Getting diagnosed with AS

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I am pretty sure i have some sort of AS and the therapists i see aren't very educated on Autism i don't think so most of what i tell them about me they just tell me that everyone goes through what i am. Like if i tell the therapist i binge alot and then eat almost nothing to lose weight she will say that she does it too and she is an emotional eater. I tell her i don't like to be around anyone and she says that is fine that is you, which i agree i like who i am, but shouldn't the therapist be working on this with me? I tell her i am obsessed with strings and script movies but they just keep labeling it OCD and i was diagnosed SPD, ADHD, Learning Disability, and there were recommendations but yet the therapist keeps listening to me during sessions telling me i need to get my confidence up and not helping me with my actual problems. She doesn't help me with strategies on how to get my confidence up though although i don't think that's it. I don't understand alot of things that come natural to others but yet the therapist thinks she is the same way as me and is visual and that i should normalize my problems and i am too hard on myself. They just send me away with meds which i do need and i find helpful but i still stim, i rage and break things, i have an obsession with strings, noises bother me and bright lights etc. I don't know if i could get an assessment for AS because of my insurance which i am not looking for a label but more of a therapist who understand AS. I called around to other agencies to try to find help elsewhere since i have been dealing with this therapist for a year and she doesn't seem to do any Cognitive therapy or anything that my evaluation recommended. The therapist says she got the results from my tests but it isnt telling her much which makes no sense to me. I just hope to find a therapist out there who has some knowledge of AS and hopefully understand me.

There is a standardized evaluation they use for ASD, so if you did not get that done (you would know if you did), then I don't know if she would have those kinds of results. Unless I am misunderstanding something....

Anyway, are you in Canada?....if you are, there might be a way for you to get a diagnosis and then get most of your money back. Honestly, I have no clue if you have ASD or not, but if it is affecting you, I would suggest finding some way to get an evaluation done (maybe a payment plan or something). I personally can't see a psychologist treating you as if you have ASD if you don't get the evaluation stating that you have it, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for your reply. I had testing done but it was mostly to check for Adhd and a learning disability which i do have both and Adhd is combined type. The other diagnosis was Social anxeity disorder and OCD and Psychoid Personailty Disorder. i only had a TOVA test and some Cognitive testing done. The therapist i see isnt at the same place that i got the testing done. i just feel i struggled all my life with issues and the more i look at it may be AS. I am not in canada i am in the U.S. I am calling around for a therapist that has some knowledge of AS that's all i really am looking for and for the therapist to follow the recommendations from the place that did the testing for ADHD and my Cognitive ability etc...They want me to get Cognitive behavior therapy and Peer support but i am getting neither.

Oh, too bad--if you are in the USA, I doubt you will get anything back. Here in Canada, since our health care is free, if we go through a private clinic AND we get an official diagnosis, the government will reimburse 80% of our money. I love socialized health care.

I know someone who was convinced they had AS because they had many of the same symptoms. He ended up having an Aspergers evaluation, and it came back negative. He was diagnosed instead with severe ADHD. ADHD does have symptoms very similar to AS; however, the reasons behind the two are different. It was only after he embraced the ADHD diagnosis that he realized, even though some symptoms of AS had manifested in him, they were for reasons better explained by ADHD. I am not saying this is your case. Indeed, many people have both AS and ADHD. But, it is still possible, and it might be something you want to consider. I would say ADHD, Social Anxiety, and OCD together could look quite like AS even though the roots of both separate them.

Is the purpose of finding an AS specialist is to give you some indication of whether or not you have it, even if you don't do the full evaluation?? I might have misinterpreted that last time I posted.

If I may, I'll share my process towards getting an AS diagnosis.

I researched it quite a bit and had pretty much self-diagnosed AS. However, I wanted to be sure. I was 35 at the time, and, during my research, learned that it could be very difficult to diagnose AS in adults due to the coping mechanisms we tend to develop over time masking some of the symptoms. It can be even harder finding someone qualified and experienced in diagnosing an adult with AS. I ended up contacting my local chapter of the Autism Society of America and asked for referrals. I contacted a few of them over the next couple of weeks until I found one that had the experience I was looking for. When I did go see her, I said that I thought I had AS, but was open to other possibilities if she thought I had something else, or even nothing; I just wanted to find out what was going on with me. We went through the process over a couple of sessions and I was diagnosed with AS. Interestingly, she said, after the diagnosis, that her first impression upon meeting me was, "Aspeger's."

I should note that I wanted the diagnosis more for my personal information rather than seeking "treatment." I wanted to understand myself better, maybe learn more effective coping mechanisms than what I already had in place.

I hope this was at least somewhat helpful to you.

I think i just want a therapist who is experienced somewhat with Autism because maybe they would understand me more instead of when i say i stim for instance with a string or spin things the therapist that doesnt understand says no one else would notice if you were looking at water or movement of items and it is ok. I guess i think the therapist i have wants me to normalize everything going on with me and she isn't me so she doesn't know what is going on inside me or what my stims actually are or what i am going through. I am looking for someone to understand what i am saying and help me deal with issues i have. The therapist i have now just tells me she does all the things i do and acts as if i don't have confidence and just to go on meds. I need assistance constantly i can't even talk to people on the phone, i was applying for a credit card and i had to hand the phone to a relative cause i don't understand what the credit card complany is saying. I have anxiety that prevents me from taking my kids places by myself and i can't even put a simple kite together for us to go kite flying. I may not be AS and i am not looking for a label of AS as i know i need to work on what my issues are instead of the label. I have kids with Autism and the stims they have i have and i relate to them in alot of ways such as my rages and meltdowns, not socializing and not being able to make eye contact at all amongst other things such as my routines and obsessions and how things have to be a certain way. Lights bother me in stores and crowds and noises i am sensitive to. But thanks for your info all of you are so supportive and i am glad to have a place like this to come to