Getting reassesed and services

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I am not sure if I really have ASD. A lot of people have suggested that I get reassessed. I'm in a complicated situation.

Me and my mom are pretty sure I have Lyme's disease. I got tick bite when I was ten years old. After that tick bite things started going downhill. I haven't been diagnosed with it, but I have a lot of Lyme's related problems.

I have fatigue, sleep and stress problems. I need to be on disability because of those problems. I probably won't be able to be on disability if I lose my autism diagnosis.

I also have some psychological trauma from being labeled autistic. I just feel so subhuman because of my label and the way people have treated me. If a professional were to tell me that I'm normal, I would feel really good about myself. I would probably lose all of my services as well.

Why do you need a professional to tell you you're NT? If you don't fit the symptoms of autism, it's fairly straightforward; you don't have it. Of course, the question then becomes is it ethical to continue getting support for an ASD when you don't have one? Well, not really, but perhaps if you find out the real problem behind your inability to maintain work and self-support, you can get services for that, which are better tailored to your needs. I'm curious, if you don't display autistic symptoms, how did you get labelled with autism the first time around? Also, what if your new diagnostician is wrong and labels you NT when you do in fact have autism? Then you'd lose your services in spite of still needing them for autism related problems.

I'm still not sure if my problems are autism related or not. A lot of my "autism related" problems have alternate explanations. Whether this diagnosis is correct or not I have other stuff going on and the diagnosis has caused me a lot of pain.
I got diagnosed with autism because my family was poor and I had health and behavioral issues. I vaguely fit the criteria when I was a kid, but a lot of people weren't willing to diagnose me. My mom kept trying until she found someone who diagnosed me.

I haven't actually been using very many autism services. The only autism service I've been regularly using is counseling. I have tried social skills groups, but I found the people in the group difficult to interact with. My NT sister had the same problems as me when she visited the group. I found that they taught a lot of stuff that I already knew how to do. I just don't have the energy or confidence to have good social skills. I also seem to be better at eye contact and picking up social cues. There is no way for me to know if I'm NT good or just picking up easy stuff. I know that NTs miss and misinterpret social cues as well. I think a lot of people here forget that.

DK?

Did you get evaluated before the tick bite?

If so, why not recognize yourself as being a high functioning end of spectrum Autistic, one who may also have lyme disease?

Why not approach the lyme disease as the current problem?

I mean, it IS possible to have both diabetis AND a broken leg at the same time. View yourself as having a second problem, and get it looked at!

Lyme disease is nothing to ignore. It's been long enough.

Last edited by Sethno on 06 Feb 2014, 1:26 am, edited 2 times in total.

I was bit by a radioactive spider when I was at university, and that explains some of the crazy things I do, like hanging from the ceiling and shooting webbing out of my wrists. However, I'm still an Aspie.

I did get evaluated before my tick bite, but Lyme's isn't the only reason why I'm suspicious about my diagnosis. A lot of my chilhood issues were caused by food sensitivities and they went away when I stopped eating certain foods. I can't really accept my ASD diagnosis because it makes me feel subhuman. I'd rather not feel subhuman.

Why does being potentially autistic make you feel subhuman? Have you addressed this problem with your counsellor? Perhaps they have a means of helping that means you don't have to give up your diagnosis and subsequently your benefits to feel normal.

I don't know exactly why. It just does. It feels like a parasite that is eating up all my identity and personhood. Sorry I can't give a more concrete answer. I have talked to my counsellor, but she hasn't been able to address the real issues. No one has. Believe me I've tried.

So...

People on the spectrum are less than human?

SO not cool.

This crappy picture I drew describes how I feel about my diagnosis.

Thank you so very much. You're telling us that all of us on this forum are abnormal *subhuman* creatures who should be heavily traumatized and feel really bad about ourselves for being autistic. You wanna rethink/rephrase that - or see how non-autistics will treat you on non-autistic fora if you make statements like that?



They always do. The autism diagnosis is based on the totality and concentration of symptoms in a person. Looked at individually, every symptom can be explained differently and have alternative causes. That's why diagnoses should be made by someone who's an expert in autism. If you were diagnosed as a child many of the alternative causes don't apply however as they have a later onset (i.e. they only manifest in teenagers or young adults rather than in toddlers or small children), while on the other hand autism symptoms often grow less severe (or change) as we get older, particularly on the (comparatively) high functioning end of the spectrum, because we learn how to deal with them and how to compensate for our weaknesses.



Same here.



La-di-dah, your food sensitivities stopped when you stopped eating the foods you were sensitive to. No, they didn't. Eat that kind of food again, and you'll likely react just as sensitive to it. Do you feel subhuman because you have food sensitivities? They're quite common in autistics.

The fact you have such strong doubts about your diagnosis will need to be addressed eventually. This is a pretty important matter, and if you are high on the spectrum you might have been difficult to diagnose as a child. I can understand doubting a diagnosis I received as a child in your circumstances. It's possible you are NT or maybe bipolar or borderline are a better fit for your symptoms. The higher-end $$$$ developmental disabilities assessment should be able to tell you if you have a mood disorder or whether you're autistic or NT, I would think, very if you have "milder" symptoms. Having a different label could be tough on you as well - but at least it would be a true fit.