Anyone here been diagnosed as *not* autistic?

Like @NAS51403 I had my assessment on Monday (!!!) 25.02.2019. It left me completely depressed, confused, and absolutely exhausted... :-/

My interviewer was ... an Occupational Therapist! Well, that's may be O.K. A nice lady with a tiny voice... was she afraid to ask me questions? Possibly. It looked like.

At the end she said that it is not what they are looking for. I am able to describe different people well. I am not joking!

In the reality I (64, female - yes I am old!) am showing the typical ASD traits: desire for having friends but never had any (!), social situations are unwelcome and confusing, prefer to work alone, socially naive (always have been!), poor eye contact, but no flapping hands (oh, yes but only when nobody can see it - just forgot to tell it to the interviewer!), hating small talk, very literal interpretation of conversations, the last one who understands jokes, loving routines and hating any interruptions, highly focused on areas of interest, some tantrums and no ability to stop these, very detail oriented, loving to build computers together :-) (OK, it's not very autistic), prefer detailed technical information over abstract, not much interest in other people, difficulty to communicate needs, ... many other traits, do not want to be bore you with these all well known things.

O.K., after I finally will receive the report of my interviewer I will ask her: "Why do I have all these characteristics when I am so neurotypical?" Does she have any explanation for this? Well, probably she will have!

I am completely frustrated & devastated.

Finally I found a niche where I feel home (being on the Spectrum somewhere), and through it, I understand myself much better, and can understand my meltdowns better (for example when my routine is interrupted, or when my focus on my work is interrupted, etc), and can understand why I cannot stop these meltdowns (not able to count to three before meltdown)...

But the niche is taken away by PROBABLY false assessment ... Sorry for taking your time with my problems :-/

Like @NAS51403 I had my assessment on Monday (!!!) 25.02.2019. It left me completely depressed, confused, and absolutely exhausted... :-/

My interviewer was ... an Occupational Therapist! Well, that's may be O.K. A nice lady with a tiny voice... was she afraid to ask me questions? Possibly. It looked like.

At the end she said that it is not what they are looking for. I am able to describe different people well. I am not joking!

In the reality I (64, female - yes I am old!) am showing the typical ASD traits: desire for having friends but never had any (!), social situations are unwelcome and confusing, prefer to work alone, socially naive (always have been!), poor eye contact, but no flapping hands (oh, yes but only when nobody can see it - just forgot to tell it to the interviewer!), hating small talk, very literal interpretation of conversations, the last one who understands jokes, loving routines and hating any interruptions, highly focused on areas of interest, some tantrums and no ability to stop these, very detail oriented, loving to build computers together :-) (OK, it's not very autistic), prefer detailed technical information over abstract, not much interest in other people, difficulty to communicate needs, ... many other traits, do not want to be bore you with these all well known things.

O.K., after I finally will receive the report of my interviewer I will ask her: "Why do I have all these characteristics when I am so neurotypical?" Does she have any explanation for this? Well, probably she will have!

I am completely frustrated & devastated.

Finally I found a niche where I feel home (being on the Spectrum somewhere), and through it, I understand myself much better, and can understand my meltdowns better (for example when my routine is interrupted, or when my focus on my work is interrupted, etc), and can understand why I cannot stop these meltdowns (not able to count to three before meltdown)...

But the niche is taken away by PROBABLY false assessment ... Sorry for taking your time with my problems :-/

Have you taken the females with autism module on the NAS website? Its free till end of March. It recommends assessors dont just look at scores on tests but delve deeper using extensive questionning as female presentation of AS is often very subtle.

Maybe your assessor didnt ask thr right questions....

Hi Rhia thanks for answering. I don't know why I didn't spot your answer earlier!

Don't worry about taking time telling your story - this is a great place to do that.

I can relate to a lot of what you say in your "In the reality ....." paragraph.

What are the next steps for you? Do you get to see your assessor again?