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Which Option is More Likely to Be Correct? It's not a Trick Question...

Option A – person #actuallyautistic and without mental-health issues

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(1) Person first had private non-clinical #ASD assessment following recognised clinical techniques using AAA which includes the AQ50, by experienced and highly-endorsed professional with MA in #ASD, which concluded person had Asperger's;

 

(2) Person then had very thorough private #ASD clinical assessment by highly qualified clinician, ex-consultant in NHS with 35+ years experience, who did a fully differential ASD assessment using eight clinical tools, conducted multiple interviews with person, their spouse and parent, accessed medical information and past employment reports, as a result of which, diagnosed Asperger's and concluded no mental ill-health, finding that person's profile closely matched that of participants in well-known Ozonoff #ASD study and the diagnostician also conferred with extremely expert UK-wide trainer of clinicians in assessing ASD, who concurred that Asperger's was the correct diagnosis making a total of three independent confirmations, one being a thoroughly differentially tested formal legal diagnosis (CLINICAL PROOF);

 

(3) Person had childhood grand mal (tonic clonic) seizures resulting in EEG with abnormal results and diagnosed as epileptiform episodes, matching various research evidence as a known EEG result for #autistic children and epilepsy known to be much higher incidence in autistics (MEDICAL PROOF);

 

(4) Person has #autistic children (studies show 83% heritability), with no #ASD on spouse's side of the family - and person also has a sibling with a condition which research shows confers a 300% risk of ASD on the person;

 

(5) Person underwent adult quantitative #EEG (qEEG) which clearly showed abnormal brain connections and communications of #ASD results which the doctor stated in writing that the results are well-known to be consistent with Asperger's (MEDICAL PROOF);

 

(6) Person has diagnosis of #Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which is well-known to be linked to #ASD as stated in research by Hugo Critchley, one of the very same #NHS psychiatrists that failed to diagnose this person's Asperger's - and the work of the (world-renowned) diagnostician of the #EDS is cited as a reference in Critchley's research on the connection! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3365276/

 

(7) This person has multiple other conditions linked to #ASD: including separate diagnoses of sensory processing disorder and #ADHD (up to 80% risk of having that if you are autistic), diagnosed GI problems, synaesthesia identified in research participation and more and ALL tests taken by person and multiple research participation indicates they have #autism.

Option B - person not autistic, but mentally-ill with anxiety

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Person had two consecutive provably sub-standard and cursory #NHS assessments with clinicians from the same small clinic, the latter being a so-called 2nd opinion, the 1st clinician sat-in on the “2nd opinion” (which they later denied), each was about 1 hour long, during which they did not administer a single clinical tool; speak to anyone who knew the person, or try to obtain any other information and immediately dismissed all Asperger's tests the person had taken themselves without discussion, where no questions were asked about autism traits, sensory issues, or medical issues during either assessment, the whole focus was geared towards explaining away ASD traits and labelling everything, including information volunteered on sensory issues, as #anxiety (despite no testing for mental health either), and their report (which also contained multiple factual mistakes) broke down the person's Asperger's traits as a separate box-set of labels including:
 

* “social anxiety around interactions with communication”
* "limited social life" "social cognitive issues (tactlessness, poor sense of humour)"

* "difficulty in developing and engaging friendships”

* “hypersensitivity” "Sensory sensitivities appear to reflect anxiety symptoms"

* “rigidity of behaviour”

* "more akin to the expression of OCD that is seen in tic disorders than core features of autism/Asperger's syndrome"

* She ... expresses a number of behavioural features and anxieties that do overlap with people with autism spectrum disorders"

 

Subsequent research on both psychiatrists who did the assessments, reveals neither has expertise in #ASD. Quite shocking considering they are running the local Neurobehavioural Clinic responsible for diagnosing ASD and ADHD. One has no apparent research experience in #ASD and the other almost none, he mostly researches tic disorders and Tourettes, with a focus on anxiety and most of their focus is on MRI imaging. Very illuminating considering the above labels they documented. Clinicians tend to view symptoms and traits through a lens of their own experience and training.

 

Any Psychiatrist can legally assess and diagnose #ASD simply by virtue of being a psychiatrist, but this does not mean they have done any #ASD training, other than an optional standard module as part of their qualifying training, or have adequate ASD experience. Some will have qualified many years ago and ASD knowledge evolves including diagnostic criteria and stereotypes. Otherwise, the Royal College of Psychiatrists wouldn't run ASD training: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/search?indexCatalogue=search&searchQuery=autism&wordsMode=AllWords

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