Author: Scott McKirdy

Scott McKirdy is a Registered Psychologist and co-owner of Solasta Counselling in Calgary, where he conducts adult autism and ADHD assessments. View Scott’s profile >>

If you’ve ever felt like ADHD explains half of you and autism explains the other half (never quite fitting either description completely on its own), there’s a name for this: AuDHD.

What Does AuDHD Mean?

AuDHD is shorthand (not a formal clinical diagnosis, but a widely used community term) for having both autism and ADHD at the same time. It’s grown popular quickly because it captures something a lot of people had struggled to name: the experience of traits from both conditions interacting, sometimes reinforcing each other and sometimes pulling in opposite directions.

Older diagnostic guidelines (DSM-IV) actually barred clinicians from diagnosing both autism and ADHD in the same person, but that rule was removed when the DSM-5 was published, specifically because the two conditions were recognized as genuinely, commonly co-occurring. Research since then has consistently found that a large share of autistic people also meet criteria for ADHD, and vice versa. AuDHD is community language catching up to something the clinical field already recognized.

AuDHD vs. ADHD: What’s the Difference?

ADHD on its own is primarily about attention regulation, impulsivity, and activity level. Autism on its own is primarily about social communication, sensory processing, and a need for routine or predictability. On paper, some of these traits look contradictory (ADHD is often associated with seeking novelty and struggling with routine, while autism is often associated with needing routine and finding unpredictability distressing).

In practice, AuDHD often looks less like “both sets of traits happening separately” and more like the two shaping each other. Someone might crave stimulation and struggle to sit still (ADHD), while also needing that stimulation to happen in a very specific, controlled way (autism), and get genuinely distressed when it doesn’t. That interaction is exactly why AuDHD can be harder to recognize than either condition alone: the traits don’t cancel out, but they don’t present as a textbook version of either diagnosis either.

Signs You Might Be AuDHD

Some patterns that come up often in people who turn out to have both:

• Intense focus on specific interests (autism), alongside real difficulty focusing on things that don’t interest you (ADHD)
• A strong need for routine, paired with getting bored of that same routine faster than most people
• Sensory sensitivities that make busy or loud environments overwhelming, combined with a craving for stimulation that pushes you toward those same environments
• Masking or “performing normal” so effectively at work or school that burnout hits hard once you’re finally somewhere you can let your guard down
• Being told as a child you were “too much” and “too rigid” at the same time (from different people, in different settings)

None of these on their own confirm anything. The pattern (traits from both conditions, often in tension with each other) is what’s worth paying attention to.

Is There an AuDHD Test?

There’s no standalone “AuDHD test,” because AuDHD isn’t a standalone diagnosis (it’s the presence of two separate, established conditions in one person). A real evaluation involves the same rigorous, validated tools used for each condition individually: structured autism assessment tools and ADHD-specific measures, gathered together and interpreted by someone who understands how the two interact, rather than assessing each in isolation and hoping the picture makes sense afterward.

Online “AuDHD tests” and self-report quizzes can be a reasonable starting point for noticing a pattern worth exploring further, but they aren’t diagnostic, and they can’t tell you anything a proper assessment can’t tell you more reliably.

What Are RAADS-R, CAT-Q, and ASRS?

If you’re here because of a score you got on an online quiz, you’re in good company (these three tools get searched by name constantly), and for good reason: they’re real, validated instruments used in actual clinical research, not random internet quizzes.

• RAADS-R (Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised) is a widely used self-report screening tool for autism in adults, covering social interaction, language, and sensory-motor traits.
• CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire) measures something more specifically relevant to AuDHD: how much effort someone puts into masking, or “performing normal,” to compensate for autistic traits (capturing an experience many other screening tools miss entirely).
• ASRS (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale) is the ADHD-side equivalent (developed with the World Health Organization, focused on attention, impulsivity, and related traits).

All three are screening tools, not diagnostic ones. A high score on any of them is a legitimate, real signal worth taking seriously; it’s not the same thing as a diagnosis, and it was never designed to be. These tools are built to be quick and accessible, which means they’re built to over-include: tuned to catch anyone who might have the condition, at the cost of also flagging some people who don’t. A full assessment exists to do what a ten-minute questionnaire can’t: combining multiple sources of information, developmental history, and clinical judgment into something you can actually rely on.

AuDHD in Women

AuDHD is especially likely to go unrecognized in women and girls, for the same reasons autism and ADHD are each individually under-diagnosed in women on their own. Social conditioning often pushes girls toward masking traits that would get a boy noticed and flagged earlier (appearing organized, agreeable, and “fine” on the outside while working much harder underneath to manage sensory overwhelm, attention difficulty, or social exhaustion than it looks like from the outside). Many women don’t get any diagnosis until adulthood, often after a burnout, a major life transition, or their own child’s assessment prompts them to recognize the same patterns in themselves.

