I recently had my autism assessment and have been advised today that they do not believe me to be autistic. This has left be disappointed and upset and quite frankly unsure what to do going forward. Deep down I still believe I am but that doesn't really count for much when the professionals say otherwise. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Would really appreciate any advice, thanks
Why they may seem to be more concerned with your past is that autism is a lifelong condition - you do not begin to have symptoms in later life and the characteristics will be showing by the time you are two or three.
So you have to relate your present to the past. Autistic trends would be recognisable in you as a child, which is why some sort of history from a parent, school reports, or close relative are helpful. So you would need some sort of evidence even if it is being able to answer questions yourself as to your younger self.
It's really difficult when you've got together the courage and energy to pursue a diagnosis and you get a negative response. I was told by a psychologist a few years ago that I couldn't be autistic, and was refused assessment by my local NHS autism assessment service last year. My GP and and a different psychologist encouraged me to get assessed and I decided to go privately rather than push for the NHS assessment as I had little faith in the local service anyway, and I wanted to get it done sooner. I was diagnosed last summer.
If you are female, or you did well academically at school, or you tend to be compliant, or you are good at masking then your autism might be harder to detect by assessors who aren't familiar with autism symptoms in people in these groups. The professionals can be wrong - not always, but they can be.
Hi there, sorry you didn't get the result you wanted. It depends why you want a diagnosis. If you want a diagnosis for financial support then definitely ask for a second opinion. Alternatively, some Autism support groups can put you in touch with a third party assessor, who might do a more in-depth assessment - the results of which you can take to your doctor. For me, I know I have the autistic traits of (what used to be known as) Asperger's, but I haven 't gone through an official diagnosis yet - and I am not sure I am going to, because for me, I don't need a formal record to define who I am. Just knowing why I am different has been the biggest relief after almost 40 years of feeling like I don't fit in/rejection.
Thanks. The thought of going for a second opinion scares th hell out of me. Not sure if I have the confidence to do that or not yet. I can't stand confrontation and it gives me that feeling if I start asking for a second opinion
Well thank you all for the supportive replies. To answer Trainspotting, I unfortunately suffer with most of those issues apart from being clumsy. I'll post more once I get the stuff through the post. In hindsight they didn't seem to ask much about present day me which is where most of my issues seem to be now getting more noticeable
My first outcome was that I have "features of autism", "features of avoidant personality disorder" and I struggle to do things because of "low mood", but didn't score enough points to get an actual diagnosis of anything. I was offered counselling, a course and drugs.
I didn't do the counselling, but took the drugs for 18 months and did the pretty useless course. I couldn't accept the result, but was too switched off from life to do anything about it. That was 3½ years ago. Last year the new autism service in Wales offered me a new assessment, and I got a diagnosis in August, although I'm still waiting for the report that I've been promised by the end of this month. The person who did the assessment this time did my pre-diagnostic appointment the first time, and told me she had disagreed with the previous result, so she had to be very thorough and sure to overrule the previous result.
It's now just over 5 years since the NHS recognised I may have it, so it's been a very slow process, and I think I'm lucky that the old service has been replaced with a new one who seem to be doing things differently. If I'd been up to challenging the previous result at the time I don't know how that would have worked out.
I think Wales is better than much of the UK, so what you may be able to do about it probably depends on where you are, but they don't necessarily get it right first time, and if you're not happy it can be worth trying again.
I'm really sorry to hear this - I'm waiting for my assessment and I worry about being told I'm not autistic. I do think Trainspotter's made some great points, and your doctor should now focus on helping you identify the reason for how you're feeling (and a second opinion on the autism assessment wouldn't hurt either). I hope you're able to get some answers.
If you believe yourself to be autistic, you will be entitled to a second opinion. But first you need to wait for the reasons why they consider you not so to be. Read this carefully and find points you consider to be wrong.
Remember that even if you are not autistic, there are reasons for the difficulties you have, and there are many overlaps between the characteristics of for example, ADHD, Bi Polar, OCD and BPD for example. It should not be a fishing expedition to try to get you diagnosed with something but a way of trying to find out why you feel the way you do.
The main thing to bear in mind is how your condition affects your everyday life, as if it does not appear to cause any problems you are unlikely to get help even if diagnosed. So make a list of the ways you are affected. For example, do you mix socially with people, and if you do are you then ignored by others or made to feel an outsider, do you misunderstand others or do they misunderstand you, do any of your senses get overloaded (sight, sounds, smell or taste or do you not like others to be close to you), are you clumsy, or say the wrong thing or are rather abrupt, easily upsetting others, do you cope with changes when you are not in control, do you suffer from chronic anxiety and depression, etc, etc.
I think that some attempt should be made by the person who assessed you or your GP to try to find what is causing your problems even if it is not autism. After all if you were suffering physical symptoms and you had an x ray to find if you had broken a bone and this found that you hadn't, you would expect further investigation to ascertain the cause of the pain. And it should be the same with neurodiverse conditions.
Just that I didn't meet the criteria really and I'll get something through the post explaining it further
Did they give you any indication as to why?
