I'm buzzing - as far as anyone with alexithymia can(!) - I've got my formal evaluation for ASD on Wednesday! 14 months of waiting and it's finally here!
I'm buzzing - as far as anyone with alexithymia can(!) - I've got my formal evaluation for ASD on Wednesday! 14 months of waiting and it's finally here!
Thanks for all of the supportive replies everyone!
I’ve started a new post here with some more thoughts on the experience:
Good that you had your assessment. Can't believe that they gave you loads of forms to fill in though, how awful! credit to you that you managed to fill them in though. It's a shame that you have to wait to see if you get a diagnosis or not. Keep chatting with people on here while you're waiting
Sorry to hear you had so many forms to fill out as soon as you arrived, not what you want when possibly already nervous or anxious.
Glad you have managed to get a cancellation as hopefully may speed things up.
It is said quite often on here that if you reach the first stage of assessment and believe your on the spectrum it very likely you are.
Not been for my assessments as of yet!!
To much going on but should have maybe applied sooner?
Been hanging about here eighteen months now,
As you say some key questions point more to being autistic and others not.
my biggest concern is the initial narrow criteria prior to assessment itself. DSM5.
long term job, tick.
long term relationship, tick.
No doubt in my mind I am autistic but no real faith in the system :(
Hope the next appointment happens soon and you are always welcome here regardless of any future outcome.
Thank you for sharing your journey thus far, it helps me and others to know potentially what it will be like, take care.
So, i'm just back from this.
I spent 3 hours talking to a very nice lady who said from the outset that she couldn't give me a diagnosis today, which was unexpected as all the other stories i've heard said that they can. There was a bit of a kerfuffle at the beginning as I tried to fill out a stack of forms in the waiting room - this was expected by me and advised to me by the person booking the appointment as it was a short notice cancellation, but not well planned by the clinic! I arrived in plenty of time but there were more forms than I expected and the appointment moved slightly earlier than advertised.
I seemed to be saying some things that point towards ASD, and some thing that point away from it. I now have to wait for the monthly case conference meeting of the multifunctional team about 5 weeks away, and then wait to hear whether its a DX of functionally-significant ASD, "difficulties", something else, or further tests.
Although it's a wait, 6 weeks or so is nothing compared to the 14 months so far and I do have at least a sense of closure in that I've presented myself for the experts to look at and now it's out of my hands. All I wanted the DX for was to stop me feel that I'm making things up, and even a "No" with a detailed report will help with this I think, so I'm relatively relaxed. All that's on my mind now is how to explain to the many people I've been going on about ASD to if it comes back that I don't meet the criteria!
But I'm determined to forge ahead being me irrespective - and that's the important thing.
I'm *still* "done with Christmas cards"!
p.s. when we were discussing how I feel about "rules" & laws she told a charming story about a police officer with ASD who was really good at his job, and who gave *himself* a parking ticket whilst on duty and parking for too long somewhere! I'm not sure how I feel about that - I can see where he was coming from!
All the best, and I hope you get the answers you need!