Getting Assessed

Because AuDHD is two conditions, not one, a proper assessment needs to genuinely evaluate for both (not just screen for the more obviously visible one and assume the other isn’t relevant). At Solasta, our Adult Autism Assessment already evaluates for ADHD as part of a comprehensive assessment, rather than requiring two separate processes (because in practice, the two are so frequently linked that assessing for one without considering the other gives an incomplete picture). If ADHD turns out to be the more prominent piece for you, our Adult ADHD Assessment is built the same way.

Either way, what you get at the end is a comprehensive, plain-language written report (not just a label, but an explanation of how these traits actually show up for you specifically), and what that means going forward.

If you’re exhausted all the time, snapping at people you love, or crying over things that shouldn’t bother you this much  (and you don’t feel like you’re “depressed” or “anxious” in the way you’d expect) you’re not imagining things. Anxiety and depression rarely show up the way movies and textbooks describe them. More often, they show up as the things below: symptoms that look like something else entirely, until you know what you’re actually looking at.

Why Am I So Tired All the Time?

Constant fatigue is one of the most common (and most missed) signs of depression. It’s not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. You can get eight hours and still feel like you’re moving through water. That’s because depression doesn’t just affect mood; it affects the systems in your brain and body that regulate energy, motivation, and even physical sensation. If you’ve ruled out the obvious physical causes (thyroid issues, sleep disorders, anemia) and you’re still exhausted most days, it’s worth considering that the fatigue itself might be the symptom, not a separate problem alongside it.

Signs of Depression in Women

Depression in women is often under-recognized because it doesn’t always look like sadness. It can look like:

• Feeling persistently overwhelmed by tasks that used to feel manageable
• Irritability or a short fuse, especially with family
• Changes in appetite or sleep in either direction — too much or too little
• A sense of being “touched out” or emotionally depleted
• Guilt that feels disproportionate to whatever triggered it

Hormonal shifts (postpartum, perimenopause, or the menstrual cycle) can also intensify or trigger depressive episodes, which is part of why symptoms can look different at different life stages. If this sounds like what you’ve been experiencing, our approach to depression counselling is a good place to start.

Signs of Depression in Men

Depression in men frequently presents as anger, irritability, or withdrawal rather than visible sadness — which is a major reason it goes undiagnosed. Common signs include:

• Increased conflict or a shorter temper than usual
• Working more, or throwing yourself into tasks, to avoid sitting with how you feel
• Physical complaints (headaches, digestive issues, unexplained pain) with no clear medical cause
• Withdrawing from friends or hobbies without really deciding to
• Increased use of alcohol or other substances to cope

Depression in men often gets missed. Depression counselling built around how you actually experience it, rather than how it’s “supposed” to look, can feel much better.

Why Am I So Angry All the Time?

Anger is one of the least talked-about symptoms of both anxiety and depression, but it’s genuinely common. When you’re chronically overwhelmed, your tolerance for frustration drops — small things that wouldn’t normally bother you start to feel unbearable. If you’ve noticed you’re snapping at your partner, your kids, or coworkers more than usual, and it doesn’t feel entirely in your control, we might be able to help.

Signs of Burnout at Work — and How to Tell If It’s Something More

Burnout and depression overlap heavily, and it’s genuinely hard to tell them apart from the inside. Burnout tends to be tied specifically to your work — you feel depleted, cynical, and ineffective, but a weekend off still helps, at least a little. Depression tends to follow you everywhere; it doesn’t lift when you leave the office, and it touches parts of your life that have nothing to do with your job. If time off isn’t helping the way it should, that’s a meaningful signal.

Why Do I Feel Sad for No Reason?

One of the more disorienting parts of depression is that it often doesn’t need a reason. You don’t have to have gone through something obviously difficult for depression to be real and present. Depression is a change in brain chemistry and functioning, not strictly a reaction to circumstances — which is exactly why “but nothing bad has happened” doesn’t rule it out. If anything, sadness that doesn’t map onto a clear cause is a signal worth taking seriously rather than dismissing.

Why Do I Feel Anxious for No Reason?

The same is true for anxiety. You can feel a persistent sense of dread, a racing heart, or a tight chest without being able to point to a specific trigger — and that disconnect between “nothing is actually wrong” and “I feel like something is” is itself a hallmark of an anxiety disorder, not a sign you’re overreacting. Anxiety can become a baseline state rather than a response to a specific threat, which is part of what makes it so exhausting to live with. Anxiety counselling is specifically built to help interrupt that baseline, not just manage individual worried moments as they come up.

