Update: good news for anyone in the Highlands of Scotland. There is now a psychologist up here trained in diagnosing aspergers. This is quite a recent change, apparently.
Today I saw one of the mental health team, the same man I saw a year ago. Back then he refused to give a definite yes or no about whether I have Aspergers. Apparently there was nobody in the north of Scotland qualified to make that judgement, and he did not volunteer to send me further south. I probably tried too hard to sound normal. But in the last few months the situation has changed and somebody has been trained. The man I saw, a generalist, said that in his opinion I probably do have Aspergers, but he is not qualified to give a definite opinion, and he did not hesitate to refer me on.
The waiting list is about five months, which judging by others' experience here is not bad. Let's hope she's good, as a second opinion will not be easy to obtain.
He said he was confident that I do not have clinical depression, as he agrees with me that, while I have been depressed for most of the last thirty years, this is a symptom of other frustrations rather than a problem in itself. He said if it isn't Aspergers it might be a form of schizophrenia, but probably not. he also said that he does from time to time get people for consultations who think they have Aspergers because it's fashionable and they don't have the symptoms, and he said I am definitely not one of those, particularly based on what I told him about my childhood (interested in toys for their function but never played with them or showed them to friends.)
All in all a very satisfactory visit.
02 Sep 2011, 9:55 am
