Published on 12, July, 2020
I did terribly on the ADOS assessment and declined most of the things she asked me to do. Well I started of trying but ended up not being able to. I told her I needed time away to practise before I could answer them.
Anyway the ADI-r took place with my mum answering the vast majority of the questions. Mum told her I was very shy as a child, and didn't have any friends and preferred my own company. From he questions she was asking, and how my mum answered it sounded like I did not have many developmental delays. I learned to talk around the right age, learned to walk around the right age, BUT the teachers would think I couldn't hear them because I didn't learn to respond to them properly until I was around 5 or 7 years old. Mum told them she reckons it was cos we didn't speak English at home. I had convulsions as a baby and because two of my uncles have epilepsy they thought it was a good idea to put me on meds for 4 years. One of my uncles who has epilepsy thinks he has autism but never got assessed. My dad had got assessed as having a learning disability but not dx'd autism. Sadly he passed away.
I'm afraid cos I don't know what the result is going to be. Plus I have had psychosis so maybe that explains the situation more than autism.... so she may refuse to diagnose me
After my tests I was very anxious about how I would feel if they told me I wasn’t autistic. But when I sat down with the psychologist to receive my result I realised there was no good answer. My problems wouldn’t go away if it was a Yes or a No.
I wouldn’t worry about not having a developmental delay though. Lots of autistic people don’t really show signs until a few years later. I was hyperlexic (could read when I was 3).