To think I might be neurodivergent ?

[chatenoire]

I've been thinking about it for some time, and I think I'm definitely somewhere on the spectrum. Coincidentally a GP once told me I had "OCD" traits, but I've also read people who are neurodivergent sometimes get told this.

So I took a test and this is the result!

It doesn't bother me, if anything it's a relief as it explains many things :)

My dd is autistic, she went through MS school and we only got a diagnosis when she was 17 because we were trying to make sense of her mental health issues .
You wouldn't really know tbh except she is shy and she struggles socially .

She is bright , funny and incredibly artistic and excelling at Uni ..

It's not a bad thing , we see it as a super power 😊

It was created by a clinician that has peer reviewed journal articles, so I think it's a decent guidance (plus it was created before the removal of Asperger's as a term)

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013497722

Thank you @Punxsutawney and @Singleandproud . While my mother would not be able.to be there (or any relative) my husband would be happy to oblige. In fact he truly believes it would explain a lot of things. He calls me "complex" and when we were dating he used to say that I didn't behave like "normal" people did, he's now changed it to "other" people, but the point is that he's aware of my social quirks.

My main worry is that I live a normal life, and have a client facing job. However with things like friendships I like the idea of having them, but not the social aspect, it's more about knowing that someone cared about me (I hope that makes sense)

Where did you do the test? I want one of those spiky charts.

chatenoire
for many reasons I did not want my parents involved with my assessment. When that became apparent, the clinician was concerned. But I was able to give a detailed history, going back to before I even started school.
I've known Dh since I was 18, so his involvement was really helpful. When I went for the follow appointment and diagnosis. The clinician said that there was a huge amount of information to base my diagnosis on and it worked well having Dh involved.
I do struggle hugely. And from a very tiny child onwards, I've had so many issues, most of which went completely unsupported. I'm signed off sick at the moment from my very part time job. As I'm unwell with significant MH difficulties.

I was so used to my 'normal' and the difficulties that everyday life brought me. I'd never know anything different .
It was only when Ds was diagnosed 4 years ago that I looked into autism in women and girls and I suddenly realised that was me too.

I felt a lot of the questions lent themselves to stereotypes. It's also possible that this quiz focuses more on typical 'male' traits as women get missed a lot.

I got 96% chance of being neurotypical. I assure you it is highly unlikely I am NT.

I think it really helps that I rarely interact with people on my day to day (I've worked remotely for the past 12 years), so the social struggle element isn't as obvious and when I have to I can "flex" it.

However, I've always known that something isn't quite "right", but have tried to get it fixed via a MH route, and I think that was the mistake. Many of my struggles are because I think differently, and I try to make them fit in standard ways. This is more at an introspective level, so the struggle is internal.

I hope the GP refers me, but I doubt they will. Spending £2k on a private assessment seems a bit too much (especially when I'm just looking for reassurance and not adjustments).

Sorry but this Article, as do so many others, clearly prove self diagnosis is valid as do many people and professionals in the ND community. We’re not talking I saw one video on TikTok and now I’m ND here, those of us that have self diagnosed (either as a stepping stone or the only step) spend a lot of time working through it, and may be our only option in certain circumstances.

An article can’t prove anything, there’s a reason why these doctors go to med school and then do clinical years of work…it’s because you can’t diagnose anyone not even yourself as an amateur. No article or multiple choice test is going to change that.

Did the adult one. It’s loads of questionnaires for you, relative, etc. then it’s a good 4hrs face to face time with a consultant psychologist who specialises in autism going over your answers, why you answered the way you did, how you live, your thought patterns, and so on. It’s not a box ticking exercise.

They are! I think part of the reason my ND shows up on the aspie quiz is I am quite masculine for a girl/woman. I was a ‘tomboy’ as a girl. The questionnaire won’t replace the expertise of a live psychologist consultant specialist in autism who knows how girls present. There is the possibility that a woman taking that “aspie quiz” could be gender nonconforming more than ND imho, as I noticed right off that the questions were clearly stereotyped to a male ND.

