mother got me diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, i don't think i have it and i

[abcd123fd]

I'm going to talk to the incometent psychiatrists and social workers and tell them i don't have it, i will do the diagnosis once more and im terrified that they will say i have autism spectrum disorder.
I think they got it wrong because of the similarities between social anxiety and autism spectrum disorder, but if it isn't i don't know how i could live with myself, it's the thought of beeing less then everybody else that scares me.
Anyways, i need advice on how to present myself etc to theese social workers, when i came there the first time my mother had been researching for months on end, she had 20+ files filled to the brim with examples of me beeing autistic and stuff and i had nothing.

[Ramondo]

Originally Posted by abcd123fd

I'm going to talk to the incometent psychiatrists and social workers and tell them i don't have it, i will do the diagnosis once more and im terrified that they will say i have autism spectrum disorder.
I think they got it wrong because of the similarities between social anxiety and autism spectrum disorder, but if it isn't i don't know how i could live with myself, it's the thought of beeing less then everybody else that scares me.
Anyways, i need advice on how to present myself etc to theese social workers, when i came there the first time my mother had been researching for months on end, she had 20+ files filled to the brim with examples of me beeing autistic and stuff and i had nothing.

You don't sound autistic from your post. Anyhow, just be your normal self when you talk to the psychiatrist and social worker; tell them you think it's social anxiety. Just by rationally explaining your point of view, you could prove to them that you are not autistic. (I assume it was your local doctor who made the diagnosis, and you haven't seen the psych. yet?)

PS: Just being diagnosed with autism doesn't make you autistic.

[ToucanSam]

The world is full of incompetent and lazy therapists, so it's not terribly surprising that you stumbled into one.

If you don't get any traction with this one, try another one.

my mother had been researching for months on end, she had 20+ files filled to the brim with examples of me beeing autistic and stuff and i had nothing.

is she trying to sabotage you???!

[Otherside]

Interesting.
I researched and was at one point convinced I had Borderline Personality disorder...which I don't.
I've also had doctors take the lazy route when it comes to my anxiety and depression and when it came to treatment for a ruptured eardrum...the last one that if they had done there job correctly: would have saved me several months of pain and problems with it.

[FoundAndLost]

Originally Posted by ToucanSam

is she trying to sabotage you???!

No. A lot of doctors will try to convince parents that there kid is autistic, and unfortunately scared gullible mothers will gobble it all up. I was diagnosed with aspergers by 2 doctors and then that diagnosis was thrown out by the doctors after them. You will also find that a lot of psychiatrists know hardly anything about social anxiety disorder and all of the complex symptoms that go along with it. BTW talking to the social workers that deal with autistic kids is going to be a very embarrassing experience, there is not much you can say to them to convince them that your not autistic, and they will be very condescending to you. Your best bet is to do research of your own and show it to your mother. Tell her that nobody else knows how you feel better than yourself and she needs to snap out of the autism hysteria that so many parents get sucked into nowadays. In her defense I've have met other SA people and SA does look a lot like autism, that is until the person gets comfortable and then all of the sudden they start talking normally just like everyone else.

[anti-socialsocialite]

it's the thought of beeing less then everybody else that scares me.

Different, not less. Of course, some people would see you as less if you are diagnosed with autism. That does not mean you actually are less valuable as a human being than anybody else though.

Your best bet is to explain as clearly as possible that all of your symptoms actually result from social anxiety. Explain it to your mother as well, because she needs to get it through your head that you're not autistic if you really aren't. Is your mother aware of what social anxiety is and that you think you have it? If not then it's time you show her some pages online about it so she can judge for herself which one fits you better.

[ToucanSam]

Originally Posted by ThatOneQuietGuy

No. A lot of doctors will try to convince parents that there kid is autistic

did you read the OP? He says:

my mother had been researching for months on end, she had 20+ files filled to the brim with examples of me beeing autistic and stuff

In other words, she showed up at the appointment with an armful of "evidence" that her son has autism.

[Rufus]

It sounds like your mother has issues of her own.

[JohnWalnut]

Lemme guess. You're quiet around others and therefore are labeled as autistic?