Postpartum Anxiety Symptoms

Postpartum mental health conversations often focus on postpartum depression, but postpartum anxiety is just as common and frequently missed. It can look like intrusive, repetitive worry about your baby’s safety, an inability to relax even when your baby is sleeping and safe, or a racing mind that won’t settle no matter how exhausted you are. If this sounds familiar, it’s not a personal failing — it’s a recognized and treatable condition.

How to Stop Worrying About Everything

There’s no single switch to flip, but there are real, evidence-based approaches that help — cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in particular is well-studied for its effectiveness with anxious thought patterns. The goal isn’t to eliminate worry entirely; it’s to change your relationship to it, so a worried thought doesn’t automatically spiral into an hour of catastrophizing. See our anxiety counselling page.

Why Do I Cry for No Reason?

Crying more easily than usual (at commercials, minor frustrations, or nothing in particular) is a common and under-discussed symptom of both anxiety and depression. It often reflects an emotional system that’s overloaded and has less capacity to regulate small triggers. It doesn’t mean you’re being dramatic or “too sensitive.”

High-Functioning Depression: When You Still “Function,” But Don’t Feel Okay

Some of the hardest cases to recognize are the ones where nothing looks wrong from the outside. You’re still showing up to work, managing your responsibilities, maybe even excelling — and privately, everything feels flat or joyless. High-functioning depression is real, and “but I’m still getting everything done” is not evidence that you’re fine. It’s often evidence of how much effort it’s taking to look fine.

Why Do I Feel Like a Failure?

Persistent, disproportionate self-criticism (a running internal narrative that you’re failing even when the evidence doesn’t support it) is a common cognitive symptom of depression. It can feel like an accurate read on reality rather than a symptom, which is exactly what makes it so hard to talk yourself out of. This is one of the clearest places therapy can help: not by convincing you to “think positive,” but by helping you recognize and interrupt a thought pattern that’s become distorted.

What to Do If This Sounds Like You

None of this is a diagnosis, and it isn’t meant to be — but if several of these sound like the last few months of your life, that’s worth taking seriously. An initial consultation is a low-pressure way to talk through what you’re noticing and figure out whether therapy makes sense for you, without committing to anything beyond that first conversation.

If cost is part of what’s holding you back from reaching out, our guide to what therapy actually costs in Calgary walks through what to expect. If you’re ready to talk to someone, you can book a consultation directly — in person in Calgary or virtually, whichever works better for you.

Scott McKirdy is a Registered Psychologist and co-owner of Solasta Counselling in Calgary, AB. View Scott’s profile >>

In late June 2026, Calgary spent several days under an air quality warning as smoke from wildfires in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba drifted across the city, pushing the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) up to 8 — high risk. It won’t be the last warning of the summer. For most Calgarians, this is simply what July and August look like now: checking the AQHI before deciding whether to bike to work, keeping the kids inside on a day that should be a pool day, watching the mountains disappear behind a haze that wasn’t there yesterday.

We tend to talk about wildfire smoke as a physical health issue — sore throats, headaches, irritated eyes. It is that. But a growing body of research shows it’s a mental health issue too, and not in a vague, “everything is connected” way. Smoke exposure has a measurable relationship with anxiety, depression, and mood.

If the last few smoke-heavy days have left you feeling off — flat, on edge, more irritable than usual — you’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone.

What the Research Actually Shows

A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study published in 2025 analyzed emergency department visits across California during a heavy wildfire season and found that a 10 μg/m³ increase in wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was linked to a measurable rise in mental health-related ED visits for depression, anxiety, and mood disorders — with effects lasting up to seven days after exposure. Researchers noted that women, children and young adults, and people already managing a mental health condition showed the highest risk.

The mechanism isn’t fully understood yet, but researchers believe fine particulate matter may contribute to neuroinflammation — physical changes in the brain that can worsen mood and anxiety symptoms, separate from the psychological stress of the smoke itself. This tracks with a broader pattern in air pollution research more generally: people who consistently breathe worse air tend to report higher rates of anxiety and depression, smoke season or not.

In other words, smoke season isn’t just an inconvenient backdrop to your mental health — for some people, it’s an active contributor to it.

Why Smoke Season Is Uniquely Hard, Beyond the Air Itself

The direct physiological effects are only part of the picture. Smoke season tends to stack several smaller stressors on top of each other, and it’s the stacking that gets people:

Your routine gets disrupted. Runs, bike commutes, patio time, kids’ outdoor play — the things a lot of people rely on to manage stress and mood become off-limits or risky on high AQHI days, right when you need them most.

There’s a low hum of uncertainty. Unlike a single bad-weather day, smoke season doesn’t have a clear end date. Not knowing whether tomorrow will be clear or a repeat of today makes it hard to plan, and that kind of ongoing uncertainty is its own quiet stressor.

