Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello! I'm Holly.
I'm a 17 year old girl and have been trying to get an assessment for about 2 years, some things went wrong with CAMHS and so it has taken a long time.
It seems like I could be getting one soon but I am starting to worry.
Every professional and autistic person I have spoken to have all agreed I display most of the characteristics. I scored over 40 out of 50 in the questionnaire thing they made me fill out. I'm not sure what else could be going on, ASD is the only explanation for how my brain works that I have found, and I desperately need to find some conclusion as to what is going on as it has started to cause me a lot of difficulties at school.
However, I didn't start displaying those characteristics until around age 5 according to my parents, and my medical information doesn't reflect the fact I was showing those characteristics until I was 6/7. I thought most autistic kids show signs at around age 3, or is that wrong? It may be possible I displayed signs but they weren't noticed as that is what happened with my hearing, I started getting hearing problems about age 5 but no one picked up on it until I was 12...
Does the age thing matter?
And does anyone have any information on what the assessment itself will be like for someone my age? The only autistic people I know are my cousins, but they are much younger and got diagnosed earlier on.
Thanks in advance
If you can take your parents with you to assessment. Most people who do the assessments like it if they are there. They can explane things that you just can't. Just be your self.I making assumption that you are a female (Holly). They can show thing in different ways from males. Just hope you are able to see someone who knows about autism in females and the differences way they show. PS I am no expert on Autism but for being diagnosed as Autistic male.