I Passed the First Part!

I'm happy to say I'm on the way to becoming officially diagnosed with autism.

I got my initial screening results yesterday.  

I marked the occasion in my Minecraft tunnel.

A bat was screeching...probably in support.

I'm no more autistic than I was two days ago or two weeks ago. And I won't be more autistic after I finish the second part of the diagnosis process. This is just about getting validation...an official stamp.

An analogy I used with a family member today is:  In terms of getting vaccinated with Covid... It would be like the vaccine has gone into my arm.  But now I'm waiting for the nurse to fill out my card.

Being autistic is not the shot in the arm in this analogy.  I don't have anything to fit that.  Instead it would be getting the initial screening.  A psychologist has read about my life and looked at my test scores and said...Yes, you look autistic to me.  But to make it more official, I have to fill out more stuff and take more tests...AND have an interview.

Okay. Yes. There's a small tiny fear in me that I'm going to say something in the next steps that will make the psychologist say.  Oops. Never mind.  We totally fucked this up. You are not autistic after all.

Hopefully that fear will stay tiny in the next few months.  But back to the analogy...it might be like you've gotten the vaccine.  You got your card. You got photos of your card on your phone.  Yet....did you REALLY get the vaccine?  What if you had a bad batch?  What if an anti-vaxxer was posing as a nurse and injected you with apple juice?  

Yikes.  Thinking about this has me worried now.  Maybe I need to hold a spoon up to my forehead to make sure I'm properly magnetized.