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Can you be diagnosed without "classical" obsessions & routines?

I'm done with Christmas Cards

As you can see I'm still chewing over my recent evaluation.

Where my assessor seemed to be digging a lot and struggling to find evidence was in the domain of obsessions and routines.

I do have routines, and I get stressed if anyone threatens them, but how severe is it? I don't know. No meltdowns, but I'm a lot happier if I'm left alone with my original plans - which would generally be go to work & come home at the same time each day, have pretty much the same thing for lunch, and come home to my wife and dogs *only* until the next day. Holidays from work ideally means more time at home for me - no travelling.

I do have obsessions, but they aren't for train numbers or a particular sort of aircraft, or a specific South-African toad or whatever but instead have been pretty intense hobbies that I can achieve a flow state in. They have changed over the years.

I'm worried that the DX I get in about 5 weeks will just say I'm a lonely geek with no friends.

Thoughts?

Parents

  • Obsessions don’t have to be to the conformed expectations of obsessions and if this was showed at time of diagnosis then they will note it . I wrote a story of my life which I took and I’m not sure if that helped along with my Mums notes. 

    Some obsessions that you might not of thought of - skin picking or fidgeting, obsessive thoughts leading to severe anxiety daily thus leading into depressive thoughts and sucidal attempts, obsessive behaviour to gain a place in society that causes distress to loved ones and to the person with ASD as they do not understand what they are doing (through various means alcohol, drugs, sex), or a preference to certain things  for example and the anxiety this causes is highly distressing (in personal opinion)  

    This then leads onto meltdowns as most of the above certainly caused a lot of distress so meltdowns were common 

  • in reply to wrongplanetforme
    wrongplanetforme said:
    through various means alcohol, drugs,

    I was self-medicating for years, just to block out the sensory stuff. I wasn't so much a problem to people, I functioned better I was under the influence, and was I'd say easier to be around. I was doing damage to my body however, and it all cost money.

    They also become a routine, which most autistic people find comfort in. That's a problem that I think needs looking at more. I've spoken to a few addicts, who had the same experience as me. They loved the routine.

    Since my diagnosis, I've found coping strategies, that have been far simpler than I'd have thought. I just wish I'd known earlier what the problem was. Years of going to shrinks, and my GP, who had little to no experience (by his admission), was the one to send me for an assessment.

  • in reply to Cloudy Mountains

    That’s what I found that since the diagnosis the coping strategies were easier then before because like you years of counselling that proved to work for a bit but then it was always back to the dark days and self medicating to help, which unlike you did cause distress to others. 

    It’s always left me wondering what those 37 years would of been like with a diagnosis, but you can’t live in the what ifs. 

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  • in reply to Cloudy Mountains

    That’s what I found that since the diagnosis the coping strategies were easier then before because like you years of counselling that proved to work for a bit but then it was always back to the dark days and self medicating to help, which unlike you did cause distress to others. 

    It’s always left me wondering what those 37 years would of been like with a diagnosis, but you can’t live in the what ifs. 

Children
  • in reply to wrongplanetforme

    Yeah, It's pretty hard when you don't know what's up! I wouldn't say I caused no distress whatsoever to the people around me, they worried more about my intake, if they knew how much I used to drink and take. Not many did. I was very good at hiding it all, very good. That's something I used to feel guilt over, the way I'd found ways to cope, but there was a lot of stuff I hid, or found ways to avoid. I think because I was so closed up about it all that's why it took so long for me to be diagnosed.

    wrongplanetforme said:
    It’s always left me wondering what those 37 years would of been like with a diagnosis, but you can’t live in the what ifs. 

    I had that thought in my head for a quite some time after being diagnosed, but I came to terms with it after a while. There's some experiences and lessons I learned without the diagnosis, that I might not have had if I had been diagnosed. It could have been better, it might have been worse. Like you say it's not worth considering what ifs at this point. I think that my diagnosis came when it needed to, it came when I really needed answers, and that's what made me start to restucture everything. If I'd had it some other time, I might not have been so willing to change.