It's official!..... kinda

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This morning I got an informal autism type 1 diagnosis. It's not on paper, but I'm so relieved that I finally know for sure.

The woman who did the interview regularly does ASD assessments for children and adults and she said that if I did the actual assessment, she feels confident that I would get diagnosed.

I sent about 8 pages of notes plus notes from my best friend, who is an OT, along with the assessment paperwork. She said that it was a huge help. My friend also came with me to the interview, which she said was also a good thing.

She read off questions from a couple tests and asked me to answer them and to elaborate. I was quite nervous but it still went better than I thought. My friend was there to elaborate on questions about how others are around me. I was surprised that apparently I'm a bit more socially blind than I thought.

So basically she said that it's not official, but it definitely looks like I'm on the autism spectrum.

I'm so so so relieved to finally know!

Yay!

Congratulations JetBuilder!

Are you going to leave things the way they are, or are you going to go on to get a full diagnosis?

Don't know yet. I may get the official diagnosis in a year or so. I think I'd really only need it if I needed to find a new job or I decide to go back to school.

Congrats jetbuilder. I'm glad being diagnosed helps you.

Congratulations! Your post is almost identical to the one I made four months ago. The doctor's preliminary diagnosis went "Your traits are consistent with someone on the spectrum". The doctor told me that it was up to me if I wanted to pursue an official on-paper diagnosis. She said it wasn't necessary, but it would be helpful in case I ever needed special treatment on a job or government assistance. I went ahead with the full testing for diagnosis back in May, but am still waiting for the final results. Don't know WHY it's taking so long -- 9 weeks so far.

Yeah! That is awesome Jetbuilder!

Congratulations JetBuilder!

Congratulations! I'm very happy for you JetBuilder Out of curiosity, what sorts of questions did she ask? I do love diagnosis stories

She basically had a couple checklists in front of her and she was asking me questions from it and asked me to elaborate on each of them. She asked me to rate how I think I relate to people (these kinds of questions were why my friend being there was a really good thing) I said maybe 3.5 out of 5, and my friend said maybe more like a 2. She asked me what I do in certain situations, like "What would you do if someone was very upset?"

She basically asked me a LOT of questions about my early childhood and how I feel and react in various situations. We also went over what my thought process are in those situations. I'm so so so glad my friend went with me! From what my friend added, apparently I'm less socially aware than I thought

Towards the end of the interview, after she told me her impressions of me (She mentioned the differences she noticed between my body language compared to my friends), the assessor said that she would feel confident giving me an ASD Dx if it were an official assessment. She went on to tell me about some local support agencies for people on the spectrum. By this point I was a bit shocked that I had gotten that clear of an answer and I was just trying to process that instead of paying much attention to what she said about support groups.

Before, I thought I would be super happy about this, but when we walked out of the building, I felt kinda numb while I was still processing all of it, and then I started to feel a huge wave of relief.

Jetbuilder, it's good that you have this relief now, am glad for you!

That's how I felt walking out of the last session of my assessment; relief, a little bit of exuberance, and exhaustion, the result of having been horribly tense and anxious all day prior to the meeting. Your friend having been there sounds very useful; I think having one of my family members at the meeting would have helped my case further, but it was done at my university, and the closest they got to talking to my parents was asking for a phone number to call them if they needed any more information.

The questions the doctor asked you sound somewhat similar to the questions I was asked during the ADOS part of my assessment; how do I define friendship, what sorts of things make me feel certain ways, how do I know when I'm doing things that annoy others, etc. Assessments are primarily what I want to do when I graduate from college, I find the whole process fascinating.

Congrats on understanding yourself.

I am glad it was a hugely positive experience for you. That is not true for everybody.

The polite response would be "Thank you"