Autism assessment due. What can I expect?

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I think some preparation will be much more conducive to a considered and constructive response in the assessment,
rather than trying to fumble for a memory impromptu. Or even, perhaps, embellishing it unawares just to have something said.
It is asking much of a mother in fairness to recollect on the spot her son's demeanor at the age of about three.

You are not going to fail as such just because your relative can't remember what you were like as a child. Provided there is enough there to show life-long symptons AND you still display the symptons that should do.

I'm with Steve really, these tests could go wrong either way if you rehearse them. These tests would have been validated on people who had not seen them.

Jason

I have a really bad memory anyway, but it means I might forget some of the things I think I have issues with because I just assume other people are like that. I forget what is important or not. There's the risk of blowing those things out of proportion but my mom will be there to put it in perspective from an outsiders point of view.

Also, I was slow to speaking but only because I had my own language and insisted others learnt that instead. My comprehension was above my age but my speaking was delayed. Does that sound like an Austistic trait or a stubborn smart baby trait? lol

I have to occupy my mind when I'm anxious to relax more. It's not like I'd remember everything, but I don't want to be speechless on the spot. >_<


Also, I'm not sure how to find the pages on the link you sent. The download was odd. =[

I think a possible difference lies in that everyone can experience maybe mildly a certain trait from time to time (due to being exhausted or some other reasons) or you are experiencing traits ( = symptoms) every day in everything you are doing, in every-day-situatios.
It is not something, that sometimes "shows up".
Autism is a disability, not a few traits someone can experience from time to time (except maybe on the very very mild end, where is it questionable if a diagnosis is required).
In my last passages I am not talking about you or questioning you or an diagnosis, but I think it is the severity and quantity of traits and that they are all the time apperant which makes the difference between "everyone having traits" and actually having an ASD.

I agree with you but some things may persist and it doesn't mean much.
Like perferring solitude might be a symptom of aspergers or introversion.
As an extrovert, I socialise fairly well, by what I can tell. However I have poor facial recognition (I know this isn't autism really) and facial reading is more difficult than I think it should be (I basically categorise faces into good or bad, and then guess from their paralanguage whether the bad means scared or angry, their face doesn't help much.) I even have trouble picking up if someone is drunk. (Probably not a trait but I'm just listing a few similar things I notice with me.)

I suck at reading hints and getting flirting or reading between the lines. I'm not stupid and can thing of many possibilities for each single thing that happens socially but I lack that gut feeling that people seem to have who typically socialise well. I tend to manage without it, but as we get older, hint reading seems more important, and I just can't do it. I'm doing research on it and have studied psychology since I was 14 (I'm 21 now) so I should have learnt what I can learn by now.

If I get too into something I just go on and on. Another problem is psychology is a special interest of mine, so I diagnose everyone to a degree all the time, so it's possible its to do with that, but so far I've been right (depression, cyclothymia, my sisters eating, my other sisters and friends' dythymia, etc, they're probably not difficult, I know, but I don't think I just jump to stupid conclusions, I spend ages thinking about it because it's fun, not out of anxiety, which is why I am not likely to think I'm just going 'omg there's something wrong' I'm more like; 'hey don't these things seem like that?')

I also find I don't make the right facial expressions often and that my voice might sound too sad or too angry when I'm not feeling that way. My feelings don't come out the typical way. However I have a high ability to express my thoughts, just not feelings.

I don't suit the typical aspie criteria and suspect this will be what makes them say I'm not. I can socialise, even if I only understand about 40-70% of what's going on.

Sorry for the rant. And I didn't take it personally, it's fine.
There certainly is a line, and I'm sue it's easy to over analyse the traits and wrongly consider them symptoms. I linked that you highlighted the difference between traits and symptoms actually.

Which typical aspie criteria do you mean?
What you write here shows some clear perceptional problems.

