• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

New here, dealing with lack of appropriate support.

Andie Kinney

Andie Kinney

New Member
I am new to this forum. I am newly self dxed and do not have appropriate community support. Self dxing has helped me make sense of so many things in my life that didn't make sense before. Accepting that I am on the spectrum has helped me tremendously. I have had to sacrifice the small bit of support I had prior to self dxing due to the supports not being educated on autism, the fact that I don't have a medical dx (I have tried to get one, but the barriers to even seeing an autism specialist are beyond my personal abilities to surmount), and that I have been misdiagnosed with BPD, which I now know is common for women and AFAB people due to lack of knowledge of how autism affects women and AFAB people differently than men and AMAB people. The support that I have is for this misdx, and now that I have started taking control of the direction of my life and my health, I am receiving pushback from the supports.

I have had to stop needing help, even though I do need help, and force myself to function at a much higher place than I am capable of sustaining. I feel relieved that I have control over my life, but at the same time, I wish I could ask for help with the things I need help with and get the help that I need. I no longer want to defer to Dr.s or therapists as the experts, they are clearly not, but it seems that if I don't defer, I am on my own.
 
Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process! :)

Also, you should look for Doctors and Therapists that specialize in Autism, they'll more likely help you better than those who aren't.
 
Isadoorian said:
Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process! :)

Also, you should look for Doctors and Therapists that specialize in Autism, they'll more likely help you better than those who aren't.
Click to expand...

Hi, How do I find a Dr. who specializes in Autism if i don't have a dx or a referral from a Dr? The cost of an assessment is more than I can afford an my fam Dr just thinks I make stuff up so he discourages me from pursuing my own ideas about my health.
 
Hi Andie

welcome to af.png
 
Andie Kinney said:
Hi, How do I find a Dr. who specializes in Autism if i don't have a dx or a referral from a Dr? The cost of an assessment is more than I can afford an my fam Dr just thinks I make stuff up so he discourages me from pursuing my own ideas about my health.
Click to expand...

To be honest, if you have a doctor that just thinks you make stuff up, and dismisses what you say... it's probably time to find any other doctor. Seriously, a good doctor doesnt do that. If anything, it's their job to NOT do that. Doing that gets in the way of all of the important stuff they have to do.

As for how to find specialists... well, you're already on the Net. Why not start there? Anyone worth their salt advertises their services on the Net these days. And if not that, there's always people you can find that could point you towards the right direction. Hell, you've already found this autism-focused forum, yeah?


Welcome to the forums, by the way.
 
Andie, I am sorry things are hard at the moment.

I am sure there is a procedure whereby you can change your doctor. As Misery said, any Dr would be better, and frankly your current one is harmful for you if he dismisses your needs.

Ideally, you want to get the correct dx to get rid of the mistaken one of BPD. So that they stop pushing that unhelpful stuff and start listening, stop dismissing your concerns. They potentially can explain away a lot of their sins on account of your BPD.

Can you ask for a second opinion from an autism specialist? There should be some official way of asking a second opinion.
 
Welcome! I don't have anything helpful to add, but I hope things improve for you. Just knowing means that you can more easily find books, blogs, etc., which may have information that can actually help you.
 
Warm welkome to the forums Andie

Second regardless the ods and how hard you feel life is NEVER EVER stop fighting for youre goals. and above all DONT be afraid to demand the help you can get Andie. And like Misery points out if youre doc dont want to believe in you then look for another one because this one isent doing his /hers job properly in my opinion. Obviously only a professional can determan if you are or not on the spectrum.

I wish you al the luck in youre future quest (HUG )
 
Last edited:
Hello & welcome @Andie Kinney .

If we had an idea about where you are, geographically, someone here might be able to offer specific recommendations about where you can turn for help.
 
I had a difficult time finding a psychologist to test me and give a diagnosis.
My family physician didn't try to help find someone who could.
There is a website I know about called Healthgrades.com it is for USA.
You'll find a box to enter the area you are located and the type of doctor you are looking for
and it will search for that type of doctor for you and give you a list.
I typed in psychologists. It showed a long list in my area, gives the names and contact numbers
along with their specialty.
I just started calling them and finally one said she could help.
The others wanted a lot of money for testing that I didn't have and didn't take insurance.
The one I finally found took my type of insurance.

You don't need a doctor to find a psychologist to test you.
Use the internet. And start contacting them.
If all else fails, there are free mental health facilities that will help and also social services centers
and department of children and families.
That's how I did it.
 
SusanLR said:
...along with their specialty.
Click to expand...
Around here, I found quacks who claimed to know autism, but only knew of the low-functioning kind [ASD2/3] and couldn't accept it as an adult diagnosis.

@Andie Kinney , if you are in the USA, I have some links that you can pursue, but that isn't a given at Autism Forums.
 
Crossbreed said:
Around here, I found quacks who claimed to know autism, but only knew of the low-functioning kind [ASD2/3] and couldn't accept it as an adult diagnosis.
Click to expand...

Actually People with autism are often described as being "high functioning" or "low functioning," but there are no such diagnoses in the diagnostic manual. ... While there are now three levels of autism described in the DSM5 (Levels 1, 2, and 3), many people use the terms high and low functioning, as they're less clinical.
 
Sarah S said:
Actually People with autism are often described as being "high functioning" or "low functioning," but there are no such diagnoses in the diagnostic manual. ... While there are now three levels of autism described in the DSM5 (Levels 1, 2, and 3), many people use the terms high and low functioning, as they're less clinical.
Click to expand...
  1. When I was looking for an autism-competent psychologist, we were still in DSM4.
  2. Present severity levels 1-3 directly translate to high, mid & low-functioning, respectively.
  3. Autism, itself, isn't being graded, just the functional severity of the co-morbid conditions are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom