Hi everyone,
I'm new to blogging, but I really like writing as a hobby. Anyway, this is my first post and so I'm going to talk about my experience getting diagnosed with autism through my university's medical system. If you're college age or nearly so and you're undiagnosed this might be a favorable option to get a diagnosis without having to pay anything but your tuition. This may not be an option at every university, but a lot of schools here in the US have a discounted medical plan for their full-time students and faculty. If you're wondering what constitutes being a full-time student, at my school it's taking a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester. I go to a state school on scholarship, and most students on scholarship have to take a minimum of 15 credit hours to keep the money. However, I'm registered with the disability office and one of my accommodations is that I can take as few as 9 credit hours and still keep my scholarship and be considered a full-time student. But I'll get more into that in a later entry.
So here at my school I get 10 free therapy sessions with a licensed clinical psychologist per year. I've been going to therapy regularly for a few years now, so I took advantage of that right away. Even though I wasn't diagnosed with autism at the time, I did have a few other diagnoses that allowed me to be seen by a psychologist pretty much right away. Now I didn't start talking about my autistic traits as soon as I started seeing my therapist because they weren't my biggest priority at the beginning of the semester. However, as the term progressed, they became more and more relevant as I was struggling to adjust to college life and make friends.
I've suspected I was autistic since one of my therapists mentioned it when I was 16. With this in mind, I decided I would make a list of the problems I was having and try to make them consistent with the diagnostic criteria for autism (which is in the DSM-V here in America). Don't get me wrong, I wasn't making up problems I didn't have. I just wanted to cover all of my bases so I could be potentially referred for an autism diagnosis. So I took my list to therapy one day and by the end of my rambling my therapist told me, "It sounds like you might have an autism spectrum condition". I agreed with her and told her it had been brought up by therapists before, but that I was never tested because the diagnostician I had previously seen didn't have the facilities to test for autism. She then got out her copy of the DSM-V and we went through the full diagnostic criteria together for the remainder of the session. Once we finished she told me she believed I was autistic and that I should get additional accommodations through the disability office to account for my sensory issues and trouble with verbal instructions. I actually wasn't aware at the time that she was qualified to give a diagnosis. I thought she would refer me to another doctor who would test me. So when she told me about getting additional accommodations I told her I would need a diagnosis for that, to which she replied, "You have one. I just diagnosed you."
She then drafted a letter to the disability office stating my diagnosis and telling them how she believes I would benefit from new accommodations for my autism. I got a copy of the letter for my records and left her office in a combined state of shock and euphoria. I finally had a reason for all of my quirks and social/sensory issues. I had answers.
The paperwork with the disability office is still being processed, but I should have everything in order by the time next semester begins. So that's how I got my diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. In my next entry I'll talk about the process of getting disability accommodations at college and how it's different than high school. I hope you found this helpful!
-Henry
I'm new to blogging, but I really like writing as a hobby. Anyway, this is my first post and so I'm going to talk about my experience getting diagnosed with autism through my university's medical system. If you're college age or nearly so and you're undiagnosed this might be a favorable option to get a diagnosis without having to pay anything but your tuition. This may not be an option at every university, but a lot of schools here in the US have a discounted medical plan for their full-time students and faculty. If you're wondering what constitutes being a full-time student, at my school it's taking a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester. I go to a state school on scholarship, and most students on scholarship have to take a minimum of 15 credit hours to keep the money. However, I'm registered with the disability office and one of my accommodations is that I can take as few as 9 credit hours and still keep my scholarship and be considered a full-time student. But I'll get more into that in a later entry.
So here at my school I get 10 free therapy sessions with a licensed clinical psychologist per year. I've been going to therapy regularly for a few years now, so I took advantage of that right away. Even though I wasn't diagnosed with autism at the time, I did have a few other diagnoses that allowed me to be seen by a psychologist pretty much right away. Now I didn't start talking about my autistic traits as soon as I started seeing my therapist because they weren't my biggest priority at the beginning of the semester. However, as the term progressed, they became more and more relevant as I was struggling to adjust to college life and make friends.
I've suspected I was autistic since one of my therapists mentioned it when I was 16. With this in mind, I decided I would make a list of the problems I was having and try to make them consistent with the diagnostic criteria for autism (which is in the DSM-V here in America). Don't get me wrong, I wasn't making up problems I didn't have. I just wanted to cover all of my bases so I could be potentially referred for an autism diagnosis. So I took my list to therapy one day and by the end of my rambling my therapist told me, "It sounds like you might have an autism spectrum condition". I agreed with her and told her it had been brought up by therapists before, but that I was never tested because the diagnostician I had previously seen didn't have the facilities to test for autism. She then got out her copy of the DSM-V and we went through the full diagnostic criteria together for the remainder of the session. Once we finished she told me she believed I was autistic and that I should get additional accommodations through the disability office to account for my sensory issues and trouble with verbal instructions. I actually wasn't aware at the time that she was qualified to give a diagnosis. I thought she would refer me to another doctor who would test me. So when she told me about getting additional accommodations I told her I would need a diagnosis for that, to which she replied, "You have one. I just diagnosed you."
She then drafted a letter to the disability office stating my diagnosis and telling them how she believes I would benefit from new accommodations for my autism. I got a copy of the letter for my records and left her office in a combined state of shock and euphoria. I finally had a reason for all of my quirks and social/sensory issues. I had answers.
The paperwork with the disability office is still being processed, but I should have everything in order by the time next semester begins. So that's how I got my diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. In my next entry I'll talk about the process of getting disability accommodations at college and how it's different than high school. I hope you found this helpful!
-Henry
