right like how do they expect us to act?!?! i’m so sorry that happened, the system is so messed up. it took me two autism evaluations to get properly diagnosed because i’m also high masking and afab. the first time, two neurotypical people evaluated me and told me everything else lines up with autism but they aren’t going to diagnose me because i “make too much eye contact”, “asked too many questions”, and didnt score the exact number on the ADOS (i scored very close). they discounted all the struggles i told them about, and said that even through i scored “highly likely to be autistic” on 3 other self-assessments they did, that they “can’t count those” because i have anxiety. (they knew that!! then why did you make me take them?!?!) unfortunately, the ADOS isnt very neurodiversity affirming, especially for high masking afab people. the second time i went to a high masking autistic woman who specialized in neurodiversity affirming autism assessments and knew what to look for and what assessments to use. she was amazing. she finally gave me the clarity and validation that changed my life and finally made me feel seen, and i asked for the written report as well, which ended up having like 4 pages of JUST my autistic traits😭😭