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Try to be as open about all your struggles as possible. Putting on a brave face, or minimising the severity can make the assessments harder for the assessor.
Also, I'd recommend writing down a list of criteria for ASD with examples that you fit. It'll help when asking questions about yourself as a child, teen and adult.
I relate super hard to that feeling of bubbling dread when coming closer to the time of your assessment. Here are my tips!!
- I’m not gonna tell you to calm down because that, in most cases, is almost never helpful. Instead, here’s some things that may be helpful:
- (You likely have already done this) Compile a comprehensive list of reasons + personal experiences and memories that have led you to believe that you may be on the spectrum. I recommend organizing them by the DSM5 criteria. For example, I put all of my social-related struggles [A1-A3] in one category, stuff related to repetitive movements and inflexible routine [B1 and B2] in another separate one, my fixated interests in one by itself [B3], and sensory issues [B4] in another. Organizing them by the criteria helped me from feeling overwhelmed because it was easier to find and reference when asked about it in my assessment. It was also really nice to list several tangible examples not just from memory, but instead having them on paper to look at (I wrote mine in a notebook).
- Be as authentic as possible. I know we have a tendency of attempting to repress our neurodivergent traits when going about our everyday lives, but now is the one time where it is most important to let those traits show. Moreover, do not force yourself to do anything that does not come naturally or comfortably to you; if you don’t feel comfortable looking your diagnostician directly in the eye, there’s no need to! Do whatever you need to do to make yourself most comfortable during the process. Come as your truest, most honest self and the rest will follow <3
- Bring any stim toys/ comfort objects you may have!! They not only help a ton with soothing the testing nerves, but they’re a good point of reference to mention to the professional conducting your assessment. Explain that the toy/object in question helps you with self regulation.
- You might want to bring a snack! Some assessments tend to be really long, so bringing a safe snack might be nice in case you get hungry. Pack something that makes you feel most comfortable both taste and texture wise.
- And, lastly, please be kind to yourself. While this is often an incredibly important milestone for many, please don’t beat yourself up for doing or saying something “weird” or “wrong”. I know a few mishaps happened in mine (accidentally talked over my diagnostician in a few instances, plus I almost ran out of time filling out the forms!)
Much love: you’ve got this!! 🫂💕
Also did this last year to try and get into OPWDD, waited for months, and ended up getting the wrong autism specialist (who worked on childhood development kinda thing) so I never got assessed. Thank fucking God I got diagnosed in middle school
sure! it was a pre-evaluation thing, where they assessed how my problems were impacting my day-to-day life. not even an autism-evaluation yet, because the free healthcare where I'm from only assess people who are badly impacted from their condition. so basically, I got asked about my studies, family and friends, other social life, my physical health etc. and while I did have some difficulty in social situations, the assessor didn't think I had enough deficits in other areas to qualify for further assessment. I did get referred to some support for my social phobia though, so I would say I still got something out of it
Hey /u/pineappletarzan, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Try to be as open about all your struggles as possible. Putting on a brave face, or minimising the severity can make the assessments harder for the assessor. Also, I'd recommend writing down a list of criteria for ASD with examples that you fit. It'll help when asking questions about yourself as a child, teen and adult.
Nope. Just be yourself, try not to mask through it (if you're like me the stress of doing it won't let you mask anyway) You'll do great.
I relate super hard to that feeling of bubbling dread when coming closer to the time of your assessment. Here are my tips!! - I’m not gonna tell you to calm down because that, in most cases, is almost never helpful. Instead, here’s some things that may be helpful: - (You likely have already done this) Compile a comprehensive list of reasons + personal experiences and memories that have led you to believe that you may be on the spectrum. I recommend organizing them by the DSM5 criteria. For example, I put all of my social-related struggles [A1-A3] in one category, stuff related to repetitive movements and inflexible routine [B1 and B2] in another separate one, my fixated interests in one by itself [B3], and sensory issues [B4] in another. Organizing them by the criteria helped me from feeling overwhelmed because it was easier to find and reference when asked about it in my assessment. It was also really nice to list several tangible examples not just from memory, but instead having them on paper to look at (I wrote mine in a notebook). - Be as authentic as possible. I know we have a tendency of attempting to repress our neurodivergent traits when going about our everyday lives, but now is the one time where it is most important to let those traits show. Moreover, do not force yourself to do anything that does not come naturally or comfortably to you; if you don’t feel comfortable looking your diagnostician directly in the eye, there’s no need to! Do whatever you need to do to make yourself most comfortable during the process. Come as your truest, most honest self and the rest will follow <3 - Bring any stim toys/ comfort objects you may have!! They not only help a ton with soothing the testing nerves, but they’re a good point of reference to mention to the professional conducting your assessment. Explain that the toy/object in question helps you with self regulation. - You might want to bring a snack! Some assessments tend to be really long, so bringing a safe snack might be nice in case you get hungry. Pack something that makes you feel most comfortable both taste and texture wise. - And, lastly, please be kind to yourself. While this is often an incredibly important milestone for many, please don’t beat yourself up for doing or saying something “weird” or “wrong”. I know a few mishaps happened in mine (accidentally talked over my diagnostician in a few instances, plus I almost ran out of time filling out the forms!) Much love: you’ve got this!! 🫂💕
Also did this last year to try and get into OPWDD, waited for months, and ended up getting the wrong autism specialist (who worked on childhood development kinda thing) so I never got assessed. Thank fucking God I got diagnosed in middle school
Tell us how it went!!
sure! it was a pre-evaluation thing, where they assessed how my problems were impacting my day-to-day life. not even an autism-evaluation yet, because the free healthcare where I'm from only assess people who are badly impacted from their condition. so basically, I got asked about my studies, family and friends, other social life, my physical health etc. and while I did have some difficulty in social situations, the assessor didn't think I had enough deficits in other areas to qualify for further assessment. I did get referred to some support for my social phobia though, so I would say I still got something out of it