It can tip into genuine eco-anxiety. For some people, smoke season isn’t just a seasonal nuisance — it’s a visceral, recurring reminder of climate change, and each bad air day reopens that worry.

It’s isolating in a specific way. Summer is normally when people see each other most — patios, parks, backyard barbecues. Smoke keeps people indoors and apart during exactly the months they’d usually be the most socially connected, which quietly compounds low mood.

Who Tends to Feel It Most

Based on the research so far, a few groups are worth paying closer attention to:

• People already managing anxiety, depression, or another mental health condition — smoke exposure appears to act as a flare trigger, not just an added annoyance
• Parents of young kids, who are managing both their own stress and a household of restless kids stuck inside
• Older adults and people with chronic health conditions, who face compounded physical and mental health risk
• Anyone whose usual coping tools (exercise, being outside, social time) depend on decent air quality

If you fall into one of these groups, it’s worth being a little more deliberate about your coping plan during high-AQHI stretches, rather than waiting to see how you feel.

What Actually Helps

None of this means you’re at the mercy of the AQHI reading. A few things genuinely help:

1. Check the AQHI, not just the weather, before you plan your day. Alberta’s wildfire smoke information page and the Environment Canada AQHI tool for Calgary are both quick daily checks. Treat a high reading the way you’d treat a forecast of freezing rain — a reason to adjust the plan, not push through it.
2. Create one reliably clean-air space at home. Keeping windows closed on bad days and running a HEPA filter or air purifier in one main room (even just a bedroom) gives you somewhere to reset, especially useful if you’re working from home.
3. Move your coping tools indoors instead of skipping them. If a run or a walk is normally how you manage stress, swap it for an indoor workout or a walk at the mall rather than just losing the activity entirely for the week.
4. Stay connected on purpose. Since smoke naturally pulls people apart during a season built for togetherness, it’s worth being a bit more intentional about texting a friend or planning an indoor hangout rather than waiting for the patio plans to happen organically.
5. Give yourself permission for a lower-output week. If you’re more tired, foggy, or short-tempered during a smoke stretch, that’s a plausible physiological response, not a personal failing. Lowering your expectations of yourself for a few days is a reasonable response, not giving up.
6. Limit how much time you spend refreshing smoke maps and air quality forecasts. Staying informed is useful; checking obsessively tends to feed anxiety rather than reduce it. One check in the morning is usually enough.

When It’s More Than Just a Rough Week

A bad mood during a bad-air week is common and usually passes once the smoke clears. It’s worth paying closer attention if you notice:

• Anxiety or low mood that persists well after the air quality improves
• Panic symptoms triggered specifically by smoky conditions or air quality alerts
• Smoke season consistently coinciding with a noticeable dip in your ability to function at work, in relationships, or day to day
• Existing anxiety or depression that clearly worsens every time the AQHI spikes

None of these mean something is wrong with you — they mean your nervous system is responding to a real, researched stressor, and it’s a reasonable time to get some support.

Support That Works Around Smoke Season

If checking the AQHI before deciding whether it’s safe to leave the house is starting to feel like a regular part of your summer, you’re not overreacting — you’re responding to something real. Our psychologists offer anxiety counsleling and stress and burnout counselling for people navigating exactly this kind of seasonal, cumulative stress, whether it shows up as anxiety, low mood, or just feeling like yourself less often than usual.

If a high-AQHI day makes getting to an in-person appointment less appealing, our online counselling across Alberta means smoke doesn’t have to mean skipping a session.

Every new client starts with a free 20-minute consultation to see if it’s the right fit — no obligation. Book a free consultation or use our Find Your Therapist quiz to get matched with the right person.

FAQs

Does wildfire smoke actually cause anxiety, or does it just feel that way because everything is disrupted?

Both are likely true at once. Research points to a direct physiological link between fine particulate matter exposure and increased anxiety and depression symptoms, separate from the psychological stress of disrupted routines, isolation, and uncertainty. The two effects likely compound each other.

How long do the mental health effects last after the smoke clears?

Research has tracked measurably elevated mental-health-related emergency visits for up to about a week after a smoke exposure spike. For most people, mood and anxiety symptoms tied to a specific smoke event improve within days once air quality returns to normal. If symptoms persist well beyond that, it’s worth talking to someone.

Is it normal to feel anxious every time I check the air quality app?

Some awareness is healthy — it helps you make good decisions about your day. If checking has become compulsive, or the app itself is triggering anxiety even on clear days, that’s a sign the coping strategy has tipped into something worth addressing with support.

