"You seem normal to me"

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To cut a very long, frustrating, angering, upsetting story short...

I went for my first aspergers testing yesterday and it turned out (another long story) that my doctor or someone screwed it all up and I ended up seeing an ADHD specialist instead of an aspergers specialist.... but he still interviewed me while I was there and had the audacity to tell me I "seem normal" and that he wasn't even sure I have aspergers/something autism-related. This kind of annoyed me. Firstly, because he doesn't even specialise in aspergers to be able to tell me that and secondly because you can't tell if someone has something after a 45 minute chat. I know myself better than he does and just because I can sit there and I'm able to talk (most the time when I'm not crying) and I don't have every single symptom under the sun doesn't mean anything. I even gave him a list of traits I noticed in myself and now I'm anxious that when I DO see an aspergers specialist they might think the same.

All I know is I can't just be shy or just anxious... there's more to it...

What should I do preparation-wise for when I am seen by the aspergers people? Has anyone else experienced this? Tell me what happened and what you did.

Also, it seems my mum is still a bit ignorant. She kept saying that she wanted me to "overcome" things as a child. I understand that encouragement is good and, if I do have aspergers, that it's mild and I can cope with various things others with it can't, but to think she still thinks aspergers/autism is something someone can completely overcome is narrow-minded and I don't want her to battle against me during my interviews.

Take this online test:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

Print out the results and bring it to the doc. Point out the specific AS traits you have. If you can't point out anything specific, you're not going to get a diagnosis. You can't just go on "I know there's something wrong, but I can't put my finger on it."

Tests are formidable even to the best prepared, for the biggest fool can ask more then the wisest man can answer.

If I am only around a person once in a while or once a year, they will tell you what a great guy I am and what a hard worker I am and how I am always welcome there.

Start riding me like a rented mule and ask more then I can perform in a single hour, day, week - and I can get pretty ornery.
As long as things are going well - I am ok.
But when things starts to get too hard or I start doing all the work and everyone else abandons me - then I get pretty upset.
Or when someone thinks that there is nothing wrong with me physically and starts harassing me and saying that I am just lazy and I do not want to work and that I am collecting a check and I am causing their taxes to go up and stupid nonsense like that - I get very emotional.

Push me too far and I will push back!

How could any doctor diagnose this in 45 minutes?

I think I have good work ethics -
I am the first to show up in the morning and the last to go home at night.
I try to always get my work done on time or before schedule.
My work is always 100% complete before I sign off on any task.
My work area is always neat and clean.
I do not abuse the machines I operate or the equipment and I do not take bathroom breaks on company time and I do not show up late and I do not leave early.

If you cause a hazardous condition and I get hurt - who's fault is it?
So why am I here?
Because I have a hard time getting along with people and I do not like most people and I get fired almost as quickly as I get hired and I need help in coping with these stupid azzholes.

I'm not always right - but most times I am!

As a child, doctors could not see autism in me. Sure I was diagnosed when I was 2 or 3 three but that was when I was very young. When I was older, no one saw it in me. But it was evident I had something wrong with me. It showed up on tests when I get tested. Maybe they were more focused on the severe cases and AS was rarely known back then as it was new in the DSM criteria then. TBH I was tested for it once when I was ten and my doctor said I didn't have it so my parents were back to square one to figure out what I had. Then in 6th grade it was official I had it. But it took more than a few sessions for my psychiatrist to decide what label to give me. Sometimes it's takes a while to get a diagnoses and some people are hard to diagnose like I was.

That formidable and foolish test led to my diagnosis. It involved a whole lot of talking and research later on by both myself and my psychologist – it did not happen in 45 minutes; more like a year – but it was a good starting point. I would recommend it to anyone.

I agree with Jory. Take the online tests, and bring copies in to your psych doctors. Part of the problem is that spectrum disorder traits are quite varied, part of the problem is that we can each have a different assortment of them, and at differing intensities, and part of the problem is that many docs, including psych docs don't really know much about spectrum disorders. But many of the ignorant ones "know" a lot of wrong info about it, which makes it harder to get an accurate diagnosis.

You need to insist on being seen by a psych doc with experience with people with spectrum disorders.

I got a 33 on this test and a 147 on the Aspie Quiz, and I could totally show them specific traits that they would probably agree with.

But honestly, they would still tell me I'm NT and I suspect it'd be the same way for many others who only have some AS traits. Because I am NT and so are many other weird and socially anxious people.

OP I know you already feel like your problems are being minimalized but believe it or not, some "normal" people do have a lot of AS traits. Since I don't know you personally I can't say for you that you're NT, I've just known and have know a lot of NTs like myself and others who seem Aspie like.

At the end of the day, they don't fit the criteria well enough. It doesn't mean that some things about them aren't similar to Asperger's, just that they don't have it.

I am quite sure I'm on the BAP. This is really not something anyone is diagnosed with but in my case I'm just "weird" so I don't need to be diagnosed. You mentioned issues with anxiety and shyness, I know you probably d have AS traits as well but I see no reason being treated for GAD or Social Anxiety Disorder may not be beneficial to you.

The underlying cause for you may be different but you're still suffering from issues that you could be treated "as" an NT for. Aspies are also diagnosed with comorbids and medicated the same way NTs would be. If you want a diagnosis because you're looking for therapy that would help you as an Aspie, it's extremely rare to find a therapist who will really understand Asperger's, from what I gather.

And if you're having trouble now it's only going to harder after the changes to the DSM are made.