Published on 12, July, 2020
I am waiting to hear a response from an ASD clinic on being put on a waiting list for an assessement.
My worry is that during the interview (and when claiming benifits), I will be perceived as 'too able' and misdiagnosed or rejected, due to my intellectual ability, and that my speech will sometimes appear normal when interested in a topic. I have learning difficulties when it comes to comprehension (making sense of information), but in terms of fluid intelligence (pattern recognition), I am able to use inductive reasoning to assess situations or problems and find ways to cope - I am the type of person your parents would ask on how a piece of technology works for instance, because I like to tinker.
I am debating how I should appear in the interview, even though it could be months ahead. I have heard people use the term 'masking' for when adapting their behaviour to model that of a neurotypic person. I am a very ethical and rational person, so it is playing on my mind.
hey bob. I too did think about "not looking autistic enough" as I am highly educated and have worked as a teacher for 20 years. However remember the person who interviews you will be used to meeting all sorts of people, and reading their body language, speech patterns etc.
My assessment referral asked me to give brief details; instead I ended up writing best part of a couple of pages about the difficulties I face; quirks I have etc. I think that played a large part in m diagnosis, as well as the questionnaires I filled in where I was safely over the AS threshold each time.
In the actual assessment itself I acted normally, but did not try to mask anything. I do struggle to talk about myself, and noticeably do not make eye contact then. I was honest about the issues I have, and didn't play anything down, I described the odd tics I have even though it was a bit embarrassing, for example.
PS one of my vocal tics concerns the word Bob...so guess what I've been repeating whilst typing this...
Thanks for the response. I have decided to simply trust that the assessors are well trained and know what signs to look out for, considering it is being done in an ASD clinic (multi-disciplinary team) and not by a standard therapist.
I am going to clarify in the interview, that due to my expansive interest in technical fields, I may appear to sound neurotypical, but to take this as indication of evidence that I exhbit fixated interests.
Hi there,
I'd also say, don't worry about it and just be yourself and truthful about what you struggle with. That's what I did and the outcome was clear cut. Despite this, I still feel a bit like a fraud, because I too had been masking "normally" for years. I'd agree with whoever it was who said it was exhausting - it is!
Anyway, hope it goes well for you. I think it is helpful getting a diagnosis because at least then you have an explanation for what makes you behave and think as you do in certain situations. It helped me make sense of things.