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by abcd123fd

I'm going to talk to the incometent psychiatrists and social workers and tell them i don't have it, i will do the diagnosis once more and im terrified that they will say i have autism spectrum disorder.
I think they got it wrong because of the similarities between social anxiety and autism spectrum disorder, but if it isn't i don't know how i could live with myself, it's the thought of beeing less then everybody else that scares me.
Anyways, i need advice on how to present myself etc to theese social workers, when i came there the first time my mother had been researching for months on end, she had 20+ files filled to the brim with examples of me beeing autistic and stuff and i had nothing.

When I was 18, I was diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia. There were simply no symptoms. Period. The medication was a nightmare that did nothing but make me worse. My impression is that mental health professionals do not admit to making mistakes, so I wish you luck.

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by joinmartin

I respect you and your experiences. There must have been some symptoms to prompt any attempt to diagnose anything. And it is simply not normal or usual for you to be prescribed medication without the presence of symptoms prompting a certain diagnosis.

Did you exercise your right to a second opinion? Who was making this diagnosis: your doctor? A therapist? A psychiatrist or a combination of all?

There were no symptoms, and the diagnosis was kept secret from me. It was not until over a decade later that I became very curious, when I realized that the medication was an anti-schizophrenia med. I requested the case notes and was shocked by what I was reading.

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by joinmartin

I am not questioning your story out of doubt or saying I do not believe what you have to say on this. I am simply curious about getting to the bottom of what went on. Mental health professionals are quite pleased to hear feedback from people whether they were directly involved in their treatment/care or not. Hearing such feedback allows us to make detailed appraisals of what is going on within our industry and what could be changed, altered or improved. This is why it is important, if you have had negative experience of working with mental health professionals, to let other mental health professionals, your therapist/doctor/psychiatrist etc and the unions regulating the particular type of therapy your experienced know about your cares, worries and concerns.

I was diagnosed when I was 18, and learned of what happened when I was 29. Now I am 47. For 18 years, I have been unable to get to the bottom of what happened; the case notes themselves do not fully explain what happened. My guess, and I think something like this must be correct, is that my campus therapist called a campus psychiatrist and told her that I had schizophrenic symptoms. The psychiatrist assumed that he must know what he's talking about and, for all practical purposes, diagnosed me before even meeting me. The therapist then told me that I was going to see a psychiatrist on campus. It was not a suggestion, but a statement. No reason was given. When I saw the psychiatrist, I was waiting for some explanation as to why I was there but never got one. I do very distinctly recall the psychiatrist speaking to me very slowly with heavily exaggerated enunciation. She. Would. Speak. To. Me. Like. This. Evidently, she thought I was too confused to parse a spoken sentence without help. I was prescribed Trilafon immediately, and declined dramatically from that point. I was too meek to question what was going on. I was also very trusting at the time. Since acquiring the case notes, I have filed complaints against both the therapist and the psychiatrist with the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, as well as relevant state associations and the state medical board. My complaints were always summarily dismissed without explanation.

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by joinmartin

You were prescribed medication. Which means someone with some kind of medical knowledge was involved in the prescribing of the medication you were given. Is it your view that this person with medical knowledge and experience would have prescribed you or anyone else medication without symptoms being present?

The psychiatrist prescribed an anti-schizophrenic medication without symptoms being present. That is correct. You act as if you can't believe what I'm saying.

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by Sierpinski

My complaints were always summarily dismissed without explanation.

I suspect that the people reading the complaints had the same reaction that you (Joinmartin) are having: they just couldn't believe what they were reading. In any case, my sense of reality and thought processes today are the same as they were when the diagnosis was made. There has been no cognitive or perceptual change. If I was psychotic when I was 18, as you seem to be suggesting, then I am also psychotic now. I insist that I am not, but you can believe whatever you like.

[Sierpinski]

Originally Posted by joinmartin

Also, whilst I know you are not such a person, we do, unfortunately, have trolls on this forum from various places online who spend their days spreading crap on the internet. I believe you and what you say. I just need to be inquiring and questioning in my response to this- whilst respecting you and what you have to say- in order to get to the bottom of what happened and adopt the attitude my profession requires of me at this point.

This is beginning to offend me. I will contact you in private.

