Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi.
This is mostly just a vent post and I guess whatever the experts say goes.
I'm from the UK and I've been going though the process of getting a diagnosis for years. Although I showed enough symptoms to get through multiple appointments where they would have been cut off earlier if my initial assessor suspected I wasn't on the spectrum I've just received the result that I do not meet the criteria.
Apparently it all came down to my ADOS assessor saying I didn't show a single trait of autism despite the other assessor noting that I did and dozens of other psychologists in the past have pointed out my body language and how I stim and avoid eye contact, etc. I would have been willing to accept this is I just missed the threshold but to have scored 0 just feels like a complete denial of all the bullying and issues I've ever faced due to these social and communication problems.
I've looked up the clinic who assessed me and literally every review says that the person didn't receive an adult diagnosis or any support and they persued a successful second opinion from a different service on the NHS or private and these places told them it was the easiest diagnosis they've made and they couldn't understand how anyone would think they don't display any traits of ASD.
Does anyone have any tips on where to go from here, it just feels dehumanising to bleed your heart out to these assessors for years telling them all the problems you've faced and them even agreeing it's possible you're on the spectrum just to get a letter right at the end saying I don't meet the criteria and they're cutting me off the service.
Just needed to rant, thank you if you read this.
I wasn’t happy to be diagnosed as ASD. Why would you want that label? What are the advantages?
There is a very real stigma attached to it and for years I didn't like having it as a label either, if you disclose it at the interview stage you are often denied employment and given a bogus reason to cover the ableism etc. With that said I wish someone had told me earlier in life that I don't actually have to legally disclose it to anyone for any reason.This is why I punch hard for pro radical autism acceptance now, because we are still crawling (and too slowly) out of the dark ages in terms of understanding autism and protecting the rights of autistic people on a widespread scale.