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ASD Assessment + Childhood Chronic Pain = ??

no-face
over 1 year ago

Hi all,

First post here and I'm looking to see if anyone has run into a similar situation to mine in the assessment process.

Had my interviews a month or so ago and recieved the assessment letter this week. I'm pretty confused by the write up really.

The 1st interviewer says I fit the criteria. The second interviewer says It's not possible to reach a diagnosis due to chronic pain since childhood (i'm mid 40's now).
My reading of this, and my partner's is that  by logic alone it's difficult and unlikely to be diagnosed with ASD if you have chronic childhood pain.
So the diagnosis summary says No.

My brain has slipped into a freeze state, errr. i honestly don't know what to do with this. It's neither of the outcomes I had anticipated.
I really thought i'd get a Yes or No, lol. I'm laughing but it's also comically not funny.

I guess i could ask for a second opinion on this, or walk away and make my own decision.
I don't really know why but i think i want some kind of validation if it's likely, Not sure what to do atm.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Thanks for reading,

Paul

Parents
  • over 1 year ago
    no-face said:
    The 1st interviewer says I fit the criteria. The second interviewer says It's not possible to reach a diagnosis due to chronic pain since childhood

    Anyone (autistic or NT) can suffer from chronic pain - it is not in itself an autistic trait so I would ask the second interviewer why they cannot reach a diagnosis. If there is enough trait evidence to establish an ASD diagnosis then having one extra issue does not cancel out all the rest. It is like saying you cannot be autistic because you have ADHD traits.

    A common issue with autism is our hyper sensitivity to sensory input and this can manifest itself as pain (many people suffer from loud noises causing pain for example). In your case do you think it could be this? If so then it is just another supporting trait of autism.

    If you can afford it then I would recommend a private assessment - they tend to have better qualified professionals on the whole.

Reply
  • over 1 year ago
    no-face said:
    The 1st interviewer says I fit the criteria. The second interviewer says It's not possible to reach a diagnosis due to chronic pain since childhood

    Anyone (autistic or NT) can suffer from chronic pain - it is not in itself an autistic trait so I would ask the second interviewer why they cannot reach a diagnosis. If there is enough trait evidence to establish an ASD diagnosis then having one extra issue does not cancel out all the rest. It is like saying you cannot be autistic because you have ADHD traits.

    A common issue with autism is our hyper sensitivity to sensory input and this can manifest itself as pain (many people suffer from loud noises causing pain for example). In your case do you think it could be this? If so then it is just another supporting trait of autism.

    If you can afford it then I would recommend a private assessment - they tend to have better qualified professionals on the whole.

Children
  • over 1 year ago in reply to Iain

    Hey Iain,

    Thanks for this reply. Yes i did list pain as a potential sensory issue in my notes. I'm going to try bringing this up again.

    This was a private assessment already so I've asked for a supplementory session to see if we can reach a clear diagnosis one way or the other before i look into a 2nd opinion.

    I've re-read the report multiple times now - I think the angle they are pointing at is that some of my traits could be attributable to having pain, ie social issues could be down to being too sore to want to socialise, and there is no way to say they are a result of autism specifically.