hey i'd be really grateful if you talked at all about the process of getting an autism diagnosis because i really want to do that uhhhhh i tried talking about it with my therapist and he asked me why i would seek a diagnosis and i couldn't articulate an answer so if you could talk about what that process was like for you and how you would answer that question that would be really cool thank you
Yeah for sure! (Disclaimer: this is based off of my experiences in the United States, specifically California)
Getting a diagnosis can be important for multiple reasons:
Resources- there are disability departments at schools and universities that can give time extensions on tests, recording lecture accommodations, etc. You can also get accommodations in your job as well. And I haven't done much research into this, but it seems like there are scholarships for autistic individuals going into college!!
Validation- this is kind of hard to articulate, but especially as an autistic woman who masks a lot, sometimes it felt like I was “faking”? Like I can do well in certain social situations, I have close friends, I was even complemented by my current employer for my interview skills. Things like this made me feel like the difficulties I faced were not “enough” to be autistic, and that I was just making it up in my head. But after talking to a licensed professional, she agreed that what I feel was real and valid. She also helped me realize that I was struggling more than I realized, its just years of masking that hid my struggles. Even a psychologist diagnosing you is not necessary to be validly autistic, because there are a lot of issues with the diagnosis process, it just felt good in my experience.
Understanding- knowing that you have a developmental disorder can help contextualize a lot of childhood experiences, and in turn can help continuing to understand yourself and your limits.
As for the process of getting diagnosed, I was really lucky in that there was a female psychologist in my city who does autism diagnoses. I talked with her over the phone for a bit, and we set up an appointment time (which I hated lolll I hate phone calls)
I did an interview over zoom with her and my parents, and we talked about my childhood and early development. I also did a verbal IQ test, which was mostly just vocab. Then a few days later I came into her office in person (obviously with a lot of precautions) and I did some weird tests with children books and toys. They were obviously meant for kids, but they seem to be standard for the assessment lol. For example, she gave me a picture book with no words and I had to explain what was happening. Apparently I gave very “factual” answers without much focus on the emotions of the characters, which was a factor towards my diagnosis. Then I answered a bunch of questions about my life. Overall, each session was roughly 1.5 hours.
Hope this helps, good luck! If you ever want to talk more about this, message me and I would love to talk more in depth(≧◡≦) ♡
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