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Advice for woman wanting to talk to a professional about diagnosis?

GuineaPig
over 4 years ago

Hi, I'm new here. 

I would just like to ask if anyone has advice on where I could find someone professional to talk to about the likelihood of an autism diagnosis. I have been driving myself crazy for the last 6 months researching about autism and whether I am or am not autistic, and I just keep going round in circles.

I'm worried that I might just be making this all up in my head, so instead of going for a very expensive autism diagnosis straight off I wondered if anyone could recommend someone I could just explore the idea with first.  I live in Scotland, but would be willing to travel or maybe even do an online session if anyone can recommend anyone good.  I'm looking for someone who has good experience of women with autism, as I work very hard to act "normal", and have been quite successful at this.  I think a lot of people would just dismiss me because I can make eye contact (mostly) and conversation.

I just had a very disappointing appointment with a psychiatrist today and I think I really need to talk to someone who knows what they're talking about (when I mentioned autism she said that the thought had crossed her mind while talking to me, but that it wasn't her area of expertise, and that she didn't think that being autistic would explain my recurrent periods of severe depression or my "emotional disregulation" (meltdowns?)  when I think it is a very plausible explanation for both!)

Sorry for rambling but when I started to feel like she wasn't listening to me and just wanted to put me on more drugs I had a mini "emotional disregulation" in her office and ended up crying hysterically for an hour, and now my brain is like jelly so I might not be making sense here.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer!

GuineaPig

Parents
  • over 4 years ago

    I don't have specific recommendations, but perhaps the women on this link could advise you

    SWAN – Scottish Women’s Autism Network 

    http://www.autismnetworkscotland.org.uk/swan/

    In relation to your Psychiatrist, it's really unfortunate that she has no competence in ASD and uses this as an excuse to misdiagnose you. The thing that she might be have in mind, Borderline Personality Disorder of is a common misdiagnosis for autistic women, totally unhelpful and a nasty label in addition. So you might see how to block that by insisting that if she has no competencies in autism, she should refer you to someone who has.

Reply
  • over 4 years ago

    I don't have specific recommendations, but perhaps the women on this link could advise you

    SWAN – Scottish Women’s Autism Network 

    http://www.autismnetworkscotland.org.uk/swan/

    In relation to your Psychiatrist, it's really unfortunate that she has no competence in ASD and uses this as an excuse to misdiagnose you. The thing that she might be have in mind, Borderline Personality Disorder of is a common misdiagnosis for autistic women, totally unhelpful and a nasty label in addition. So you might see how to block that by insisting that if she has no competencies in autism, she should refer you to someone who has.

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