. Like the "friends" questions she told me to think of it in terms of how it would relate to her or to my ex-fiancee. For "dramatics" she first asked "do they mean like a play, or...?" She decided it meant like people being emotional and dramatic about things, so I put "no".

Some of the tests I blazed through, as most of this stuff was random questions like:

"Do you like those drugs? Oh yeah, they're great huh?"

Me: No.

"Do you want to kill yourself? Come on, I know you do! What about tommorow? Sounds good, doesn't it!"

Me: No.

"Psst. That guy behind you right now? The one who's staring at you, and no one else can see him? Yeah, is he talking to you right now?"

Me: No.

"Soooo....wanna light some stuff on fire tonight? Come on, that would be so cool!"

Me: No.

"Wow, you're sooo depressed. You sure you don't want to kill yourself?"

Me: No.

Okay, obviously I'm being silly with the exact phrasing, but it was all stuff like that. One test had 6 choices (never, almost never...) and I answered 95% of them "never", and the rest, "rarely".

I also screwed up when I was in with him by when he said something I mentioned that I had experienced psychic phenomenon before, rarely. Shouldn't have said that. (Everyone involved believes it too-this isn't some psychosis!)

My mom said he gravitated with her towards why we're living together. She said she should have just phrased it that she's living with me She's worried he's just obsessed with that, and just wants to change that.

As near as I can tell, we did nothing, or almost nothing related to Asperger's! If I had been able to speak up, explain about it, maybe it would have gone differently, but I'm terrible at knowing how to say stuff, and just want them to ask me questions I can answer. I shouldn't have to know how to do the interview! Where were the tests similar to the Aspie quiz and RDOS' thing? Why didn't he ask me questions related to it?

I find out the "results", whatever those might be, in three weeks supposedly. I go back in. I'm very, VERY worried that this was a colossal waste of time. My insurance pays most, which is cool, but not if it didn't do any good and I'm going to have to try again with someone else in some big city somewhere.

What do you guys think? What did I do wrong? What do I do now? I hope this thread is of some use to someone in the future. I'm sure frustrated!

I just realized that richardbenson said they have you do physical coordiantion tests and things like that. NOTHING like that either. Just seemed like completely pointless generic psych stuff. I've gotten more useful info off tests on the net-seriously.

Wow...

This is exactly why I dislike psychologists.

After being misdiagnosed so many times (ADD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, etc) I started getting frustrated. Someone had to point out to me that doctors have to work with the information they're given, and that they are not omnipotent and psychic so It's your job to make sure they have all the information. So what I did (twice, because after being diagnosed I went to a specialist for a second opinion) was compile a list of different things I've noticed and dealt with. That helped me sort of streamline the discussion, and that way I didn't start to feel so overwhelmed and lost that I failed to mention certain things. It also helped because it was far more articulate, and I have a nasty habit of saying the wrong thing even though it contradicts what I was actually thinking. For example, blurting out "I... hate... people!" when what I actually meant was, "I hate being around crowds and people I don't know. I want to interact with them, but I don't know how, and I end up doing or saying something that makes me seem foolish, and I end up feeling like I have information overload and can't process everything." That tends to make a huge difference. So I would suggest you do the same thing. Even if it seems like tiny seemingly irrelevant things, because it all creates a bigger picture.

But the best thing to do, as others have said, is to just be yourself. Don't worry about making the wrong impression or feeling strange.

not all do physical coordination tests,there is variety in how different specialists diagnose.


was this pysch. from mental health,or was he especially trained in ASD?

He could have been observing you, in fact, I'm sure he was. (You cannot really mask your AS "symptoms" no matter what you're discussing.)

My psychic said I'm AS and he never even brought it up.

What I always do in such cases is to take careful notes in advance. I remind myself of what I want to say.

OMG, get a brain scan. It is biological to an extent. Yes, some do better than others to “learn”, but an NT picks up social cues subconsciously. If you have to work at it, um, AS? I don’t like those questions. Drugs, suicide. Sounds like a hack, not an AS expert. What else happened?

