Published on 12, July, 2020
Just collated this list..........honestly I will stop thinking about it soon & getting it down here will help get my mind off it (stops me worrying that I'll forget something!).
Still haven't had official confirmation of my ADOS date (told by phone last week that it's mid July) but will be glad to get it done.
Still can't imagine how ADOS will fill in the gaps, as it focusses on Social aspects rather than RRBs ..................
Score on the RBQ2a (a new standardised self-report on Restricted and Repetitive behaviours in Adults) is 1.6. This is 0.53 standard deviations away from the ASD score in the reference, and 1.84 standard deviations away from the NT score.
EDIT 5th June 2019 - added a few extras to the list and decided I'm going to print out and show my GP when I see her later this month...........
Yeah, also 'stereotyped/repetitive behaviours' - I wear a short-sleeved white shirt, tie and smart trousers Mon-Thu even though my workplace has a casual dress policy... so does this 'count'... my psychologist says 'Yes', on the basis that a Bank Holiday Monday ruins my pattern (I wear a shirt twice) as does not having a shirt available on a 'shirt' day, to the extent I seriously considered being late to work so I could, wash, dry and iron a shirt.
Equally, my psychologist spoke about a patient who (contrary to common wisdom about people with autism) does go abroad - but they always book the same room in the same hotel... so on the surface they 'don't look autistic' to use that ld chestnut - but it's because they've learned to camouflage...
Ahhhh..... yes, the failure to dig deep enough. "You go abroad, so you can't be autistic!" (But I go to the same room in the same hotel and travel with the same person, go to only one beach and always buy a bacon sandwich from the guy by the second breakwater on the beach).
The one in my report that niggles me is "You completed a PhD and were able to structure the work yourself. This involved detailed organisation plans." (No, I went to the same lab every day, parked in the same car park, ate the same lunch from the same shop, got stressed if I needed to ask the workshop to make something for me and moved heaven and earth to make it myself instead, and planning consisted of following my nose writing and rewriting software until something worked, then I bought myself a portable computer and wrote it up at home).
As far as clothes go, I wear the same outfit for as long as I can once I find something I'm comfortable with because the change is annoying (different feel) and if it's not broke why fix it? Every time my wife stresses over choosing something for tea, I tell her that the ideal solution is to pick 13 meals that we love and rotate them in sequence; that way we wouldn't eat the same thing on the same day for ages but would never have to worry about what's next :-).
We recently went to New Zealand for six weeks in a motorhome... SURELY not possible for someone with ASD!?
Hmmm... would the fact months beforehand I had the entire route plotted out, with distances, driving times, points of interest along the route, campsites to stop at (booked in advance) and activities to do (also booked in advance) along with budgets for food, fuel, accommodation and activities (that turned out to be less than 10% off the actuals) have SOMETHING to do with enabling me to do that?
It seems that even within the 'professional' community there's a lot of dodgy preconceptions about what ASD is and how it really affects people.
I mean... $hit! I've been living with it for over 4 decades (undiagnosed) and I'M still trying to work it out!!!
Original Prankster said:...not knowing if they could afford to do the 'cool thing', plus arriving the day after the other cool thing finished or having to leave before it started...
Exactly. We happened to be in Florida when Elon landed his first rocket back on the pad - so we were there to watch it. It was something that was in the spreadsheet as a possibility - otherwise we'd have missed it
Yes exactly - it seems normal, almost so trivial as to make it not worth mentioning (I'm thinking of my beard picking here). Now wondering what else I thought was trivial and maybe normal.....
Come to think of it, I probably thought that everyone with a beard would fiddle with it when bored or concentrating, just like everyone with a scab would pick at it to encourage it to come off even if that made it bleed and take longer to heal and potentially leave a scar (not me though 'cos that would be silly!).
What kind of lunatic wouldn't plan a trip like that in so much detail?!
I mean - they'd end up just staying in one place or drifting around missing stuff...
...not knowing if they could afford to do the 'cool thing', plus arriving the day after the other cool thing finished or having to leave before it started...
#triggered
Also, as per IDWCC - spreadsheet for household finances, we had one for our wedding - My mum complained it was being organised "like a military operation", I'd say it was considerably better planned than most military operations!
The point is, stuff we think is perfectly sensible we wouldn't 'out' ourselves about as being 'this odd thing I do'... because to us NOT to do it would be the odd thing!
:-) neither is a spread sheet model of household finances including allowances for changes in RPI, base rate and pay rises.