Published on 12, July, 2020
My family had no previous awareness of ASD until our Daughter was referred to CAMHS, due to severe anxiety and school refusal. She has been assessed and is now diagnosed with Asperger's amongst other things.
The thing is I am diagnosed with BPD, GAD and Depression, yet the more my daughter and I learn about Asperger's in females, the more convinced we are that I actually have Asperger's and not BPD. Is this possible?
I doubt MH team would take me seriously in any case. But I can't help thinking about what my daughter said to me after her Psych and psychologist explained the traits of Asperger's to us in a meeting one day. We were walking out from the meeting and she said......"Mum I think you qualify as having ASD more than I do". I didn't tell her that I was already thinking the same thing.
My daughter reminds me so much of me from an early age, the crippling anxiety, learning to mimick and mask, amongst all other ASD traits.
I have finally recognisd most of my overload triggers just through learning more about ASD. I actually don't feel like such a stranger in a world of people who i could never fit in with. For once in my whole 38 years of life I feel as though can relate to other people, those who have ASD
This is an interesting topic for myself because I have an ASD diagnosis, but within the last couple of days I have been accidentally informed that a psychiatrist has also diagnosed me with BPD. I met this psychiatrist once whilst in hospital and barely spoke to him, he never mentioned this diagnosis to me, and I don’t feel it is accurate at all (whilst I display some traits of BPD, I don’t display nearly enough to be diagnosed and they can be explained via my ASD and depression (which is exactly what a different psychiatrist diagnosed)). I even did 6 online tests for BPD, all of which said I didn’t have it!
I’m currently trying to find out who diagnosed me, when, and if I can have the diagnosis removed from my records because it simply doesn’t fit and will affect my ability to get the treatment I need. My argument is that diagnosing mental health problems is more of an art than a science as so many symptoms overlap conditions, and if you see different psychiatrists you get different diagnoses, so therefore there is no reason that a diagnosis shouldn’t be questionable and therefore able to be revoked and changed to a more fitting diagnosis (which in your case may be ASD).
As you mention, mental health services are often difficult to convey this all to, and in my experience they do not have a good understanding of ASD, but I would still make your feelings about your diagnosis clear to them (I would recommend in writing, so it is clear and can’t be misconstrued later) and ask what can be done about it e.g. could you discuss this with a psychiatrist? Could your records be changed? etc.