The "Do You Think I Am On The Autistic Spectrum" (MG) Poll.

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Isabella is awesome. So are you Trog!

I diagnose you with-----Mountain Goat-itis

Hahahaha!

I would guess "yes."

However, I would also guess that, for you, ASD might not be the full story. The way you've described your "partial shutdowns" has lead me to wonder if you might have some other neurological condition as well. Would it be possible for you to make an appointment with a neurologist, in addition to being on the waiting list for an ASD diagnosis?

Not sure what a neuologist is.

Well. As to me the main issue over my life has been to find out what the partial shutdowns are (I never knew what tocall them) and the autism possibility was only discovered for me (I was acting on a hunch. I would not have joined this site but I had to join to ask questions. I am not one to join too many partial sites. Only have a few sites I am on. Glad I joined) after joining when someone gave a link. I went to an open day with an autism drop in centre and described the symptoms and the man said it sounds like a shutdown, and the lady agreed.
I've spent nearly all my life trying to trace this one. If it wasnt for this long journey of discovery, I would not have known about autism/asperges etc.

I was never able to describe it in a way that made any sense to doctors.

Thanks to everyone who have taken part in the pole so far. It will be interesting to find out what it is.
Someone put a link up about something to do with anxiety and AHCD? Or letters like that.. I did those online question things. Uhmmm. Well. I dont think they are accurate as I seem to have everything! For example, I tried my best to be honest as I can...And I think it was the anxiety one... 12 questions. I had 10 answers showing I may have it out of the 12. They said in the results (If I remember correctly) "If you have answered yes to three questions,we suspect you have anxiety and should see your medical specialist".
Well I can' have everything can I. I stopped answering these after I did three of the things... There were many more... It scared me! I think the questions must be worded wrong.

^^ This.

While it's obv impossible to diagnose over the net, you definitely seem in the ballpark. There are other conditions that can look similar, though, so I think its important to get a balanced clinical opinion if you're able. That being said, I know it can be hard to access such a thing, and that many with far fewer reasons have self diagnosed.

Your intense need to know with absolute certainty and dedication to getting an answer would seem to lean towards autism

A neurologist is a doctor who deals with physical conditions of the brain and nervous system. If you happen to have a neurological condition, that would boost your possibility of gaining benefits.

It doesn’t mean you have a neurological condition. And there’s no shame in having a neurological condition.

Anxiety is very very common in ASD, especially among the masking Aspies, nothing surprising about you scoring high on it.

Mr Mountain Goat,

I'm trying to recall if you've ever done online autism screening tests? They certainly aren't foolproof but I can't remember you mentioning your scores. Many questions from the first one (Autism Quotient) were asked directly by my assessment doctor. You may have done these before, so I apologise if I'm reinventing the wheel.

AQ Test

RDOS

Empathy Quotient

For reference, my AQ score was 48-49 out of 50, but the cutoff score suggesting ASD is much lower. I believe it is in the 30s. I think it will tell you at the scoring section of the test.

The RDOS will give you a beautiful spiderweb graph showing your ASD strengths as compared to your more neurotypical strengths.



This is me ^ .

The EQ will rank your empathy. It's common that autistic people get low scores on this test despite often feeling an abundance of empathy in their daily lives. I feel very empathetic if not overly-so, but on the test I scored very low. If I recall correctly I got 13 or 15, but it might have been even lower. (I'm sorry I can't find where I saved my score).

...I said " Yea!/Yeah! " (the Scruffs/Cliff Richard) !

I am concerned. I just tried those tests things. They actually surprized me.
I was answering having no idea of the outcome as I didnt guess the patterns.
I have written the scores down.

Oh goodness! I didn't give the links to concern you.

The testing you will do is so much more complex than anything you could answer subjectively with yes or no. These types of questions from the online tests are only a very small part of the ASD assessment. I was tested for about 12 hours with a variety of spatial, problem solving and vocabulary tasks. It was very much performance-based rather than me giving my opinion on different questions. Please don't let any test score worry you. I just thought that the questions might help you to think of ideas / memories for your developmental report when the time comes.

AQ 39 (I have done this before and had 41).
Neuro Diverse 173 of 200.
Neurotypical 21 of 200.
Empthy. 11 out of 80. That can't be right can it?
I must say I didn't expect the results to be quite like that. I thought I would be far closer to the boarderline. How can I have gone so far in life and not know?

I have no idea what this green thing is but here it is anyway! Is it a brain chart?

Not a chart of your "brain".

Its a chart of aptitudes and personality traits. The black line encloses your traits. And you read the wording around it to figure it out.


Yeah. It looks like you're about forty pounds of autistic in a ten pound bag! Lol!

When I take that test I get around an even split: 80 or a 100 each way -and it decides that I could be "either NT or ND", and yet I was officially diagnosed with aspergers a couple of years ago.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 21 Sep 2019, 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah! I thought you were implying that your scores were more NT. Now I understand!

I'm not surprised by your scores at all, given what you've told us about your personality.

I wasn't assessed until last year, and I felt the same amount of shock and bewilderment. I was identified as Level 2 moderate autism. How on earth did I get that far in life without any type of red flag or support? I had speech therapy as a child in school, but that's it in terms of any accommodations. Everyone assumed I was good and fine because I was quiet and liked to read. I could be ignored very easily and the buck stopped there. My social-emotional needs and challenges were completely disregarded.

I completed two university degrees and held a full time professional career before I had a total breakdown and had to stop. Years of doctors appointments and psychotherapy led nowhere, because they weren't asking the right questions. When I did suggest Autism to my psychiatrist I was told I was "too articulate" to be autistic, because apparently autistic people aren't allowed to have a rich vocabulary despite having English degrees and a special interest in language.

I felt exactly like you Mountain Goat, and it's not uncommon for adults on the spectrum. Yes, I was happy to finally solve the puzzle and get a diagnosis but that moment definitely involved confusion, upset and even anger. I couldn't believe that my parents, teachers, friends and employers had no flying idea how much I struggled, and no one once offered to help.