New. About my diagnosis: Ya'll are gonna love this!! !

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Well Hello Everyone!
I'm new here but been reading the message boards for a while now.
Today, I came back from my first Asperger's Assessment.
I am not yet diagnosed.
I am 29 years old.

So this is the story. Go to meet doctor at a new Aspergers clinic here where I live in Hamilton.

I go in there, hand in my screening forms they sent in the mail. Of course, he spents literally 2.5 seconds looking at them.
He goes on to ask me questions: What do i do? What was it like in high school? How did i do in school? Why am i in this city? Do i have any friends now? - That sort of stuff.

After speaking to this stranger for 45 minutes answering his question. He goes on to give his "expert opinion" on my diagnosis:
" You do not have Asperger's Syndrome".

So me, being me, I go "Why? How do you find that I don't fit the criteria?"

Ready for it?
Wait for it...
Wait for it...

His answer: "You don't display the symptoms like the character in the movie 'Rainman' "

I take a deep breath and I do my little self talking in my head... "It's ok. Calm down. Calm down".

And I go: "Well, I don't find it convincing to be compared to a something in a movie" - he cuts me off -
"you must have never seen the movie, it's an excellent portrayal of what a person with asperger's is like".

Ok....Another deep breath.....

I tell him, losing patience, "I don't think that you can make a diagnosis based on a movie. I'm sorry. That's not an acceptable explanation for why you feel I don't fit the criteria".

And then HE looses patience (lol) and changes his tone and tells me "I've been doing this for 12 years. I have travelled many places and diagnosed diagnosed hundreds of patients. I know about Asperger's and you do not have it. YOU HAVE EXCELLENT SOCIAL SKILLS."

HUUH?????

That's basically what I get as a response after explaining to someone over a 45 minute period that I've always been ackwards and apart, never was good at making friends, haven't had any in years, completely social isolated and have issues maintaining work bcuz of that, among other things...!

This idiotic expert sees that as having EXCELLENT SOCIAL SKILLS. Well then!

I try to challenge that by giving him my explanation as to why he perhaps oversees the traits. Especially that I'm female, raised in a different culture and in a place in my life now where I might be socially marginalized and perceived as someone who's lazy, does not want to work, low ambition, collecting govt assistance... bla bla bla... When I ask him if he could reconsider bcuz i felt he was wrong to ignore what i had clearly explained to him and that I have actually adapted over time and been good at mimicking other people and looking like i'm eloquent and socially comfortable, he just got irritated and then told me, out of nowhere, that I was asking him to lie about the diagnosis and he couldn't do that.

WHAT? What just happened here!?!?!

It was almost as if he thought i was just chasing after a diagnosis for some other purpose than to just clarify and identity what's always been odd/out of place about me. Kinda as if he was taking me for a fraud. I was nearly in tears honestly. It's not even the first time this happens with a medical practitioner.

So that's my story. I know I have aspergers. Clearly, it's way deeper than that and I won't put anyone through breaking it ALL down in my first post, but I know beyond any doubt, through so much research and process of eliminination, a series of misdiagnosis, that I do have Asperger's and that it runs in my family. VERY STRONGLY! lol

I remain undiagnosed.
And have a growing hatred for anyone the letters DR or PhD preceding or following their names!

So that's medicine folks!! If ya don't look like the guy in the movie, it's not Asperger's. 12 years of in the field all around the world! That's where that gets you.

Nice....

Good to meet everyone! lol Looking forward to your responses. What do you guys think. Is it just me?

Take care!

Rainman doesn't have AS, he just has autism. I see some people use that movie as their criteria and educational system about autism


I would go get a second opinion and this doctor was a quackdor. I wonder how he is even an expert on it and has diagnosed tons of patients?

No, it's not just you. I was diagnosed as ASD (Asperger's) 10 years ago but didn't think it important to get it in writing.

Current psychiatrist (didn't ask why) doesn't think I'm ASD. I tried discussing it with my therapist. He doesn't think I'm ASD because I communicate so well! I tried at length to explain. I'm in my 40's have spent years trying to pass as NT. Mostly this reason: I pay him for a service. So I'm not trying to make a friend. I see therapy as a mirror to myself, to bounce ideas off of, not someone to judge me. We're in a little room with the door shut. No distractions. No ringing phones, no need for small talk. In public, at work (am on disability now) I communicate poorly - I know because they told me so!

