Doctor claims I'm not Autistic

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So, I visited a psychiatrist the other day to see what he could do about my condition.. I told him about all my issues with extreme anxiety and not being able to connect with others and having obsessions all the time..

He asked a few questions: Are you sleeping well, are you constipated, how's your relationship with family, etc etc etc..

He then said I have ADHD and suggested I take Adderall and an antipsychotic drug and he thinks what's really to blame is my diet.. He suggested a gluten free diet and said all my anxiety and problems will go away if I follow it. He said you don't have Autism it's stress related to your diet.

What do you think?

I'd get a second opinion...I'm not sure how Adderall or an antipsychotic is going to help with your anxiety, obsessions, and sense of social isolation. I was on Adderall for a bit for ADHD and it made me feel very jittery. If you do have ADHD, Adderall may help you focus on things better though. My wife was on it and it actually helped her calm down, which is what it's supposed to do if a person has ADHD. She had to stop, though, because she started having too much muscle tension.

Are you in any therapy? It might help address your issues. Why did he prescribe an antipsychotic? Did he think you are delusional?

Stimulants increase activity in the frontal lobes. Underactivity in the frontal lobes is common in ADHD, while overactivity is common in anxiety. So increasing frontal lobe activity will usually lessen ADHD but can make anxiety worse.

Of course, some people are diagnosed with both ADHD and anxiety. There are a couple reasons for this. Firstly, anxiety can cause symptoms that are mistaken for ADHD in many cases - feeling jittery looks like hyperactivity, hypervigilance looks like distractibility and sometimes impulsivity, and chronic worry looks like inattentiveness.

Secondly, not all cases have the same mechanism. For example, although some kinds of anxiety (especially worry and rumination) are associated with overactive frontal lobes, other forms are associated with the amygdala threat detection system instead (panic attacks and phobias especially). So a person could have underactive frontal lobes and overactive amygdala, leading to both ADHD and an anxiety disorder.

Autism is also associated with frontal lobe issues, but they don't tend to respond to stimulants. It's unclear whether this is due to different pathways in the frontal lobes (the ones associated with impulse control and attentional focus vs organization and planning), or because autism may be affecting the frontal lobes indirectly through the cerebellum (which has tons of links to the frontal lobes, plays a central role in sensory processing and motor coordination, and seems important for social interaction).

The brain is really complicated.

That is a first, a psychiatrist offering dietary advice. I thought I had seen and heard it all. I had been diagnosed with ADD-PI before getting diagnosed with Asperger's but I believe Aspergers is a much better fit as I can have intense focus on my special interests, but poor focus on that which didn't interest me, something that I assume isn't possible with someone who has ADD-pi, as they would just have poor focus with everything.

You could get a blood test to determine if your allergic to gluten or not. Changing your diet might help if you are allergic but probably won't help if your not.

this should be good news, you don't have a life long disability. The conditions your doctor suggested are very treatable. If your feeling that you require more aid i suggest getting a second opinion but try the treatments and see how you feel in a few months. Congratulations