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New to Aspergers-need help to understand my son

Psalm91

Hello everybody:

I am new to this website and just registered a few minutes ago. I have a child who is 15 years old and was wrongly diagnosed for years with ADHD. He was on Strattera, and then Risperidol. The Risperidol was more for anxiety. Well, last summer my son became very sick because of the Strattera and ended up in the hospital with psychosis. I believe the hormonal changes of puberty contributed to the problem. Also, both of the meds that he was on were working against each other. We took him off the Strattera and kept him on Risperidol. My son then started high school in the fall and made straight A's and denied having any problems concentrating.

Over the years we notice that he was always a walking encyclopedia. He has always had difficulty with social issues, understanding social cues, etc. He has nearly every symptom of someone with High Functioning Aspergers. Here is my problem, we live overseas because of the military so we do not have a wide range of doctors. My sons doctor who is a psychiatrist will not listen to me and insists it is schizophrenia or bipolar. Despite tha fact that I live with the kid and have read books on Aspergers and have "Ah-Ha!" moments, they still are stuck on the wrong diagnosis. All of this because he had psychosis related to meds.

If you go to the drug Strattera's website, the drug company warns that if psychosis develops, to remove the medication and not treat the patient for psychosis. I am at a loss right now, and need advice. Has anybody gone through the stress of being wrongly diagnosed? I am wondering what you all did. Thank you for all of your help. I am glad to be a part of this group forum. Please forgive the typos, I am stressed out as you all can imagine. Thankfully I have a strong faith in God. He is holding me together. 

Blessings to all of you!

  • http://www.mugsy.org/wendy/ is the home page of an autistic adult who was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia for 25 years. She now writes and presents professionally on autism. The same thing happened to Ed Schneider who only got his diagnosis in middle age. He describes this in his book, "Discovering my Autism." Professor Tony Attwood discusses the relationship between Aspergers and Schizophrenia in his book, "The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome." Wendy, Ed and Tony are all published by Jessica Kingsley. 

  • Regarding the bit about "absence seizures" obviously there is likely to be concern about comorbid epilepsy, which is a serious matter.

    However there is another phenomenon relating to "tuning out" which appears a lot in the literature, and I know from a dialogue on another forum is reported by others on the spectrum, and certainly has concerned me for years. But I cannot get any corroboration from specialists.

    This involves apparently switching off awareness. It seems to be a respond to sensory overload. 

    My own experience is of two phenomena, one is loss of awareness of a passage of time, of which I've no recollection. The other is some sort of blanking of external noise which suddenly comes back on very suddenly.

    Unfortunately there are a lot of phenomena with AS that affect people on the spectrum, but don't seem to bother the experts.

  • Thank you for replying. We have the book you mentioned. Every chapter that we have read has caused us to have numerous "Ah-Ha" moments because of the things we have seen in our son but did not know what they meant. I am in a battle right now because the doctors want to diagnois him with psychosis, but my son is not psychotic. We recently took him to the hosptial because he had what appeared to be "Absence-Seizures." Our son was in no way confused when he was examined in the emergency room. He was admitted to a neurology unit in the hosptial for children, so that the doctrs could monitor him for seizures. I live in Germany, and the German doctors are excellent. They check everything and are extremely thourough. Anyhow, they put my son in a room with a two year old that had RSV. The staff did not know he had it until after we were assigned to this room. We were quarentined because of this infectious child. While we were in the room the child cried a lot. My son was supposed to stay awake all night so that in the morning he could have a "Sleep Deprived EEG." That night was awful for both me and my son. He became very aggitated, confused, and more. He was so aggitated that when morning came he was unable to sleep for the EEG. Later that day we were moved to a new room and it was quiet. My son was peaceful, happy, and able to sleep. He never got aggitated again. Desptite the fact that I live with my son, the doctors are basing their diagnosis on this "melt-down" that my son had. The doctors will not listen to 'everything' else that my husband and I have seen in him. There is a possiblity that we might move back to the US this summer and I am praying that we will find an expert in this area. Thank you for everyone on the forum and for your support. I know we will get through this. 

  • I'm afraid I don't have much knowledge about your experiences but I have recently read a book called 'The Autisitc Spectrum: A Guide for Parents and Professionals' by Lorna Wing which is a great reference for all sorts of issues around ASD. I think there are quite a few sections which you may find useful.