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Related reading: Anxiety Counselling Calgary | Stress & Burnout Counselling Calgary | Online Counselling Alberta

Written by David Tamagi, R.Psych. — Registered Psychologist, College of Alberta Psychologists. David specializes in men’s mental health, life transitions, and relationship counselling, using ACT, CBT, and motivational interviewing approaches. View David’s profile >>

 

As I mentioned in the last post, positivity is (obviously) a good thing, but forcing oneself to be positive all the time can have some negative consequences.

Again, these problems arise from the reality that life is both good and bad, pleasure and pain. When we only acknowledge half of our lived experience, this type of positivity can actually be detrimental to our long term wellbeing.

To advocate for the experiencing of our more unpleasant emotions, I’ll turn to ideas from 2 foundational thinkers in psychology: Sigmund Freud and Victor Frankl

Freud recognized the dangers of repressing our emotions early on. He observed that when someone has a thought or feeling that is uncomfortable, one way of coping is simply to repress that thought or feeling.

If that repression meant that the feeling just went away, then we would be talking about an excellent coping strategy. Unfortunately, Freud identified the repression of our thoughts and feelings as the source of many of the psychological problems people experience.

Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who studied psychological outcomes for other survivors after the war. Briefly, he found that the main factor in those who coped better with their trauma was their ability to attribute meaning to their suffering.

He went on to argue that this was an essential skill in our journey as human beings. In a world where suffering is inevitable, learning to find meaning in our sadness, fear, and anger is a key learning as we move toward peace and contentment in a world filled with suffering.

In order to get better at coping with negative experiences and the emotions that come with them, we need to have lots of negative experiences and the emotions that come with them. In essence, practice makes progress.

A refusal to acknowledge and face the negative aspects of our experience robs us of the practice we need to develop the skill of finding meaning in our suffering.

So what do we do about this positivity balance? Especially considering that negative rumination is a real danger to our mental health. Here are a few thoughts on how we can change our relationship with negative thoughts and feelings without simply ignoring them:

• Ask yourself: is it appropriate to be upset in this situation? If we’ve experienced a setback at work or someone said something hurtful, our negative emotions are certainly appropriate. In cases like this, there may be no need to modify our negative emotions.
• What am I feeling? Using emotional literacy tools to explore how you are feeling can give you insight into your emotions. With this knowledge, you can more effectively give that emotion the space it needs.
• What is keeping me stuck in this emotion? Often when we ruminate, it’s because there is something about the situation that is particularly disturbing to us. If we can find out what that thing is and acknowledge it, it can help us to move on
• Can I find meaning in my past suffering? By looking to our past, we can get practice in finding the meaning or lesson in our suffering. Slowly, this can build a trust in our own resiliency, which can give us the strength to endure our suffering and find meaning in the present.

 

Learning to sit with difficult emotions instead of pushing them away takes practice, and support helps. Our Calgary psychologists offer in-person sessions at 1716 16 Ave NW, and virtual counselling across Alberta. Book a Free Consultation Call to get started.

Written by David Tamagi, R.Psych. — Registered Psychologist, College of Alberta Psychologists. David specializes in men’s mental health, life transitions, and relationship counselling, using ACT, CBT, and motivational interviewing approaches. View David’s profile >>

 

Positivity is something that we are all seeking it seems, and with good reason. A more positive mindset has been associated with better resiliency, lower distress, healthier relationships, and generally better mental and physical health. In fact, creating a more positive mindset is often a goal of therapy.

However, like all things, we can go overboard with positivity. Unfortunately, whether it is with fitness, healthy eating, productivity, or any number of “good things”, modern Western culture is excellent at taking good things too far.

When it comes to a positive mindset, many have recognized that we might be overdoing it. This potentially harmful extreme has been dubbed “Toxic Positivity”.

Briefly, toxic positivity is the idea that a person should maintain a positive attitude no matter what happens to them. This mindset rejects all difficult emotions and demands a smiling and cheerful facade in the face of adversity. As a bumper sticker I recently saw suggests: “no bad days”.

If we could authentically transform every experience into a positive one, this mindset would make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it is the mismatch between toxic positivity and our lived experience that causes problems.

The reality is that life is a mix of good and bad experiences. In Buddhism, the First Noble Truth acknowledges that suffering is a fundamental part of life. To gloss over the suffering in life is to deny reality.

Happiness that requires a twisting of reality is not authentic, and therefore, is fragile, shallow, and unsatisfying. It falls apart as soon as reality inevitably makes itself known. Lasting happiness is grounded in an acknowledgment and acceptance of the bad as well as the good.

Further, toxic positivity requires the denial of our natural emotional reactions. Evolutionary psychologists see emotions as useful evolved responses to survival problems, much like our hands or eyes. Trying to reject the existence of an emotion just because it is unpleasant is like trying to deny the existence of your eyes because they see something you don’t like. On top of that, we are losing the benefit these emotions evolved to give us.

