RMET test and imposter syndrome

not diagnsed however found that test hard.

> 9 mins

28 / 38 correct

ooof

I score 37 on the AQ50 as well. I had the most difficulty with the photos of the women. They were all young and had make-up on, which I think both limit the overtness of expression that is possible, so to me they were the most inscrutable.

My score in the eyes test was 29, much higher than I was expecting. I felt like I was guessing a lot of them, but my guesses turned out to be correct.

Like you I have researched facial expressions previously and therefore was able to use intellectual knowledge. I think I used a process of logical reasoning and elimination of the unlikely options. Far easier to do when there are only 4 choices than in real life, when the options are numerous and the expressions can change very quickly.

Also in real life I very rarely look at eyes. I look at the mouth area and I think that I partly lip read to help with auditory processing. Until the pandemic I did not realise how much I relied on this. When everyone was wearing masks I started to look at eyes for the first time and found it so uncomfortable and off-putting.

I scored 44 in the RBQ-2A, higher than I was expecting and I've scored in the past. I think I'm becoming more of a creature of habit as I get older.

I think there's a difference between looking at static faces on a screen and taking your time to work them out in comparison to facial experssions of real people in real life with all the other stuff going on at the same time. I also think from reading replies and my own experience of the questionnaire a few years ago shows that many autistic people have lots of empathy, often more so than the general population.

Dear Martin,

I've waited until Sunday for the time to do this new test justice.......and to redo a the RAADS R and AQ again.

Like you, I am autistic based on all the evidence at my disposal (lots!) but I do not have a diagnosis.  I suffer from imposter syndrome because I have been able to successfully project various NT versions/masks of myself for 50+ years.  I'm good at it - so neither myself nor others knew.  I seriously thought either myself or the world was mad.  I now know this not to be the case.  It is simply the case that I am, actually, solidly autistic.  This new knowledge is proving immensely helpful to me - and those around me (I think!)

This new eyes test is fascinating - thank you again for posting the link.

I took me 18 minutes to complete and I scored 25. Wrong ones = 11 total = 5 men + 6 women.

Of these 11 wrong ones, 5 were unexpectedly wrong (all women), 5 were expectedly wrong (all men) + 1 wrong female guess.

I was surprised that I got so many wrong but I also can't imagine how I would ever be able to complete that test is less than 10 minutes.

My RAADS R Score = 132.  My AQ =37.

Like I say, despite or because of my masking capabilities, my unusual behaviours, my life history being an exemplar for a late diagnosis (for a female, interestingly), my work history being an exemplar for a late diagnosis and even these type of online tests, all evidence suggests........

Well thanks for this post. I kept thinking I was good at reading people. I got 23 with 6 deductive guessed, so apparently not so good haha. I couldn't even answer 8 of them because none of the words were right. I suspect on the ones I didn't guess, I would do worse if there weren't just 4 options.

Like you say, as you are an artist and researched expressions, it's not just something you 'know'. I grew up in a very aggressive household so I find it easy to spot the more negative features of anger, distrust, hostile etc. I didn't realise until now how much I must misread my partner lol. 

So again, thanks for this post 

In this context it is the feeling that you are not autistic, even though you are. Many less 'overtly affected' autistics feel that way from time to time, even if, like me, they have had a clinical diagnosis. 

It's the feeling that you do not have the right "stuff" to be part of something....in my understanding.

What is ‘imposter syndrome’? Wanting to be autistic and pretending? 

I always score very highly on the eyes test. Might do it tomorrow, but I have done before and I think I only got a few wrong. Maybe for the best I don't do it again. 

That test is why I held off seeking diagnosis for so long.. I wouldn't say I have imposter syndrome, more, I strongly doubt the diagnosis atm. I read people really well, in fact I think I read them too well, it's like it's too obvious what they are thinking almost. 

Wow, I actually thought I'd do better! I only even answered 21 of which I got 15 right and I took more than the three minutes even to do that! Many of them I was just huh, they're just eyes, they don't have a particular expression! The ones I did get I worked out, some i tried to do that with my eyes and see how I felt! But with alexythymia that probably didn't help much...

Well, if I was doubting I was autistic that was an eye-opener, haha! I had no idea it was possible to get so much info from just eyes.

I hadn't tried the repetitive behaviours one before, so that was fun! I got 38, which was higher than expected. 

I think the mind's eye test is a bit useless, because in real life there's no multiple choice options, and actual expressions are more subtle than the staged ones in the pictures.

I wish I could find some boxes to put my panoply of syndromes in, from time to time.  It appears that most of my available boxes are getting filled up with some old tatty masks.

The emotive faces thing is of particular interest to me at the moment.  Like you Martin, on the surface, all evidence suggests that I am (more often than not) really rather good at understanding what a face is saying and I can therefore interpolate what the attached human soul is saying.

Thank-you for the link above, I'll give it a whirl and report back.