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Traumagenic quasi autism? Failed 1st assessment

Hazelspoon

I had my initial assessment yesterday and was extremely surprised not to pass it. The assessor said that none of the screening tests count because of my childhood trauma and he was only interested in the triad of impairment. His argument was that I was interacting well with my close friend who I bought with me, that I can produce art (as long as I am given set parameters o work within) and my interests are not narrow enough.  I stupidly didn't mention the one compute game I've been playing for 15 years or the special interests I've carried from childhood. 

Basically I got super nervous and went into autopilot "social" mode. I've been perfecting my act for 30 years and spent a whole year in inpatient mental health rehab literally learning how people communicate. I was taught to fake it to make it and I've stidied the vocal inflections people use, make sure to listen and not butt in etc. I've had plenty of chatty interactions with diagnosed artistic people and I'm very confused.  

The thing is, my childhood trauma wasn't that severe or that early. This dosent explain why my parents called me "baby glum" because I didn't do facial expressions. It dosent explain the physical stuff like stimming and IBS and migraines and extreme clumsiness which we never got as far as discussing because my act was too slick. 

 A few days before I had an hour log mental health assessment without a friend there and that assessor felt I almost certainly did have AS.

I'm open minded and had a look at papers on Traumagenic quasi autism and it's all about very young children with extreme trauma.

From my reading the people I most relate to are those with atypical autism. I'm so confused now I feel like my diagnosis of PTSD will preclude me from ever getting an autism diagnosis and not sure whether to go for a 2nd opinion or just stay "self diagnosed" because the only people who share my life experience are those with atypical aspergers. 

Id appreciate any advice or opinions. I'm open minded that I could be wrong but this has raised more questions than it answers. If I'm not autistic why is my brain like this !

Parents

  • Hello Hazel,

    I could talk about this for hours, but I'm short of time.  This happened to me too, and is depressingly common.  I have now been properly diagnosed with autism - but it was a battle.  Most likely you are on the spectrum, and you've been misdiagnosed.  He's conveniently brushed aside key traits, and is working from the classic (male) model.  By the way, I had lots of childhood trauma too - due to being bullied because I was 'different' - i.e. had undiagnosed autism.  Certain types of childhood traumas may be due to having autism - and should be viewed by any good diagnostician with this in mind.

    Many thousands of people (mainly women and girls) suffer from misdiagnoses.  You need a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist who has a wide experience of female-type Asperger's/HF autism.  The vast majority don't, and probably haven't even heard of it, and this amounts to a national scandal.  You need to ask for their diagnosis figures by gender.  I'd say that the male:female diagnosis ratio should be no more than 3:1.  It's 1:1 at one private clininc I know.  They won't like you asking for a second opinion, but it's your right - and your chance to be properly diagnosed.  The Lorna Wing Centre were very helpful to me, and I'm more or less repeating their advice.

    Basically I got super nervous and went into autopilot "social" mode. I've been perfecting my act for 30 years and spent a whole year in inpatient mental health rehab literally learning how people communicate. I was taught to fake it to make it and I've stidied the vocal inflections people use.

    Anyone qualified to diagnose the female presentation of AS would immediately realise that what you say here strongly suggests that you have it!  I'm just the same.

    As for quasi-autism (also known as institutional autism), it's not simply caused by childhood trauma but by severe neglect and crucially having no parental attachment figure in first few years of life.  It occurs in children from institutions and in feral children (brought up by animals).  Its existence came about when Romanian orphans from Ceauceșcu's era were studied. 

    Hope this helps,  Mihaela.

Reply

  • Hello Hazel,

    I could talk about this for hours, but I'm short of time.  This happened to me too, and is depressingly common.  I have now been properly diagnosed with autism - but it was a battle.  Most likely you are on the spectrum, and you've been misdiagnosed.  He's conveniently brushed aside key traits, and is working from the classic (male) model.  By the way, I had lots of childhood trauma too - due to being bullied because I was 'different' - i.e. had undiagnosed autism.  Certain types of childhood traumas may be due to having autism - and should be viewed by any good diagnostician with this in mind.

    Many thousands of people (mainly women and girls) suffer from misdiagnoses.  You need a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist who has a wide experience of female-type Asperger's/HF autism.  The vast majority don't, and probably haven't even heard of it, and this amounts to a national scandal.  You need to ask for their diagnosis figures by gender.  I'd say that the male:female diagnosis ratio should be no more than 3:1.  It's 1:1 at one private clininc I know.  They won't like you asking for a second opinion, but it's your right - and your chance to be properly diagnosed.  The Lorna Wing Centre were very helpful to me, and I'm more or less repeating their advice.

    Basically I got super nervous and went into autopilot "social" mode. I've been perfecting my act for 30 years and spent a whole year in inpatient mental health rehab literally learning how people communicate. I was taught to fake it to make it and I've stidied the vocal inflections people use.

    Anyone qualified to diagnose the female presentation of AS would immediately realise that what you say here strongly suggests that you have it!  I'm just the same.

    As for quasi-autism (also known as institutional autism), it's not simply caused by childhood trauma but by severe neglect and crucially having no parental attachment figure in first few years of life.  It occurs in children from institutions and in feral children (brought up by animals).  Its existence came about when Romanian orphans from Ceauceșcu's era were studied. 

    Hope this helps,  Mihaela.

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