All emotions, including unpleasant ones, are meant to be felt. When we resist these emotions and what they are trying to tell us, we actually maintain them. It’s like a child screaming to be heard. As we ignore them, they just get louder in a plea to be heard. However, once we give them the space that they need, they often say what they need to and are then free to dissipate.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll address some other risks around toxic positivity and outline a better, more authentic relationship with positivity.

 

If any of this feels familiar, you don’t have to sort it out alone. Our registered psychologists see clients in person at 1716 16 Ave NW in Calgary, and virtually across Alberta. Book a Free Consultation Call to talk it through.

Scott McKirdy is a Registered Psychologist and co-owner of Solasta Counselling in Calgary, where he conducts adult autism and ADHD assessments. View Scott’s profile >>

If you’re considering an autism assessment as an adult, the not-knowing is often the hardest part — not just whether you’re autistic, but what you’re actually signing up for. How many appointments. What gets asked. How long you’ll be waiting for an answer. This is a plain walkthrough of the real process, start to finish, so you can go in knowing what to expect.

Book a Free Consultation Call >>

Step 1: The Free Consultation Call

Before anything formal starts, most practices — including Solasta — offer a short, no-obligation consultation call. This is where you talk through why you’re seeking an assessment, ask questions about the process, and get a feel for whether the clinician is a good fit. Nothing is being evaluated here; it’s purely informational, and there’s no pressure to commit afterward.

Step 2: The Interview and Standardized Testing

The bulk of the assessment happens across two to three appointments of roughly two to three hours each, built around two core components: a detailed clinical interview covering your personal and developmental history, current challenges, and the specific experiences that led you to seek an assessment, and structured, standardized testing using gold-standard instruments — the ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition), the ADI-R (Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised), and the MIGDAS-2 (Monteiro Interview Guidelines for Diagnosing the Autism Spectrum, a sensory-based format that’s often a better fit for adults who mask well or present atypically).

These two pieces don’t necessarily happen in a fixed order, and they’re sometimes woven together within the same session rather than run as strictly separate appointments — the exact structure depends on your clinician and how you present. A good clinician also won’t run every available tool on every client by default; tool selection should be tailored to you specifically.

Step 3: A Note on Childhood Information

One of the most common worries people raise at this stage: do I need someone who knew me as a kid to confirm what I was like? Not necessarily. Collateral information from a parent or childhood observer can add useful context, but plenty of adults seeking a late diagnosis simply don’t have access to that — and a thorough clinician should be able to build an accurate picture from the clinical interview, standardized tools, self-report measures, and your own detailed account of your life, without it.

Step 4: Scoring and the Written Report

Once testing wraps up, the clinician scores the results and writes up findings — this typically takes three to four weeks. What you get at the end should be a substantial document, not a one-page summary: a genuinely thorough report runs 20 to 30 pages and covers diagnostic impressions with clinical rationale, a profile of your strengths and support needs, and practical recommendations for things like workplace accommodations and daily-life strategies. It should be written to actually be useful to you, your doctor, or your employer — not just a checkbox.

Step 5: The Feedback Session

Once the report is ready, you’ll sit down with your clinician to go through the findings in plain language — not jargon, not a data dump. If autism is identified, this is where you find out what that means for you specifically: your particular profile, not a generic description of the diagnosis. This is also the point where next steps get discussed, including what post-assessment support might look like.

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How Much Does an Adult Autism Assessment Cost?

This varies by clinic, but as a real reference point: comprehensive adult autism assessments at Solasta in Calgary start from $3,250, reflecting the multi-session process, standardized tools, scoring, and detailed report involved. It’s a genuine investment, which is exactly why it’s worth knowing upfront what you’re paying for rather than being surprised partway through.

You also don’t typically need to pay the full amount upfront — payment is usually split across the process rather than due as one lump sum before you start, which makes the cost easier to plan around. And depending on which clinician you see and your specific insurance plan, direct billing may be available for part or all of the cost — it’s not universal across every assessor or every plan, so it’s worth confirming on your consultation call whether it applies to your situation.

For context on timing: the wait for an adult autism assessment through Alberta’s public system can run two to three years. Going private typically means four to six weeks from your first consultation call to a finished report — a meaningfully different timeline if you’ve already been waiting a long time for answers.

Depending on the outcome, some people are also eligible to apply for the Disability Tax Credit — worth raising with your clinician if it’s relevant to you.

How to Prepare for an Adult Autism Assessment

There’s no strict prep required, but a few things make the process smoother:

Write down specific examples, not just impressions. “I struggle socially” is harder to work with than “I need a full day alone to recover after a family gathering.” Specific, concrete moments give your clinician more to work with than general self-descriptions.

