Hey people. I believe that I have been misdiagnosed with Asperger's. I realise that people on the internet aren't capable of giving me any sort of appraisal about my diagnosis, but if anybody is capable of answering my general queries, then that would be a massive help.
I'll start by explaining the circumstances of my diagnosis. At the time I was around ten years of age. I don't remember anything very clearly except seeing a psychiatrist.
Now, I didn't socialise properly in primary school, at least as far as I can remember, but I believe my behaviour may have been influenced by a number of things. Both of my parents had mental issues and they both went to stay at the hospital a few years prior to my diagnosis, as a result of those issues. Me and my siblings were placed with foster parents who were abusive and I wonder if this could have influenced my behaviour at the time of my diagnosis. I have relatively vivid memories of my appointments with the psychiatrist; I recall avoiding his attention by playing with the toys in his room. Outside of those sessions I'd often play around with these toy spaceships, although this stopped around the time I started at secondary school.
During my years at the secondary school, which was a mainstream school with an Asperger's unit, I had constant support in lessons and was encouraged to go to the unit during break periods. I didn't really relate to the other kids with Asperger's - I thought their interests were often either childish or just overly focused on trivial details - and I was far too shy to speak to any of the other kids, although I obsessed over the idea of doing so. I became isolated from everybody. Any help I received during education was purely about academic achievement. I did manage to get good grades but I later fell out of sixth-form due to depression and did nothing for a few years, having been completely dropped with no idea how the real world works and with very little social skills whatsoever.
What I'm trying to get across is that I think the diagnosis was actually detrimental to me. In fact, I left school far more reserved than I was when I began. I have a lot of emotional difficulties around people, in addition to anxiety. However, I've spoken to people recently who think that I can handle myself relatively well, socially, considering my circumstances. One of them was a psychiatric nurse who was probably the most helpful person I've spoken to so far; she gave me a full psychiatric assessment at the hospital, said my diagnosis was probably incorrect and told me that the psychiatric doctor I was due to see would assist me in figuring out my diagnosis.
Unfortunately I believe that the doctor who visited me was not quite competent. When I brought up my diagnosis he told me that it would have been properly considered at the time, which seems like an awfully stupid thing for a trained psychiatrist to believe given the number of factors that could influence a diagnosis. He told me that my parents would have been involved, but they both had mental health issues and surely would have considered the benefits of it to them (most obviously that they claimed DLA through it). Besides that, I know from experience that explaining things to a bad psychiatrist can feel like a prolonged version of Chinese whispers, with the psychiatrist asking leading questions and seeming predisposed to whatever conclusion they have already made; what you try to say can come back as something completely different. That was basically my experience with the doctor I saw.
I guess I'd better sum up the main question that I am asking:
- Has anybody got any general information on Asperger's misdiagnosis? I'm especially interested in hearing about how often this happens or any first-hand reports of it.
But I'd also appreciate any other discussion relating to this. Either way, thanks for reading.
27 Nov 2012, 8:41 pm
