what do you do if you've been misdiagnosed?

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so, lets go through this.

first the military said i had a personality disorder.
then some quack shrink said that i might be schizoid and gave me dope that i asked for because i thought something was horribly wrong with me and of course the dope gave me horrible side effects including gynecomastia. this causes me to become stressed out around psychiatrists to this day.
then several years later one of my professors took me to be diagnosed as aspergers. he said that he'd noticed over the years that i have all the traits of it.
then two people from this state agency said i had aspergers along. (and at some point in here this guy on a forum i go to, who happened to be a psychologist, apparently thought i was an aspie which i found out from other people on the forum. this was without me ever bringing up the issue).
then i went in for a full psych evaluation as was labeled an aspie.
then yesterday i was labelled as schizotypal by a psychiatrist who saw me for maybe 20 minutes and interrupted everything i said to him. i thought i was labelled as both but it turns out he decided that i was just schizotypal.


so, what am i? and i don't like being labelled schizotypal. and i do seek to challenge that label. what's the best way to do it? I've already asked the assistant of the doctor who labelled me a schizotypal how to challenge it and she said they'd call me back.

Get a second opinion. If you can find an autism specialist, do that.

First of all: get a second opinion from someone who has known you longer than 20 minutes (or someone who WILL know you longer than 20 minutes before labelling you).

Second of all: I really don't know which one you have. The two can be similar in many respect. That being said, if you do have schizotypal, challenging the label so as not to have that label is not going to change what you truly have. If you meet with another psychologist or psychiatrist and they also conclude that it is schizotypal, you may just have to learn to deal with it. While the two are similar, there are some differences as well. If it were me, I would want the label that is going to help me. You very well could be an Aspie, I'm just saying that if you really aren't and you are schizotypal instead, I hope you will someday be able to accept that as who you. You can call autistic person schizotypal...it doesn't make it so nor make them any less autistic. By the same token, you can also call a person with schizotypal autistic, but it doesn't make them so.

i showed the DSM IV definition of schizotypal to my mom and she said none of it fit except maybe, possibly, the eccentric behavior and dress. she told me that after all she's read about asperger's that asperger's was the only thing that made any sense.

also, i just learned that i used to have a fixation with talcum powder as a kid and that i always had to have it on my hands as i hated when they became sticky. i'm guessing that's not a schizotypal trait. right?

Well then the best thing to do would be to get that second opinion! Hopefully it isn't costing you a fortune like it is for me! If the second doctor gives you the same diagnosis, you may want to discuss why he thinks so, and why you do not think so to see if that helps at all. Maybe you or he will see something you didn't notice before.

Anyway, one thing is for sure: the guy you just seen is a quack since he diagnosed you with two mutually exclusive conditions. He should have known better...

actually, i talked to the psychologist, who was the only person to ever do a full 8 hour psych evaluation on me, and who labelled me as asperger's and he said it's possible to be both.

Definitely possible to be both. It can be difficult to tell because both are life-long disorders that change behavior, but with a childhood history you can usually tell whether there's a pervasive developmental disorder like Asperger's present. Personally, I think that PDDs and schizoid personality disorder (the "extreme introversion, low emotional expression" personality) probably occur together more than it seems they would, but that they aren't diagnosed together because psychologists expect people with PDDs to be more introverted (which is true--we are--but is a different thing from schizoid social isolation.)

I'd be highly suspicious of a 20 minute 'drive-thru' dx no matter what it said - and I'd be asking for a new doctor. I'm sorry but that is somewhat irresponsible.

You had a professor - who, it seems, had observed you for an extended period of time, in different situations - suggest Asperger's. You have a mother who beleives that the DSM descriptions fit you. Find a doctor that specializes in autism - an evaluation should include an interview with your mother (according to the most common current practices). If an autism specialist rules out Asperger's, I'd be a bit more inclined to agree with them.

There is no shame in being schitzotypal or on the spectrum. No matter what your final dx ends up being, finding a way to love yourself for who you are is the real important part of the equation.