Gather anything you already have, but don’t stress if you don’t. Old report cards, past therapy notes, or a family member’s recollections can help — but as covered above, their absence doesn’t derail an accurate assessment.

Expect some of it to feel emotional. Talking through years of not quite understanding why certain things were harder for you than for other people can bring up real feelings, sometimes unexpectedly. That’s normal, not a sign anything’s going wrong.

Come with your actual questions. Cost, timeline, what happens if the result is inconclusive, whether the report will be useful for workplace accommodations — a good clinician would rather answer these upfront than have you find out partway through.

Why This Matters: Autism in Adults Is Often Missed

Many autistic adults weren’t identified in childhood — not because they weren’t autistic, but because they masked effectively, or because clinical understanding of how autism presents (particularly in women and non-binary people) has shifted significantly in recent years. A late diagnosis is just as valid as an early one, and for a lot of people it’s the first time a lifetime of specific experiences finally has an explanation.

Who’s Actually Behind an Assessment Matters

The process above is fairly standard across good clinics, but who’s running it isn’t. At Solasta, adult autism assessments are co-led by Scott McKirdy, MC, Registered Psychologist, and Dr. Gillian McKirdy, Psy.D., Registered Psychologist — both trained in the ADOS-2, ADI-R, and MIGDAS-2, with additional specific training in assessing autistic women, a group historically underdiagnosed by tools originally normed on a narrower population. The full assessment team also includes Sabrina Minor, Sarah Choudhry, and Misha Waheed, registered and registered provisional psychologists who each bring their own clinical background to the assessment process. For Indigenous clients specifically, Randi Sager offers assessments adapted for Indigenous populations, recognizing that standard diagnostic tools weren’t developed or normed with Indigenous communities in mind and don’t always translate accurately across cultural context.

Ready to get some answers? Book a free consultation call or learn more about adult autism assessments at Solasta.

Written by Scott McKirdy, MC — Registered Psychologist, Managing Partner (Operations) and Co-Founder, College of Alberta Psychologists. Scott’s work focuses on adult autism assessments, life transitions, and parenting — bringing both a clinical and a parent’s perspective to questions about when a child might benefit from support. View Scott’s profile >>

As a parent, you spend more time watching your child than anyone else. You notice the changes in mood, the reluctance to go to school, the reaction that feels bigger than the situation warrants. Sometimes those things pass and sometimes they don’t.

If you’ve found yourself wondering whether your child might benefit from talking to someone, you’re not alone. The fact that you’re asking the question at all is worth taking seriously. This post walks through the signs that therapy might help, what tends to get better with support, and what to do if you decide to reach out.

 

What Child Therapy Actually Is

Before looking at signs, it helps to understand what child therapy actually involves.

For younger children especially, therapy isn’t primarily about sitting and talking. Children don’t have the emotional vocabulary or the developmental capacity to discuss their inner world the way adults do. Instead, child therapists use play therapy, art, sandtray, games, and creative activity to help children express and process what’s going on for them. The therapist observes, follows the child’s lead, and gently guides the work.

For older children approaching adolescence, sessions become more conversational — but the pace is always set by the child, and building trust comes before anything else. For teenagers aged 13 and over, our teen therapy page covers what’s different about working with adolescents.

 

Signs Your Child Might Benefit From Therapy

No single sign means your child definitely needs therapy. What you’re looking for are things that persist, that are affecting daily life, or that feel out of proportion to what’s happening. Here are the most common signs parents notice:

Changes in behaviour that don’t have an obvious explanation: A child who was generally settled becoming defiant, aggressive, or withdrawn. A child who used to be sociable becoming clingy or avoidant. Behaviour is often how children communicate what they can’t put into words, and a sustained change in behaviour is worth paying attention to.

Persistent anxiety or worry: Some level of worry is normal in childhood. But when anxiety is affecting sleep, causing physical symptoms like stomach aches or headaches, leading to avoidance of school or social situations, or reacting in ways that feel disproportionate to the situation, it’s worth getting some support. Anxiety in children responds well to therapy, and the earlier it’s addressed, the less entrenched it tends to become.

Emotional outbursts that feel out of proportion: Big reactions to small things. Meltdowns that seem to come from nowhere. Difficulty calming down once upset. These can be signs that a child is feeling more than they’re able to manage, and that they need help building the emotional regulation skills to cope.

Withdrawal from friends, family, or activities: When a child stops wanting to do things they used to enjoy, pulls away from friendships, or becomes increasingly isolated, it can signal depression, anxiety, or something difficult they’re trying to process. Withdrawal is easy to miss because it doesn’t cause the same disruption as behavioural acting out.

Difficulty at school: A sudden drop in academic performance, difficulty concentrating, problems with peers or teachers, or refusal to go to school can all be connected to emotional or psychological distress. Children who are struggling emotionally often can’t access learning the way they otherwise would. If school difficulties are accompanied by concerns about attention or learning, a child psychoeducational assessment can help identify what’s going on.

