So, for a while now, after hearing a bunch of #ActuallyAutistic individuals talking about their experiences, I've been asserting that I wouldn't be shocked to learn that I was on the autistic spectrum.
Today, for shits and giggles, I decided to take the AQ and RAADS-R tests, and scored "very strong alignment with autistic traits" on both. While I'm not shocked to learn this, I have to admit, I didn't expect to score that high.
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AutistiCritic
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to AutistiCritic • •@AutistiCritic I keep going back and forth as to whether or not I should persue a diagnosis. I don't know that it would give me any benefit, and while I don't live in the US,* some of their policies do tend to leak across the border. To that end, I wonder if it would be an unnecessary risk to have official documentation of having autism on the record.
* I live in Canada.
Kevin Davy
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •It tends to give no accommodations that your ADHD diagnosis doesn't already give you. Also remember an official diagnosis isn't about whether you are autistic. But about how it effects you and what level of help you may need. It's purely a deficit assessment.
AutistiCritic
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Luke Kanies
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •welcome to the party 😀
I found these links incredibly helpful when I was going through the same journey:
This link is a general description of what it might mean if you find you are autistic, with emphasis on how it can be tranformatively positive. I know for me it was the greatest gift of the last 7 years or so.
coda.io/@mykola-bilokonsky/pub…
This reframes the DSM diagnosis from external, and kind of crappy, diagnostic framing to instead how someone might directly experience any of the main criteria.
coda.io/@mykola-bilokonsky/pub…
This should not be such a good link, but it's so great honestly I think everyone should read it. I learned a ton of words about how to talk about myself, and found it super helpful. I also sent it to our therapist (who has no experience working explicitly with autistic people, so I'm slowly training her).
coda.io/@mykola-bilokonsky/pub…
There is no autism epidemic:
neurodivergentinsights.com/ris…
Is There Really an Autism Epidemic? Understanding the Rise in Diagnoses with Historical and Human Context
Dr. Megan Anna Neff (Neurodivergent Insights)Shantell Powell
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Shantell Powell • •AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦
in reply to Shantell Powell • • •Murdoc Addams 🧛🏻 🇨🇦
in reply to AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦 • • •Yup.
Baroness Winter
in reply to AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦 • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Baroness Winter • •AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •You want to tell us more about these reasons?
@BaronessWinter
Baroness Winter
in reply to AudhdDespiteNoisyAbleism 🇨🇦 • • •Kevin Davy
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Come On Giant Asteroid!
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •