Misdiagnosed?

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Hey everyone! I'm Lindsay. I am new to this forum But lets just skip the introduction and cut straight to the chase: My question! I was wondering if i could of been possibly misdiagnosed with aspergers? I was "diagnosed" two years ago when i around that super awkward age of thirteen.. (oh god lol) because of my lack of communication with people outside my family and anger issues. But i honestly think i don't have aspergers, but rather a social anxiety disorder. I haven't always been so "cut off" from people. I use to have alot of friends from pre-k to third grade. After that, i kind of shut down. I became very shy around people i wasn't comfortable around. I don't exactly remember the details of it but..after that year i slowly isolated myself more and grew progressively nervous/shy/anxious with each year. Now i am sixteen years old and it's beyond difficult and scary to talk. At home and around parents and little brother i am fine, but even around my older sisters it can be hard. My voices gets weak, i can't think straight and i get super nervous and afraid of making a fool of myself, being rejected and having them criticize/judge/hate/dislike me. I get anxious over going to the freaking store to shop for clothes because i find myself conflicted with the fear that someone won't like my outfit somewhere or i won't look nice etc. I have also found it progressively getting harder to go to school because i don't want to sit alone all day and because i feel like i don't compare in appearance. I feel like i make good eye contact, i literally can't stand doing the same thing every day and can't even where the same shirt twice a week, i read expressions well and know i need to just leave people alone etc. I have a really bad temper but I use to take Ritalin as a kid and it created unbalances and left me scarred with a super aggressive bad temper which was never there prior. My parents told the DR that they had supicious of aspergers and i feel like if you look for reasons hard enough, you will find them. I think my mom might have it lol. She is just so..out of tune and i find myself having to tell her what is socially correct lol. But I don't think i have aspergers and it hurts so much whenever they tell anyone i do. I don't know. I am trying to be friendlier with the girls at gym because they aren't as intimidating as the girls at school. I have been talking a little, trying to push myself to get past my fears but its really hard.. ("Aw, you don't have to be afraid! Your flyaway at the pit gym was so good. I bet you can do it!" " Good job (insert name!)" "Its okay, your first half was so good! Don't let one skill ruin your whole practice!" "Bye insert name! " Stuff like that, little stuff ) What do you think? Thanks in advance! xx

Last edited by halfwaytolovely on 11 Nov 2012, 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sounds like you were. You don't need to tell people you "have it" if you know you don't.

It does sound like you probably have/had social anxiety instead of aspergers. Social anxiety can manifest symptoms that might appear to be aspergers-like even though they aren't. Also, aspergers needs to be present from birth (and noticed in childhood). If you know you were somewhat opposite of aspergers prior to getting anxiety, then chances are highly likely that you were misdiagnosed.

How do i get the diagnosed removed..? Should i talk to my guidance at school or?

How do i get the diagnosed removed..? Should i talk to my guidance at school or?

Get retested?

Could you see another doctor perhaps who will be able to differentiate between Aspergers and social anxiety? From what you've said it sounds more like anxiety than Aspergers, but I am no expert. I did recently read an article about overdiagnosis of AS written by a man who's MUM diagnosed him! He doesn't have it.

Regardless of whether or not the AS was misdiagnosed, you clearly seem to be suffering from severe social anxiety nd this needs to be diagnosed and treated. Ask your parents or school to have you referred.

I don't know that I would get the diagnosis removed, you don't need to access it in the meantime if you don't want to. You are still only 16, and however adult you may feel, your body - including your brain - has a lot of developmental business to complete. You may get to adulthood and go - holy, this looks like Aspergers after all - then you may have to be reassessed and it may be a much more challenging diagnosis to arrive at that point and cause you unnecessary grief . If it is so that you have AS, with advice based on a long life of adversity at least partially in respect to "what I did not know", it would have been best to have had an early diagnosis. My advice - take it or leave it - is I would leave the diagnosis alone - go about the rest of your youth not worrying about it, and see what happens when you hit an environment such as university. You may have been misdiagnosed - but none of us can tell you that. I would just advise you not be in a big hurry to ditch something that could be of great value to you later on. There may come a point that it is time to erase the diagnosis in the future if it still appears as a misdiagnosis and if it might inhibit you in some way. But - please, think through the reasons why it is so important for you to ditch it now and if there are no really good reasons to do so - leave it and wait. You an tell the counseling office you do not need any educational supports at this time and you will let them know if you do. You can let them know you would like to keep the diagnosis confidential and that you are taking a "wait and see" approach. You may not need to do anything. Just give it a think.

Best Wishes, LM

i don't have aspergers and it is causing me a lot more harm then good. it has absolutely no value to me and it is getting harder to just ignore. it is not confidential ever and it is like my family will tell everyone they can despite them knowing how i feel about it (which i think is quite clear at this point in time.)..

Talking about misdiagnosis.

I was misdiagnosed with social anxiety once. The diagnosis was done by some very unprofessional fools who totally failed to do the thing during the diagnostic process: a thorough investigation of how that person was as an infant, a child and as an adult.

If they would have talked to my mother that would have known that I was able to rock back and forth for at least an hour to calm myself down (something I do to the present day) I used to smell all kinds of objects, like the seats of chairs for instance, and reject them if they didn't smell right in my opinion. I always had trouble with verbal information, I never had a high need for social contacts even though I don't feel particularly uncomfortable around other people. The list goes on and on and I'm not exactly proud of these weird behavioral patterns.

I took me quite a while to come to terms with the fact that I was diagnosed with aspergers and to accept it but nowadays I realise that my diagnosis is very true. I find it striking that people still see aspergers as a "white male disability" and that is probably the reason why a lot of female aspies end up with the wrong diagnosis. Not to mention the fact that all of these so called professionals have lots of misconceptions when it comes to aspergers and autism in general. That is sad to say the least and it may even cost precious lives.

To be fair to the OP, a diagnosis can come up in less opportune situations, for example earlier this year for a new job I had to get a medical check and while I didn't mention it, the doctor found my diagnosis of AS in my records. I hadn't mentioned I had AS to the employers since it wouldn't affect my performance on the job and I was concerned that it might prejudice them against me. Luckily the doctor agreed with me and decided to leave it off the form, which was justified really as the medical check was more for health insurance issues than anything-else and AS would have absolutely zilch bearing on that. I can see therefore why the OP might be concerned.