"I wasn't diagnosed because I masked so well!"

I am extremely confused with the people who claim they went under a diagnostic process yet weren't diagnosed because "they masked so well".

It's absolutely understandable that a professional not trained in autism, someone who isn't a psychiatrist, isn't someone who specialised in neurodevelopmental disorders etc etc could miss signs of autism, especially those in low support needs older adolescents or adults.

However — a professional, I believe, is trained to see THROUGH the adaptive methods a person could be using during the assessments. Especially in recent days as understanding of ASD has grown significantly.

And also, you cannot mask everything, especially during such assessments like ADOS where there are many types of seemingly random tasks to perform.

I personally was diagnosed at the age of 15. Yes, they missed my ASD till the moment I saw a psychiatrist and yes, I "mask" everyday.

But I was diagnosed, with highly significant autistic traits despite believing I masked so well and no one before a specialized psychiatrist and diagnosistian catched my ASD.

I just can't believe someone would slip through the cracks so much they went to two, three or four diagnosistians and every next of them said it's not autism. Autism has symptoms that many other mental or physical disorders could cause and it's not an only explanation to social struggles, sensory sensitivity etc.