Wolfpup,

The coordination stuff is overblown. Apparently, most coordination stuff is far from obvious. I don't seem uncoordinated. At first glance, I might appear to be quite coordinated. I'm not though. Granted, I am not diagnosed, but apparently many that are aren't that different from me in that regard. Anyway, I doubt that would generally play that big a part in the diagnosis.

You have GREAT reasons for not answering some questions, and they DO sound like AS. If you seemed normal, and reasonable, and not antisocial(He is OBVIOUSLY trying to exclude all that by the list of questions you listed), I would think he would figure you are somewhere on the spectrum.

And EVERYONE has had bad days, and people with AS might be especially bad in such a case.

BTW I doubt he would just up and volunteer. He wants you to think he's impartial, and professional, and might ask you to come back. Besides that, he might make more money.

Addendum: if you base whether or not you have Asperger's on an online test (especially those that are general and measure personality more than a disorder), you'll be sorely disappointed. The people at Attwood's asked me nothing concerning AS, they just spoke of the troubles I face after they observed me for awhile; they're going to observe you and your mannerisms as you converse about stuff, i.e., do you make eye contact, do you do motor mannerisms, how your speech is, how is your facial expression and whatnot. They don't want to know what you think you have, they want to see what you have.

Those other and unrelated [to AS] questions are there for other reasons.

A good doctor wouldn't have mentioned it while evaluating you for it as doing so would not only potentially bias your actions, but his own ability to evaluate the situation objectively.

*That's not to say that all doctors in all situations wouldn't (my diagnoser approached the issue by asking me if I wanted to take the diagnostic tools for aspergers), but with such an intense exam it would be unprofessional to.




Aspies are somewhat known for using the more "proper" defintions rather than the more "popular" ones. A bad example would be an aspie saying they had a very gay day when describing a day that was very fun




I know there is something about aspies recognizing patterns but I've never paid much attention to that kind of criteris so i don't remember if its that we're typically better at it or worse at it



I'm guessing he was testing you to see if you had average or above average intelligence as having that while having poor social skills would point you towards being an aspie, but having lower intelligence and poor social skills would point you more in the direction of being an autie.



That could be an aspie trait. Its sort of like desiring to be perfect




I'd just compare myself to typical peers, coworkers, etc Friends would be the ones you dislike spending time with the least



I'd take that to be asking something like, "Do you enjoy throwing a temper tantrum when you find out your favorite show is a rerun instead of the new episode you thought was going to be shown?"



You should not have been allowed to do that. It will probably influence your results which could potentially lead to a wrong diagnosis. In fact the doctor not explaining the answers to you may have been done intentionally to keep another persons opinion from influencing your answer




Questions like that are to determine if you have a more severe diagnosis than aspergers




I was given a test like that when I was diagnosed with asperger's. I had previously taken the test online so I knew what my results would be, but seeing all of my answers on paper, I thought, "there's no way I have asperger's if these are my answers." Most of my checks were in the same column and few were in the frequently one




Ahh, I know that. Its the only thing I've only countered my pediatric neurologist on. he claimed my "de ja vu" was just a feeling from a minor seizure. But I proved that wrong several times since then by writing down the dreams I believed would come true.
And once I had a dream that something bad would happen to my little sister and her friend involving a red car. I brushed off the dream as just being nonsense, but when I next speke to her about a month later I told her of the dream and she said, "It happened." Just a few days before some guy in a red convertible had pulled up beside her as she walked down the street with a friend. When they were giving him the directions he asked for they noticed he wasn't wearing any pants. She was about 13 years old at the time. I also dreamed of when her cat died. I woke up with an intense stomach ache and seeing his face in high weeds - he didn't come home that day, and neighbors later said they found him in a field with a large hole in his stomach. Actually come to think of it I'd say 90% of the dreams I've had come true have some connection to my little sister. Which is weird is we we were never that close and even when I lived next door I didn't see her on a regular basis.




TO give him the benefit of the doubt, he could have just been interested in identifying areas of weakness in your life that are preventing you from being able to live independently

It was the same for me as well. I had my list (which, now that I think about it, was just venting), and we just talked about some of the grievances I brought up, and then they asked me what I'm interested in and about my hobbies. Things of that nature. Then I was asked questions like- how would I respond to this, what would I say if someone said that, how do I feel about etc. While they took notes.