Psychosis??!!

[della]

I'm trying to get a correct diagnosis of my son in France. I decided to go thriough my GP rather than the school doctor as I felt I would have more opportunity to state my opinion. He mocked my idea that it might be high-levet autism (he hadn't heard of aspergers - which incidentally sounds horribly like asparagus in French) and said very condescendingly that he didn't think it could be that serious. I told him that the school had thought he was depressed until I talked it over with them. He said he thought the school were being over dramatic. This GP has never even met my son.

 

Anyway he came to the conclusion - goodness knows how- that he has a psychosis. Is aspergers a psychosis? I didn't like the sound of it myself.

 

I have a letter of introduction to a psychiatrist in which my GP says that my son presents problems of behaviour, that I , his mother have mentionned autism but that he, the GP, dosen't think it could possibly be that serious.

 

One good point. He says that we'll go through a private psychiatrist who has no links with the school beacuse that way if he dianoses my son as depressive, we can just tear the certificate up and forget about it.

[Flora]

Della

 

The fact that the GP in question has never even met your son says it all.

 

I would find a different GP, take your son to see him/her; take someone along with you so that you have the opportunity to talk with the GP out of ear shot of your son as well as him having the opportunity to meet your son.

 

What this GP has said to you is based on nothing at all other than his own ignorance of the situation. He hasn't met your son, he hasn't heard of Asperger's Syndrome...either of these facts alone totally negates anything he said to you.

 

Good luck

 

Flora

[Lucas]

The doctor sounds like an idiot that only knows about Autism through hearsay. I can't believe he considers Psychosis to be more likely yet dismisses Autism because he can't believe it's that serious: Psychosis I think is a lot more serious than Autism.

 

Autism is not Psychosis though it should be mentioned that it often is mistaken for it along with Psychopathy, Schizophrenia and OCD but it's none of those things and the objective differences are really obvious. There is an epidemic of idiocy surrounding Autism where professionals that come in contact with it cannot help pretending they know a lot about it when they don't. I've seen professionals trying to re-diagnose people over the phone or even the internet when they encounter an Autistic person that contradicts their views; completely unethical and with no basis in reason or science.

[barefoot wend]

Della

 

Certainly hope you have more luck with the psychiatrist than you did with your GP. Have to say that I agree with the others' prognosis that he's completely clueless. Psychosis my ****.

 

Your son needs appropriate help from a professional who has experience in AS.

 

Good luck.

 

Barefoot

[LizK]

Aspergers is not a psychosis, they are two completely different things. I think about 50 years ago in the dark ages some believed it was a form of psychosis but that has LONG been discounted.

 

However, Aspergers in a teenager can present similarly to early onset pyschosis, they have similar features especially with difficulties with social interaction and poor eye contact. In my reply to your previous post about AS when I mentioned other things (my no3) this was one of the possibilities. Some teenagers who are diagnosed with AS turn out to have psychosis whilst others are misdiagnosed as having a psychotic illness when in fact they have autism. Aspergers is a lot more common than psychosis and I think you said your son has had problems since being a small child which makes AS a more likely possibility.

 

At least you got a referral with your concerns in the letter if nothing else. As I said before no-one here can diagnose your son and you really need to see a psychiatrist who has expertise in both early onset psychosis and AS who hopefully should be able to make the distinction and give you and you son the help you deserve.

 

Lx

[lil_me]

2 different things, Aspergers is not a form of Psychosis, but I do have a little sister with Psychosis and some of the things she suffers with are very similar to my sons, helps her understand him better and she can sympathise with some of the things he has issues with.

Edited October 2, 2006 by lil_me

[della]

I had a feeling my doctor would not like me having my own opinion about my own son. Well he has mentionned autism in his letter to the psychiatrist, I wonder how he takes it. I spoke to the psychiatrist today, just to make an appointment (odd how some specialits here don't have receptionists) and he sounded about 100 years old, which is probably not a good sign.

 

I think I hope it is aspergers rather than psychosis. Aspergers sounds more predictable and stable. But as you say, he has definitely been different since a very early age.

