Social Anxiety & ADD vs. Asperger Syndrome

Post Reply New Topic

I know that type of psychologist. He's either one of those that never likes to diagnose anything, and leans toward therapy alone, but never labels anyone, or he's the type that reserves any and all labels for when he's 100% certain of what he's seeing.

The first group won't ever give you any straight answers to anything. The second group are too concerned with their professional reputations, and won't take any chances. Fear of being wrong IMHO.

I don't care for either group, and would seek one not afraid to stick out their neck and help you figure out what's really going on.

I would't really call him unhelpful, really; just focused on a different aspect of the problem. Right now, we're less concerned with what mental disorder(s) I might have, and more with what all I can do to live a normal, productive and social life despite whatever those disorders might be. He recognizes that despite my hesitation to actually go out and do something productive and pursue my interests, I do know, quite specifically, what exactly it is that I'm interested in doing (namely writing fiction, film-making, making music, studying history, and working with animals) and suggests that I pursue classes, volunteer work, an internship or a job on one or more of those areas.

Although, he seems to be just slightly fixated on the whole eye contact thing; but I think that's mostly due to my left eye's strabismus, even when I'm wearing my glasses; I've actually gotten a lot better about making eye contact over the years, but it's still noticeable sometimes, I guess. He's also brought up that fact that I don't drive, due to my nearsightedness. He respects and acknowledges though, that even though I probably could pass the vision and driving tests and get a driver's license, I don't quite trust my self enough to drive safely; especially at night and on freeways. Refractive surgery could probably correct (or at least help correct) my vision enough to be able to drive competently, but I'm not sure I want to have it done, being a post-cryopexy patient (not that refractive surgery involves the retina, though). I've been considering both refractive and strabismus eye surgery for a number of years, now, and talking with him about the eye contact thing has recently gotten me thinking about it again. I'll probably have a talk with my ophthalmologist about it in the next couple of months.

We've also briefly discussed dating, and my apparent lack of interest in it, and I've explained that while it would certainly be nice, I feel like I need to become more independent and sort out and stabilize my own life before getting involved in someone else's.


I think that's the case here, as we've only met three or four times so far for fifty minutes a session. He probably doesn't have a clear enough picture of my overall mentality to safely make a diagnosis right now. It took my previous counselling psychologist over a year of working with me to come to the conclusion that I probably had Asperger syndrome. It did seem to fit for the most part at the time, about five years ago or so, now. I'd like to think that I've mentally matured some since then, and some of my more eccentric symptoms (which were/are still mild by spectrum standards) have faded into the background for the most part.

Well, that kind of turned into a blog post, didn't it?