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Diagnosis

NAS84042

I was told I do not have autism by a psychologist doing my ADOS assessment as 1. My communication skills are too good and 2. I don’t really suffer meltdowns? Is this accurate? I only fulfilled 1 out of 3 sections he said. I’m Interested in recently diagnosed adult females’ opinions? 

  • Having meltdowns is not part of the diagnostic criteria. There are well-known actors who are autistic, they have to have good communication skills. What you were told does not make much sense.

  • in reply to Deleted User

    Thanks for all the comments. I have considerable social issues which I felt weren’t taken into account much in the process. It was all about my childhood. My draft report suggests some kind of attachment disorder which I don’t agree with as I had a very loving childhood 

  • 1.Autistic people can be very articulate. 2. Some people can often have shutdowns rather than meltdowns but as far as I'm aware,  neither are actually part of diagnostic category of the "triad of impairments". It's taken me a while even after diagnosis to understand what a meltdown means to me. If I was asked about this before assessment I would have said I didn't have them.

    You might not be autistic but I think it's important you feel you've had a fair hearing.

  • Was there a good amount of miscommunication from your point of view? 

    I think it's important to begin to write down all the problems with translation or social situations you may have had over the years. If you feel it's a part of why you felt diagnostic would be helpful. Being barred from society for lack of an ability to relate with others, always feeling like we have to do a great deal of conscious work to figure out what someone is saying and still often getting it wrong - these will impact livelihood. 

    From my experience, the Autistic neural-wiring is similar to ADHD in 2 key ways: a hyper-focus monotropic brain and a difference with sensory filtering, often a difficulty/inability filtering out internal and external input. Could be another possibility.

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    Thanks. I agree with what you say. He was following the criteria very strictly but I don’t think he was really in tune with how females present sometimes. I paid for a private diagnosis as my daughter is diagnosed (by someone different.) I can’t afford to approach a different assessor but I feel I should ask for a second opinion 

  • I don't have a formal diagnosis, but I'm inclined to wonder if the psychologist is behind the times and believes people can only be autistic if they have noticeable stereotypical traits. There are plenty of ASD females with excellent communication skills, who also aren't prone to suffering meltdowns.

    If a formal diagnosis is important to you (some people are happy to self-diagnose), is it possible that you could request a second opinion? 

    I'm tagging in this response because she is (in my opinion) great when it comes to answering posts like this. She is self-diagnosed but really seems to know her stuff.