[SarahSweden]

I was in therapy for some months with a T with 30 years of experience. She worked outside psychiatric care though, she had her own practise. She never mentioned anything about a diagnosis.

After the termination I met with over 10 T:s in private practises, all in evaluation sessions to see if we could start therapy. A lot of things contributed to that I didn´t start therapy with any of them bit it was never about that they suspected a diagnosis like aspbergers.

I´m 30+ and noone in school or at work has ever told me they suspected a diagnosis.

Now, when I went to public health care and psychiatry to seek out therapy through them suddenly two doctors and two therapists said they see traits of aspbergers, that is not fully developed aspbergers.

I just find this very odd, like they see a diagnoses in every behaviour and none of them are sure, I have not gone through a full psychiatric evaluation yet. It seems like they scan for this, everyone I´ve meet with has just seen me for a short time and I´ve told them I´ve never thought about having such a diagnosis myself.

How can this be? Has anyone else experienced this?

[EllieGreene]

I think recently there has been more awareness about the spectrum - autism and asperger's. It doesn't have to change anything for you. Did they tell you what traits of asperger's they are seeing? They are just traits and if it's not "fully developed asperger's" as you say, then it's not going to become fully developed at this point in your life.

There are lots of interesting posts here so have a look and see what people are saying in this forum.

Good luck!!

[SarahSweden]

Thanks. I agree my condition per se won´t change but it´s still a very large change for me personally to suddenly have to deal with the fact I have a diagnosis. If I have one that is to say, the people I´ve met with within psychiatry mostly talk about is as "a feeling they have".

A diagnosis like aspbergers means I could perhaps not have an ordinary job, it feels like quite large differences in life. I know I don´t have fully developed aspbergers, then I would have thought about a diagnosis myself but still.

Originally Posted by EllieGreene

I think recently there has been more awareness about the spectrum - autism and asperger's. It doesn't have to change anything for you. Did they tell you what traits of asperger's they are seeing? They are just traits and if it's not "fully developed asperger's" as you say, then it's not going to become fully developed at this point in your life.

There are lots of interesting posts here so have a look and see what people are saying in this forum.

Good luck!!

[roboanxia]

How would it affect employment? I'm in the USA and I'm pretty sure diagnoses are protected by privacy laws here.

[SarahSweden]

Well, an asperger diagnosis won´t be official but for me personally it would imply that I have to seek out workplaces that are adapted in some ways. I don´t know if you have this diagnosis yourself but for a person having aspergers a very socially focused job wouldn´t suit. There are many more examples on this, workplaces that one couldn´t handle.

Originally Posted by roboanxia

How would it affect employment? I'm in the USA and I'm pretty sure diagnoses are protected by privacy laws here.

[roboanxia]

Originally Posted by SarahSweden

Well, an asperger diagnosis won´t be official but for me personally it would imply that I have to seek out workplaces that are adapted in some ways. I don´t know if you have this diagnosis yourself but for a person having aspergers a very socially focused job wouldn´t suit. There are many more examples on this, workplaces that one couldn´t handle.

Girls with an ASD tend to be better off. Some think it's because they're socialized differently. They just don't seem to show as many of the deficits.
There are actually some quirks to being autistic, and the extreme male brain theory suggests autism may be bad only insofar that it's an extreme. Men perform better on the Mental Rotation Task (MRT) and autistics are ever better at it. They are good at pattern recognition too, and perform much better on non-verbal IQ tests.
Oddly enough, studies show that autistics aren't any more "masculine" in cultural terms, even though autism may be, biologically speaking, part of what it means to be male.

[EllieGreene]

You're still "you". You can have any job you want. You may not want a super social type job. People are all different and have different gifts and talents. You don't have to have the "gift of gab" to have a good job. Do a job you enjoy that you are good at.