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

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I have just been through testing. three one hour sessions plus a one hour review. one of the tests is the WISC (wechsler intelligence scale for children) there is an adult version.
consists of ten areas of assessment. It's not painfull. the time taken to complete the tasks appears to be a factor so reply as soon as the answer comes to you.
the thing I resented during testing was that conclusions could be
drawn about my mental health on such small samples of infomation.but it all adds up to a big picture I suspose.
One test involved hitting the space bar on a keyboard when a letter appears on the screen.(conners continuous performance test)...don't hit the space bar if you see an X. It appears forty times during the test I hit it thirtysix times..duh
my two brothers just cracked up when I told them. so you have a laugh to

Thanks for all those test descriptions and everything! Nothing I did sounds like any of those, except he did ask me to tell him how two different words were similar (I don't think he understood what I meant when I asked him if he meant to say similarities between the words themselves-like number of letters, etc., and the concepts the words represent).

The only computerized test I took was that Wisconsin Card Sorting test, and because I did well on that, he claims I can't have Asperger's. He also basically ignored the actual test results, as they didn't say I'm depressed, he just decided that (only based on silly observations and my mom's test because of the suicide thing). One test I filled out came up with that I have poor executive function or something, but that contradicts the card sorting test I guess. Another test said I was really bad for my age at a variety of different...I don't know what they were exactly, sort of interaction/everyday skills types of things? (One thing was like I was 7 years, another 13, that sort of thing).

(I've got the actual test names at home and what he said, if anyone wants to know more about these tests.)

And I didn't think the interview was thorough at all. It was maybe 15-20 minutes long (I think it was supposed to be an hour), and he never asked me anything relevant to anything. Neither he nor I ever mentioned Asperger's, and he didn't really ask me anything about any difficulties I had or anything. I'm really bad at coming up with what I'm supposed to say when put on the spot. The best I did was I did at least mention I had been diagnosed with OCD 10 years ago (I wonder if he would have come up with that otherwise?)

So this whole result packet I got is just ridiculous. It doesn't mention my real difficulties I have at all or how I could try to address them. Some minor difficulties I have like OCD it barely touches on (I wouldn't mind have my OCD treated, but it's much less of a hindrance than it used to be, and doesn't really bother me much-it's not may main problem). And then he just makes up that I'm depressed because I drink water, supposedly don't enjoy doing things, and would prefer to kill myself than live on the streets somewhere if it came to that.

He was really condescending at some points too (which my mom picked up on). When I'm trying to ask where this idea of depression is coming from he's claiming that I'm showing "oppositional defiance" for daring to ask how I can be depressed when I'm not depressed and how I can not enjoy things when I actually enjoy them. Seem like valid questions to me. I mean I'm not married to the Aspger's diagnosis, but if you're going to come up with an alternate, you need to explain why it makes more sense. Claiming I'm depressed based on symptoms I don't have doesn't cut it.

He mentioned about eye contact too for depression, that I guess I started looking at him more later on but not at first. Well I'm sorry, but I generally don't like looking at people or being looked at, particularly people I don't know or when I'm having to deal with stressful situations, or depending on my mood, etc.

I have a report here that covers twenty two pages.whenever I
read it I pickup a little more information.the main reason for evaluation was ADD and Hyperactivity Disorder.I knew this already had it all my life I just wanted proof.
seventyfive percent of aspies have ADD. thats not to say all
people with ADD are aspies.not all aspies are ADD
the report never mentions aspergers at all.It devotes one paragrath to "Multiplex Developmental Disorder"(mdd).aspergers by any other name is still aspergers.
don't worry about the testing it may only confirm what you
already feel or it may tell a different story.

There are some people who speculate on whether Asperger's autism and ADHD actually point to the same underlying neurological condition. A good book on this subject is, The ADHD Autism Connection, by Diane Kennedy. Another, though more of a textbook, is, Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry: Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and ADHD, by Lisa Blakemore-Brown.

The high overlap between Asperger's and ADHD is one thing I've thought would point towards me not having AS. As far as I know, I don't have ADHD at all, and for a lot of the criteria are the exact opposite (like instead of being easily distractable and flitting from thing to thing or whatever I focus in highly on whatever I'm doing and have a hard time switching over to something else).

