• Replies 27 replies
  • Subscribers 88 subscribers
  • Views 6992 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

What to do after a diagnosis is NOT confirmed after an assessment?

NAS39237

Hi,

I had my Autism assessment today after 3 years of waiting and the assessor believed my situation did not line up with the Autism Spectrum. His reasoning seemed to be that it is because I felt that it did not affect my life at an early age but certain debilitation have become more problematic in adulthood.  He mentioned the vague term of me having a personality disorder - more likely Anxiety. Yet, despite my obvious disappointment I don't know what to make of it - I've a list of Personality Disorders and common traits within them and nothing seems to jump out at a connection.

The problem is I feel that the debilitation I have are not just apparent when I am anxious. A lot of it is social based but even when I am with a friend I still cannot make eye contact among many other sensory and personality conflicts - I feel as if I simply don't qualify as an adult nor can handle any life skills expected as an adult.

I could go on further but the simple point is I am stuck, do I get another referral which I would have to pay for/cannot afford or look further into this vague term of personality disorder and go from there? I feel the debilitation getting worse, struggling to manage my work by the second. I was hoping to get through this get assistance but now I fee l am left  with nothing... & I don't know what to do...

Parents

  • I hope that this is not the case, as my circumstances appear to be quite similar to yours, in as much as I don't recall a great deal of social difficulty with my peers during primary school itself. But as my life went on my difficulties got worse and worse.

    However, I have read that Autism may not become apparent in childhood, until social demands exceed a person's capacity to cope. Could this be a factor? I think so.

    Also, it would make sense that many of us have such great support networks as children, if we are lucky we are surrounded by loving and supportive parents and other family members, much more so than many of us have as adults. Support can help reduce the severity Autistic characteristics experienced and displayed. It seems to me, that this could be another reason why symptoms may be less obvious in childhood, and more obvious as adults?

    I think this could be the case for me at least. As far as I can recall I was relatively well socially adjusted to my peers in primary school. Although I was very solitary out of school, had a great deal of anxiety surrounding after school social events, and was painfully shy around adults.

    My primary school years were in the 1970s too, Autism was hardly even talked about back then.

Reply

  • I hope that this is not the case, as my circumstances appear to be quite similar to yours, in as much as I don't recall a great deal of social difficulty with my peers during primary school itself. But as my life went on my difficulties got worse and worse.

    However, I have read that Autism may not become apparent in childhood, until social demands exceed a person's capacity to cope. Could this be a factor? I think so.

    Also, it would make sense that many of us have such great support networks as children, if we are lucky we are surrounded by loving and supportive parents and other family members, much more so than many of us have as adults. Support can help reduce the severity Autistic characteristics experienced and displayed. It seems to me, that this could be another reason why symptoms may be less obvious in childhood, and more obvious as adults?

    I think this could be the case for me at least. As far as I can recall I was relatively well socially adjusted to my peers in primary school. Although I was very solitary out of school, had a great deal of anxiety surrounding after school social events, and was painfully shy around adults.

    My primary school years were in the 1970s too, Autism was hardly even talked about back then.

Children
No Data