Well the reason people say I'm not an aspie is because I can socialise, so I only really mean that.
I can engage in small talk easily, and can make people laugh. I am extroverted, and I've never been bullied for being 'the odd one' in fact being 'the odd one' made me the person who never got bullied. Sorry if I'm using stereotypes and it offended you. >_< It's just this is what everyone keeps kinda saying to me. But my issue is that I don't feel I understand as much as a NT should or normally does, so it could be autism, I'm nto sure what else it would be.

What are my perceptional problems. =/ With the stereotpyes?

I should have used the word stereotypical aspie rather than typical.

As in, I'm not obsessed with maths or something, I'm obsessed with human interactions, thus I like social interactions. I enjoy watching them mostly but engaging is fun. It only occurred to me recently I engage better when treating it as a psychological experiment. So it's all to do with that main interest. Which could be considered a bit obsessive, or just normal. *shrugs* Seems neither to me. Just how I am. But at the same time, it means I do socialise a fair amount and enjoy it even if some parts of it are stressful. Many would say if I can socialise, understanding or not, I'm not really an aspie. I don't think that works myself, but yeah. >_<;

Ok I said I could explain my thoughts very well, but that's when they've been mulled over a thousand times, and put into analogies. >.> So this might just be confusing ramble.

Being able to read people is an "intuitive" perception.
People with autism have trouble reading people, or they can perceive too much or too less.
You obviously seem to have a problem with it.
Obsessing with math is not mandatory at all.
But having obsessions (special interests) is very common.
It is a difference if "many say, you can socialize", or if you feel that you have to do an conscious effort for it.

Ah.. I'm over thinking this again. lol..

I think part of my over thinking helps me make up for my inability to read certain things. =.=
I personally think I'm considering what they say too much, on the outside I can socialise, but it might just be by chance I found some things useful. Like apparently my normal behaviour is flirting, so I'm good at flirting. But it doesn't mean I understand or mean to flirt. I guess it could easily be the same with any other kind of general socialising. Whether it seems that way or not, this is more about how our mind works and how it effects our behaviour. Not simply the behaviour. *wipes brow* I was worried my rambling looked trivial. haha

Thanks for your reply, it was very helpful. ^_^

I hope this is true.
My parents have been somewhat difficult in this respect. Before anybody ever brought up the possibility of autism, they were quick to whip out examples of what an awful child I was. "You were stubborn", "you refused to be punished", "you screamed", "I had to hold you down to get you to sleep".
When they got sent a developmental questionnaire to fill in, they mentioned none of the above. In fact, they did this maddening thing where they'd read the question, agree that I'd done a certain thing (such as repeating words and phrases), then decide that "all children do that" (which I'll admit is true to an extent) and tick the box saying I hadn't done it. So, although I had actually done what the question was asking, they'd do the psychologist's job and decide that it was irrelevant.

It's going to make me look like a liar if I turn up and say, "well, actually, I did _______".

I'm sure they won't accuse you of lying. Some parents may be all; 'There's nothing wrong with them!' due to typical stimga, and I'm sure they're prepared for that, so they probably will be ok if your parents are like 'oh they were fine and you say 'I was always like this and that >.>'

Also, I would assume they only ask about your childhood to try to see if the 'symptoms' have been around for your life, rather than just popping up. I'd think it's important, but not more important that what you are like now. And sometimes, that will be all they have to go on.

If the psychs would decide they don't have enough reliable information they might give you a PDD-NOS dx just because of it.

Symptoms must be present at 'early age'. Obviously some clinicians require more in this respect than others. Some would insist you must had pronounced symptoms at age 4-5, others not even require your parents be interviewed or have them fill in a lengthy questionnaire.

Criteria for AS require special interests and difficulties with social interactions, though. If you can really enjoy taking part in small talk that's not about one of your special interests, enjoy flirting, and all of it instinctively, without effort and constant thinking, I don't think you have an ASD, no offense. Propensity to overthink matters is not enough in itself.

However, there are many diagnostic categories, but all require you having some kind of disability that you need help with.

