ADOS assesment (Adult)

Hi GW,

I've just gone back to your initial posts and a number of your issues (eye contact, social difficulties etc) certainly look like autistic tendencies. On top of that I suspect that the stresses around not understanding yourself and not understanding how to adapt to social contact, when combined with an absence of understanding, are leading to further issues. Your obsessive record collecting is typical ASD behaviour but wouldn't necessarily, in and of itself, indicate ASD.

When I first suspected that I had the condition I read around and found some stuff that tended to confirm my suspicions. I'm aware of the problems of self diagnosis and "confirmation bias" so I was wary of the diagnosis. It wasn't until I got a proper diagnosis that I took it really seriously. At this point I was probably more aware of what was relevant to the diagnosis so I emphasised certain points, and played down certain aspects, when talking to GP and when I talked to the psychiatrist. I completed a questionnaire but the psychiatrist primarily went on what he drew from a consulation where he interviewed me and "tricked me" into showing my true colours. The trick was where he watched how I reacted to him being very rude to my wife - I didn't react as a normal person would as I didn't spot the non-verbal stuff that was going on! At this point I was not feeling stressed or depressed and he was able to look at a fairly clear and unobfuscated picture.

It seems to me that your autistic desire to have a "black and white" diagnosis may actually be obstructing a more relaxed and measured view of your situation. If you allow yourself to think of yourself as somewhere on the spectrum and then to deal with yourself as certainly introverted but probably more than a bit autistic then you may get to a better place.

Have you seen Susan Cain's TED talk or her book "Quiet". This may give you food for thought. I also read Valerie Gaus's book "Living Well on the spectrum". This helped me understand myself massively.

HTH

Hi GW,

I've just gone back to your initial posts and a number of your issues (eye contact, social difficulties etc) certainly look like autistic tendencies. On top of that I suspect that the stresses around not understanding yourself and not understanding how to adapt to social contact, when combined with an absence of understanding, are leading to further issues. Your obsessive record collecting is typical ASD behaviour but wouldn't necessarily, in and of itself, indicate ASD.

When I first suspected that I had the condition I read around and found some stuff that tended to confirm my suspicions. I'm aware of the problems of self diagnosis and "confirmation bias" so I was wary of the diagnosis. It wasn't until I got a proper diagnosis that I took it really seriously. At this point I was probably more aware of what was relevant to the diagnosis so I emphasised certain points, and played down certain aspects, when talking to GP and when I talked to the psychiatrist. I completed a questionnaire but the psychiatrist primarily went on what he drew from a consulation where he interviewed me and "tricked me" into showing my true colours. The trick was where he watched how I reacted to him being very rude to my wife - I didn't react as a normal person would as I didn't spot the non-verbal stuff that was going on! At this point I was not feeling stressed or depressed and he was able to look at a fairly clear and unobfuscated picture.

It seems to me that your autistic desire to have a "black and white" diagnosis may actually be obstructing a more relaxed and measured view of your situation. If you allow yourself to think of yourself as somewhere on the spectrum and then to deal with yourself as certainly introverted but probably more than a bit autistic then you may get to a better place.

Have you seen Susan Cain's TED talk or her book "Quiet". This may give you food for thought. I also read Valerie Gaus's book "Living Well on the spectrum". This helped me understand myself massively.

HTH