Re: Behavioral Therapy gave me Asperger's?

This may or may not help people but it's one of the prison events in my life.

It was suggested that I was a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychologist. A psychiatrist interviewed me and recommended that I take a lengthy MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) which I did. (I took several over several years.)

The diagnoses made by a prison psychiatrist was, in fact, paranoid schizophrenia and I was thus medicated, sometimes heavily. I was classified this way for almost 10 years. My MMPIs clearly indicated that I was suffering from this pathology. Interviews with the Psychiatrist on a monthly basis also confirmed it each time.

The problem with this scenario is... I am not now, nor was I ever, suffering from this. I faked it for all those years. I manipulated the MMPIs to indicate it, I faked the symptoms to mislead the psychiatrist, and I mimicked the side effects of the medications to further solidify the diagnosis. While I did take the medications occasionally to study the side effects, I rarely took them in practice.

To successfully fake this for so long, I had to know about the diagnosis in great detail. So I studied. I learned about Haloperidol, Cogentin, and why the latter was needed. I practiced the slow cycle tremor, hypokinesia, rigidity, and postural instability (side effects of Haldol) for months before I began all this. I developed a scheme of delusions and auditory hallucinations that focused on persecutory features. (I won't discuss them here because it may tend to identify me, should someone be out to get me! I'm joking, of course.)

How is it possible that the MMPI (500 questions!) tests all confirmed something that did not exist?

In case anyone asks why: I did this to take advantage of the perks of the illness. I got a single cell whenever I wanted one (as opposed to sharing a cell with someone.) Whenever I wanted to go to isolation, I didn't need to commit an infraction or "check into PC." In a "physical event", my opponent would lose Good Conduct Time where I would not. In a double cell, if I didn't like my cellmate, I could have him removed quite quickly. And the nurses, all females with friendly dispositions.. well almost all of them were friendly... I got to see daily. C/Os had a tendency to deal carefully with me. And finally, it cheated the authorities. One serendipitous day, about a year before my release, the psychiatrist was being evaluated by two state examiners for some sort of certification process. I chose this interview to uncover my fraud. When I finished my statements and demonstration, when all three of them began to ask me questions, I got up and walked out. I have been smiling about it for many years, now. It was one of my greatest accomplishments while I was in prison.

Again, to come back to my point: I took about 3 or 4 MMPI tests over the years, all of which declared me to be something I am not. Do I trust psychological tests such as this? Should I or anyone else?

By the way, the invisible leprechaun sitting next to me told me to say all this or he would remove my brain and chop off my ears.