Teasing out disorders from each other.

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Currently I am told I have Schizoaffective Disorder, but I have also been diagnosed with other things. Whatever I have it is clear that it involves Bipolar, though the rapid cycling type, and some psychosis, specifically grandiosity delusions.

Anyway Asperger's seems completely up in the air right now. It's about half and half, I'm either told I'm an NT with some Aspie traits, or that I'm a very mild Aspie. The online tests puts me at the border of being diagnosable or not.

ADHD was my childhood diagnosis, now this one people have told me I resemble (my roommate who is diagnosed with ADHD himself claims he can tell I have it), but I asked my caseworker and they told me they are not sure if I have it or not. My therapist told me I was very impulsive however and wants me to work on that.

Now I have been told more than once by more than one person that it does not matter what I am diagnosed with as long as I am getting treatment. My mood problems and the psychosis are severe and they told me other disorders including Asperger's don't matter. But as a kid I had severe problems, especially severe meltdowns/rages and part of me wants to know what my childhood diagnosis was. My psych papers do read like a kid that either had ADHD or Childhood Bipolar plus possibly Asperger's or PDD-NOS since I had bad social functioning and I was (and still am) overly obsessed with certain subjects, especially birds and certain video games. I also have a high IQ and I know that can cause either autism or ADHD-like things too. They told me I could have skipped grades but my extreme emotional problems held me back.

Of course the big problem is overlapping symptoms between disorders. The more I read about the diagnostic criteria the more I am confused.

Why am I so hung up on diagnosis then? I know I have aspie traits but I don't still feel right posting on this forum very much without confirmation, two psych doctors and a couple of therapists have told me I have AS but without an official dx it is not good enough for me. I have had clear manic episodes so bipolar is a given, but what about ADHD?

Having Asperger's helps explain some of the things you do. As far as feeling like a Waspie, I don't think you should worry about it. I think it's becoming more and more obvious that the shallow end of ASD doesn't have much slope. I suspect the majority of the people here are mild or self-diagnosed.