nothing to explain my strangeness now

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I talked to the psychiatrist about AS, and all he said was I looked him in the eye, talked well, etc... and despite some symptoms like obsessivness, meltdowns, etc... he didn't think I had it. He just said I was bipolar.

I feel disappointed in a way, because I thought AS could explain why I was so strange all my life, and bipolar doesn't seem to explain it...

To the undiagnosed, if you found out you didn't have it, would you be disappointed there was no explanation for some of your strangeness, or relieved you were an NT after all?

I am sorry that things did not turn out as you'd hoped they would. Umm...I understand that. I mean I will not lie and say that I completely understand your situation because I don't. But I will say that I know disapointment. I don't really know what else to say... I hope that you feel better soon.

He sounds about as useful as the one I saw- ie, not useful at all.

I talk well, a lot of the time (some say too much!) & I generally look at people when I'm talking to them! I still got diagnosed with AS. How much have you read about it & do you think enough of it fits you? To me, saying AS explains my problems is a bit circular, since it was diagnosed because those were the difficulties I have & that people with AS have. How that 'explains' them, I don't know but I'm probably looking too deep!

I'm not saying that you do or don't have it, but if I were you, I absolutely wouldn't consider it a conclusive "no" coming from anybody that doesn't have experience working with ASDs in adult women. When I mentioned it to my psychiatrist, she told me that she's a general psychiatrist, not a developmental psychiatrist, and it's not something she has any experience in. A lot of unqualified doctor won't be that forthcoming about the fact that they don't know about it, so they'll tell you what they think based on the AS stereotype.. If they don't know about it, it doesn't mean any more coming from them than it does from anybody else you might meet on the street who didn't know about autism. Maybe he's right, I don't know, but if he's not qualified to diagnose it, I wouldn't really consider him qualified to rule it out.. How much research have you done? Do you meet the criteria? Do the descriptions of what AS looks like in a female sound describe you?

There was one thread I started awhile ago about eye contact that's not-- I realized that if I'm looking at somebody's eyes, chances are I'm not paying all that much attention to what they're saying; I'm just thinking about their eyes. Whenever Kris looks deep into my eyes, he promptly announces a color. (my eyes kinda change color..)

If you want to know whether you have it, I'd suggest doing lots and lots of research, rather than asking a professional who doesn't even deal with it.

ehh, I know if I do have it, I'm pretty mild. Some people in public question me about it.

I've met other Aspies who have no problem with eye contact and some others that made eye contact for longer that NT's. It's a sterotype, this indicates that the professional that you went to doesn't know enough to say either which way. I make eye contact sometimes. AS is much more complex than 'the patient won't look in my eyes' and so judge the guy accordingly (I'd say).

As Maggiedoll said, a lot of professionals won't say they don't know about things and pretend that they do. I'd think that some professionals actually may think that they have an idea about it but only know the sterotype. So don't be disheartened, you still don't have an official thing yet saying no or yes about it.

I know that when I was being diagnosed there was lots of questions about my early development, education, also little tests and an interview, it took almost a full day (well it felt like it anyways).

I saw this thread and I made a picture. (Because I've been thinking about this for a little while now.) http://wigglyspider.deviantart.com/art/ ... -143745633 Thought you might like to see.

to the OP...

if you can, pursue a second opinion. if you are still told no and you are not on the spectrum, start trying to be ok with that! you're still you after all..

if you relate better to people who are on the spectrum, make them your community, there's nothing stopping you from relating to people on the spectrum.

consider the positives if you can, even if your DX is not an ASD, you still have an official dx and can start taking appropriate steps to make yourself feel better (if needed).

I trust psychologists more than the psychiatry part of it. They are more qualifed to diagnose, IMO, because they have knowledge of disorders.