I've known something was wrong since I was a very young child. Mom took me to the Dr. because I was tired all the time. Because he couldn't find a reason, he said I was lazy. I know I wasn't, and remember feeling very angry at the Dr. but was raised in such a way that I couldn't express such thoughts to a "superior." Not to mention I had Selective Mutism and wouldn't have been able to say anything to him at all.

It just makes me so angry that an "expert" thinks he knows more about me than I do...

Rain Man has classic autism. There's a big difference between classic autism and Asperger's Syndrome. What a loser.

Oh, this is a job for The Therapist Slayer (aka, the Lab Pet). No worries, Amyris - you've met one of "them." Anyway, welcome to the Wrong Planet. Neuro/psych unprofessionals are not welcome. Disconcerting about their ignorance, yes?

Dedicated to your ex-psych, from the Therapist Slayer

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmtFgvHiZXA[/youtube]

Appointment next week? 'K, bring the garlic wreath, crucifix, and scented candles. It's all covered by medical insurance, sort-of. The Lab Pet no longer "does" neuro/psychs, and vice-versa.

Last edited by LabPet on 25 Jan 2011, 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I thought at first this was his idea of a little joke and he would get into more detail soon - because otherwise, he'd just be a jerk with letters after his name, right?

Unfortunately this just confirms that he is, in fact, a jerk with letters after his name...
Apparently he is telepathic though. I mean, he must have read your mind or done something to know all about your social skills from just one short meeting. Maybe he waved a few chicken bones about?
Then again no; he's just a jerk.

Sorry to hear that. That professional sounds like a hack.

One thing I've realized about medicine is that if a disorder doesn't kill you, a doctor is not likely to find out about his/her screw ups. Say that that professional you saw was missing 50% of ASC cases in the people he assessed -- how is he ever going to find out he's doing that poorly? There is no corrective feedback process, so such people will continue on feeling like they're doing an excellent job.

DSM-IV-TR-B, modified criteria:

Is it possible to file some kind of complaint? The fact that a medical professional would pull something like this and say that he can diagnose you based on how similar you are to a movie character sounds astoundingly unprofessional.

Do let me have him.

An idear: Give him this link....heh heh. Aspies are the bad boys (& girls) of the mental health field for a reason. Earning that Dx the hard way. He's a light lunch for the Therapist Slayer.

Incidentally, I Googled 'The Therapist Slayer' and lo and behold, the Lab Pet pops up I've earned the notoriety.

I propose a challenge. For any given neuro/psych (un)professional that happens to be online, bring it on. Here psychy pschy pschy.......

I have a caseworker, who I see periodically for income certification for psych services and reduced price meds, and he said he didn't think I had AS because I didn't "seem" to have any special interests. Well, how would he know? I just give him my check stubs. I told him I didn't necessarily think I had AS but I did think I was on the spectrum somewhere and told him things he never thought to ask me, to which he said "Oh". Anyway, I said I would expect anyone attempting a diagnosis to conduct an extensive interview. It was just a conversation but I thought it was funny how quickly people make an estimation based on so little information.

Rainman doesn't have autism at all...

But, dude. Off the top of my head I can think of at least one autie I'm nothing like, but... I mean, there are NTs he's nothing like, too, right?

Did he throw a box of toothpicks on the floor and ask you to count them without picking them up? After all, all of us are savants, just like in the movies.

He should have been aware, though, that Raymond, according to the script, had High Functioning Autism, not AS (though the differences are slight, there is a distinction), and Dustin Hoffman based a large part of his research on Kim Peeks who did not have autism, but suffered from the lack of a corpus callosum.

"Ready....Aim for the DSM V (Oopsy, dang it)."

Except mine instead became a sex stalker (really). Because they get to. Bring it on, psych. The Therapist Slayer is lying in wait.

wut...? Rainman didn't have Aspergers AND making a diagnosis based on a movie is really stupid. Double fail.

I'm sorry you were treated that way. It's amazing how ignorant some "professionals" can be.

I'm a terrible cynic about the "helping" professions. Your interview sounds like a joke to me, but I believe you. I'm not sure what a diagnosis of Asperger's can do for someone though? Will the government give you aid if you get diagnosed as being on the spectrum... or pills and prescriptions?

Btw... when he asked you if you wanted him to lie... well, that is about the most un-therapeutic, and rudest comment I've heard that one of these "doctors" has made.