• Replies 3 replies
  • Subscribers 25 subscribers
  • Views 1052 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Assessment process...looking for some reassurance

Amshep

I met the consultant at my autism service yesterday morning, which is the last part of my assessment. This meeting was 1-1 with him and he was really, really outgoing, which are two things that help me interact with others better (the other assessment parts had 2 people in there, and they were normally friendly and I feel like my social skills were much weaker there). I'm very clumsy at verbally explaining my problems etc so I'm already feeling *** about not being able to put my case across properly, but then the consultant also completely disputed my mental health diagnosis saying that he is not convinced I have what I'm diagnosed with, and that because of my history it's understandable I have problems dealing with/ expressing my emotions, so now I feel really confused about a lot of things. To top it off, at the end of the interview, the consultant made a comment about how when he looks at all my collated information from the whole assessment that he'll probably see some traits of autism, as if to say that many people have traits but that doesn't mean they're autistic.

Now I feel like I completely blew it. I need the diagnosis as a validation of my experiences and to help the people around me understand me and my problems. I'm waiting to get an appointment for the review meeting at which I'll be told whether I get a diagnosis, but I'm so scared that they'll refuse to diagnose me based on my meeting with the consultant, especially because I'm pretty high functioning and some of the more stereotypical signs of autism aren't very severe for me, but I know in my heart that I'm on the spectrum...

Parents

  • Ah, I see, you came across as older! Sorry. Yes, in that case a diagnosis probably would help.

    It would be "just in your head" though, either way - or where would else would you place it? Shouldn't really make a difference, should it? The head is the only part of our body that makes us significantly different from all other animals, so an issue that originates from your head should be just as real and relevant as any other, I'd think.

    But perhaps with explaining your feelings and difficulties to people around you some professional view on these very issues helps more than a diagnosis as a whole because quite possibly that wouldn't mean much to them anyway so they still wouldn't understand you better. Hopefully you'll at least get that. Some people seem to require things being given a name though to make them real... That's a shame because it makes it quite difficult with things where everybody is somewhere on a continuum and not necessarily at the same level of that in each aspect. You may be pretty good in recognising and reacting appropriately to how others feel but really struggle to communicate or deal with your own feelings - so where to draw the line...

Reply

  • Ah, I see, you came across as older! Sorry. Yes, in that case a diagnosis probably would help.

    It would be "just in your head" though, either way - or where would else would you place it? Shouldn't really make a difference, should it? The head is the only part of our body that makes us significantly different from all other animals, so an issue that originates from your head should be just as real and relevant as any other, I'd think.

    But perhaps with explaining your feelings and difficulties to people around you some professional view on these very issues helps more than a diagnosis as a whole because quite possibly that wouldn't mean much to them anyway so they still wouldn't understand you better. Hopefully you'll at least get that. Some people seem to require things being given a name though to make them real... That's a shame because it makes it quite difficult with things where everybody is somewhere on a continuum and not necessarily at the same level of that in each aspect. You may be pretty good in recognising and reacting appropriately to how others feel but really struggle to communicate or deal with your own feelings - so where to draw the line...

Children
No Data