Dueling Diagnoses

[jeffry7]

Hi Folks,

I kinda fell off the Earth for a long time. Or at least this forum. During some of that time I have been thinking about what being on the spectrum means, and I don't think I get it yet. But I do see why someone might look at my life and think I'm on the spectrum. On the other hand, it now seems like everyone I know is on the spectrum.

So I was talking the psychiatrist who diagnosed me last week about my treatment and how things are going. (Meh, from my point of view. I am less depressed, but not by a whole lot.) She was trying to explain something to me and failing. She said sometimes she had a hard time expressing her ideas and suggested I see one of her colleagues. What I understood the idea to be was that the psychiatrist would be able to explain it to the colleague who would then explain it to me. This seemed a little odd, but I went with it.

So now I have seen the colleague. She asked me a series of questions and then suggested I have Avoidant Personality Disorder. She told me to read up on it and see if I thought it was a fit. (I don't really. I mean some of it could be.)

So now I am in a weird position. Do I have one or the other? Both? Neither? Does it actually matter? I mean are there any decisions relating to my mental health that change because one of these is true and the other isn't?

If you have found yourself in a similarly ambiguous place, what did you do? How did you cope?

Thanks!

 

[Major Tom]

I guess the good news is maybe avoidant personality disorder could be treated, while autism there is no treatment for. I just have ASD-1 and a bunch of comorbidities, like depression, anxiety, and ADD. To be honest, the depression is the most debilitating.

 

[Thinx]

Yes that's a good point from @Major Tom, Avoidant Personality disorder would likely be partly due to the interactions with others as you grew up, and how you learned to respond, so you could do some effective therapy on that as an adult, whereas autism is due to a brain difference, so we can usually find strategies for coping with it's effects and therapy can help us do that, but we can't change the fact that the brain is different.

I suppose you could see it like, if you lose a leg, you can learn to walk using prosthesis, and cope but not get the leg back how it was. That's autism. Whereas if you break your leg or hurt it, it can often be effectively healed. That's APD. Not a great comparison, but hey.

You probably would benefit from reading up on the APD either way, because some of what you find out might also help you devise strategies if you have ADD. A regular therapy appointment would help you understand and work on this. With a good therapist or counsellor who understands the issues, I mean.