Since it is customary to visit a psychologist when you receive the diagnosis ‘burnout’, I wasn’t too surprised when my doctor suggested ‘I go see someone to talk to’.
I told her that was ok by me, as long as it was someone that also knew something about Asperger, because I had some things I wanted to ask. And could she perhaps recommend someone to me ?
I had an appointment for about a week later.
That week felt like an eternity.
I was both excited and scared.
Terrified of making a fool of myself by asking whether I might have Asperger.
I was greeted at the door by a friendly, but -very- young-looking woman.
Our ‘conversation’ lasted for an hour. She asked me questions about my life now,
my youth, what problems I had been having, and why I thought I might have ASD
(‘ASS’ in Dutch. Really.). She then gave me some very general information about autism
(I think she may have been reading this from her computer screen).
When I finally asked her whether she thought I might have ASD, she laughed and said she didn’t think so because :
- 'autism is a very rare disease, and if it happens, it usually happens in boys'
- 'I make eye contact during a conversation'
- 'I don’t speak in a monotonous voice'
- 'I use gestures'
'At the most'
, she said, 'I might have some social anxiety or such …'
So.
Just like I thought : fresh out of school, and no idea of what the real world is like.
Bah.
I hate it when a ‘professional’ seems to know even less about the topic than I do.
It takes only a couple of hours to read some blogs on the internet
to see how -officially diagnosed- women describe themselves and their problems in life …
To get some perspective …
It is not that I want to be diagnosed with ASD per se.
But I want to hear a diagnosis from someone knowledgable !
Anyway, 50 euros poorer and still none the wiser.