Way too many questions

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I've taken many tests online to determine if I could really be an Aspie. It runs in the family and so far it's making everything make so much more sense.
But I haven't gotten to see my therapist yet for an official diagnosis, and I keep questioning if I really am Aspie or not. Can one have many of the signs but not be? I read this list of female Asperger's traits and it was like reading a description of myself.
http://www.help4aspergers.com/pb/wp_a58 ... 83e339.JPG

I'm also very anxious about talking to my therapist about this. I'm not really sure what to say, especially if she dismisses it right away. When I emailed her about it, she was rather surprised and is wondering how I could have come up with such an idea... My mom keeps telling me I'm being silly and that there's nothing wrong with me (obviously not true if I've got major depression, anxiety, and OCD and some serious social issues and sensory problems). She always told me I was an odd child, now she's wondering why on earth I would think I might have Asperger's, as if I was normal as a child...
My brother, who is an Aspie, has already accepted I am. And since finding this place and another group, I'm finding people very much like me and it's like my world has been flipped upside down, which is really right side up.

How does the official diagnosis usually go? Has anyone had any problems with it? I'm way overthinking this....

I was diagnosed last year, after initially talking to my doctor about depression. I was sent to a psychologist who after 2 meetings sent me to a different person who specialized in autism.

I had 3 appointments with them, and then 1 with my mother present before they gave me a diagnosis, so all up it took about 4 hours actually in the office, spread over 7 days during which time they said they passed on my information to other mental health type people for their opinion. They made me fill out 2 questionnaires (very much like the ones online), asked a lot of questions mostly about social interactions and my childhood. It was not confronting or overly uncomfortable, just surprising because i'd went in there expecting to be told I should go back on antidepressants and instead found myself doing group meet ups with autistic people. My view of autism was very misguided and to be honest I was pretty offended when they first said it, but i've since realized that it is far more complicated than I had thought and the diagnosis has given me great perspective on my life in general.

I hope you find your experience to be equally enlightening and I can assure you that it's not nearly as bad as you might imagine it will be.

It's highly possible. Asperger's syndrome is often missed in girls.

Here is an interesting book on this topic: Aspergirls: Empowering Females With Asperger Syndrome (click)

If your therapist isn't experienced enough, you can still see a specialist.
Or maybe she just didn't thought about it.

Of course I dunno if your on the spectrume or not, but I do think that you should get checked.

It's certainly possible that you fall within the Broad Autism Phenotype where you have many traits associated with autism, but not enough to qualify for a diagnosis. It's fairly common among family members of those with autism. Not knowing you and not being a professional, I can't say for sure either way.

http://autism.about.com/od/autismterms/g/phenotype.htm


Maybe your mom is just saying that to reassure you? My mom did the same thing at first (despite the fact that I was clearly different from my peers as a child) until she realized that I wasn't upset over the prospect of possibly having Asperger's. At that point, she became more receptive to the idea.


I've been on these forums since last April, and it was a little shocking (in a good way!) at first to realize just how much of what people say here that I relate to. There are some threads where I can relate to almost everything people say.

I can't comment on the diagnosis process as I have yet to go through it.

I don't know much of how my diagnosis went, or if it was difficult or not. I was just 6 at the time of the first diagnosis, and all I know is that I was diagnosed with AS and ADHD, though apparently the shrink thought at first that I had schizofrenia, because as a child I had many schizofrenic traits, that went away as I grew up (for example, I saw people that only I could see at the corner of the street, that had no face, and though they didn't have it, I knew they were looking at me; also I constantly heard voices that called me and talked to me, I still do nowdays but a lot less), but I couldn't be schizofrenic because I didn't have enough traits. But I can remember the second diagnosis, because I was 12, the result was the same (AS and ADHD), and I can't really know if it was difficult or not because I wasn't in the shrink's head. I just know that the shrink also suspected I could have ODD or OCD, but I wasn't officially diagnosed with them, there was only a "possible ODD/OCD traits" on the diagnostic paper.

Reminds me on McDD. click



I got so many "possible", "could be" whatever over the years (moved a lot, changed shrinks a lot because of that). I don't even care anymore.
One shrink thought that I don't have ASD, but something else. She ended up after one year diagnosing me nothing officially, just "possible" and "could be" stuff.

I guess we all have traits from other disorders, at least a lot of us, but it doesn't make sence pathologising ourselfs with all that stuff. Diagnosis must be helpfull, that's why it also makes sence not to diagnose them too fast and very often "traits" also exist just in a certain episode in your life under certain conditions or whatever.

So the OP could also be "just" BAP how others already mentioned. That would also fit pretty well to the disorders she got dx with. 'Cause they are very typical comorbidities for ppl on the autistic spectrum.