Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I’m going to try and keep this short.
I recently had an assessment with Psychiatry UK where I was basically told I don’t struggle enough to have a diagnosis even though I do have autistic traits.
I have felt different my whole life and just cannot accept this as an answer. I am a woman in my early 20’s and I am aware of the fact that often women go undiagnosed because of outdated concepts as well as masking.
Has anyone else been in my situation before? And if so, how did you eventually get your diagnosis?
Thank you in advance, I’m feeling lost.
NAS94802 said:I have felt different my whole life and just cannot accept this as an answer
It helps to bare in mind that the label of autism given out by these assessments is about whether you are affected by your neurodiverse traits enough to meet the threshold of being disabled.
Neurodiversity is a spectrum which means you have a number of different traits, each at a level of impact on your life. If you have enough at a high enough level then you qualify as disabled.
You are quite probably still neurodivers but not badly enough effected to meet the threshold value that has been somewhat arbitarily chosen.
In essence, you are autistic but not enough to need help.
You are still capable of suffering from your traits so I would advise to consider yourself as autistic and look up the traits you exhibit and learn how to manage them and improve your quality of life.
Look at the posts here, contribute, ask questions and learn - that is what this site is for, and also for some social chit chat sometimes
We will still consider you as one of us if that means anything.
Hi, thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it! I just feel as though what I do struggle with wasn’t really mentioned or spoken about. I know it might sound silly, but the reason why I went for a diagnosis was for validation of my feelings and experiences I have had and do have. I just wanted there to be an explanation for how I am.
NAS94802 said:I just wanted there to be an explanation for how I am.
You have autistic traits which almost certainly means you are on the autism spectrum so it helps to understand about autism as a whole and then dig into information about the traits you experience. I would recommend the following for this:
Understanding Autism For Dummies - Stephen Shore, Linda G. Rastelli, Temple Grandin (2006)ISBN 0764525476
A super simple summary is that your brain developed a different way to the majority of people (about 15% of the population is neurodivergent, of which 2% are autistic, so there are a lot of us) through a process that is still being understood so all they say at the moment is that it is probably genetic with a few other factors.
The brain development meant that a lot of the information filters that are wide open in very young children do not start to switch off or consolidate which is the case for neurotypicals - instead we have lots of information flooding into us and it is why so many of us are super sensitive to light, sound, smell, touch etc.
Everyone seems to get a random selection of traits and intensities for some reason (still being researched) but this means we are all a bit different to one another, making it hard to lump us together and point at someone to say "they're autistic".
So in summary - we don't know enough yet but you are who/what you are and the best thing is to accept it and deal with what you can identify which are your traits.
If you stuggle with these then a therapist skilled in autism would be my recommendation for helping you come to grips with it and accept yourself.
That is the whistlestop summary if it helps.