Those with Asperger's-was it hard to get diagnosed?

[BuelahWitch]

I took "the test" (posted by Hypnotoad, I think) and was given a higher number for having AS than being Neurotypical. I would like to pursue this with a therapist, but I have two strikes against me: one, I'm in my mid-40s; two I have no current health insurance (although there is a possibility that I could go to a mental health center in town that supposedly helps those without insurance).
I got some books to read over the break, one is The Asperger Syndrome Employment workbook, the other is about cultivating talents in those with Asperberger's so that they have a better time finding employment. Both of these might be too late for me, but I thought I'd give them a try anyway.

Any info you can provide about possibly getting diagnosed would help...

[TrogL]

1. What is a formal diagnosis going to get you?

[BuelahWitch]

2. I'm thinking access to some counselors

Who knoow how to work with Aspie people.

Why would they help someone who wasn't diagnosed?

[Deja Q]

5. I'd say "knowledge".

having been diagnosed by somebody competent; ever since then I have attended therapy sessions AND learning how to adapt the best I can.

It's not easy, but without knowledge you're as useful as a paddleless raft in the middle of the ocean with no GPS or food with a big-ass tidal wave approaching. (can I make it sound any more depressing?)

[BuelahWitch]

6. Yes, exactly

[MN ChimpH8R]

3. I was seeing a counselor for depression

and a near brush with suicide, though not an actual attempt. She just sort of put it together over a few months.

A friend had told me that I should read Dale Carnegie or some such to learn how to get along with people, and I was telling my counselor that these things don't make any sense to me - it isn't that I am hostile to other people, I just don't give a hoot about them unless I have some specific reason to and that I live inside my own head. The slam dunk were my results on a job application with a financial services company - I scored in the top 2% on the "academic" test and in the bottom 3% on the "social" part. The VP for hiring called me in to see him because he'd never seen a score disparity like that in 20 years in that position. When I told my counselor about that, she said "I'll bet you're Asperger's - nothing else could explain that." I took a couple of diagnostic tests and scored well into the Asperger's spectrum. A psychiatrist just confirmed the diagnosis.

[BuelahWitch]

7. That's one thing that made me think that I might be an Aspie

What you said, "it isn't that I am hostile to other people, I just don't give a hoot about them unless I have some specific reason to and that I live inside my own head." I'm not good at the social back and forth, never really learned to flirt and as I'm getting older I have panic attacks in social situations.
I hated the social aspects of secondary school. It kept me from college for a very long time. This was a mistake, because college doesn't have to revolve around social situations so much (at least, I've found it doesn't).

[MN ChimpH8R]

8. I loved college and grad school

I tried to "fit in" for a while, but I didn't and it was no big deal. I was so goal driven that I was able to focus on why I was there; and the opportunity to soak up knowledge was like a drug to me. Of course, I lived at home all through college and was a commuter student, which is sort of different. I just continued hanging around with the same friends that I had before college.

[Ladyhawk]

11. I feel asocial, too, although when I was in high school I got along well

with friends. These same "friends" backstabbed me during our freshman year in college and ever since then I've been more withdrawn. I was withdrawn during grammar school and junior high, too.

I was valedictorian of both my high school and college classes, but right now I just don't want to get close to anyone. I've decided it only leads to pain. I'm better off by myself. When I expect something from others it only gets me in trouble. :shrug:

[Deja Q]

4. Asperger's not official until 1994. That having been said,

it wss damn difficult.

Age 7 (1979) it was ADHD.

Age 15 I was a schizophrenic.

Age 18, I was simply dismissed but the guy was a doofus in the first place.

In 1997, it was depression and anxiety, then shortly later changed to bipolar disorder.

In 1998, note the year, it was schizo-affective disorder... with anxiety and ADHD (even though the tests I took CLEARLY showed ADHD was NOT ACCURATE. No hyperactivity, no H.)

2004 it was schizo-typal disorder, along with ADD and GAD (though they were debating PTSD by the time I left). One used my sartorial taste as a means to diagnose me; with plenty of people who are in the same damn industry and know me would INSTANTLY refute the bogus diagnosis, using far more than my taste in clothing (which, while anachronistic I suppose, is hardly that of a deranged lunatic!)

