My wife asked me to do one of the online screening tests for Autism and ADHD, 50+ I think I may have a few answers for who I am…
This has come from our daughter having a’ “maybe”, but lets wait and see as it really hard to tell in Girls’ if they have mild ADHD.
I’m late diagnosed neurodiverse too, and being diagnosed made a HUGE difference to my life. I really didn’t think it would, but tweaks like different colour backgrounds, software etc really helped me. My anxiety dramatically went down because I realised so much of it was sensory overload, and now I can address that. It’s also helped cos I know I’m not thick and never was! Really hope it helps you and yours
Even if your child turns out to be not autistic, in my opinion, being aware of the condition - its various traits and the challenges it brings will help you in your parenting tasks and help you in understanding yourself.
Did you do well on the test?
Could have done better, only 43 / 50
BlueEther must try harder to apply them self in calss and in social situations
Smart but lacks discipline
must try harder to apply them self in calss
This gave me an instant and vivid memory of reading my report cards in school. That’s exactly how they said it.
I took the test about a year ago.
Then after learning what masking, camouflaging, and assimilation were, about a year later, I took it again, dropping those defense mechanisms when answering the questions.
I really didn’t need to finish the test to know I was autistic at that point. And while I’m not seeking a diagnosis, I have a psychiatrist that I get a strong feeling is going to end up diagnosing me.
Why is it hard to tell in Girls?
There are (I believe) less of the ‘classical symptoms’ in prepubescent girls. We were told that from about 10 years on it is much easier to have a diagnosis - this is where girls seem to start to display the more classical symptoms of ADHD
It has been a huge learning curve for us, and from it my wife and I have come to the conclusion that (although not diagnosed) we are probably both neural-divergent. She has scored very high on multiple online ADHD tests and I did a respectable 43/50 on an autism screen.
Yeah both ADHD and autism is harder to diagnose in girls and women because for a good bit there was an assumption that they can’t get it, because their symptoms usually present very different. Now it has been recognized in the DSM-5 for a while but psychology is kind of playing catch up with them, so it takes time for actual therapists to learn to isolate those new diagnoses.
I personally believe that one of the reasons this is so hard is that girls culturally tend to value social interaction way higher than boys, giving them more experience, which leads to better masking skills, and all these skills do is hide the symptoms. Thus it also becomes harder to diagnose. I asked a group of peers who had autism if they ever tried or considered to withdraw from society or social interactions. The 2 men said they considered it but ultimately it wasn’t feasible, the 2 women said they never even considered it, which kind of supports that hypothesis, although it’s all anecdotal.
But yeah, we’ve come a long way to finally diagnose and treat women appropriately as well.
It’s not just masking; ASD has a big chunk of energy drain of camouflaging. Girls in particular, regardless of ASD or not, have very specific expectations, and it particularly ends up being an intense drain on energy.
My ex would copy her semi celebrity sister’s aesthetic, behavior, and values. She would spend time in front of a mirror practicing facial expressions. She would spend excessive amounts of time internalizing social rules (that she would freak out about if I broke them).
Interesting, thank you and I wish you all the best
Is it really?
I don’t know, he said it was in the post
The correct psychologist will be able to tell without testing.
good luck in finding that in New Zealand post covid
Sorry to hear you have so few wise people over there.
There are years long waiting lists here in NZ for mental health. For a child that is not disruptive at school and is not falling behind - good luck
And public health is slow and over loaded…
Shucks. Mental healthcare is overloaded in probably most of the world right now, sure is over here in the EU as well. Fortunately, there are a lot of professionals available, though waitlists exist. Hopefully we can catch up eventually, soon.
