cross-posted from: https://lemmy.autism.place/post/222147
Iām excited to see what everyone elseās said, if we have a lot in common, and if some of us have some funny stuff too.
Also, promoting !autism@lemmy.autism.place
Will I havenāt read my report. One of the people doing the evaluation said to my mum after meeting my father " Well we can see where it comes from", it is a very fitting description.
I am trying to find a place locally to take my assessment, but because Iām an adult, I need to pay for it. Itās so hard to get an adult diagnosis, like as if they are trying to prevent you from doing this, because it has no presence in an adult, so youāre wasting our time.
I hope I can bring back some quality lines.
I had to pay for mine too. Luckily, I found out that my local state university has a program for autistic people of all ages. I asked them for an assessment. While they didnāt conduct the assessments themselves, they gave a long list of psychologists in the area that did. I used that to find someone and was assessed within ~1.5 months. Perhaps there is something similar in your area. Maybe try internet searching for your location and autism services to find a starting point.
I hope I can bring back some quality lines.
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- a long time without two-way communication, now he can adapt because itās expected of him
- mostly uniform āsocial smileā with little variation
- generally a rather uniform and seemingly distant facial expression
- social chatting only with family members, not others
- little interest in other kids his age, rarely (if at all) being the one to initiate contact
Found this in some doctors notes from a few years back, not sure if it was specifically autism related but it seems close enough :P
Itās kinda funny now seeing my smile at the time being described with little variation and sometimes seeming sightly condescending. Makes me wonder how much of that was just me trying to smile at appropriate times
What are uniform and distant facial expressions?? This is what Iām imagining:
lol. Is that an HDMI port as mouth? :P
Basically meant a neutral facial expression with little variation, mostly staying the same. And distant as in āthis has nothing to do with meā or āwhateverā¦ā
lol
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Is that an HDMI port as mouth? :P
It looks like one! But what I was going for was a forced smile.
distant as in āthis has nothing to do with meā or āwhateverā¦ā
ohhh yeahhhh, I know that feeling. Iām going to pay attention to see if I notice a resembling facial expression.
His eye contact was variable; at times he avoided eye contact and at times he utilized intense, prolonged eye contact. He was able to communicate his own feelings and showed insight into othersā emotions, though he did not spontaneously label emotions during any of the activities.
Radicalautonomy showed some insight into the nature of some social relationships but had trouble understanding his own role in them. Generally, Radicalautonomy frequently attempted to maintain the examinerās attention and made appropriate social overtures. His response to the examinerās social interactions was limited. Most social communication included some reciprocity (back-and-forth), but he tended to engage in more one-sided or weaving communication (e.g. offering topics, facts, or information).
As a result, the quality of rapport was sometimes comfortable and sometimes stilted. With respect to Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors, which are best referred to as special interests, repetitive actions, or desire for routine and sameness, Radicalautonomy did use echolalia and used some unique verbalizations that seemed to be idiosyncratic or stereotyped (i.e., highly repetitive utterances with consistent intonation patterns).
Manā¦I know the point of these assessments is to be as critical as possible and the report is supposed to be detailed, but I find that report judgmental af. I wonder why. Am I sensitive to things like that? Is it the tone? Was it that they were critical about certain matters, such as someone judging you because you didnāt do things they didnt ask of you and it comes off as them being entitled? Any ideas??
I think the doctor was just being thorough. I didnāt take it as judgmental. She really just wanted to highlight every area in which a neurodivergent person might differ from neurotypical people. There were a lot of parts of the diagnosis which stated ā[In this area being discussed], Radicalautonomy was unremarkableā, meaning I did not differ significantly from neurotypical people in that area.
Thanks for that! Based on what you said, I think my judgement of her report is more of a thing I bring to it. Now, I gotta figure out whatās going on with me that I felt that way. š¤
I appreciate the story of these two sentences illustrating growing up without any diagnosis:
āReceived 4th grade math homework in 2nd grade because he got furious over how trivial homework was.ā
ā¦16 years laterā¦
āPatient has with SIGNIFICANT difficulties and enormous effort managed to complete an education.ā (Emphasis theirs)
Sure!
Itās apparently a common thing: Kids who are āsmartā and are clearly naturally interested in learning, are not followed up usefully. They can read novels and some basic multiplication, but have to sit in school and say the alphabet out loud and add single digits for months. Before proceeding to be told to read basic sentences for another few weeks, etc.
They are not pushed and challenged like their classmates. The teachers think everything is FINE because they are not behind, but the kids spend a full decade not learning to study properly because they donāt ever have to. They rather learn that they can fuck around and wing it and it will be passable.
Then at some point, age 15 and up, they are getting to proper challenging stuff. Armed with zero habits, no experience in failing, no experience in planning and organizing and studying methodicallyā¦ Many drop out, burn out, get depressed, or all of those at once.
I am in this picture. I excelled in school almost all years and graduated in the top ten of my high school class. Then I went to an engineering school and got my ass handed to me. I managed to graduate after 5 years, but it was a struggle and my GPA was noticeably worse than high school.
