Should I Seek Diagnosis?

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Same here, except if its a little frend or a girlfrend
or brother then I start to cry at the same time.

Eh, live and learn; I just have a thing with people putting diagnosed when they're not (a personal peeve), so don't mind me.

The original doctor your saw was wrong, interests can change to many different things throughout one's life, with the duration being seemingly random for them (it just needs to be a thing you focus on for an unspecified amount of time that's to an abnormal level and excluding other things for the interest's sake). Also, people with AS may or may not wish to know others, just like anyone else.

Yes, it's best to do it privately if possible. It's possible your local Primary Care Trust do not have anyone in the NHS suitable for you to be referred to in your area. Battling them and/or being placed on a lengthy waiting list would be extremely stressful.

That place in Southampton (ADRC) ninjaman mentioned looks like an excellent choice: http://www.adrc.co.uk/. Also mention it to your GP. But it's best to email a few places from the link I provided earlier to compare costs. The differences can be as much as a few hundred.

I don't really know what a normal level of interest is. If I get interested in something, I buy everything I can on it, and pursue it for 1-4 years usually. As an example, when I was interested in Harry Potter, I read all the books, then roleplayed it for up to 12 hours a day, I wrote it in fanfiction, I read the forums, I read fanfiction. I would rush home early from university to get back online and back to harry potter. I wanted to talk about it all the time, to the point my ex (who is aspergers) got fed up, my mum got fed up. That lasted almost 4 years. I analysed it, chatted the chatroom for it. And if I was pulled away from my fanfiction I would react with rage and tears... but surely this sort of obsession could also be a result of depression and a need to escape into another world?

As a child, I was more prone to obsessively collecting things I believe, than to learning.
It is very difficult as my obsessions come and go. Once one ends, I tend to not get back into it again to the same obsessive level.
And I have periods, usually when I am depressed, when I cannot seem to get that focussed on anything...where I flounder in limbo, with no focus.

The first thing that actually made me think, this sounds like me, is a reference in a Tony Atwood book to people obsessions because I have had those most of my life, the most recent one lasting 3 years, and causing a lot of problems. It is like the person becomes a subject of interest to me and I analyse them, and it was bad because if anyone talked to me, all I wanted to talk about was him, non stop. It still happens now even.

But couldn't that be a result of some other disorder?
This is why I have delayed taking action. I don't want to see a shrink for no reason. I don't like being in offices with people, and the last time I saw the shrink, I couldn't talk. I mean, I had a list in my head of why I believed I was on the spectrum but when I was in that situation, I couldn't express it.

I get to a point I think, what is the point of bothering with a diagnosis? It wont change anything at my age, it isn't like anything can be taught now I am this age.
Or I convince myself I am just depressed and lazy and that that is the cause of it all.

Yes, I may well try that place in soton, I have also emailed a professor who has a centre in london specialising... I found his name in newspaper article on how women are being let down by the system because they show the traits differently to males and emailed him. He said there is an adult centre being opened in central london soon, so that is another option as they will be better trained in identifying ASDs in females. I find organising these things very difficult and have a tendency to just let it slip by and do nothing. I would be more motivated if I had parents on my side in this.

I can say, that initially I was dxed as having PPD, but upon getting another diagnosis from another person in the field per say, found more or less I fit the profile of Aspergers..Still, there are some traits that I've often equated to atypical autism and not AS that pertain to me though, that may be due to some underlying issues regarding a traumatic brain injury from many years ago.Anyways, my advice is to seek out someone whom is well-verse in terms of not only of his/her knowledge of the Spectrum but, is known by others whom can help you better understand yourself atleast from the perspective of helping you to manage your life and actually find some serenity..


I hope this has been helpful Graelwyn???

It might sound arrogant but I am sure my knowledge on ASDs is better than a lot of the psychiatrists. They seem to have only the minimal amount of knowledge, and there is yet to be produced some sort of comparitive chart for females on the spectrum. There have been several articles recently regarding females with AS showing some of the traits differently to their male counterparts, but the professionals still go on how males with AS display the tendencies. It is very frustrating. Tony Attwood said recently that in his studies he found that more than 1 in 20 females with anorexia fit the criteria for Aspergers. But the majority of shrinks don't know this. I was anorexic myself for a decade on and off, and it was like any other of my obsessions. Listing foods, calories, weights, recipes... total, all consuming obsession with numbers.

