I went for an #autism assessment today. Just Because.
I'm a bit worried I'll fail the test and get kicked out of the nerd club as a result!
The diagnostic tools seem designed to diagnose people who are unhappy or struggling. Which is fair enough!
Help people who need help.
...
But if you're happy...
If happened to just figure out what works for you and found social circles you are comfortable with, you're going to answer no to a bunch of questions where a younger you or a you forced out of your comfort zone would say yes.
And some of that stuff will even be culturally contextual. Some cultures will be more spicy-brain friendly than others.
Same brain, different environment.
Anyway. Interesting stuff.
If I "fail", I will of course blame the test.
The woman doing the assessment was pretty good though. The chat was relaxed, fun.
She twigged that I was probably not going to tick the "right" boxes and suggested I take a longer test than she usually relies on: https://embrace-autism.com/raads-r/
My analytical brain gets annoyed though, because it's usually obvious what each question is trying to measure, but because of the way it's phrased I'm compelled to give the "wrong" answer.
I did squeak above the threshold on that one. Not by much, but a bit.
[Apologies for how slowly this thread is materializing. I don't pre-type my threads.]
The friendly woman said my case was "interesting" ...
She mostly helps women and I guess the selection bias means she mostly sees people who are struggling or have struggled.
A happy middle-aged dad like me, who just happens to tick all the social, professional, political boxes... who thinks he probably thinks like an autistic person, but has just been HAPPY...
Not something she sees every day. :-D
I think it's a shame that being neurospicy is so strongly linked with struggle and hardship.
It literally didn't occur to me for 20+ years that I might have #ADHD or be #autistic or otherwise spicy (in spite of literally all my friends being spicy) - because I was usually happy.
I think that's weird and unfortunate. And I don't think that was just me being dumb? I hope not, lol.
Anyway. Happiness and spiciness are not mutually exclusive. We can be both.
/eot
BjarniBjarniBjarni 🙊 🇮🇸 🍏