Missed opportunity of diagnosis - self doubt

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When I was about 21 years old in 1991, I was very thin and my family thought I had an eating disorder, so they took me to a GP. I explained that I was feeling down, lonely and have problems relating to people. The GP referred me to a psychiatrist for psychotherapy at the uni I was studying at, writing a referral that simply said "she needs to find herself" Unbeknown to me until fairly recently, the psychiatrist I saw for treatment is in fact now one of the leading experts on AS in the UK, and has been researching and writing about AS since the 80's. Many of the problems I talked to him about at the time were related to AS including anxiety, self-esteem issues, depression and problems relating to people and problems socialising, yet he didn't pick up on it, or if he did, he certainly didn't mention it to me. Nothing, not even depression, which i surely must have had visible symptoms of. I have now been diagnosed with AS twenty years after this. Ok, I wasn't referred to him for an assessment, but one would have thought he might of picked up on it and tried to help me??

This incident is making me have doubts about my diagnosis: perhaps the psychiatrist in 1991 didn't think I had AS but just personality problems? Or perhaps he knew I had it but didn't want to mention it to me? Or perhaps it would have been unprofessional to speculate about a possible diagnosis without a formal assessment? And if so, why didn't he arrange an assessment? Or perhaps the formal diagnosis of AS didn't exist then, so he couldn't have helped me? A lot of questions, a lot of doubts.

Any thoughts on this?

Don't doubt it:

http://aspertypical.wordpress.com/tag/autism-anorexia/

http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/a/autism/misdiag.htm

http://www.autism-help.org/behavior-eat ... issues.htm

There is gallons of stuff out there about females getting misdiagnosed with anorexia etc. when they have AS, you can probably find stuff by Tony Attwood about it too.

It's such a shame the first doctor didn't pick it up and correctly diagnose you, but in those days there was far less awareness about AS (it's still not where it should be today).

Try to look forward and get the support you need now, you can't get those undiagnosed years back and you need to concentrate on getting yourself to how and where you want to be in your life.

^ This particular psychiatrist certain did know a lot about AS as he had specialised in it, but I suppose he may not have had experience with females with AS... also my special interests weren't particularly unusual (music, languages, sci fi) and I'm much better talking to individuals and can mask my AS traits, its groups I have the greatest problems with.

Seriously don't worry. Females face a lot of problems even getting assessed, let-alone diagnosed, we do present differently, we may have less intense special interests or as you describe more gender-relevant or "normal" ones. Don't compare yourself to the stereotypical male with AS, and we are all individuals too. It's highly unlikely you were misdiagnosed. If you feel that peoples' experiences and feelings on WP resonate with yours, if you feel like you belong, you're in the right place.

On reflection I suppose his job then wasn't to diagnose me but to give me therapy - which did actually did some good and helped my depression somewhat. I now remember reading an article that said it was thought at that particular time that people on the spectrum didn't respond to therapy but it is now known that people with ASDs do respond positively to CBT, the kind I was receiving.

Perhaps there is a professional code of conduct that forbids psychiatrists from talking about possible diagnoses while giving therapy?

During the therapy I explained that I feel I'm different to other people, I have low confidence and self esteem issues and that I'm afraid of people because I don't know what they are thinking and what they think of me (ToM!! !!) and that they think I'm weird. He just worked on how I can have more self-confidence and not worry about whether people like me or not, and how to overcome the psychological issues from the past caused by my sister bullying me. no mention of further tests or assessments, neither for depression, anxiety nor AS.

Obviously I'm disappointed at missing this opportunity to be enlightened as to the cause of my problems at an age where I really could have benefited from it ( I was diagnosed just last year with AS by a neuro-psychiatrist), but i guess it's time to lay old ghosts to rest... what's done is done.