Have You Ever Doubted Your Professional Diagnosis

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Have you ever doubted your diagnosis ? If so why ? Do you ever come up with an alternative diagnosis yourself ?

For me it feels that I don't struggle enough , yeah I'm suicidal , can't get a job , am depressed & anxious but it still feels I have it easier than most if not all. It feels like the comorbids are my worst issue not the ASD although that's what caused the comorbids in the first place ( maybe ? )

ASD I do not doubt at all.

But I have been diagnosed with depression several times and I do not think that I was depressed. You could argue now a bit, but not then at all.

My psychiatrist diagnosed me with Aspergers but autism was ruled out when I was officially tested. The quack said I had Asperegers but it was due to Schizoid Personality Disorder instead of anything on the autism spectrum. Aspergers is a type of autism NOT a personality type. I was also told I had the SPD along with Borderline Personality Disorder. He did say I had a learning disability which is true because I've been diagnosed with dyslexia since kindergarten. He also didn't ask me or my parents any questions about how I was as a kid. He didn't ask me any questions related to social skills either. He just tested me on the ways I processed information & thought like what was missing in a picture, I made patterns with blocks, put things in categories ect. I think my dyslexia through a curve-ball in the testing & I also have a rare low vision disorder that includes some colorblindness & on top of that I have problems processing things I do see sometimes.

I've never doubted my professional diagnosis, no, but I had lots of doubts in the time between autism first being suggested and starting my assessment. I think that the way the assessment was done had some part to play in this; the psychologist had time to explain her conclusions, and even during the interviews was pointing out how I was describing things quite insightfully that I just didn't know the technical terms for; executive function, alexithymia, dyspraxia, dissociation, etc. It wasn't just that I explained my behaviour, but I was also able to explain the mental processes driving some of the behaviour, and her obvious comprehension of things that other professionals had dismissed gave me confidence in the diagnosis.

I always was a very self-reflective person, especially once I started song-writing. When I look back now at lyrics, letters to friends, notes for therapy sessions, etc. from my little archive, I'm struck by how accurately I described the traits and consequences of autism well over twenty years before autism was first suspected. Diagnosis and hanging around on forums have let me connect the pieces so that I can see the big picture, but I already had a lot of of the pieces. If the seventeen year old me had attended my assessment, I've little doubt that he'd have got the same diagnosis for pretty much the same reasons. At least as much as the autism itself, my head was messed up by so many years of everyone insisting that my self-analysis was wrong all the time.

On the Rote Memory portion of the test, the neuropsychiatrist told me to recite several ten digit numbers backward

For example, 760 456 0742

All
Of the ten digit numbers had San Diego area codes as the first three digits

That made it easier to get a higher score on that portion

A strong rote memory is a function of autism


So yes


Besides that he only saw me a couple of hours in an office

He didn't know me too well

My doctor said I had trust issues, I refused to accept his word.

Yes the psychiatrist didn't give equal consideration to all the diagnoses

There was no systematic method of diagnosis

Yup, absolutely. I'm not really doubting it right now, but it seems like I go through phases where I do. I'm thinking it's partly related to having been diagnosed as an adult at age 36; I think I would do this less if I'd known since I was a child or teenager.

When doubting it, I tend to justify my doubts with the fact that I don't have anything that I can definitively call sensory issues, and I can't think of an incident that I know for sure to be a meltdown or shutdown. In both cases, there are things that *might* be sensory issues and incidents that *might* have been mild shutdowns or meltdowns, but I can't say for sure.

In any case, that shouldn't be reason to doubt it because I know full well that not everyone with ASD does have sensory issues, shutdowns, or meltdowns.

Lately, though, I haven't been doubting it so much as trying to analyse way too much whether various difficulties in my life right now are because of ASD or not.

My doctor told me anyone with Asperger's couldn't possibly be the captain of a hockey team. I'm still sort of in doubt with how good I am at sports and the fact I do captain 2 of my teams, I'm not sure how that can be possible.

Yes. It can be difficult at times to determine whether any particular issue I am having is due to my ASC or my mood disorder. Sometimes I wonder if I am really just a person with poor social skills and cyclothymia. The times when I am most obsessed with my interests strongly correlate with the periods when I function best more generally. I do get really excited by my interests at times but is that excitement responsible for my more generally higher functioning or do I become mildly hypomanic and that is responsible for my greater excitement about by interests? Despite having kept mood diaries for long periods of time I have never really been able to work out exactly what is going on. So although I might still doubt my diagnosis at times I'll probably stick with the professional opinion of ASD and mood disorder together.

I have but over time Ive realised its just what it is. The main thing I dislike about this diagnosis is that you are deemed 'high functioning'.....I feel anything but at times. Its all very well knowing exactly how something works, how to strip it down and repair it but the reality of feeling totally unable to either ring/call in or even order the parts online and then get to actually fix it means Im here going without basic amenities. How that is high functioning Ive no idea.