Someone in a recent thread said that people with ADHD need things explained to them, need to know how things work to remember them versus just random memorization. If that's true, I do fit that, and I am horribly disorganized without the use of my PDA, but other than that I don't think I'd fit at all.

Thanks for the book recommendations, nominalist, and I'll definitely try to check those out. I've been diagnosed with both AS and AD/HD at various points in my life, and I find the connection/similarities between them confusing. I don't really think I fit the core requirements of AD/HD (nor did I fit them before I started taking meds for it, really), but a few days ago I was browsing through the book "Understanding Girls With AD/HD" and it felt like reading my life's story. I was especially confused because many of the aspects mentioned in the book are not part of the official AD/HD criteria, like social problems and sensory sensitivities, etc. Unfortunately I couldn't really afford to actually buy the book, but it did make me wonder whether AS and AD/HD are simply very similar conditions, or whether a lot of spectrum people have been misdiagnosed as AD/HD, thus making AD/HD seem closer to the spectrum. When I get back to college tomorrow I'll try to order these books through the library system so I have a better idea about these issues. I wonder a lot about both my diagnoses, so it's a difficult, somewhat ambiguous issue. I know I have something going on with me, but no one label fits perfectly. AS is a better fit than AD/HD going by the DSMIV, though.

On the subject of AS diagnosis, I didn't take any of those kinds of tests for my diagnosis (from a psychologist who specializes in AS). I filled out some forms, my parents filled out some forms (about when I was younger), one of my high school teachers filled out some forms, and I met with the psychologist a few times, as did my parents. The most important form was the "Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale", I think, which my parents filled out. I know all professionals do diagnosis differently (and frankly I sometimes wish my own diagnosis were more "solid" and less subjective), but not all professionals require a certain performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting test for an AS diagnosis. I've never taken anything of the sort.

Definitely take your mom along. Psychologists are notorious for requiring to talk to a family member before giving adult AS diagnosis. They at first didn't want to re-diagnose me with AS because my family is 2000 miles away and I had no close friends available that they could interview.

I think what made the neuropsych think I have AS was my staring down at the floor or else out the window for the entire 6 hours of my testing. Plus she asked me about if I had obsessions and then I wouldn't shut up about them plus the fact it was weird obsessions normal people would never have.

Sorry dude I responded not having read all of the posts and didn't realize that you just got your test results back.

For what its worth I did really well on the Wisconsin Card Sorting test and I have AS diagnosis. She even remarked how surprised she was that I did so well on that test when in other tests I showed the cognitive ability of a 60 year old because of the brain injuries I've had. So it goes to show the tests are highly subjective and probably worthless for diagnosing AS.

Here is Lisa Blakemore-Brown's website:

http://www.lisablakemorebrown.co.uk/

For the time being I decided to "demote" myself to "not sure if I have it or not" on here. Who knows, maybe OCD can cause Asperger's symptoms. (I seem to relate more to the experiences of people with Asperger's than OCD though, but who knows.)

I just hate that this professional made you doubt your perceptions like that.

I'm confusing myself now. I don't think OCD can cause social interaction issues, so now I'm back thinking I was right, and I do have Asperger's in addition to OCD.

I feel guilty for continuing to update this with my thoughts, but I don't have much of anyone to talk to, certainly not about this stuff (outside my mom and one other person), so ...

I'm reading through parts of this report again. The part that makes me so mad is this:

None of that is REMOTELY true. I virtually NEVER feel bored, and I get all kinds of enjoyment out of my day to day life. When I pressed him on this, he claimed as proof that I was depressed that I don't go out and do...I don't know what. Some kind of unspecified activities with unspecified people



There's other stuff like that in there. His explanation is depression. Mine is that after I had YEARS of other people making fun of me and shooting me down because I don't know how to fit in right, eventually I just gave up. Why would I keep trying, when I kept getting made fun of, don't know if someone genuinely likes me or is interested in what I'm saying, etc.? The safe thing to do is to just limit myself to "safe" conversations about specific tasks-work, or whatever.

