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Joining URNU with (wrong) AS diagnosis

I'm in the process of trying to sign up to my university's RNU (just starting my second year), and it seems like the application is going well. I'd really like to become an officer and join warfare, and I think it may be something I'd enjoy and be good at.

All the while, I've been wrestling with the NHS on attempting to rescind a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome I got back when I was a kid. I've felt for years that the diagnosis was wrong, but now that it may prevent me following up the job I want to do I've been trying to dispute it for the past several months. I'm being sent on a constant runaround by the mental health services, being referred from one department to another (with an inevitable one month gap between any correspondence and an appointment, of course); it's been going on for the past half a year.

I completely understand the rationale and the reasons the RN and the URNU do not accept those with ASD, but I firmly believe that my diagnosis was and is bunk and I would be able to serve well. If the mental health specialists weren't giving me such a runaround, I think I may be able to have the diagnosis rescinded by now.

Would medical give me a firm "no" on the basis of the diagnosis? I am socially apt and clear in my speech, and I can pick up body language and subtle social cues; I can demonstrate and argue why I the diagnosis is nonsense, but would medical be forced to deny me anyway, or given that I'm disputing it and I really don't display autistic characteristics will he give any leeway?

Cheers in advance.
 
Obviously only a qualified service health professional can make a definitive decision, once in possession of your full medical history, from diagnosis to current status.

Clearly a person in receipt of any welfare benefits directly related to the condition and claiming misdiagnosis will have more of an issue claiming misdiagnosis than a person only diagnosed, never having claimed benefits. The thing to remember, if it wasn't ASD, then what prompted the cause of diagnosis?

More on the subject here, paragraph 4L.33
https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/attachments/148214/

Good luck.
 
tbh I can understand the OP's frustration. The problem is that AS covers a really broad range and I strongly believe its possible to grow out of it. I look back at my younger self and I reckon I would have definitely have been diagnosed with aspergers if it however, since I went to a school where being odd was acceptable no one ever said anything. In fact only heard of AS at university. But I've changed alot for the good in recent years and at army selection the interviewing officer said I had 'exceptional social skills'. In fact I'd genuinely say it was the URNU that made me alot more confident as a person. But even now I'd still score quite highly on the autism spectrum quotient even when I tick yes to questions like 'I find social situations easy' . http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

On the other hand one of my friends has 'mild AS' but I genuinely wouldn't trust him in a sea cadet unit let alone the RN. So I can entirely understand the RN being wary of any history of AS...
 
It's hard to prove you didn't have a condition x years ago, especially when it is a mental health condition where tests etc cannot support your opinion. It seems to be a very common issue now though as variants of normal behaviour are being seen as pathological by a society which wants everything "fixed". As I have said before on this forum, your parents sought a diagnosis and were given it. You now have to deal with the consequences...

I think I have an adequate alternative explanation as to the behaviour that got me landed with the diagnosis which is far more compelling than the idea of having AS, and every mental health specialist I've spoken to (before being sent on the runaround again) seems to agree. But I see your point.

Funnily enough, it wasn't my parents who was responsible for this. I was sent to the local mental health service by my school for punching someone, and the psychologist began straight away to go for an AS diagnosis on the basis that my gait and posture was off. After she said she was sure of it, me and my mum just went along with whatever she was saying in the belief that she was the expert and this would help with whatever problems I had. All the specialist help was useless to me and all the behavioural problems flattened out when puberty ended.
 

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