Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 1/11/2007

Question
I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrom whenI was about fiveteen. This was after being mis-diagnosed as bipolar and ruthlessly medicated for it. When that was finally stopped, my gynocologist was able to explain the rather obvious to my mother. That when a girl hits puberty she has mood swings, and that doesn't mean she has a "chemical imblance" it means she has a hormonal imbalance. So does every other thirteen year old girl in the world.
So then she takes me to another docter who descides I have Aspergers.
The problem is that as I've gotten older I've started looking into this, and it seems just as wrong as calling a thriteen year old girl who just hit pubery bipolar for having mood swings.
When I was in kindergarten, I tested well above average for my age and was put into GATE (Gifted and Talented Education). Which I stayed in all the way through middle school. And the GATE lady told my mum that gifted children are different then other kids. So instead of taking that into account, she put my under a microscope and compared everything I did to the way my brother was when he was that age. And everytime I did something differently she'd spaz out and call a psychologist.
I don't fit the mold of someone with Aspergers at all.
I'm a raging social butterfly. I have an exenive group of friends, and love going out. I've never been called literal or blunt or rude by anyone. People actually copliment me on being polite and well mannered.
My mother constently accuses me of having an anxiety problem and being paraniod. My lack of anxiety scares me. I'm actually terribly reckless, and tend to almost never think about things and just live in the moment.
I'm a raging fashionista, completely impeckable in my apperance and demeanor, all the time.
Am always complimented as being very empathetic and unstanding, being a shoulder for the people I love to cry on, and always knowing the right thing to say.
And I have very good motor skills. I'm a visual and performing artist, have good hand eye and body mind cooridination.

I'm very sorry if I sound narcissitic, but I'm terrifed that something has been made of nothing here.
My mum seems so bent on there being something, that when I try and talk with her about this she just refuses to listen, and insistes that she knows me better then I do and that she knows whats best for me.
But I'm afraid that this is just somthing my mum mangaged to convince a doctor that I have, and not a real problem.  

Answer
Hi Merideth,

How old are you, now? When you are eighteen, you have a choice of using or NOT using the diagnosis to help you with educational issues.

Actually, all the things you have told me could be part of Asperger's or might not be. Many on spectrum people are gifted, very neat about their appearance and even highly, if not overly, social.

I can't tell from what you describe whether this is an accurate diagnosis. I would comment that comparing children against one another is always a mistake. Everyone is different and develops at his/her own rate.

Hang in there. Go ahead and make the most of your education and move on with your life. Sounds like you have all the raw materials to be very successful.

Best wishes,
Catherine