Great piece. I'm in a weird place with all this. I requested an assessment, and 2.5 years later, I got it. But because my eye contact is good and I presented myself well, they couldn't see it. My sister who works with autistic people is convinced I'm autistic. I don't know.

The assessor agreed that I have a lot of autistic traits and scored me high on those. I didn't have time to tell them about all the things they don't see. I was too busy doing tests involving flying frogs and drawing a cat and a house. But there wasn't really an opportunity to discuss the reasons why my sister thinks I'm autistic, and the reasons why I see it too. That's a shame, because I'm left not knowing really.

The assessor even said she didn't know - she suspected my traits were due to childhood trauma, and that a diagnosis wouldn't help me because I was beyond the age where help would be available anyway.

I kind of suspect she may be wrong and I'm borderline, but then I see autistic people who say they cannot walk through a door, or one today who said he couldn't seem to bring himself to make the bed. And I'm not like that.

I just had a horrible childhood and young adulthood, have always been far too honest, and keep accidentally saying the wrong thing and rubbing people up the wrong way!

I watch the whole ASD assessment thing unfold with other people, with much curiosity.