wavefreak58 wrote:
And another thing.
I admit that I am feeling a great deal of anger. How could this have gone unnoticed? But I'm even more angry over the fact that I get no credit for getting this far.
Oh, I know.
First had the disorder mentioned to me as a possibility (by an acquaintance with spectrum family members) when I was 21, and was diagnosed the same year (twice before my 22nd birthday, by a doctor and a psychologist, and once after it, by a psychiatrist).
I was absolutely
textbook as a little kid (not that I'm too far off now) and I couldn't believe, with all I went through at school (and my teachers went through a fair amount, too) that no one had suggested this possibility. Of course, it wasn't an official diagnosis until I was eight, but
still - how did I not get diagnosed after that? I mean, my best friend in grade six got pull-out services, had no friends, and I'm pretty sure that his diagnosis either was or should have been the same as mine. Did nobody notice?
My mother took me to my brother's child psychiatrist (he had ADHD and saw a psychiatrist for medication) when I was fifteen, because my grades were "the worst they'd ever been" (basically, they were B's instead of A's) and she wanted me to get the same ADHD diagnosis as he had. That was ridiculous, of course, because it's not what I had (and, thank goodness, the doctor agreed with me; he was as confused as I was about why she would bring me to a psychiatrist for getting slightly-less-above-average grades). Still, though; shouldn't
he, of all people, have noticed? You would think!
Anyway. It's just surprising. I'm glad it's a better-known diagnosis nowadays, though there's still a long way to go.
16 Oct 2010, 3:27 pm
