Theme
1:54pm August 19, 2014

Had my first appointment with a new therapist today

txtopia:

“I think you’ve done too much to be on the spectrum”

…sigh

This was during a conversation about my education and employment history. I’m no psychologist, but I’m fairly certain having a job and a degree doesn’t disqualify you from being autistic.

Thankfully, I’m not relying on this guy to give me a Dx. I’ve made my own arrangements with a specialist for that. I just have to decide now if this guy is even worth seeing again. To his credit he was receptive to the concept of addressing some of my issues from the perspective of being on the spectrum, even if it turns out that I don’t meet all the criteria for a Dx. I’m just not sure how much perspective he can give me if he’s not all that familiar with AS/ASD. And given his little comment today, I don’t get the impression that he is.

You should tell them about Donna Williams or Temple Grandin, they’re two of the most famous autistic people alive and they’ve both done a crapload of stuff with all kinds of obstacles in their way.  And they’re pretty well universally recognized as genuinely autistic.  Donna got a university degree with an IQ of 67, and she’s written something like 9 books, some of them bestsellers, and ran a small business for awhile, also worked as an autism consultant for years.  Temple also has a degree and has designed most of the slaughterhouses in America.  Would this psychologist undiagnose the two of them just because they’re ultra high achievers?