I agree with the anxiety.


NOTE: NONE OF THE MEDICATIONS FOR THESE CONDITIONS HAD EVEN AN IOTA OF A POSITIVE EFFECT. :think:

Also note: Those with Asperger's are ALMOST ALWAYS misdiagnosed with schizophrenia or schizo-_____ disorders/ And many shrinks don't bother to include one's childhood (those quacks should be fired on the spot, and I know two in particular...)

In 2005 I found someone decent, solely by accident. She probed me with questions after looking at my history. The diagnosis of Asperger's was on the SECOND APPOINTMENT. GAD is also assumed, though while not officially diagnosed as I can remember, I think they are pondering that one too. I do have flashbacks of SEVERAL nasty incidents of my childhood; incidents I thought I'd forgiven but they keep coming back.

Subsequent group therapy sessions only confirm and cement the Asperger's diagnosis as being accurate.

Now that I know, I can only hope I can work within my limitations to keep employed. And, so far, I have been unable to change.

[EFerrari]

9. Doug has never been diagnosed.

Even his great, great therapist takes it sort of lightly, the idea of testing him. I guess she figures (maybe rightly) that if he's in a web of productive and loving relationships, mostly functional and satisfied with his career, it doesn't matter very much what the label is.

Doug is so smart, he makes smart people look slow. And he couldn't produce a reciprocal social gesture 7 times out of 10 to save his life -- even if he knew his life depended on it. (Although, that can change if we work on something, like remembering to smile at waitstaff.)

We're very lucky because he's got good friends who love him to death. But, I'm still scrambling for ways to facilitate his interactions with other people. And sometimes, he gets very down about the void where relationship should be.

Having said that, I'm SO beyond caring about what doctors say. Between us, we have enough IQ points and enough interest to seek out resources, enough humor to soften the tough spots, enough plain old love of life to try new things. The label can go Cheney itself.

Cheers, my friends. If you find a good doc or therapist, that's wonderful. If you don't, you have peers our here with experience and empathy to spare, and the net is our friend.

:loveya:

Beth

[Ladyhawk]

12. Hey Beth. ((((hug))))

Funny, but when my counselor asks me about social interactions, I always remark, "Yeah, I can play the game." And that's what it is to me. A game. I've been backstabbed so many times I just don't DARE get close to anyone. Yet when I'm with people, I can do all the right things. I'm considered witty and talented. The socialization does me good and I think it helps others, too. I really don't know what to think, though, because when it comes to close relationships I really really suck. Bad.

I fit part of the Asperger's mold. I'm very smart, yet in ways I'm socially inept. I'm smart enough to play "the game."

[Ladyhawk]

10. I may be an "Aspie."

I am supposed to see someone to get tested, but I've been reticent. I don't like psychological tests, especially those that measure IQ. I don't like getting pegged into a hole. :(

Is "the test" an online test?

[BuelahWitch]

13. There are several

But here's a short one I found:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html


HypnoToad posted the first one I ever took in the Lounge. Maybe he still has the URL.

[Ladyhawk]

14. LOL...I took the test and got an internal server error.

I guess I'm just not meant to know. :D

[BuelahWitch]

15. Here is a set of three of them

http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/MaleFemale.asp

They do give you a score.

[Ladyhawk]

17. Thanks.

I'm not sure if I quite fit the diagnosis, but some things certainly stand out. :shrug: I'll take it when I'm less tired and in a better mood. ;)

[EFerrari]

16. We told Doug's therp that he took that on line quiz

that HypnoToad posted in the lounge. And because she is WONDERFUL, she wants to see it and also his responses.

Thank you, Universe, for Dr. G.!

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. Not all that hard.

I first found out about Asperger's from a Wired article that came out in 2001...took the test (the "Autism Spectrum Quotient Test", probably the same one you're talking about) and scored something like 45 out of 50. THat led to me reading as much as I could find on Asperger's, and I really started to think there was something to it after reading a lot of personal experiences of Aspies...in some ways, it was like reading about myself. I eventually made an appointment with the Autism Research Centre at Emory University here in Atlanta, and got my formal diagnosis in 2003.