misdiagnosed?

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As I mentioned in the introduction, I don't know if I was misdiagnosed with aspergers. My biggest problem with it was that it seems I was labeled in order to protect the pride of my family. When I turned thirteen, my older brother began sexually molesting me at night, when I woke up I was terrified and couldn't even scream in terror. After about a year the police got involved and my parents were furious, instead of an investigation, me and my brother were then to psyciatrists. He was diagnosed with severe aspergers and me with mild ((as well as a lot of other mental disorders)) due to this evidence, all charges were dropped. I spent the next few years trying in vain to protect myself, there was no lock on my bedroom door, and even the bathroom one was broken. I stopped sleeping in order to watch the door, which only made everyone believe all the more in my 'disease'. At times I even believed I was a little insane, my brother, who seemed harmless and slow around adults was sadistic and manipulative around me. It wasn't until I entered high school that I learned the truth. I wasn't the only one who accused him of molestation. In fact, a total of five girls I never met pressed charges at the same time I did, they where also dismissed. Those I met lost their never to fight, and without anyone to back up my story, there was nothing I could do but try to protect myself. At 18 I was forced to make a disicion, remain there with him or move away with a man I met online. Moving meant quitting school, losing my friends, and starting over. I gladly left.

That sounds awful and I'm sorry you had to deal wtih that. You may have been misdiagnosed. If he was diagnosed with aspergers, it's no excuse for what he did to you and other girls. I don't know if you were misdiagnosed. I can't believe some people and how so many injustices can occur with this sort of wrong-doing and how it's left unpunished. It was as if they punished you too.

MMM, maybe you can go for a second opinion. Go see a specialist.

Sorry to hear your story. I was in similar situation with my older brother, my family knew about it and I was blamed for being a 'slut' (I was 8y ). I was threatened by my mum to stop me form telling anyone and getting help and like you had to develop strategies to try protect myself. I left at 16 and so had to leave school where despite irratic behaviour I was consistently top of the year. I could have tried sticking it out until 18 and escaped to uni or somewhere but I got to the point I knew I would be dead within that time - kept trying suicide and self-harming. It took me a long hard journey but now 20+ years later I have an education and career.
I thought for many years that problems I had stemmed soley from the abuse but AS fills in the gaps. Still if there is any hint of the topic of abuse in my family it is hushed up, my daughter was abused some years ago and instead of offering support I just got told by my family not to bring up anything about what had happened to me.

I'm glad you got out of there and hope you are safe now and rebuilding your life.
His manipulation etc doesn't sound very aspie, sounds like he is able to manipulate adults into believing the portrayal of himself and sounds like a budding psychopath!

i am sorry that happened to you. doctors have been telling me for 10 years that i have, "Borderline Personality Disorder" (among other things, but always that) but it never quite fit to me. i have met other "borderlines" in group therapy and i just did not fit. close, but not at all, in my opinion. Always a feeling of "shrug" or "I guess I am"

Then I found this site. And I am sure. I am absolute. I am AS. or whatever it is these people are.

So I think, it is like how people say how you know when you are in love-- if you have to ask, if you are not 100% SURE, then you should listen.

I don't know if you are AS or not, but the fact that YOU think you may be misdiagnosed, seems to me that you either are, or you may have some element of it, but are mostly something else too. ("Something else" with a lable not just something else, like, who you truly are as a person, but... that too of course.)

Wow, I'm sorry to hear your story, thats horrible. ITs also horrible that since he was diagnosed with Aspergers the charges were dropped so fast like that. He should have still been forced to get help, like psychiatric help. If you think your misdiagnosed, go see a specialist about this. If your brother is still out there, and theres other girls who are involved, you should find out who those girls are, and take him to court, leaving him out there is not going to solve anything. Especially since your life is on the line. I know if I had the guts, and had other people that I knew that got molested by the same guy who molested me when I was 7 and half, I would take him to caught even though he was a family friend, its not right leaving people who are that sick out there unsupervised. I still let so many people roam free, you would think after being raped and sexually abused so many times, that I would do something about it, but I never ever do. Anyways I hope everything goes well in the end....

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

That is just incredibly sick what happened to you

That's just horrible that your family did that to you. I would definitely look to see if you have any real symptoms of AS-I mean it's possible, but it sounds like they were just using it as a random thing. I wouldn't be surprised if your brother doesn't have it either.

What a nauseatingly disgusting experience! I think that kind of thing is more common that a lot of people would like to admit--a lot of families try to cover it up. There was abuse in my family too. My parents prevented me from doing anything about it by lying to me and threatening me. They tried to cover up the signs of it with false diagnoses. Finally, I did tell an adult and she reacted by sending me to a psychiatrist who happened to be a friend of my dad's. When I tried to tell him what was going on, he told me to be quiet and he wrote me a perscription for lithium, which is a strong drug with a lot of side effects. I ripped up the RX, which was a good thing because I'm definitely not bipolar. The diagnosis was based on the fact that I cried when talking about the stuff going on in my family! I also got away as soon as I could and stayed away even when it meant living with a man who mistreated me--it was better than what I experienced at home. I definitely wouldn't trust any diagnosis that's made for a convenient reason. In my experience, there are a lot of psychiatrists who are just ripping people off, but if you can shop around, you'll eventually find a good one.