Neurodivergent vs Autistic

Transcript

Hi everyone Dr Liz here. I do adult autism evaluations. My daughter was diagnosed autistic level one at age 15 and when that happened I did all kinds of education for myself and decided I would get trained in how to do adult autism evaluations. Because there’s a need for assessors.

Alot of people but women in particular, girls, get missed in adolescence and childhood. In fact I think the average age for a girl to get diagnosed is somewhere in teenagehood. S they get missed as as um little kids. Boys don’t seem to get missed as much.

So I wanted to make the point today that there’s a difference between neurodivergence which is this big umbrella for brain differences and autism. So sometimes what’ll happen is someone will meet one of the three leg of autism that’s necessary to make a diagnosis.

So there’s three different categories and I’ll put that little visual up in the video okay. I have it here. But I’m going to put it up in the video so you can see it better. They have to meet all three of those legs to be diagnosed as autistic.

But sometimes they have one of those legs or maybe they have two of the legs. Like maybe they’re  really introverted and they could like never talk to another person again and be totally happy. And social conversations are very difficult for them. Like they get drained by them and um they’re constantly thinking about what do I say or what am I supposed to say here or something like that.

But then they don’t meet these other two legs of sensory use or special interest or the social relationships  / emotional responses. I mean they’re sort of like related to language and communication. So that’s why the arrows go particular ways on this handout. Because they’re related.

So sometimes it’s hard to talk about one without the other. But you can meet two of those legs or one of those legs of the triangle and not meet all three of the legs.

Well they’re still neurodivergent. You’re still wired a little bit differently and neurodivergent meaning um you know there’s all kinds of categories that fall into that.

ADD is one of them um Artist I would say like uh Highly accomplished athletes fall into neurodivergence personally  because they’re wired a little bit differently. Athletically they’re gifted right, When you think about someone who’s super gifted in an area you’re looking at neurodivergence. It really doesn’t mean they’re autistic, doesn’t mean they struggle in these three different areas and that it’s affecting their life in a way that limits them in some way.

So that’s the point I want to make. That you could be one without being the other. If you’re diagnosed with autism then you’re clearly neurodivergent. That’s a given. But you could be neurodivergent without being diagnosed with autism.

All right I will keep this one a little bit shorter. If you’re looking for an adult Autism evaluation I offer two different types.

So one is pretty extensive if you’re filing for disability or something like that. But the other type I offer is pretty brief. It’s 90 minutes to 2 hours that we meet. I have you take some online assessments first and then I’m going through a structured adult autism questionnaire. So it’s one of the very very few on the market there’s only like two adult products on the market that are like official.  But I love the quizzes over at Embrace-autism.com Love those okay!

Those will give you a good idea really but sometimes people are like right on the border of qualifying or not. Like the scores are sometimes confusing. They’re like I didn’t quite meet that threshold where the scoring is for autism. And so sometimes they’ll come see me for more of a professional opinion.

And you know that evaluation is a little bit looser. There’s not like a 40 page report written. It’s still official, still formal evaluation but it’s a lot less stressful I think too than the  more extensive one and so also less expensive.

But it gives them a good idea of like all right do you meet criteria or not. And if you do, then let’s talk about is there something you need around that like accommodations for work or something like that, accommodations for school  can qualify for that one too. If if it’s like a young adult or something.

Bbut usually these are older people coming to me that have questions or sometimes their partner sends them into me and is convinced they’re autistic and um maybe they are maybe they aren’t. They’re certainly neurodivergent usually if they’re coming in for an evaluation almost guaranteed.

All right if you want to schedule something like that or see more about me then you can do that over at my website. I have two of them drlizeualuations.com and then I also have my main website Dr Liz hypnosis.com so either one of those. I’ll talk to you soon peace [Music].

I offer Neurodivergent Affirming therapy. I absolutely love working with ND people and see it more as a superpower than a weakness. No matter what those around you say, your neurodivergence is a strength! Figuring out how to harness it sometimes requires support though.

Before you go, remember to get your Free Hypnosis to reduce Fear and Anxiety!

Just a reminder that I do Adult Autism Evaluations and Neurodivergent Affirming Therapy for residents of Florida. Grab your Free Consultation with me to get the deets on working together (the how, the when, the where, and the how much)!

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Peace and Health,

Dr. Liz