I also started looking at online tests but now I am waiting for a formal assessment (advised 2 year wait here). I've had to fill in several initial screening questionnaires though already to get to this point.
I'm a bit worried as they say they need to speak to people who knew me before I was 10 but I'm fairly old and there's no one I can ask for that.

I understand what you are saying about the relief felt from getting an understanding about why you do things you do. I felt it too from the online results. I decided to go the official route though so I can access additional sources of help to aid me in my career as I've reached a point of bumping up against the same problems again and again and I just can't work out how to get any further without additional support.

I think it's all a lot more common than people realise, and it's more recognised now. But when I was a kid there was no additional help for anyone with anything. I was able to copy a few things from others and although I never fit in, I was able to muddle through. Some other kids almost certainly just got ignored and left to struggle.

I would find it very useful if someone went through my thought patterns.

My only relative would be my DH who's known for 6 years now (although if the GP agrees given the waiting times he might have known me for 10).

I'm also fairly annoyed with my therapist because at least it's obvious from how I lived my childhood that there were some signs there, rather than blaming everything on my "traumas".

The thing is trauma and ASD signs overlap massively and its difficult to untangle the web to find out which is causing the current behaviour and thought patterns. So if you have experienced trauma things may not be as simple as just getting assessed.

It won't affect the 'paper' testing that gets done, so there's that. I know I'd get diagnosed if I had an assessment, I just don't feel the need.

And considering it takes several hours of testing minimum to get diagnosed, a little quiz like that is hardly definitive. Especially when it tells me 96% chance I'm not ND. I'm not 100% convinced but I know I'd get diagnosed at the earliest appointment if I made one. I just don't have a need of it.

but that's the thing, the "traumatic" event in my life happened when I was 16 (which btw I didn't find that traumatic) but the patterns were there WAY before that.

I remember writing physics equations over and over and over since I was 12/13. (I found that soothing).

Or thinking about the possibilities of X song being played at that precise location before.

My obsession with astronomy (and science in general) began when I was around 6-7.

The staring at people was also from young (my mother would tell me off).

I remember once I must have been 7-8 that I was looking at the different patterns of the number plates and someone got annoyed with me.

Oddly enough none of the above has come up in therapy.

That’s not odd for therapy though? Mental health therapists are not psychologists for ND. If you want to explore whether you are ND, get referred for or save up for an ASD assessment.

Your complaints are rather like saying you went to see a gastroenterologist and oddly they never asked about sinuses. That’s not their speciality.

True, it is a personal choice.

The doctors say that someone who isn’t autistic would never sit and wonder if they might have autism; let alone do a screener for it!

I'm a bit sceptical. It seems every man and his dog is now self diagnosing as ND. We will teach a tipping point where NT is no longer T

She's a clinical psychologist, so I would assume she could pick it up (or at least make the suggestion).

Our traits vary from person to person, they make us who we are. It's o my an issue, a disability if it means we are unable to fully function in the life we want to lead. My dd is autistic, diagnosed as a toddler but has strong views when anyone suggests autism is a disability, she instead believes that she is just a natural variation in humans and the problem is with society trying to make us all be the same. There are those with autism who have severe learning difficulties but whether in the future we realise these are a separate condition or difference (I personally don't think getting rid of the Asperger's diagnosis was helpful) remains to be seen.

I have friends with children with classic presentations of autism (no significant speech, 24/7 care) and my dd was also diagnosed with this but her drs were wrong (or jumped the gun, this was in the USA ) and I'm very aware that our situation is very different to their outcome (all kids now young adults).

If a diagnosis (or self diagnosis) is helpful to you to understand yourself that's fine but it's not a panacea for solving problems i think I'm saying. I'm also pretty sure most of us have some traits, it's just some have more/comorbidities

Has anyone had an autism or ADHD assessment and not received a diagnosis? I feel like that an assessment is very likely to receive a diagnosis which is interesting. The screening stage is clearly successful.

Has anyone had an autism or ADHD assessment and not received a diagnosis? I feel like that an assessment is very likely to receive a diagnosis which is interesting. The screening stage is clearly successful.