The problem with providing supporting evidence

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Is that sometimes facts can be interspersed with a negative picture of you that reflects a deep rooted antipathy/resentment towards you.
A picture that is removed from how things actually were. It can be as much about passing negative comment as it can be about providing supporting details to help with your assessment. That's the situation with the letter my sister wrote.

My diagnosis for Asperger's was age 21

Nobody else was involved

Psychiatrist and me

Not everyone's family is even alive

Everyone is biased

Sometimes it seems like a disproportionate number of precious lil "people" are biased against me

But I am not telepathic

And bias is not illegal

And I can't do anything about it

Especially homophobic simpletons.

I don't remember this letter. What did it say? To whom was it written?

And how are you doing? Did you get your assessment results yet?

Psychologists are good at being able to read between the lines and take such pieces of evidence with a grain of salt.

Perhaps by seeing the negative attitude your sister has towards you overall will demonstrate the trouble you have with interpersonal relationships.

Bea Arthur

Fire monkey was diagnosed in a different country and year than me

No letter was involved for my diagnosis

Some family members refuse to write letters

Some family members are dead

The diagnostic protocol is different, in different years and countries

It was a letter from my sister for the assessor that blended things that may support a diagnosis of ASD with negative opinions as to my character. Opinions that reflect a long running antipathy/resentment of my having a severe mental illness.

As for me -I'm trying not to second guess the outcome,but it's darn hard. I think if they were certain either way then perhaps I would have heard by now,or would have been given an indication.

Of course it could be that it takes a certain amount of time from doing the ADOS to getting a result irrespective of whether you're seen as fitting a diagnosis of ASD or not.

Physical health wise and mentally I'm doing quite well.

I'm happy to hear that.

I am pretty certain that if my sister were to write a letter with her observations of me, I would be damned. Of course, my observation of her is that she was a clinical-level narcissist, and I'm sure that would not have come across in any letter she wrote. No, no, not her, she was god's gift to the world. So why did she commit suicide then? (Don't extend any sympathy, I'm not really mourning.)

Anyway, I'm glad you're in the forum, I enjoy interacting with you.

For all her claims that my mental illness was a blight on her teenage years it hasn't had a long lasting, negative effect. She's a workplace consulting studio director for Gensler, ie she has done well occupationally. She has a good social life.

I don’t think I fully understand. What outcome are you worried about coming from your sister’s letter? Are you worried it’ll give you a different diagnosis?

A lot of people who have problems have family members with problems or if the family doesn’t have problems they resent the person who does, especially siblings. I don’t think the letter will necessarily provide the direct evidence you’re expecting.

She’ll be looking for information that corroborates her conclusion, and the rest will probably just indicate some of the side effects resulting from interpersonal conflicts.

I guess it's more about being portrayed in a negative light character wise.

Okay...let me get this straight.

Your sister wrote a letter to the doctor summarizing her lifelong experience of knowing you- and this letter was for the purpose of helping the doc diagnose you vis-à-vis the autism spectrum. Kinda like how both my girlfriend and my sister went to my specialist in person to be interviewed about me (partially in leu of both of my parents being unavailable).

I cant tell whether you actually saw the letter, or are just afraid of what the letter says. But it sounds like you have some bad blood between yourself and your sister, and that you're afraid that your sister will say something hostile about you in the letter that will somehow sabotage your diagnosis.

I wouldn't worry about it.

The more honest your sister is, and frankly... maybe even the more hostile the letter is, the better.

Sounds like you're worried that your sister will say something like "he is NOT psychotic...he is just batshit crazy!"

(not the you're psychotic. Substitute "psychotic" with "autistic", and substitute "crazy" with reasons someone might get angry at you for reasons that have to do with your possible autism, and you get what I mean).

The more angry she gets the more she might actually say the very things that support your diagnosis.

Okay. She doesn’t know your sister. After a lengthy evaluation with you, she has her own opinions, and I don’t think those will change. As a psychologist, she understands that bad behaviors and decisions don’t necessarily reflect on a person’s character but they can be symptomatic of whatever problems (mental or otherwise) that we’re dealing with.

I wouldn’t take it too much to heart. Psychologists have to regularly deal with people with problems like Anti Social Personality Disorder, after all. Even then, early childhood trauma is often blamed for creating such a troubled person.

Psychologists like to look for causal relationships. That way they can help a person work on whatever the root of their problem is.

^^ I actually saw it as it was via an email that I then got my stepdaughter to print out.

^^ I'll confess to being a regular worry wort , and perhaps misjudging how great a negative effect the letter will have re the assessor's decision.

As someone who would like to go through the proceedings to examine for possible ASD, this is something I have anxiety about.

My parents and grandparents are deceased and I was an only child. I had a stepmother once, but I have no idea how to contact her.

I've accumulated small evidence about myself as a small child from other family members, and I do have it in writing on messenger. Things about staring at a model train going in circles for hours, frequently rocking on a wooden horse screaming gayfully, making collections out of VHS tapes and watching the same video obsessively, being a "little Einstein" in the words of my aunt, and not requiring excessive attention (you could leave me alone easily as a child to entertain myself)

Recently I literally listed off the diagnostic criteria as it relates to my observable behavior around high school age to my great aunt and she seemed shocked and told me (in writing on messenger) that it explained so much and that she felt she understood me better. She had a lot of contact with me around those ages. I made sure not to state the conclusion first but to ask for confirmation like "do you agree that I am accurately describing my behavior" before telling her what it could likely imply.

I have other things I remember that currently deceased individuals told me, like requiring total silence and darkness when sleeping as an infant (would cry from nightlights) and having a comfort object in a Disney blanket that eventually went to rags. I also remember rather seriously collecting Hallmark cards. I don't know if this kind of evidence is taken seriously, however, because it is not in the words of others but comes from my memories which are obviously biased towards searching for indications.

Would this be a problem, having scarce testimony? I've been worried about it. Going through a process like this would consume what is to me more resources than I've ever had at once, and I don't want to waste them needlessly.

Dyadic

In my diagnosis, 2003 San Diego, nobody had to write a letter

Only the psychiatrist and I were involved

That might depend on the year, location, or provider

You could ask over the phone about witnesses required for diagnosis

Plenty of people are in your situation

The original posters profile says, England. The protocol is different over there

Besides often relatives are biased, dead, mentally ill, in jail, in bad health, out of contact