Counselor saying I'm not autistic

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Should I be angry about this? My psychiatrist says I am but my counselor is trying to change her mind. She has only met me a couple of times and I think if she knew me more she would see it. You thoughts?

Anger is useless.

Which one has more authority, the psychologist or the counselor?

Did you mean the psychiatrist or the counselor? The OP didn't say anything about a psychologist.

Have you been tested?

Oops! My bad. Thanks for pointing that out!

Obviously, the psychiatrist should have the greater authority, since she is not only a "shrink", but a medical practitioner.

A counselor is likely to be only a social worker, at best. Maybe (s)he is just a school guidance counselor ... ?

Just for the record, the OP's profile says "Asperger's-Diagnosed".

I am diagnosed, I have most of the symptoms but I am pretty good at communicating besides my awkwardness. Autism is not my most serious disorder - I'm also Schizoaffective. But, where I go, the counselors are the ones that mostly do the testing of diagnoses and the Psychiatrist does the actual diagnosing. I've had the same diagnosis since about 3 years ago and this woman thinks she can just come in and change everything on my second visit?

If you're happy with an autism diagnosis, if it "fits"; dump the counsellor.

Thinking about it. I'm giving her one last chance but if she continues doing things I don't approve of I'll have to just withdraw from therapy and just stick with my psychiatrist.

^ This, for the win!

Good luck!

How about this approach:

"Perhaps Aspie lite."

If the counselor smiles and runs with this, or at least warms to this, then perhaps you can work with her.

If she insists dogmatically, then yes, time to find someone new.

As I mentioned in another post recently - my counsellor would sometimes tell me "that's normal" in response to behaviour of mine that I was describing as autistic. I told her to stop and she did.

There's a world of difference between a "challenging" counsellor (a good thing), and an argumentative counsellor on a mission.

A proper counselling session is about you - it's not about the counsellor. Plenty more fish in the sea. And if not - no fish is better than rotten fish.

I just took the test to tell her about my scores. I got 159 out of 200 in favor of aspie.

I'm not so sure about that. My social worker, I believe is the boss to my psychiatrist. At least she is the one who hires the clinic staff, including the psychiatrists, and the psychiatrists seem to suck up to her. Anyway they are both pretty worthless. I have never heard either of them acknowledge that I'm autistic. Even though a psychologist and others have told me that they believe that I'm autistic.

I can't stand these "experts." A formal diagnosis is, of course, reasonable; but good luck in finding someone competent!

Most all of us here "knew" the moment we read the descriptions of Aspergers that we had it. And that AQ test is statistically quite accurate, especially if you get a 45 like I did.

Do you find that getting your oil changed is a major event of the day, and that it exhausts you? Does going to the store wipe you out? Do numbers have personalities to you? Then chances are.....

And if you knew what I know about how frucked up most of these psychologists and counselors are, you'd realize that 90% of them are flying by the seat of their pants and haven't a clue. I am sorry if I am insulting some of you out there. But I've been seeing therapists for 20 years. And, yes, I am angry.

I have come to find that AS is difficult to understand and even more difficult to explain to someone that doesn't have it or knowledge of it. Lots of people out there just don't spend time studying what exactly it means to have AS and even the experts are still doing research to find out more.

Good luck with your counselor and just roll with the punches. Don't let someone else's lack of understanding knock you down.