Should I get assessed?
Long story short, I took some autism screening tests on a whim and was completely blindsided by my scores. On the AQ, RAADS-R, and RBQ 2A my scores were indicative of autism, though not dramatically so. I also took some other screeners and got NT scores (the 10 question AQ, CAT-Q, EQ, Aspie quiz). I asked my spouse and a childhood friend who works in special ed and neither of them think I am autistic. I definitely have some traits that fit, but we all agree I have a lot of traits that would not fit an autism diagnosis.
I have a long history of mental health issues (depression, alcohol use disorder, skin picking) but I have been generally quite healthy the past couple of years. I would not be seeking out neuropsych evaluation for any other reason but… I CANNOT STOP thinking about my scores on those screeners. I keep vacillating between “autism would explain a lot about me” and “but I don’t have any issues with xyz.” Ideally, I’d like to sit with a specialist to talk about my answers to the screeners, but I am kind of scared to do that. I’m not scared of a diagnosis (it would actually be pretty nice to have a neurological explanation for my poor social skills lol), I am scared of being that girl who took a clinical questionnaire outside of a clinical setting and now is wasting a professional’s time. It’s silly because I would never put that judgment on someone else - if someone else told me they got the scores I got I would tell them it’s perfectly reasonable to go get evaluated. But I have been doing really well the past couple of years so it seems overly dramatic and a little pointless to go to a psychologist for this at this point in my life. I am just desperately curious.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Anyone who got assessed when life was going pretty great for you?