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subtleotter

Hi all, just wanted to write in with a story about not being diagnosed and my ultimate frustration with my assessment. At the end, my assessor confirmed that I was 'definitely neurodiverse', but despite the social problems I reported having, I had gotten on the 'wrong horse' and needed an ADHD assessment. I'm alright with going for an ADHD diagnosis and fully believe that I also have that, but the assessor made a number of flippant comments, such as:

- I cited being unable to see the 'grey' areas, and finding a lot of benefit in therapy to be able to see other points of view; the assessor told me that ASD folks can't see the grey area

- I cited video games as being one of my special interests; the assessor commented that 'video games are not a traditional autistic special interest, the dopamine release is more indicative of ADHD'

- successfully having two long term friendships apparently also disqualifies me for ASD!

I do think that my ADHD traits tend to hide the social ASD struggles that I feel. People are willing to overlook when I go nonverbal at intense outings if the rest of the time I'm usually bubbly and outgoing, or think it's just me being a b*tch when I get overstimulated and very snappy and angry. I score abysmally low on tests involving empathy (and expressing it day-to-day), but because therapy helps me, I'm not autistic. I've played the same 20-30 story-based video games on repeat my entire life, but that's not an autistic special interest...

The lack of diagnosis was disheartening, but realising I have to sit in another queue for an ADHD assessment was even more disheartening. What if I get to that assessment and they say 'you've gotten on the wrong horse, have you considered an ASD assessment?' 

Has anyone here paid for a reassessment with any success? Would it just be more fruitful for me to go for an ADHD assessment and call it quits with ASD? The most important thing to me, really, is the personal clarity of a diagnosis. I feel so strongly that both apply to me, but I'm willing to just 'self-identify' and keep using the tools I've found helpful for ASD if push comes to shove, but I do ultimately feel like my outcome is incorrect... ): Any support is welcomed with open arms, as I have been struggling a lot with this.

Parents Reply
  • in reply to Iain

    In different words, but yes, they used my success at socialising as 'proof' that I didn't fit the ASD criteria. I gave several examples of social situations that I struggled with during the assessment, and during the 'results' bit, they told me that 'you can socialise well - although you've said with difficulty.' 

Children
  • in reply to Iain

    I agree with you Iain that it takes an experienced assessors who are trained specifically to diagnose autism. When I was looking for a suitable private autism assessment last autumn, there were too many advertising that didn’t seem to adhere to the NICE guidelines, which the NHS uses. I had two assessors and they used ADOS-G and DISCO tools, followed by a team meeting between them. 

  • in reply to subtleotter

    This does mirror what I have heard from two psychotherapists (both with doctorates in psychology) when it comes to the limitations of the assessment process.

    It seems the more normal a life you have lived, the harder it is to meet the criteria for a diagnosis, so those of us who have become adept at masking and scripting find it hard to be diagnosed even if we are just as affected by the same traits.

    It takes an experienced assessor to dig deep enough to see through the masking and scripting for these cases and I think there are not enough of them available yet to stop cases falling through the gaps.

    What makes it more challenging is many of us try to seem "normal" in the assessment process rather than unmasking and being brutally honest - we are almost defeated by our own self defence mechanisms.

    Have you tried any of the free online ADHD assessment tools? These may be able to tell if you are indeed on this part of the spectrum or if the traits are autistic ones - there are a lot of crossovers in these traits which can make it difficult to diagnose properly.