#mod mads

I just did a full psych evaluation a couple weeks ago but they didn’t diagnose me for bs reasons, so I want to seek a second opinion. This evaluation was recommended to me by vocational rehab, so I was kind of streamlined into it and didn’t do any legwork.

What do I have to do to go about getting a second opinion? I’m a young adult and living in Florida.

Also what are your best tips for going about this once I get an appointment with someone? I’ve been trying for this dx for years so I really need to work very hard to convince them and need all the advice I can get

Oh, I just sent in about how to get a pro dx in Florida, I also should note that I don’t have a general practitioner so I can’t ask for a referral through one of those. I have a psychiatrist but she doesn’t believe that im autistic Bc I tend to mask around doctors

So I’m from Texas & state laws about healthcare can be very different but I’ll try to give as accurate an answer as I can.

First, and this sucks to say, a lot of people might not be willing to do another evaluation. I know some people might (and I have friends who have gotten second evaluations) but I didn’t personally get one. I even went through a process of being referred to a specialist by my college but as soon as she found out I had already been assessed, she backed out. So first make sure whoever you want to go to is even willing to do a second evaluation.

After that, getting another evaluation kinda all boils down to two big things:

1) Your insurance plan

2) Specialists near you (and this also kinda has to do with insurance but I’ll get to that)

Basically, a lot of what you can do depends on your insurance plan. For example, some plans don’t require a referral. In that case, you could just find a person and go to them. How you pay also depends on your insurance. If you have the money and are not required to get a referral, you could just go to a person and pay them out of pocket to assess you again. This can cost a couple thousand dollars (or more) if I remember correctly. Some plans don’t require a referral but depending on who you go to the insurance company might help pay. This depends on the person you go to and what insurance plans they accept/if your insurance is considered out of network, whether your insurance will pay for an out of network person, whether the person will do a sliding scale charge, and probably some other things.

If your plan requires a referral (which it most likely does since I think that’s the most common thing) then your options may be more limited. So the person in charge of referring you might get your input. Which means you need to research who you would want to go to—will cover that in a bit. That research should include (again unless you have the money for out of pocket covering the whole cost) whether whoever you want will take your insurance. Also, sometimes if you have a general practitioner they can refer you instead of a psychiatrist. So if you can’t convince your psychiatrist to take you seriously, you could try a general practitioner. I know that’s how a friend got his ADHD diagnosis.

With your psychiatrist you could perhaps try explaining that you mask really well around doctors and you feel like this applies to the relationship between the two of you. And then push for a referral despite their opinion. You don’t need a doctor’s permission to get a second opinion. If you need a referral and your current doctor isn’t giving you one, find someone who respects you enough to trust your opinion of your own brain and neurotype.

After all that I highly suggest calling your insurance company (your insurance card should have a number you can call) and finding out from them whether or not they’ll cover an assessment and what your part of the payment will be. Some companies/plans will not cover adult evaluations. And I’m also not sure if they covered it in the past, whether or not they’ll cover a second evaluation.

Now onto advice about who you should go to. I highly recommend doing a LOT of research (again if the person referring you gives you input which they should in my opinion) on who to go to. Not everyone will evaluate adults. And not everyone who says they’ll evaluate adults are actually willing to give you a diagnosis despite saying they evaluate adults. I am a good example of that. The person I went to said she would evaluate adults, then after we paid like $2000+ on an evaluation she gave a whole list of terrible reasons why she wouldn’t diagnose me which included that if I were still in grade school she would have diagnosed me but since I’m an adult she didn’t think it was necessary (despite me being there of my own volition explicitly to get a diagnosis).

I’m not trying to scare you I’m just trying to stress research. And finding the right person can be hard. If you’re able to (or you have someone who you trust who is able to) I suggest asking whoever you might see what their stance on diagnosing adults is. And maybe some other questions (like how they account for gender and race and other things like that in the diagnostic process). Don’t be afraid to interview them before going through the evaluation process. They’re being paid a lot of money and you don’t want to be taken advantage of.

I know finding a good specialist can be hard & you might not be able to find the perfect person. These are just suggestions.

Once you finally have an appointment, there are some tips we can give to help but other than being really picky (if you can) about who you go to they may or may not be helpful.

Some suggestions we and others have made include answering questions in the evaluation based not necessarily how you feel in that moment, but based on your best recollection of how you are in general or even at your worst. For example if they ask if you feel comfortable in large groups, don’t answer how you might answer if you’re in a good mood. Answer how you generally feel or how you’d feel on a bad brain day. Or if they try to figure out if you’re good at reading facial cues, don’t answer based on how good you are at reading cues of those closest to you (cuz due to practice and repetition, you might be good at that), answer based on meeting strangers or acquaintances.

Basically, do your best to answer how you would if you weren’t masking. Those are just some examples of how to get around ingrained masking. That’s probably the biggest piece of advice I can give you as someone who has tried and failed to get a professional to diagnose me as a young adult.

I really hope this helps and if you want more advice or I didn’t get to a part of your question you really cared about, please feel free to follow up and we’ll do our best to answer!

hey im dave, or mod crow. ill be mostly making art and answering asks for Corvus Feroxx, one outta the three funky dudes thatll be on this blog. my pronouns are they/them (he/him is also cool too) and im really fuckin excited to get this goin, onto the rest of the gang

heya y’all! ‘m also a part of this funky lil’ blog you found here on the internet, i go by derek but y’all can just call me der or whatever abomination of a nickname you can think of. please, i insist. i’ll be an artist here and have control over my boy savian. i’ll answer any questions pertaining to him, etc etc. i go by he/him, i guess that’s helpful. i’m also a part of another project happening...more to be revealed in the future? anywho, peace fellas? imma head out.

hey! i’m mads. i complete the trinity that is the mods of this blog. she/her pronouns and all that, etc etc anyways uhhh i’ll be answerin asks for my gal julibi and whippin up the corresponding art for those. despite how unbearably cool and collected i may seem (/sarcasm), i’m an absolute slut for friendship, so feel free to drop by my main blog @aradiiated​ and say hi anytime. aaand that’s it, i think! have fun on this fuckhouse of an ask blog.

It’s been a while since this account has been active and, really, that’s all my fault. A lot has happened since I was last here but now I’m back, and I’ve got some good stuff in the works. 

Firstly, this blog will go back to regular scheduling as of around the 5th of January, as I’m currently overseas right now with family and can’t see myself getting things back and running properly until then. This means queued quotes and quote pics from the 5th of January.

Secondly, I’m currently working on a Tony Stark discord server. At the moment, I’m thinking it will be an Australian/NZ only server just to reduce numbers and make it easier for me to moderate, but I may be convinced otherwise if others with modding experience are interested in helping.

Mod Mads’ Summer Semi-Annual Cars/Cars 2 Human Fancast Graphic Challange*

↪ Teresa Palmer as Sally Carrera

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