You desperately need an autism assessment as these two conditions, although they can co-occur, are frequently mistaken, I have to say with some sexist assumptions on the part of psychiatrists about women. EUPD is the most common misdiagnosis for unidentified autistic women and the one most likely to be recinded post-ASD assessment.
It was the misdiagnosis made of me In five mins flat by a guy who never actually discussed my mental health with me and then the services never told me it had been made.. As a consequence GPs took a dismissive attitude toward me, exacerbating the medical phobias which had taken me to MH's door in the first place. My phobias turned out in the end to be simply born of my autistic sensory issues. MH did a lot of damage to me by trying to treat a condition I never had and then blaming me for not getting better from a condition I never had, without telling me they thought I had it, whilst completely missing my obvious autism which was metaphorically slapping them in the face. Meanwhile having made up their minds I was just lying about my experience, MH dangerously ignored me when I was in a genuinely dangerous place. You couldn't make this s**t up.
The NAS literally saved my life!
In the end I worked out I was autistic for myself (thanks to this web site), paid thousands to be properly assessed (by the NAS because I needed someone I could trust to absolutely know what they were doing) , thousands more In autism informed counselling to undo the damage done by MH, and then once the misdiagnosis slipped out in a GPs letter after that, hundreds more to disprove the EUPD diagnosis by experts in autism and PDs. I'll never trust MH services again.
I've come out of this with huge sympathy and respect for those who really do have a PD with or without co-occurring ASD, and are inhumanely stigmatised while they are bravely trying to confront their issues. But in the end, it is as dangerous to treat someone for a condition they don't have as it is to miss one that they do.
If you are autistic, PD or no PD, therapy and meds designed for NTs may not be right for you or might even make you ill. You need to clear up your true diagnostic position, but go armed. You need to be clear that you want EUPD properly ruling in as co-occuring or definitively ruling out.
The key to the difference is in the 'why' of it all. You may have relationship problems, but is that because you just can't read paralinguistic and motive etc, or because of a fear of abandonment, need to control etc based in some trauma or other?
Make them dig and get it right and beaware some male shrinks bring mysogyeny into play. Ooooh woman, must be unstable, ooooh man must be bipolar...
Insist, whatever the truth, that they get it right.
You desperately need an autism assessment as these two conditions, although they can co-occur, are frequently mistaken, I have to say with some sexist assumptions on the part of psychiatrists about women. EUPD is the most common misdiagnosis for unidentified autistic women and the one most likely to be recinded post-ASD assessment.
It was the misdiagnosis made of me In five mins flat by a guy who never actually discussed my mental health with me and then the services never told me it had been made.. As a consequence GPs took a dismissive attitude toward me, exacerbating the medical phobias which had taken me to MH's door in the first place. My phobias turned out in the end to be simply born of my autistic sensory issues. MH did a lot of damage to me by trying to treat a condition I never had and then blaming me for not getting better from a condition I never had, without telling me they thought I had it, whilst completely missing my obvious autism which was metaphorically slapping them in the face. Meanwhile having made up their minds I was just lying about my experience, MH dangerously ignored me when I was in a genuinely dangerous place. You couldn't make this s**t up.
The NAS literally saved my life!
In the end I worked out I was autistic for myself (thanks to this web site), paid thousands to be properly assessed (by the NAS because I needed someone I could trust to absolutely know what they were doing) , thousands more In autism informed counselling to undo the damage done by MH, and then once the misdiagnosis slipped out in a GPs letter after that, hundreds more to disprove the EUPD diagnosis by experts in autism and PDs. I'll never trust MH services again.
I've come out of this with huge sympathy and respect for those who really do have a PD with or without co-occurring ASD, and are inhumanely stigmatised while they are bravely trying to confront their issues. But in the end, it is as dangerous to treat someone for a condition they don't have as it is to miss one that they do.
If you are autistic, PD or no PD, therapy and meds designed for NTs may not be right for you or might even make you ill. You need to clear up your true diagnostic position, but go armed. You need to be clear that you want EUPD properly ruling in as co-occuring or definitively ruling out.
The key to the difference is in the 'why' of it all. You may have relationship problems, but is that because you just can't read paralinguistic and motive etc, or because of a fear of abandonment, need to control etc based in some trauma or other?
Make them dig and get it right and beaware some male shrinks bring mysogyeny into play. Ooooh woman, must be unstable, ooooh man must be bipolar...
Insist, whatever the truth, that they get it right.
