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Worrying about my assessment

NAS84358

My assessment is coming up and I'm really worried that I'll either mask the whole way through and not get diagnosed or that I have made everything up and will trick the people who are assessing me. :( 

  • I know how you're feeling, mine was about a month ago.

    I did it online so I was able to put some of my glittery things beside the screen to look at, and I wore some of my stimmy jewelry.  That helped me let more of my autisticness out. 

    I got the diagnosis in spite of my worries. Just try to be you and answer honestly.  It's so tough but you will get through it.

  • It’s a very common thought. However, all you need to do is turn up. You might find it easy, you might find it challenging. Either way, just be you. I’m pretty sure you will be feeling anxious, so even if you do mask, it will slip a lot of the time.

  • I had these fears too and I ended up hiding my arms in my sleeves which I very rarely do as I was ultra self conscious about being over expressive with my hands or doing the thing where I tap each of my fingers in turn when I'm agitated.  What happened was half way through the assessment I forgot about it and some of the things I do naturally they then observed.

    The interviewers I had were very nice and although some of the exercises towards the end seemed to be aimed towards kids, I thought to myself you've got to this point, go with it.  When I got the report there was a bunch of stuff they observed from what I said and how I acted which I hadn't even thought of as being autistic traits.  So like Simon said, they'll be used to people being nervous and I think they will try and look past that.

    My appointment was supposed to be 40-60 mins but was about 80.  I don't know if that was because they needed more from me, I took too long to think about things or blathered on to them but it could also be that they needed to get past the initial 20 mins were I wasn't being myself.

    In the weeks between my assessment and getting the diagnosis I did try to convince myself that they would say I wasn't autistic and I would be back at square one.  Don't let that put you off, for me (and hopefully for you) it was the right thing to be assessed and to know the outcome.

    Take care!

  • Hi. Slight smile

    Maybe it would help if you expressed your worries to the assessor(s) at the start? At least this might put your mind at rest, even though they've probably already considered your concerns in advance. I imagine that they are used to assessed people having such worries.