Autism, just a temporary fashion...

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I was today, the last time, by my psychiatrist who had all the time a problem with my autism diagnosis which I was diagnosed with by 3 independent experts.

She toled me that for her autism is just a temporary fashion, like there have been many temporary fashions in medicine befor and of course there are people with "real autistic tendencies", but for her it's just a fashion and most who get diagnosed with autism today are just people with Borderline PD.

And if I don't agree with her, I should go to someone who shares my opinion

Methinks doctors should stick to editorializing psychiatry amongst their colleagues, NOT their patients...

There is a big difference between those two. I hope psychiatry today isn't so bad that psychologists aren't able to distinguish them, that would be sad..

Who are they "3 independent experts"? What are their qualifications?

Aww - what a rotten experience. You sound capable, but it bothers me that other people who are unable to self-advocate will see a person like this doctor. It bothers me, that for some, she will be 'the word'. What scares me about people who have locked into an opinion as such is that they are often not open to exploring the possibility that there is something else for them to learn. It is like talking to a wall. I'm very sorry for your experience.

I wonder - why has aspergers/autism been shunted to psychiatry? I wonder why neurologists are not the 'go to' people? I've seen a neurologist - and dealt with this profession quite a bit for another family member - in my experience, they have such different tacks than psychiatrists and on related issues, a whole different approach and are often more current, not surprising, with brain science - maybe someone has had a different experience? It's just that - they are 'brain people' - this is a very concrete brain/wiring issue. I can't understand why this is not their domain. A good neurologist together with a neuropsychologist would make most sense to me. It just seems by reading your experience, from my own experience, and similar experiences from others - maybe this should not be relegated to psychiatrists? Certainly there are some in the profession who specialize or who will learn along with you - but, there seems to be a lot of repeat problems in this discipline.

Just because they have a degree doesn't mean they know what they're talking about (yeah, the dead obvious there).

Personally, I don't think ASDs have ever been much of a fad for the simple reason that the symptoms are often so pronounced [and severe]. Perhaps you may get a lot of socially awkward people thinking they might have such, especially on the 'net, but professionals do usually know what's an ASD and what's just [extreme] introversion.

Borderline, seriously? Wow...

Uh, yeah, you should find somebody who agrees with you. Which would be--let's see--most of the psychologists out there, and practically all of the ones who actually do their research.

I can see how occasionally BPD and autism can be confused for each other, because they both cause "meltdown"-like events (for completely different reasons), self-injury (for completely different reasons), and problems in social relationships (in completely different ways). But as far as differential diagnosis goes, these two are pretty easy to tell apart. Trying to tell the difference between autism and schizoid personality, or autism and social phobia, or autism and receptive/expressive speech/language disorder--that's an actual challenge. But autism and BPD are too different to mix up unless you're specifically expecting borderline personality and not even thinking about autism; and that's the mark of a psychologist who's gotten stuck in a mental rut and should go back to school before sticking a diagnosis on any more people.

Evidently, your psychiatrist doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. If there is a way to inform someone of a higher position of the misleading and potentially harmful information you received, you should do so as soon as possible.

If my shrink would say like that to me, I'd be storming out in seconds, using very foul language

Logicalmom, I've wondered that a lot too. I think the reason is that neurology is believed to be the cause of our ailment, but it's not 100% proven. Also, there's no neurological (physiological) treatment for it and neurologists do not treat patients other than at a physiological level.

To the OP - my therapist never believed me either, she's very good at denying evidence that's in front of her eyes when it's inconvenient (and therapists find it very inconvenient when your ailment is one they don't happen to have trained on).

I find it laughable that this doctor thinks most cases of ASDs in today's age are really BPD. For starters, personality disorders, by definition, aren't to be diagnosed until adulthood. ASDs begin in early childhood. BPD seems to be a predominantly female diagnosis, whereas ASDs are a predominantly male diagnosis. One of the central issues of BPD is fear of abandonment and the need for love and affection. Most with ASDs are content being alone.

My best friend has textbook BPD. She is undiagnosed (can't afford it), but I diagnosed her many moons ago. When she read the description, she said it was exactly like her. She clearly is borderline. And I clearly have Asperger's. And her experiences with BPD couldn't be more different than my experiences with AS. I totally see how bipolar disorder can be misdiagnosed as BPD (or vice versa), but ASDs and BPD are virtual opposites from one another.

You should go to someone more professional...sometimes I wonder how the hell people get their psychiatry license.