Published on 12, July, 2020
Just musing on this (fairly short) list, all to do with anticipating (i.e. the few weeks before):
Same here - I've always said that the thing that makes me good at engineering (and particularly writing contracts and software) is that I'm good at the "how could this break?" game. In normal life that's called risk aversion and "being negative" :-)
I'm always surprised at the length of time it seems to take for a lot of people, especially those who really want to get diagnosed, for me it was 3 months from when the question was raised and I wasn't even asking for it, sometimes I wonder if that was normal?
Pfft! I was told '20 months' wait to even get my first appointment, so 2 years is probably about average...
I went private instead, but not the £2-3K that the income engine of NAS, sorry - I mean Lorna Wing diagnostic centre wanted...
I'm really pleased for you that you're having your ADOS soon, after such a long wait! How is everything else going with the assessment process, have they got all of the background information that they need now?
I am aware I have a negative outlook - as an engineer, I concentrate on problems - things that are fixed can be forgotten so all of my processing is based around finding problems. Invariably, any positive things or 'surprises' are laden with many negatives.
So it can take 2 years? Gee whizz
I hope it gives you peace of mind anyway
That's how I feel about the stuff that I'm "supposed" to find exciting - holidays and Xmas for example, and especially sitting on a sandy beach far from shade and cool drinks.
For me it would be such a sigh of relief to have it confirmed that the struggles I've had in life, very often feeling forced into doing stuff I really don't want to do but everyone else seems to love, causing me to feel guilty and suffer with self esteem, have an explanation grounded in medical science.
ADOS is the final step in the diagnosis process that started almost two years ago, and I'm excited that this is coming to an end. Of course I might get a negative diagnosis, but at least that's something to work with that I can then decide what to do about.
Are you really excited about ADOS? Can you explain because I don't understand why you would be looking forward to it?
It's interesting reading your list - it's nice to have positive milestones to look back on.
It caused me to try to think of things that actually excite me. Came up with a big fat zero. Every big moment in my past came along with a bag full of hassle that took the shine off before it even happened.