Virtual assessment- ADOS

When is your assessment? 

M said:

I suppose the room analogy makes sense in terms of closure. I just feel there is more revisiting of past rooms at the moment... 

The revisiting 'past rooms' analogy very much applied for me also.

I had planned a year out to do that more emotionally, without any comparative considerations, as I had had many emotional breakdowns due to others over the decades so being alone to let all the emotions balance and even out first was rather essential for me.

Then the next year I did the intellectual bit by reading 'Look Me In the Eye' by John Elder Robison and 'The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome' by Tony Attwood ~ in order to relate with myself as actually having Asperger's Syndrome and re-narrate my contextual history in developmental and educational terms, with things like accusations 'of being lazy and needing to apply myself more' needed re-framing as me being for the most part exhausted and traumatised and needing as such better and healthier facilitation by others. 

Then later that year (back in the November of 2006) I got on the Internet for the first time and tried to become a community member at Wrong Planet (which felt very apt descriptively for me), but much to my confusion then my email address was not recognised as being valid in America, so next was the website here.

You've had a lot going on recently, and a lot to digest, there's no surprise that you're feeling tired. There's a lot to think about, and a lot to process. Take some time for yourself, do what makes you happy. Try not to over think. I'm so good at giving others advice, wish I could give it to myself. Chill out tonight and relax, you've had your second jab so you definitely deserve to rest.

I'm not sure really. Unremarkable? I suppose there is a weirdness around my whole life being reframed by a diagnosis but also nothing actually really changing either.

I'm also tired but that could be because I got my 2nd vaccine today and I had to drive an hour to the hospital to get it as I get it in my area of work rather than my home town.

How are you feeling today?

I suppose the room analogy makes sense in terms of closure. I just feel there is more revisiting of past rooms at the moment... 

M said:

Hard to describe it as closure as I feel it has opened more things up to me for me to analyse and pick apart!

As you close the door from one room you enter another room or else at least the enclosure of a garden or the exposure of the world at large type of closure perhaps?

M said:

I'm definitely glad that I have done this though as I have never understood many things and now they do make sense, or at least more sense than they did previously.

The resolution factor for me was immense.

M said:

I'm just wiped out with the intensity of all of this though. 

I lost three months due to stress induced seizures (as I had to go to a neurological unit quite some miles away) which really wore me out, and forty five years of psychological and physiological decompression along with it ~ just totally wiping me out too.

Another thing to be some extent ready for is the rest of the diagnostic hangover now, so if as a social worker you have any familiarity with bereavement protocols ~ they will come in very useful, what with your fake self having been lost to your real self sort of thing, and adjustment as such can take about four and half years to balance out.

A great deal of personnel 're-narration' in historical and emotional terms is often required.

Anyway though, welcome to the officially diagnosed spectrum of being Autistic! :-)

Welcome to the club! aha

On a serious note, I also hope it provides new avenues for thought and allows you to understand yourself better!

Glad you got the result you hoped for!

Thank you. I'm going to take small steps and think things through carefully when it comes to disclosure and asking for support. I'm definitely mindful that a lot of people don't know much about autism and what that actually looks like day to day across the spectrum. We clearly aren't all rain man or have learning disabilities. I'm really glad to be here though as having people to talk to who understand this process has been a huge help.

Hard to describe it as closure as I feel it has opened more things up to me for me to analyse and pick apart! I'm definitely glad that I have done this though as I have never understood many things and now they do make sense, or at least more sense than they did previously. I'm just wiped out with the intensity of all of this though. 

Glad you finally got closure. Best wishes.

Hi Michelle, I'm happy you've got an answer at last. But, as I've just said to another newly diagnosed on the forum, there is a lot of difference between thinking you're ASD and acutally having a confirmed diagnosis, so give yourself a little time to get used to it.

Oh, and from one fairly new member to another, welcome to the club.

Ben

I'm so glad you got an answer. Take time to process it all, what it means to you. 

I'm autistic 

Don't really know what to think, feel or do.

Sometimes I have to acknowledge to myself that I'm happy, so that I know I am. Haha now I feel more weird. Getting an answer will be good, hope they are prompt with their reply, and that you don't have to go through more.

I'm just hoping they have reached a conclusion either way rather than needing further assessment because it is so exhausting. 

Fingers crossed!

It went OK I think. They asked pretty standard questions for the most part about me. I didnt do any of their mysterious activities so I'm not sure what they would have entailed and what would have prompted them to do them. 

I find the questions about emotions weird. They asked something about whether I know when I am happy. Really weird question to me. Do people actively think "I am happy" at certain points in time? 

I'm not surprised you have a headache! How was it?