I am leaving right now to see psychiatrist for diagnosis

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Well, wish me luck, I will return and report.

Good luck, U-man!

I just wrote about my long journey for diagnosis in another discussion, which leads me to say,

May your journey be direct, relatively painless, and may the diagnosis fit like a glove, or at least a mitten.

At the end of the interview she said, and I quote, "well your are a slam dunk for Asperger's." I go back in two weeks for the whole testing rigmarole.

Three days here. I am epically nervous! Glad to hear things went smoothly for you; I hope things go equally smoothly for me.

We should start a "Self Diagnosis Slam Dunk" thread for all the people who had their self diagnosis confirmed like this. I was told that I was "a text book" example of someone with AS.

Haha...something similar happened to me. One of the two people who interviewed me said, during the interview, that she'd like to be my therapist because she's an autism specialist. At our first meeting, she said, "We're going with the assumption you have Asperger's." I haven't taken any of their tests yet...scheduled to do so in October.

Its pretty messed up that so many folks here cannot get diagnosed because of their lack of health insurance, I'd be willing to wager that a lot of aspies don't have health insurance because of their inability to keep a job with benefits. Its a total catch 22, you cant get a diagnosis of the condition and get the help you need because of the condition. I was really excited when I got home about how my meeting with the psychiatrist went, I tried to tell her my entire life's story but there was way too much to talk about but she was definitely impressed with how rough my life has been. My wife on the other does not understand my excitement, I made her cry in fact because for her there is no end in sight, I'm broken and we will never have a normal relationship which actually is pretty sad, I just hope that I can learn how to fulfill her needs better. I know saying "broken" is a hot button word here but how else can I put it, I actually am broken, my life's experiences attest to that fact, having a stable relationship as an aspie is no small thing, like Apollo 13 I am a successful failure, and I'm actually quite proud of myself for having accomplished as much as I have.

One would think that being married is an example of a normal relationship. Could've fooled me. Sounds one of the two parties is half way out the door.

That's a huge oversimplification man, there is no such thing as a "normal" relationship, Asperger's under the best of circumstances makes having a relationship a challenge. I consider my self very lucky to be married to a woman who is open and honest with me, it's the reason we have been together for twenty years, I take no offense to what she said, I know that she loves me just the way I am. She is just having a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that there is a medical explanation for my behavior because it means that my behavior is not a matter of choice, it is simply the way I am, our trip has just taken a detour to Holland, that's all.

I had the same thing happen to me. The psychologist looked at me in the intake interview and went: "I would be VERY surprised if you aren't on the spectrum."

I knew about a year before.

And then you can't get health insurance because of the diagnosis.

Yep, a thread about slam dunk self-Dx confirmations would be great!

And I have good health insurance since I am backed by one of the oldest strongest unions in the country. But even still, I am going to call them first to see how much is covered in ASD evaluations. I assume since there are no medical procedures, they would just charge office visit copays for as many individual appointments were needed.

Another slam-dunk here! My appointment went really well! At the end he told me that in his mind there is not really any doubt that I have Asperger's! He stated it wasn't a formal diagnosis but that he would be suprised if I didn't have it and he was wrong. He still wants to test me to be 100% certain and to identify my exact issues but still, this is the best result I could have possibly hoped for! Awesome

edit: This was a consultant psychiatrist with extensive experience of autism too so I think his opinion carries some significant weight!