[Sila]

My therapist has suggested for me to go see a psychiatrist for official evaluations, to better understand where my problems lay and if there's anything that can help in the way of medications. I said my main priority is getting an Aspergers evaluation. She agrees that it's a high priority and really wants me to push for it- but how? How do I do that? I've never been to a psychiatrist before. I have some anxiety issues too, but they're not nearly as disabling as the AS is.

Have any of you ever gotten your diagnosis from a psychiatrist? What kind of things should I expect? What should I bring?

How do you stop from masking your symptoms, from downplaying them? I constantly try to hide everything because I've been judged so much before. I look "past" people because I can't make eye contact, but I could much more comfortably just look at my hands or the ground instead. I stim a lot, but to mask it from others I try to revert it to just more "normal" ones like foot tapping etc, when it's much better for me to rock or hand flap freely. I can't really mask a lot of the other things like not understanding facial expressions/body language, taking things literally or at face value, etc. But I downplay it all by habit, to pretend I'm "fine" when I'm not. :s

I'm nervous to all hell. and I guess now I have a topic for T on wednesday.

[Sila]

I guess I'm asking just how do I go about asking for the aspergers eval? Do I just outright say 'I've suspected I have Aspergers for the past ___ years because of ___ and I'd like to get officially evaluated and if possible diagnosed.' or what? I need a diagnosis for multiple reasons- I'm looking to apply for SSI/SSDI because I'm unable to work. I'm looking to get a service dog to help with a lot of things (too much to go into here alone) and I'd need the official diagnosis to go through a program. I need Occupational Therapy for my sensory issues, and I can also go through Center for Independent living with an official diagnosis. With an official dx I can also look toward getting housing assistance, to help me finally become independent off of my mom- if even just to a small extent.

Tl;dr, there's a lot of services I need that will be opened up with an official diagnosis. I'm already 100% sure I have it, but I need the official stuff done too.

[MudCrab]

Hello, Sila. Contact your general practitioner and get a referral for the evaluation you want.

[avlady]

I know what happened to me that got me on my own, I was so bad off i couldn't decide for myself so the social workers did all of the paperwork and since I was in the hospital, I had a psychitrist, who then diagnosed me.Where I live there are alot of things one of which is called Transitional Services where people live on their own but also learn life skills like cooking and cleaning. There are other place that do the same thing you would probably need to be set up with such a thing mentioned.

[Sila]

Originally Posted by MudCrab

Hello, Sila. Contact your general practitioner and get a referral for the evaluation you want.

Thanks- I already got a referral to a psychiatrist, hence my question. My question isn't really 'Who do I go talk to to get a diagnosis' more so 'How do I talk to the person about it?' because I've heard that they don't "like" when patients go in and tell them what to look for.

Avlady that sounds incredibly useful. There is a center for independent living nearby that I will probably be looking into for help soon. I just need to get past the initial psychiatrist eval first.

[MudCrab]

I have been evaluated twice. I did nothing to prepare for them. I showed up, answered their questions, did what I was told to do and went home.

I do not mean to be cavalier, but my suggestion is to be open and honest in responding to questions. If you think something important has not been covered, say so and go from there.

Good luck.

Also, sorry, Sila, for misreading your question.

[beauflow]

Sila, could you Therapist perhaps either write or communicate in some way with the psychiatrist that you will be seeing? Perhaps they could help out as well as far as what their professional view is as well.

Best wishes your way

[Wren_]

hi sila i wondered along the same lines as beauflow ... your therapist seems to believe you have aspbergers and has been encouraging you to get a formal diagnosis ... couldn't she also provide a letter about you as well as providing her details so the two of them can discuss you if necessary. I hope the conversation with your T this week gives you some clarification about what would be best when you see the psychiatrist

[Callista]

It helps to be open about the fact that you tend to mask your symptoms, compensate for them--that you work very hard to make up for some things that seem effortless to others.

The way I first mentioned it to my psychologist was to mention that my mother had recently told me that if I had stayed in school, they would have tried to diagnose me with Asperger's, and that's why she pulled me out. (I disagree with this decision. It caused me a lot of grief. But she meant well at least.) If you had some similar clue that led you to consider whether you might have had a missed autism diagnosis, mention that.

[Sila]

I talked with my T about this tonight extensively. She kept telling me not to worry, and told me a lot of thing we can do to help make this easier. I have a general idea of what to say and how to say it now. I have a list of high priority thing that need to be brought to attention, and I have examples of how to say it. I have the reassurance that if I forget something, I can tell my T about it and she'll send it over to the pdoc. She reassured me that it'll be just like our first session- a bunch of questions.

Im feeling a little better but still very nervous.

[kittycat97]

I think they have to give you an assessment which may include IQ tests and observing how you socialize. I am still waiting for mine since October.

[kittycat97]

For me I typed out all the symptoms of autism I have and gave it to him read. He looked really annoyed and sighed but at last he signed me up for the assessment.

[belledisastre]

How did your evaluation go? If you had it already.