I saw a psychologist

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Today I saw a psychologist for the first time. I was surprised how young she is, only 26 and in her last year of school so she isn’t a true psychologist yet. She asked me questions about my past like what my grades were in school, if I ever went to normal classes, what have I been diagnosed with, and asked me if I ever feel suicidal and how often I get depressed. I also found out she specializes in autism and I told her some of my symptoms when she asked me what I do. I wasn’t sure about the hand flapping part when I was little so I told her I wasn’t sure but I did wring my hands around when I was a baby. I of course remembered to tell her I had hearing loss and she was stunned to hear because it sounded like it. She asked me what happened and I told her I had lot of ear infections and fevers and I went deaf because of fluid stuck in my middle ear so I had to have tubes put in and I got my hearing back. She also agreed with me that I don’t have AS at all from what I have told her so far but she hasn’t talked to my mother yet and I asked her what does she think I have and she said either HFA or PDD-NOS. I remembered to tell her I did pretend play when I was a kid, my dad even took movies of me doing it and she said that was good. She said that be high functioning autism. So do autistic kids do do pretend play and the ones who don’t are the ones who are more severe, the worst case?
But I forgot to tell her my psychiatrist wrote in my records I am between autism and Aspergers and my mother says I am very close to being normal so I am borderline.
She also agreed with me PDD-NOS sounds more appropriate category for me when we first started out. She follows the DSM criterias like everyone is supposed to and it seems like lot of doctors ignore it and diagnose people with AS anyway despite their speech delays, their slow in self help skills and cognitive development, their brain damage, etc.

I pretend-played too when I was a toddler and told fictional stories, but I also did autistic play... and I was diagnosed with AS, not HFA or PDD-NOS.

I am tired of living a lie. But she did say my mother is right, it is just a label and a roadmap for me when I told her that.

I think the DSM criteria for AS is a bit "general". The thing is I believe that there hasn't been done enough research on AS to make a good criteria. So it seems to me we are still in a void. The division that people make between HFA and AS and NT is still a blurry one, and even a professional can be wrong in this matter, at least for now. So maybe the best for know is trusting your instincts and do what you think best for you at the moment.

I am not truely AS. I have known that since I was 15. I don't even quite meet the criteria. I just slip on and off of it my mom says. Besides aren't aspies all little porfessors and read early and can read above the grade level when they are young. I couldn't do any of those things. I didn't start reading on my obsessions till I was 10 and then I became an expert on it. I read late too and never above the grade level even though I started to read encyclopedias when I was 11 when I got obsessed with London and that was all I read in them then, same with Dalmatians. I did read adult books when I was in my teens but any teens can read them. I've seen it but I'm talking elementary school.
And according to the criteria, aspies aren't supposed to have cognitive delays and be slow in self help skills and I did in three things unless sensory issues were the cause of me doing them late just like my hearing loss caused me to have a speech delay.

A lot of what you said applies to me as well, especially the parts about reading age and obsessions. And I've been diagnosed with AS by a psychologist who specializes it. Except for the speech delay section, the criteria for "HFA" and AS are so similar so to make which category a person falls in almost irrelevant, IMO. The real distinction is on the spectrum vs. not on the spectrum, not HFA/AS/PDD-NOS. There seems to be so much evaluator subjectivity in those categories that it's hard for me to take distinctions between the groups very seriously. I do think there are certain subtypes among people on the spectrum, but the existing diagnostic categories don't really capture that.

OK, You win. I should have taken the time to review your history, but I didn't recall that. Still, the only thing you have to gain by getting a diagnosis of HFA is a greater likelihood of assistance if needed.

I never did "pretend" play [with people or otherwise]; it was all tangible and real, i.e., I'd use the environment with my Star Wars action figures rather than imagining a set (I simply cannot imagine something that isn't there). Ha, I needed many figures as...when one would "die" from battle (actual physical battle that was choreographed), he/she would be dead forever, then I'd burry them (how can something come back from death?). Consequently, there's a whole heap of Star Wars figures buried in the gardens of my old home.

likedcalico,

Do you behave differently with your mother than other people? She may have a biased eye, as I'm perfectly "normal" around my mother (apart from the usual lack of eye contact and stuff), whereas I'm a completely different person to those I don't know (see: aloof).

Yeah I do. I hide my stimming and I don't say as much because I'm afraid of getting her upset what I say. Only stimming I do around her is messing with my stuff I have in my hands like taking the game in and out of my handheld gaming system.