My psychiatrist failed to detect AS. Is she INEPT?

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My psychiatrist is not the only one who failed to notice that it's possible I have AS. My psychologist failed to notice, too.

Here's how it went: I was feeling depressed, so I went to see a psychologist. The psychologist told me there was nothing he could do for me until I got my depression taken care of. So I went to see a psychiatrist, and she put me on medications. She didn't give me a chance to explain my problems or say anything that was not especifically related to my depression. Every time I tried to explain the basis for my problems she would shut me up with some witty remark or sarcastic comment.

How come the psychologist and psychiatrist I talked to failed to realize I have AS? Did they prefer to write me off as a moron instead of analyzing my problems more objectively? Why? Why did they make me go through all this suffering? Why?

How you describe it, she sounds unprofessional at the very least.

Is there anybody you could take with you next time, to help you advocate for yourself?

There are many disorders, so unless you say things that sound like AS to them they are not going to diagnose it. I mean AS is not going to be the first thing on their minds when seeing an adult patient. And also there is the possibility that maybe you don't have AS, but have something else instead.

I've been in that boat. My previous doctor was a malevolent quack who handed me drugs and showed me the door- his idea of therapy was for me to complain that I was socially isolated, and for him to say "well, it takes practice!" Somehow, I lacked the courage and presence of mind to blow him off, and I stayed TEN YEARS before he mercifully retired. He so screwed up my diagnosis that he pegged me with "schizo affective disorder"- and never told me- which resulted in me being referred to a clinic that specialized in schizophrenia. Fortunately, the schizophrenia people were responsible and committed, instantly knew that the diagnosis was wrong, and within months had me on the road to aspiedom where I rightly belong.

Of course, the last guy still reaches back to remind me of what happened: he overmedicated me to such a degree that, when they recently tried to wean me off one of his delightful happy pills, I went into withdrawal, depression and nausea for a few thoroughly un-fun days. Such is life.

First thing you do is never go into an appt. for one thing and expect them to pick up on a secondary thing you want addressed, you went in to get your depression address, not for them to see if you have Asperger's. They are only going to address that of which is your main concern, you went in with your main concern as being depressed. This is how they work. If you want to address possibly having AS, you should make that as a seperate appt, that way the professional has more time to concentrate solely on that. Secondly, maybe either of the professionals do not have enough knowledge of AS to be able to diagnose you and the professional wasn't fully sure of how to react themselves, while using sarcastic or witty remarks weren't the way that it should be done. Maybe you should try to find out if there are any professionals in AS in adults where you live. If you do find one and AS is ruled out, it is entirely possible that you don't have AS. Thirdly, it may be possible that you don't have AS and it might be something else and that maybe they just didn't see enough during the time or whatever to justify even considering whether you have AS or not.

No, your psychiatrist is trying to do a very difficult job of repairing the most complex object known to man, the human mind.

If there is something wrong with your car a mechanic will know what to look for, a TV repair shop will also know what is wrong with your VCR because they can examine the mechanism and watch what happens when you play a tape. With the mind it's different because the psychiatrist has to depend on your interpretation of your feelings and symptoms and sometimes you may not be correct.

OK, you say that you have AS but your psychiatrist and your psychologist failed to pick this up. The next time you see either of them present them with the evidence that you are relying on that has aided your diagnosis. Psychologists and psychiatrists are professional people and if they see that they have made a mistake they should be willing to change their diagnosis.

Ed Almos

In my opinion, your psychiatrist is not fit to practice. Many very competent psychiatrists would not pick up AS, but they would also not dismiss/refuse to discuss your issues out of hand. That she refuses to listen to you is evidence enough that you ought not waste your time and expose yourself to the undue risk she poses to you and your health.

go to autism spectrum specialised pyschologist if possible,pyschiatrists rely on the medical model more than any other, and are too quick to medicate everything.
these mental health pyschs. are especially useless for developmental disorders as their experience and knowledge is mostly in pyschiatric/mental illness.

I also got diagnosed with schizophrenia, even though I repeatably told the psychiatrist that I didn't hear voices. He must've thought I was delusional.

After a couple of years on antipsychotics and plenty of money spent on therapy sessions, I switched doctors and finally got the right diagnosis.

This book list is all about psychiatry and misdiagnoses http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatry-and-Mi ... T60OKDX2B3

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How does a wrong diagnoses differ from a right diagnoses as far as your state of being is concerned? Does it in anyway influence therapy that you would be getting? Other than getting pre-occupied with symptomolgies - is there any benefit of being *diagnosed* at all? How does it help other than give someone a pseudo-identity?

You can have the titles of RAD, BPD, PD, DID, SA, MPD, SAD etc added to your medical resume, but who here is getting cured of all these ailments? Anyone? Or is it *Let's match the DX to the RX* game, that'll be $150, thanks very much and I'll see you next week? And maybe that's therapeutic right there.

A very similar story happened to me. 3 years ago I was deeply depressed, to the point where I was actually mentally disfonctionnal. I would think about my problems as well as wordly issues in such a logical and righteous way that I was unable to concentrate on anything else. When I decided to take care of my problems, the first person I consulted was a psychiatrist who specialised with diagnosing schizophrenia. He concluded I was not a schizophrene, and diagnosed me with profound depression and social phobia but never spoke of AS. I then went to the mental insitute for 2 weeks to get a relief from my depression and was interviewed by 4 psychiatrists in total, none of which ever mentionned AS and they all seemed to have a different opinion about what my problem was ; the last Ive seen even told me I wasnt depressive in a most arrogant way, even thought suicidal ideas have been swirling in mind for the past 2 years. I also consulted a psychologist 1 year later, and she never spoke of AS either.

Althought I received sufficent support to cure my depression, today I am quite astounded none out of 6 mental health professionals ever mentionned AS, when it seems clear to me that I share A LOT of symptoms. Its pretty ironic to me that the patient must have an inner knowledge of psychologic notions and disorders in order to make his own diagnostic, and then merely gets his own diagnosis approved by a professional. Very few psychiatrists probably even diagnosed someone with AS (as it is rarer than schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and most personnality disorders), and I simply wonder why their diagnosis would be better than mine when we both actually base it on exclusively on the DSM-IV definition.

That's what MRIs and batteries of tests are for.



The psychologist and the psychiatrist I talked to demonstrated a level of unprofessionalism that I am simply unwilling to put up with. There won't be a next time. I'll get all the help I need from people I talk to on the internet and books available at the local library.

I doubt many psychologists or psychiatrists are trained to detect AS. Your best bet is to find one that knows how to deal with autism spectrum disorders. When you call in, ask if the therapist deals with that. That's what I did when I was looking for a therapist about social anxiety. Of course that's probably easier said then done.

That's kind of one of my fears about bringing up AS to a psychologist, that they won't believe it and shrug it off as something else.

Couple problems with that. MRIs are extremely expensive and hard to justify unless you're looking for a dangerous physical problem, like a brain tumor, aneurysm, etc. No psychiatrist is going to recommend an MRI because you say you are feeling depressed. Psychiatrists will probably only ever recommend an MRI if they suspect that there is some kind of physical problem with your brain (like if you come in and complain that your left side has gone numb). Not that an MRI can diagnosis AS anyway. And if you want them to look for AS, mention symptoms related to AS and bring it up specifically, because as someone else mentioned, most psychiatrists are not going to be trained to look for AS in adults.

Too bad there isn't any at this point in time that have any validity in diagnosing AS.



While self-diagnosis in some cases is acceptable and all, doesn't mean it's always valid either. And if it's validity you truly seek, then you'd be better off finding an expert that is knowledgeable in diagnosing AS in adults.