[jORDANgIRL]

It is very rare to have late-onset autism. Usually people are diagnosed with autism when they are between 3 and 5. I think you should tell the social workers exactly what you are thinking. Tell them you don't think you have it. If you are taking the assessment, answer the questions as honestly as you can, without your own bias, which is difficult. Tell them that yes, you have horrible anxiety and that you feel thats the extent of it. Do some research and ask the social workers questions. They are there for YOU!

[ToucanSam]

Originally Posted by joinmartin

Asking questions and attempting to see the issue from all sides is the responsible thing for me and other mental health professionals to do when someone reports having had a negative experience with mental health professionals.

Wrong.

This forum is NOT a platform for you to speak on behalf of anyone, to act as an arbiter, nor to assume the role of The Great Defender of Therapy.

Your posts with Sierpinski were less like a dialogue among equals than an interrogation by an authority. From the defensive tone of your posts, I can only assume that you are employed in the mental health field and maybe even have some title of authority there, but on this forum you are just another user. We did not elect you to be our Mental Health Representative, and Sierpinski's personal testimonial was not an invitation for you to engage in chest thumping.

Your defensiveness about the reckless and haphazard nature of therapy suggests that you are fully aware of the field's precariousness and thus feel a need to overcompensate in your defense of it.

[JustKittenRightMeow]

Lol this reminds me of when I was in the mental hospital a few years back and the Psychiatrist (who I had only seen like 3 or 4 times) tried to diagnose me with Non-verbal Learning Disability and was determined to say I didn't have bipolar disorder when i was diagnosed with it when I was way young.


Your Mom sounds like trash trying so hard to diagnose you with something. I swear people are too close minded to even believe in social anxiety because GOD FORBID (even in these days where people are so cruel) SOMEONE ACTUALLY BE SOCIALLY ANXIOUS.

It also doesn't help that a lot of social workers and psychiatrists are just so lazy and stupid these days. If I hadn't stopped seeing people like that, I wouldn't doubt that they would just call me autistic and move on. SA does resemble certain aspects of autism but you'd need to dig deeper before actually diagnosing someone with it. The thing with SA people is that we'd be able to adjust over time whereas someone with autism won't change a whole lot.

edit: this thread makes me miss my old psychiatrist....he was awesome and always listened to me and was nice. I'm tempted to go to the mental health place and see if he still works there.

[FoundAndLost]

Originally Posted by Sierpinski

The psychiatrist prescribed an anti-schizophrenic medication without symptoms being present. That is correct. You act as if you can't believe what I'm saying.

WOW the same thing happened to me when i was a teenager. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15 and I never even talked to a psychiatrist about it, and I didn't even find out that I was diagnosed with it until I was 19 and I started seeing psychiatrists again for my SA. The p-doc looked at my records and said "Well I see you have schizophrenia, is that still a problem for you?" I was like "LOL, What? This is news to me!" I was diagnosed with almost everything when i was a kid because my parents got caught up in the mental illness hysteria, and they started to think everything I did was a sign of some sort of mental illness. I was patronized and treated like I was crazy, when i really wasn't. Now that I went through all of that, I really do have mental illness. SA and depression, "Thanks mom and dad!"

[tehuti88]

Originally Posted by ThatOneQuietGuy

WOW the same thing happened to me when i was a teenager. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15 and I never even talked to a psychiatrist about it, and I didn't even find out that I was diagnosed with it until I was 19 and I started seeing psychiatrists again for my SA. The p-doc looked at my records and said "Well I see you have schizophrenia, is that still a problem for you?" I was like "LOL, What? This is news to me!"

I was in therapy for a while as a teenager, then again until just recently, for several years. This more recent time was started to get me on SSI so I needed an official diagnosis and for this they went back over my old records from my previous psychiatrist and psychologist. Since I had a lawyer, I got copies of the records and they were brought up in therapy with the new therapists as well. Everyone kept focusing on my OCD to the exclusion of all else and I had to stress repeatedly that it was my social anxiety that was preventing me from working; to this day I don't know why they were so, well, obsessed with my OCD.

Back when I was a teenager, my old psychiatrist had written in the notes a possible additional diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder. While I'm not contesting this--I do fit some parts of it, though not enough to say for certain (therapy is over now so I can't look into it further)--I had never been informed of this until I got the copies of the notes from the lawyer, like over a decade later. Needless to say, when I saw that I was surprised. So I know from experience that doctors/therapists don't always share all the diagnoses with their clients, for whatever reason.