Of course, some females with AS do display traits in the same way as males, but from past topics on this forum, many do not. I guess I shall just have to persevere. At the moment, I am gathering evidence from people who knew me when I was younger. It is funny how AS became an obsession of mine before I had considered myself as possibly having it.

Sensory disruption includes issues with processing sight and sound stimulus but it does not exclude and in fact includes issues with processing tactile stimulus. Such issues are common in Asperger Syndrome and PDDs, contrary to your assertion (including atypical reactions to tactile stimulus), and if a trait of Asperger Syndrome is a trait that clinicians construe as being explained by Asperger Syndrome in their presenting patients who are diagnosed with this condition, then such atypical responses to tactile stimuli constitute a trait of Asperger Syndrome.

That anyone would need to make such a distinction does not support your assertion that this is not a common trait in Asperger Syndrome. The DSM is far from a comprehensive and all inclusive description of the traits of Asperger Syndrome but this trait is specifically described in the entry for Asperger Syndrome in the DSM. I suggest this would not be the case if this was not a common behavioral trait amongst those with Asperger Syndrome, and one that APA at least views as being a significant trait in respect of Asperger Syndrome.

Pointing out that something is considered indicative of and explained by some other condition does not require stating it is not a common trait in Asperger Syndrome. Claiming traits that are common enough to merit DSM mention in the Asperger Syndrome entry of that publication as being not common in AS or not characteristics of AS is neither necessary for pointing out that similar or same things occur in the course of RAD, nor helpful. It’s misinformation, plain and simple.


Actually that sounds realistic. Autistic Disorders are not actually within the general expertise of psychiatrists, so unless you are dealing with a psychiatrist with particular specialist expertise, then you would not need to know a great deal to know more than most psychiatrists when it comes to Autistic Disorders. Based on your comments in this thread alone you clearly know at least as much about this subject as many psychiatrists. It’s entirely plausible that you know more than most.

seriously, if you're going to post to me, please read what i say in the correct context, you keep giving me these large chunks of text which have nothing to do with the actual point! i've read many posts from you in other threads, clearly you LOVE the game of semantics, and you consider yourself very good at it, but it's all you have to offer, and that is fine but i am not interested. if you want conflict, you're going to have to looks elsewhere.

Your assumptions about my intentions and beliefs are not particularly compelling to me as I am quite convinced that I am a better expert as to my own mind than someone who has read a couple of posts I made on an internet forum.

Your claim that the quoted text is not relevant or is mis-representative due to some issue of context is transparently absurd and obviously so to anyone who reads the comments in their original context. You claimed the characteristics were both not common in AS and not characteristics of AS. It is not a semantic matter that the DSM appears to disagree with you on this point.

It is at any rate quite clear to anyone interested enough to read our comments that you claimed these things were not common in Asperger Syndrome and not characteristic of it, and equally clear to any such people who might have been misinformed accordingly, that this is not a fact that should be taken and believed at face value. That anyone reading your earlier comments be quite clear that there is cause to doubt them (so that they can avoid being misinformed) was my intent and I am content that I have done what I can to help others avoid being misinformed as a result of your comments.

I dont know why people keep bringing up Reactive Attachment Disorder and comparing it to AS or autism. It could not be more different from Autism in my opinion. I have watched 2 documentaries on it before. The children tend to have no impairment in their 2 way social interaction and eye contact, but they have difficulties with forming relationships because they have been so abused. Comparing it to autism is ludicrous. Noone would mistake it for Aspergers because it doesnt even resemble aspergers.

Last edited by zen_mistress on 16 Nov 2009, 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

" Go ye not to the Elves for council, for they will say yea and nay."

Harry Potterism, it leaves you open to be colonized by the Elementals. They seek to control our Lego.

Most of what you say is in my book, The Witch Hunters Guide.

While the last burning in England was in 1799, I would take caution.

AS is interesting, there is nothing wrong with you, it is just everyone else.

The final question is, "What can we do about that?" Nothing, is the answer.

If you are, if you aren't, it is the same.

If I were to sum up your problem, I would say one person of brain and energy, going unused.

