Thanks, everyone!

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Jus wanted to say thanks to every one on the forum who has helped over the last few months.

After summoning up the courage, in November I got a professional diagnosis (part of me thinks I "hammed it up" a bit, but wanted them to see what a bad day was like) of Autism. I hope this didn't distort things - would hate to think I lied my way in, so to speak...

Anyway, the main reason was to wish you all a Happy New Year. Have a wonderful time - if I can repay the help you have given, then I'd be pleased to.

Happy New Year, Nick. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised to know that others also ham it up for their autism screening. They stim more, look down on the floor more, perhaps even say awkward things to prove a point. I'm confident, though, that therapists and doctors who specialize in this field can discern the fakers from the real ones.

What's the point of "hamming it up"? I don't mean to sound overly argumentative, but to me, someone who feels the need to do that isn't being true to themselves and could possibly distort a diagnosis. It isn't fair to anyone involved in the diagnostic process.

Speaking for myself - I "ham it up" with health professionals as a learnt strategy in order to feel "heard".

I try to take the mask off and show the real me - trouble is: the real me has hidden behind the mask for so long he has no idea who he is and so has to "ham it up".

I have so little sense of personal identity that I have no idea what constitutes being "true to myself", so I ham it up as the only viable alternative to keeping the mask in place.

Keeping the mask in place could be said to be "hamming it down", which is also not being true to self.

Difficult to be true to self when "self" is an unknown...

I wouldn't worry about it too much. They know what they are looking for and what they are looking at. There are subtle things that you may not even realize they are noticing that you can't fake, ham up, or ham down. So I am sure that you will be fine.

And it is wonderful having you here so thank you for being here.