I'm guessing this is aimed at me?
I can engage in small talk outside of my special interest fairly well yes. I don't enjoy flirting by all means, I don't understand it and it makes me anxious. I have researched it and can understand why my behaviours might be seen as flirting but I'm like that with my siblings and mother too! And when I said I researched it, even my aspie brother laughed at me =/ It's possible I'm just clueless.
I'd say conversation is easy enough because I ramble about what I'm interested in and manage to bring it back to something the other person said so they don't feel like I completely ignored them, but it took years to develop. I don't think I have huge problems socialising though. I just think I'm lucky people don't know how much I don't understand. Like when they say certain phrases or slang, I fail to grasp but I change the subject, I don't understand a lot of their illogical feelings and find their facial features terribly distracting. but I'm rambling.

I don't know what I was like as an infant. My family only mention my mood swings and depression. *shrugs* It'd be interesting to learn about that when I'm there, even if they just laugh at me for having to research flirting and telling me I have nothing wrong with me.

(Maybe they laughed because they thought I was researching it so I could flirt actually, I guess that'd make sense. *looks around* It wasn't for that reason!)

How exactly are you struggling in you personal, family and work circumstances? If you can't show any impairments then you won't receive a diagnosis. You haven't really given anything specific yet.

Jason

Good point. I probably don't 'suffer' much at all. =.=
I know that it negatively impacts on my interpersonal relationships as I find I'm insulting people or making them uncomfortable without knowing, I also might not know when they don't like me and it's time to stop caring. Which means I have trouble maintaining long term friendships. I think the thing my mom worries about most is that I'm sort of oblivious to many things that can put me in dangerous situations. *shrugs* I don't think I have problems in work, I have a bit of difficulty understanding verbal communication, but in terms of getting work done, and having people around me, I'm fine.

I just come across as very naive when I'm not, I just can't seem to get some things, and some are meant to be just a given and it really doesn't make sense for it to be that way, so I might be on the wrong wavelength which doesn't help when I'm around people who will take advantage of that. Which is pretty much all the time.

*shrugs* I honestly don't know because I didn't really notice this much before, it all seemed normal to be sort of guessing and then having to try really hard to get some things, its just the more people get annoyed at me for not getting it the more I notice it.

Like I said, I could just be stupid. But I'm hoping I would get diagnosed, even though I'm clearly not that bad, because I don't want to leave the place with them saying 'yeah, you're just a bit stupid, don't worry about it' lol

It might seem like I'm over-milking my problems. That's something that always worries me with anything mental health related. DX

But I guess the assessment is there to decide if I'm over reacting or not. >.>

Not sure if this is necromancing, but an update on the situation is that they messed up the assessment so badly that they wrongly cancelled it, sent me a letter to contact people I don't know of without a number or reason.
They then sent the wrong info to another group so they think I'm having an ADHD assessment.
And it's set for October 2012.
So basically it's an 11 month wait from when I was referred.

I'm having very low expectations for this.
I'm sure they will shorten the assessment and tell me I shouldn't be there.

I have had experiences with stupid organisations like this before, and their speciality is turning people away without a good reason.

Another thing they managed to do was delay my counselling referral by 3/4 months because they got that confused with the aspergers (or adhd apparently) assessment.

Luckily my old psychologist got contacted regarding it and has sped up the process for my other referral and sent me a letter about CBT so apparently they bypassed the counselling because everyone but my GP seems to know counselling isn't helpful for me. (we'd know seeing as I've been in and out of it since I was 8 for the same mood disorder...)

I don't think I'm nervous about the test right now as I half expect it to be messed up again; which I'm more worried about.
It has taken me 7 years to get a referral to CBT, I can imagine it will take a stupid amount with this, if it's messed up this far for so little reason.

Then again I'm just very stressed out and wound up right now, so it's possible I'm blowing it out of proportion.

I just hate trusting Drs and members of their multidisciplinary teams, because it is always a mistake and they always end up saying something to the effect of; 'We're not sure what you've got or why you're like this, but we can't help. You're smart anyway, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Bye.'