Exploring the human mind is great, exploring your own leads to madness. Don't worry about it, everyone is.

The only answer is doing something with your life. Sitting in a room leads to listening to the street noise, the neighbors, and what you focus on gets louder.

The unexplored life is not worth living, the constantly explored life is impossible to live.

Get out and visit used book stores, everyone there is stranger than you. Break up your patterns, change for the sake of change, till it comes natural. There is nothing worse than being yourself day after boring day.

Get out and meet strangers, tell them you have just been released from the mental hospital for that axe murder misunderstanding, go home and write up their reactions.

Remember, Psycholigists are just some wacko that barely made it through school and got a government job, they are hanging by a thread and it does not take much to cause them to unravel. They are best avoided, and as for spending money, don't, for they will follow you demanding more.

You are paying, now do you have an untreatable condition, or something that will book office hours for years?

Spend on yourself, to hell with everyone else.

Lovely post, Inventor.

My story is a bit different, yet similar. I began to consciously seek "an understanding of myself" over 30 years ago, but I was getting nowhere for years in spite of my ever-growing obsession over figuring me out. Then I met someone with AS who told me a little about it less than 10 years ago, but I was not the object of those conversations even though I had noticed her occasional glance of curiosity. Now that I "know" via self-diagnosis, I can only laugh at my past ignorance and all the people who do not even want to understand. Inventor said it quite well:



Let the expedition continue!

I always lose my words when I read your posts Inventor.
But yes, you are right, I am stagnating and my life is passing me by, that is true.
As to my brain... I don't think there is as much left of it as I once had.
But I shall see.

Ok I am going be open to the idea that you truly are oblivious to what I am actually saying.

been wondering though..



I don't know what DSM you are reading because neither of the things I mentioned are in the AS DSM at all, here take a look...

AS DSM:

A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

* marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
* failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
* lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
* lack of social or emotional reciprocity

B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

* encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity of focus
* apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
* stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
* persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).

E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.


..

no mention of approaching strangers, yet you claimed that was SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED in the DSM because it was such a common trait. where is it?? there's no mention of sensory issues of any sort, tactile or otherwise. so...um...how is the DSM proving me wrong?

and here we have the DSM for RAD:

Diagnostic Criteria for 313.89 Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood
A. Markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate social relatedness in most contexts, beginning before age 5, as evidenced by either (1) or (2):

1. Persistent failure to initiate or respond in a developmentally appropriate fashion to most social interactions, as manifested by excessively inhibited, hypervigilant, or highly ambivalent and contradictory responses (e.g.: the child may respond to caregivers with a mixture of approach, avoidance, and resistance to comforting; or may exhibit a frozen watchfulness);

2. Diffuse attachments as manifested by indiscriminate socialbility with marked inability to exhibit appropriate selective attachments (e.g.: the child may exhibit excessive familiarity with relative strangers or lack selectivity in choice of attachment figures.)

B. The disturbance in Criterion A is not accounted for solely by developmental delay (as in Mental Retardation) and does not meet criteria for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder;

C. Pathogenic care as evidenced by at least one of the following:

1. Persistent disregard of the child's basic emotional needs for comfort, stimulation, and affection;

2. Persistent disregard of the child's basic physical needs;

3. Repeated changes of primary caregiver that prevent formation of stable attachments (e.g.: frequent changes in foster care);

D. There is a presumption that the care in Criterion C is responsible for the disturbed behavior in Criterion A (e.g.: the disturbances in Criterion A began following the pathogenic care in Criterion C);

E. Inhibited vs. Disinhibited Type

1. Inhibited Type: If Criterion A1 predominates in the clinical relationship

2. Disinhibited Type: If Criterion A2 predominates in the clinical relationship.

..

I have made bold the part which specifically states the issue with approaching strangers.

Like the AS DSM, there is no mention of sensory issues, but just like AS we know that there are sensory issues, but unlike you seem to enjoy imagining, that is not what I am talking about.

I was referring to the SPECIFIC EXAMPLE of a child not reacting appropriately to physical injury (not 'sensory issues' as a whole). Something I've tried to make clear for you, but you always conveniently ignore so you can keep battling me! So with that, you have been arguing with yourself.