Published on 12, July, 2020
Below is a quote from my ASD assessment report.
The information outlined in this assessment indicates that (me) meets the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (DSM-V) criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder, requiring support for deficits in social communication and requiring support for restricted, repetitive behaviours, without accompanying intellectual impairment and without accompanying language impairment (has fluent speech).
This I’m told is High Functioning ASD —> It’s been two days since my assessment (23/10/2020)
im married, and hold a job in engineering, I manage a small team, and bring home a steady wage,
But I t hit me today, quite hard, this statement reframes so much of what I had considered normal. Or just the way it is.
now I require support (how much?)
i don’t know what to feel, I’ve read some heart breaking experiences on here of people truly suffering.
i suppose I’m grateful I lead a relatively independent life.
should I feel lucky, that I’m “just” high functioning? like it’s autism lite. it doesn’t feel like a fortunate thing.
Peter
Hi Peter,
As Plastic says, I'd take your time to see how autism fits with your current understanding of yourself. The most important thing to remember is that the diagnosis doesn't change who you are, and just because something is an autistic trait doesn't mean you have to have it.
The same goes for support - it's a case of getting to know yourself and working out what sort of support would help.
What you could do is look at previous things that have made it hard for you to do your job (or other things). What things could have been different to make it easier? Now that you have a diagnosis, you can tell your employer and they have to by law put in place reasonable adjustments. It could be the way that the employer behaves towards you, for example you could ask for notice before they talk to you about important work stuff, or it could be practical support such as removing items that are overwhelming for you to see or hear (as long as they're not needed for you to do the job of course.
In an ideal world, the above pharagraph would be all that's needed on the subject. Unfortunately some managements might not know much about autism or be particularly helpful. I work as a TA with autistic children, and even so I had a boss at one point who just gave me (and the kids) meltdown after meltdown by her insensitive manner. Her attitude was autistic people need to just adjust to life and learn how not to be so sensitive.
And no, "high functioning" is not "autism lite"! being articulate and knowledgable, people have a hard time believing you can struggle so much in other areas. There's a tendancy instead to call you melodramatic and making a mountain out of molehills. They might also assume you're being rude, whereas someone whos autism is very evident would be given leaway (but perhaps also patronised and automatically excluded from certain aspects of life)
helenedione said:it's a case of getting to know yourself and working out what sort of support would help.
I’m find this really hard, I’ve realised I’ve spent a lifetime copying people, it’s hard to know what’s me and what I’ve just copied. Hobbies, interests that I’ve pursued with passion at one point now I detest, I figured it’s because I thought people would like me more if I did that.
i found that a little heartbreaking.
I think where I am now, is I’ve been bouncing from trigger moment to trigger moment for years, it’s so hard to take a step back and assess why that moment did that.
im trying.
thanks for your reassurance. And your clear message, lots of good points