I often wish I knew nothing and would gladly just ring a repair man and comfortable have him in my home, make him a cup of tea..pay and say Byeee. But no, I wont even let relatives in here so yes the diagnosis comes with a whitewash of what the real needs are, and no way to understand how to begin working on fixing the problems I have. Just a goodbye and a link to the NAS.

When I did my own research, finding literally THOUSANDS of lawsuits against the drug-companies that manufacture the drugs used by the industry of psychiatry, take into consideration all of the information that is presented in all of the CCHR documentaries, read the books and/or reviews/comments to various books (such as Mad in America by Robert Whitaker, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher by Gwen Olsen, that PubMed article titled Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect Between the Television Advertisements and the Scientific Literature, witnessing and observing first-hand the extreme ignorance of main-stream doctors/psychiatrists to the well-documented research-publications of parapsychologists whose credentials are absolutely impeccable, the history of the industry of psychiatry being rife with fraud, I have plenty of reason to «doubt» their competency.

Alternative-Diagnosis for myself ? Undiagnosible/Undiagnosable (sp?). I don't need a freaking «diagnosis».
There is simply nothing to «diagnose» since I'm simply honest, and I have much more «accurate» knowledge (basically meaning that it's often contra to «popular» belief) than these brain-washed dodo-birds in government/psychiatry, because I am essentially in a constant mode of learning/research/reading/study, and my paradigm-structure accepting concepts that are foreign/alien to the Western-society «model» of sanity/reality is not a valid reason for «diagnosis» of so-called mental-illness.

People who are heavily brain-washed and/or invested in the «status quo» tend to be fond of claiming «mental-illness» towards anybody who does not «toe the line» so-to-speak, because psychiatry is basically a RELIGION.
Cult-Institution (so-called Religion) / Government / Psychiatry
Sinners = Criminals/Terrorists = Mentally Ill
Inquisition-Chambre = Court-Room = Doctor's Office
Bible/Qu'ran/Talmud/etc = Statutes (so-called «Law» Books) = DSM
Priestly Robes = Military-Style Uniforms and Judge/Magistrate-Robes = White Lab-Coats
Confessing of Sins = Pleading Guilty = Admitting to Mental-Illness
Excommunication = Sentencing/Incarceration = Commitment to a Psych-Ward/Mental-Insitution
Claims Protection of Souls = Claims Physical-Protection = Claims Mental-Protection
Tithes = Taxes = ?
Heretics = Non-Conformists = Mentally Ill
etc/etc/etc
Regardless of how much these cultists/statists/drug-pushers might want to claim that these institutions are not so-called religions (cults), I have no reason to doubt my own flawless logic in regards to the fact that, when something looks like a duck, talks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, eats like a duck, drinks like a duck, flies like a duck, waddles like a duck, smells like a duck, tastes like a duck, feels like a duck, pisses like a duck, poops like a duck, f***s like a duck, and is even defined in their own law/legal/standard/etc «dictionaries» as being a duck, then I have every reason to call it a duck, just like I refer to all of these institutions as religions (cult-systems).

Asd isnt classed as a mental illness.

Yep, I will probably always ponder on it too

Diagnosed at 36, always been employed, have a fairly decent job, married, home owner, have a child.

This makes me wonder if it's correct.

Then I look at the routines, the eating issues, the extreme introversion, the problems talking to others, my difficulties with trying on clothes and shoes etc and I think 'yeah she was probably right'

It IS classified as a «disorder»

I do doubt my diagnosis, but I don't know if it's wishful thinking.
There are a lot of symptoms I don't have. I can read body language and facial expressions and tone of voice. I am sensitive to other people's emotions. I don't hyperfocus (for example if I'm playing a game on my phone I can still listen to what people are saying around me). I naturally make eye contact. I can suss out if other people are lying, and I can lie myself if necessary. I am good in a romantic relationship. I like being touched. I don't have a special interest, and when I did have one a few years ago I knew others got bored with me talking about it but I talked about it because of impulsive urge). I don't care for rigid routine. I can make plans at the last minute. I can verbally express my feelings to others in any situation, even when panicked or frustrated. I can relate to people. I don't do autistic stims, even when highly anxious (I might grind my teeth but that's common in NTs too). Socialising doesn't exhaust me.

There are probably more that I can't think of right now. Lacking all of these common traits makes me wonder if I was misdiagnosed. But, then again, if I didn't have Asperger's, why was I so socially isolated as a teenager, even though I desired friendships? I was so lonely that it was abnormal. I attached myself to a group but I knew they didn't want me around, but I didn't want to be seen on my own, plus I wanted to be friends with them because they were in my class.

I do have ADHD too though. I often wonder if I only have ADHD and anxiety disorder.