Published on 12, July, 2020
On Monday I went to get the feedback of my assessment to find out if I have ASD. I didn't receive a diagnosis.
Part of the assessment was about my upbringing. I had an unusual childhood. When I was about 18 months old my father had a serious accident that nearly killed him. This time was very stressful for my mother, who suddenly had three children to look after, a paraplegic husband to care for and bills to pay all by herself. My grandparents stepped in and helped to care for us, and my mother was grateful for the help on the face of it, but in private she took it as an afront, an accusation that she wasn't able to manage. Over the years this anger and frustration festered and to cut a long story short we fell victim to that as children in the form of abuse.
As a child I spent a lot of time in hospital. When I was a baby I had whooping cough, and I have had lung and airway problems ever since.
The psychologist felt that while I definitely display some distinct autistic traits, it is more likely that these are caused by this double disruption to my development as a child, and so therefore she felt it wouldn't help me to receive a diagnosis of ASD. I disagree. I work full time in a stressful position and a diagnosis would help back me up with asking for reasonable adjustments at work. My boss is talking about making adjustments to my work practices, which is good, but who's to say those adjustments will remain in place after a year? Or after she's moved on? Or after I've changed roles?
So I'm going to wait until her report has been received, and then I'm going to look into the possibility of getting a second opinion.
Since Monday I have been feeling really down about things. I'm disappointed because this ins't the outcome I was looking for. I've also got other family issues going on - a row has broken out between me and my older brother and my mother has sided with him - because he never reported her for abuse. I did. And I would do it again.
Part of me feels like I no longer belong here because the assessment came back with a non-diagnosis. I feel like an outsider (not an unusual experience for me tbh) But here I found people that started making sense for the first time ever. So hopefully I can still be a valued member of this community.
Thank you for reading this far. I have Christmas presents to wrap before my other half gets home from work.
Looking at this as a whole from what I can see the psychologist is saying you do have developmental issues combined with something akin to post traumatic stress disorder. Hence whilst she’s said you’ve not crossed a magical line on a graph she is saying you are on the spectrum. Regardless, because of what she has said, and because of your own classification of yourself, you do fall into the boundaries of being disabled under the disabilities legislation thereby giving you the legal right to ask for reasonable adjustments.
Pragmatically it would also be a food hardly company that tried to remove them once they were in place, particularly with the psychologist stating that you do have things etc.
So hang in there and just ride things out for the moment. Having or not having a diagnosis from a professional also doesn’t mean that much as the better judge of people is the collective assessment of people on here. I for one didn’t join the forum until I had a diagnosis as feared being called a fraud by the group as likeminded people will always spot an intruder.
Andy
Well said Andy - big thumbs up.