skibum wrote:
It's funny because the person who first evaluated me said the exact same thing. The psychologist said that the first thing I did when I entered the waiting room was that I asked the receptionist if she could turn the music off or change it or if there was somewhere else I could go because I could not stay in the room to fill out the form otherwise. I was also stimming and kind of looking at everything in the room in a particular way. I also did not make any eye contact with the receptionist. My counselor also said that the first meeting we had, my posture was very telling as I sat in the chair across from her. I also spoke to the receptionist in a manner that showed that I was either unaware of the "proper" social way to speak or that I did not care. I said things very bluntly and without much understanding of how to "wrap" what I was saying in a nice little package and spoke more like a child would. Also the first thing I did when I entered the psychologist's office was to comment about his decor before I even said "hello." I said, "You must really like this color because it's all over your office." It was not mean but rather in a matter of fact way and even complimentary because his office was very beautifully decorated. He was proud of it anyway and said he did it not his wife. Then after I sat on the couch I immediately got up, walked past him, reached over his desk and straightened his diploma on the wall because it was just a little bit off and it was bugging the tar out of me. Then when I sat back down on the couch I took off my clogs and put my feet up on the couch and just kind of sprawled all over it like a little kid would do while we were talking. Apparently only an Aspie would do all that.
But what immediately caught his eye was my behavior and speech patterns when I was in the waiting room.
The person who first evaluated me said he could tell right away too because of my extreme social naivete and childlike innocence when I interacted with other people in the room. And they were all strangers. I interacted very much like a little kid would. And as he got to know me better he mentioned things that I did not even realize I was doing like I he said that in our conversations I would talk about food by texture and not by taste which is very ASD like. I would also work in the same spot and clean my skis the same way every time and that five minute task would take me about 45 minutes to an hour, He also said that I would get a little stressed if the lights were turned on differently like if they had one set of lights off or something. He also said that in our conversations I would talk to him as if I did not realize he was actually working and it would be difficult for me to let him go from our conversations even though he was on the clock and had work to do. He said that all of these things were strong indicators of ASD. He also said many more things came out as he got to know me which were indicators but those were the ones that were apparent right away.
Thanks skibum, for the detailed answer.
I can definitely relate to some of those. Especially the music one; I was the patient from hell when it came to hospitals and music >_>.
At my meeting with the psychiatrist who diagnosed me, my mum was there. I tend to hide behind my mum anyway and did so even more. The psychiatrist began by trying to speak to me directly, but I crumbled under the pressure and started getting a bit agitated, so he switched his attention to my mum. Later on, I was able to speak a bit more. The room we were in was completely utilitarian, but a more interesting room will grab my attention; for example, as I was leaving a different room a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a row of psychology books and went over to take a further look - the psychologist noticed that. She said I was a "bookworm", even though I had told her I didn't have the concentration span for reading much anymore >_<.
Anyway, yeah, back to the autism psych. He didn't give me feedback about my behaviour and speech the way yours did, but to be fair I didn't give him a lot to feedback on; I was mostly withdrawn. He asked a lot of questions about my early childhood, my daily life, etc. and he summarised all the info given in a quite in-depth letter a few weeks later. Also, British docs seem inclined to keep their thoughts to themselves unless you specifically ask them - and even then, some of them remain pretty guarded. (This reticence worked badly against me with the Crohn's for years, because I was equally reticent and so never found out stuff I really should've known.)
The autism psych guy did say in his letter that he thought I "clearly" fufilled the criteria for ASD, so he didn't seem to have any doubts. I never thought I behaved "autistically" in public, but something my stoma nurse said to me bugged me a fair bit :-/ Basically, I told her I was going for an autism assessment - she knew me quite well by this point, having seen me regularly for a few months - and her first words were "I'm not surprised!". Tried asking her later by email what she meant, saying I wouldn't be offended by anything she said, but she 'diplomatically' backpedalled her way out it anyway... >.>
#BlogPlanet
08 Nov 2014, 1:18 am
I'm really happy for you. *HUGS* 
