Possible to get Aspergers/Autism diagnosis incorrectly?

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I'm curious if it's possible for low self-esteem (aka poor eye contact) and extreme shyness to be mistaken for Aspergers/Autism?

Milestones were all reached at/ahead of schedule. Sarcasm is understood, however things are often taken and dissected literally. Social interaction is hard, but she has 2 close friends. She does have an obsession/hobby with music, drawing, and reading and she also has noise and touch sensitivities (needs tags cut out, etc). She does NOT carry on one sided-conversations but does have an above average vocabulary and has expressed her annoyance at her classmates whom she sees as extremely immature. She had trouble learning to ride a bike and tie her shoes. She wore velcro until about age 10 and just slips her shoes on and off now.

Diagnosis was made by neurologist after several tests and session (but this was all one session).

I suppose I should add, this is my sister, and I'm curious because my mother seems unconvinced (and is mostly ignoring the diagnosis although has told my sister and they've agreed she needs to try to socialize more as that is her main issue) and I keep going back and forth about my own self-diagnosis (made about a year before my sister's official diagnosis). She just turned 14, I'm 26.

I should also note, this came out of left field for my parents because she went to the neurologist for something unrelated and although the initial reason turned out to be completely fine, she gave this diagnosis after talking with my sister and having her complete a few tests.

It looks pretty accurate to me--literalness, touch sensitivity, difficulty riding a bike, tying shoes, and not fitting in with her age group are all quite common to those on this forum.

I cannot diagnose this person but I can tell you my own perspective. My hsband was diagnosed as autistic by a well-known autism agency here, but he actually can be quite social if knowing someone a little. He does sometimets talk on and on about a subject, but only if he knows the other person can handle it. He is very good with non-verbal communication. What led him to finally conclude he isnt an Aspie/autistic after all, however, is his excellent ability to handle my changing moods and personality states (I have a dissociative disorder). Note that Asperger's has two symptom domains: social skills problems (where social anxiety/low self-esteem can easily mimic AS) and repetitive behavior. I couldn't follow your entire post but I didn't see any mention of repetitive behavior/routines/etc. Now again it is pretty easy for some adults/teens to hide these issues. Final point: if she doesn't have problems funcioning in daily life, she shouldn't be diagnosed with AS/auatism in my opinion. I know some people here disagree with this, but remember AS/autism is still a disability diagnosis that isn't required for fitting in with the Aspie community, but could lead to stigma if given incorrectly.

I should have added she's pretty good with eye contact around me. Although that's to the extent I am.

Can't think of any strange repetitive behavior. But I'm not around a whole lot, I live 7hrs away. I myself definitely have OCD tendencies. She cracks her knuckles a lot and always has.

I find this interesting. My diagnosis was done by a psychiatrist and several psychologists. There was neither a neurologist nor a neuropsychologist anywhere to be found on the "team" that issued the d/x. I knew neurologists were sometimes consulted in the issuance of a diagnosis, but I never knew they actually could be the ones making the diagnosis.

As to your question, I'd guess that it is quite possible, unless science has come a lot further than I'd thought. DSM-IV-Iteration-Whatever is still based upon the "neo-Kraepelinian" model of observed behaviors and a discussion of patient history leading to a diagnosis. After a fair amount of wrangling internally as to what exactly the strengths and weaknesses of such a method are, I guess I've concluded that it is probably the best that is available at present, but that it is also a far from perfect method.

I suspect -- but have absolutely nothing in the way of proof -- that nowadays "false positives" (d/x's issued for ASD when the patient does not have the condition) outweigh "false negatives" (d/x's NOT issued for ASD when the patient does in fact have the condition) to some -- probably small -- degree simply based upon the fact that people seem much more aware of ASD than they were in the past. But even there I'd hazard that most of these "false postive" folks have something behind their diagnosis, whether or not they're actually ASD. As in, a Non-Verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD), ADD/ADHD (Combined or -- even better --Inattentive [the "flavor" of ADHD more common in girls than boys] types, ) or that [sarcasm]wonderful[/sarcasm] category of Pervasive Development Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) that school systems seem to love, as best I can figure solely to offer children reduced services. But I'll save that thought for another thread.

Whoa. Sorry for all that bloviating. Wind me up and watch me go. I guess what I'd say is that it sounds like your sister's diagnosis is correct, but it might possibly be wrong given the inherent subjectivity of the DSM regime. But that even if it is "wrong" per se, it still very likely points to SOMETHING her parents should not be treating at all cavalierly.



This also caught my eye. Not that you need to post anything about this, but I think there's some sort of correlation with the occurrence of ASD among children who are born to parents who are older, as in over 35 or 40 (I forget which, sorry). I guess your parents may not fall into either category vis a vis your sister's birth, but the arithmetic I did in my head makes me suspect they might. Just a thought. (FWIW, I was 42 when my son was born. And it was his diagnosis that led to mine, actually.)

Thank you yes my mother was 41 and father 42 at her birth.

I disagree. I think there are issues of both limited access to medical services that are capable of an "official" DX, and the willingness of some service providers (as discussed on WP) to exclude a DX based on items that are not relevant. "You use humor" seems to be the popular one for ruling out a DX at this point in time.

^^^
Well, I think in this case it's clear that the OP's sister DOES have something neurodevelopmental wrong with her , something beyond mere shyness. She has sensory issues and motor skill problems and takes things literally. Whether it's ASD or something else I'm not sure but shyness and emotional problems don't have those features.