Much of what I see in the literature is about brain centers and paths of neurotransmission. The autisms, OCD, ADHD, and others are similar in this regard.

My own psychiatrist, for instance, believes that, if you relax the criteria for OCD in the DSM-IV-TR, almost all aspies have OCD. In any event, there is a high comorbidity rate of OCD in persons with Asperger's autism.

I think it is okay to embarass yourself in front of a doctor, to get the point across. It was very hard for me to admit certain things to my new doctor, but when I thought he would laugh at me, he just said ok and wrote it down, as if it were normal. I am in the process of getting a diagnosis, and I am scheduled to go for tests in a couple of months (had to save up to cover what insurance wouldn't pay). The doc said it would be about 3-4 hours, then on the following visit I'll have to answer some questionnaires with him. Sounds like it will be exhausting, but I will be glad to get it over with. I look forward to some sort of treatment.

I kinda went looking for other "things" when my OCD wasn't explaining everything--it was only explaining a small portion of what I was experiencing.

Albeit, social impairment wasn't what led me on my "journey" (OCD doesn't cause the social impairment you'll find in ASDs; it can annoy the hell out of people when you stand there flicking a light switch on and off a certain number of times because you think something bad will happen when you go out if you don't, and you cause everyone to be late).

My search began with why I cannot actually stand in the physical presence of people; my inability to do things my "peers" do with ease, especially considering my baseline intelligence and my desire to do these things.

You know yourself, perhaps a basic consultation with a clinical psychologist? It's obviously affecting your life.

I'd state upfront that I'm quite certain I have AS, and here's why: blah, blah and blah. They're there to help you, and it's their duty to persuade you otherwise if you don't have it (rational and logical arguments that you understand).

Danielismyname,

I think a lot would depend on where one lives. Here, they tend to give one tons of written tests to complete (we still have a lot of the old Soviet mentality left, I suppose ). Apart from tests similar to those I've described, personality tests also seem to be quite common, though I was never given one as part of a psychiatric evaluation. But it could be that in some other country, it may hardly be unnecessary to do any tests at all.

I think most of these tests are meant to rule out schizophrenia, and possibly the sch-cluster of personality accentuations (or disorders) as well. "Disturbances in the generalization process", "loosened and illogical associations" or "discordance of personality" (the presence of opposite personality traits that contradict each other) are supposed to be characteristic of schizophrenia, and are also said to be observable in up to 30 percent of healthy people with schizoid personalities (what they call schizoid personalities here, anyway). Most of the tests seem to be constructed with the specific aim of helping to detect these features, along with the interview where the psychiatrist is supposed to look for evidence of formal thought disorder in the patient's reasoning and speech.

As such, it could be a useful thing, because the testing appears to make the evaluation, or at least some aspects of it, more reliable. The interview is definitely crucial and does tell a lot about the patient, but it may never show the subtler characteristics of one's cognitive processes, which can be revealed only by carrying out specialized tasks. But, of course, the testing can be boring and inconvenient, and may seem to be a waste of time for the clinician and the patient alike, which is another matter altogether. I personally had no problem with it - I even found it interesting in a sense (after all, this is psychology too).

Wolfpup,

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Unfortunately, there are plenty of incompetent psychologists, and it looks like you happened upon one. I really hope you can find someone else who will be be more knowledgeable and will treat you better, and that you will finally be able to undergo a proper evaluation.

A friend of mine who is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder has had a similar experience. Her psychiatrist simply fails to see when she starts to feel unwell, because in that psychiatrist's understanding, one is completely fine unless one hasn't washed oneself in weeks, wears stinking clothes and looks generally shabby and dirty. That many people never reach this point and still have mental illness just doesn't matter to her. There were a few instances where my friend had to purposefully start a hysterical fit during an appointment in order to be allowed to go to the hospital, or even to get a higher dose of medication, because otherwise that psychiatrist simply doesn't listen to anything she says. Other people I know have told me about similar experiences, too. It just looks that, very sadly, this could be more of a rule than an exception.

Oh, and I'm glad if you found the test descriptions helpful.