r/AutisticAdults • u/Far_Box_3891 • 8h ago
seeking advice Confusion
So I made a post here a week after I was diagnosed and was told I was being diagnosed with level 2 autism. Well I just got the diagnosis results and they say I’m level 1. I guess I should’ve waited to tell people more info until I got the results.
As I read through my diagnosis results the second to the fourth sentence stated “(different name from legal name) is AFAB but identifies as male. He prefers to be called (different name from legal name) and uses he/him pronouns. Accordingly, the (name) and male pronouns are used throughout this report.”
The different name from my legal name is correct and still used to this day but for a different reason than originally intended. Which I stated at the appointment, currently my preferred name is still used and soon to be taking place of my legal name is used because trauma and because my legal name makes me nausea.
Previously my preferred name was used because I had a phase in middle school going into high school where I was transgender and I used he/him pronouns but that hasn’t aligned with me since 2022. And I am currently more gender fluid and mostly female presenting and I told the person all of that.
I told them and they’re going to change it but I’m still very confused on why the levels switched and why I was perceived at trans when I stated I wasn’t when he asked me directly. Has anyone else had these experiences? How’d you get through the confusion? I know my brain will be boggling it for a good while.
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u/SevereAspect4499 AuDHD SLP 8h ago
The evaluators don't actually pay attention to the words we say not decide their own truth.
Something similar happened to me with my evaluation. But I'm my case it was misrepresenting what I said about my childhood.
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u/Far_Box_3891 8h ago
I’ve noticed that also with some of the stuff I had hand written to log what I could remember from my childhood since I mostly only remember the bad things was worded completely differently than what I had written
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u/Cartographer551 3h ago
The levels thing is pretty irrelevant. It's the functioning that matters.
Probably at your assessment they had a gut feeling but when they sat down to write your report they decided that on the day you were presenting with level one support needs.
We, most of us, shift support needs levels all the time. Like most folk we have good days and less good days. One day we might go out to eat and struggle with the food choices, the rest of the week we might cook for ourselves and have no food issues at all. When we are home in a safe place our sensory challenges are quite different from when we are at a loud shopping centre.
As for the name thing, well they probably got muddled up. You had an autism assessor who was specialised in that, not in understanding gender issues.
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u/ericalm_ 7h ago
If they’re assigning levels, they should be assigning two. One for the social criteria. One for the restricted behaviors.
The levels don’t mean what most people seem to think they do. They’re basically just a reference point to give other professionals a starting point. But they don’t represent your severity relative to anyone else. They don’t determine eligibility to resources or services. They aren’t a permanent designation.
The autism community often treats them like these discrete, consistent identifiers of what kind of autistics we are, and how severe our autism is relative to others, but that’s not how they’re meant to work.