 

I can't imagine how it's going to go now, how the psychiatrist can decide what he has just by talking to him. But whatever happens, at least the counsellor and the nurse at the school are "on our side".

[Tally]

Um . . . your GP thinks Autism is more severe than psychosis??? Your description of your son really does not point to severe mental illness. I don't think GPs really have much understanding of mental illness anyway (or things like Asperger's which present with predominantly psychological symptoms).

 

Well, at least you have the referral you need, and the suggestion of autism has already been made to the psychiatrist. That is the outcome you hoped for from this appointment, so all is not lost.

 

Autism is commonly mis-diagnosed as psychosis or schizophrenia, and can look similar. Another factor is answering questions in a very literal manner. "Do you hear voices?" Well, yes, of course, we all hear the voices of people talking to us. "Do you hear voices of people who are not in the room?" Voices can often be heard through the wall, and many people with autism have remarkable hearing.

 

I understand that the understanding of autism and Asperger's is fairly 'backward' in France. You may wish to have a leaflet ready to give the psychiatrist at your son's appointment. Is there an autism society or charity in France? They may produce a leaflet. Another thing which may help is printing off a list of common symptoms of Asperger's and ticking the ones your son has, and doing the same with schizophrenia - hopefully this will make it plain that schizophrenia is not the correct diagnosis.

[lil_me]

Yes Tally, I remember that from Wendy Lawsons conference, she was misdiagnosed aswell, happens a lot unfortunately. www.mugsy.org/wendy I think it mentions it somewhere on there.

 

I would class Psychosis as much more severe than Aspergers/Autism, most sufferers are much more volatile, but only because of my experience with a family member with both and went through what can only be described as hell with my sister.

 

Hope the Psychiatrist can shed more light, after all GPs can not diagnose these things for a reason, they don't know enough about it in most cases.

 

http://autisme.france.free.fr/ one of the French sites.

[jb1964]

Hi Della,

 

To be honest I didn't specifically know what 'Psychosis' was - so I just googled it. I thought obviously is was something psychological - but didn't know exactly what.

 

I've just this evening managed to watch the Tony Attwoods video (from one of his conferences in the US) and there was a section in there on aspergers and adolescence, which was very interesting, especially regarding school/social overload etc.

 

However, he specifically mentions in one part that 2 out of 3 children (approx. 65%) diagnosed with Aspergers will get a Mood or Psychological Disorder during their teens. Ranging from:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Schizophrenia
• Oppositional & Defiant Disorder (I think that was it?)

He went on to list several things regarding these - and in particular regarding Schizophrenia - about how the inner voice can be misinterpreted - some frontal lobe developing late in Aspergers (ie. the teens etc), whereas it is normally develops at a much younger age.

 

So perhaps they are coming from that angle?

 

Take care,

Jb

Edited October 3, 2006 by jb1964

[della]

I just found a french site about autisme that warns against certain psychological trains of thought. These doctors see everything from a psychoanalytical viewpoint which tries to link the condition to upbringing and also has a tendency to label lots of things as psychosis. The site says that though ideas on autism have changed in Gt Britain USA and other parts of the world, France still hangs on to very old-fashioned thinking.

 

My experience is also that doctors here can form a block against any ideas you might have yourself about what's wrong and you have to be extremely tactful.

 

There is another site about asperger that says that an Irish expert comes over once a month to advise parents of kids with aspergers. She probably doesn't come to my neck of the woods. But if it goes badly with the 100 yr old psychiatrist I might contact her.

[jb1964]

Good luck.

 

Take care,

Jb

[della]

Thanks jb, I think I'll need it; here is the french site if anyone reads french and is interested. It's pretty horrifying to read.

 

http://autisme.asperger.free.fr/afuir.php

[Nikki]

Della

I have pm'd you tonight

Have been all though all this load of *!!!****** they are giving you

I will try my best to help you make sense of the archaic system - in a nutshell they still beleive autism is child psychosis - many do not understand or recognise it as a seperate issue all comes under the "mentally disabled" heading for them & best not talked about type thing.

policy is to medicate not educate - offered to put my son in "care" where he can be "looked after" every day.

as they tried to tell me - ha well I had none of that

there is great help here - just have to hunt a bit