Sleep disturbances: Difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking, nightmares, or resistance to going to bed can all be signs of anxiety or stress. Sleep is usually one of the first things affected when a child is struggling.

Regression: Returning to behaviours associated with an earlier developmental stage – bedwetting after being dry, baby talk, separation anxiety in a child who was previously independent. Regression is often a response to stress or a significant change, and can be a signal that a child needs more support than they’re currently getting.

Talking about or showing signs of self-harm: Any mention of hurting themselves, or visible signs of self-harm, should be taken seriously and followed up with a professional promptly. This applies even if it seems like attention-seeking — the behaviour itself is a signal that something needs addressing.

After a significant event or loss: Bereavement, parental separation, a move, a new sibling, a traumatic experience — big events affect children in ways that aren’t always immediately visible. If your child has been through something significant and you’ve noticed a change, child therapy can provide a space for them to process it at their own pace.

A general sense that something isn’t right:  Sometimes there’s no specific sign — just a persistent feeling as a parent that your child isn’t quite themselves, and that what you’re doing isn’t quite reaching them. That instinct is worth following up.

 

What Doesn’t Mean Your Child Needs Therapy

It’s also worth being clear about what isn’t necessarily a reason for concern.

Normal developmental phases (tantrums in toddlers, moodiness in pre-teens, testing limits) are part of growing up and don’t automatically warrant therapy. Children also have bad weeks, difficult periods after changes, and days where they’re just hard to be around, and that’s normal

The question is always whether something is persisting, intensifying, or significantly affecting your child’s daily life and wellbeing. A single bad week is different from three months of withdrawal and declining school performance.

 

How to Talk to Your Child About Therapy

If you’ve decided you want to explore therapy for your child, how you introduce it matters. A few things that tend to help:

Be honest and straightforward: Children can usually tell when something is being dressed up or minimised. A simple explanation  (“I’ve found someone for you to talk to, someone whose job is to help kids with big feelings”) is usually better than an elaborate cover story.

Don’t frame it as a consequence or punishment: Therapy shouldn’t be something that happens to a child because they’ve been difficult. Framing it as support (something you’re doing because you love them and want them to feel better) makes a real difference to how they engage.

Normalise it: Many children worry that going to therapy means something is seriously wrong with them. Letting them know that lots of children see therapists, and that it’s a place to talk about feelings can reduce that anxiety.

Answer their questions honestly: Children often want to know what will happen, whether they have to talk, and whether you’ll find out what they say. Honest answers to those questions, including a clear explanation of how confidentiality works, help them feel safer going in.

Don’t force it, but don’t make it optional either: Some resistance is normal and doesn’t mean therapy won’t work. It usually helps to be matter-of-fact about it — this is happening, it’s going to be okay, and you’ll be there.

 

What Happens in Child Therapy at Solasta

At Solasta, child therapy sessions are one-on-one with a trained therapist in NW Calgary, for children aged 3 to 12. Sessions take place in comfortable therapy offices or our dedicated playroom, depending on your child’s age and what works best for them.

Before your child’s first session, we meet with you as parents. We want to understand what you’ve been noticing, your child’s history, and what you’re hoping therapy can do. You’ll receive regular updates throughout on progress and themes, and practical strategies to support what’s happening in sessions at home and at school.

No referral is needed. A free consultation call is available to help you figure out whether therapy is the right next step and find the right therapist for your child.

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Scott McKirdy is a Registered Psychologist and co-owner of Solasta Counselling. In 2020, he completed original research for his master’s degree in counselling psychology on the mental health experiences of adoptive fathers in Canada — research that coined the term “eggshell parenting,” explored further in this article. View Scott’s profile >>

Adoption changes families in ways that are profound, complicated, and often under-supported. Most of what’s written about adoption focuses on the needs of adopted children — and rightly so. Children who come to adoption with histories of trauma, neglect, or loss deserve careful, informed support.

But children grow up in families. And the adults raising them need support too.

In 2020 I completed a research study for my master’s degree in counselling psychology exploring the mental health experiences of adoptive fathers in Canada. I interviewed eleven fathers about what adoption had done to their own wellbeing. The findings shaped how I think about working with adoptive families, and they’re worth sharing.

What adoptive fathers actually experience

Most of the fathers I spoke to came to adoption after painful fertility journeys — years of IVF, miscarriage, and grief before choosing adoption. That grief doesn’t disappear when a child is placed. It often sits alongside the joy of becoming a parent, complicated and unresolved.

The adoption home study was experienced by almost every participant as deeply intrusive. Being assessed on your past, your relationship, your home, your suitability as a parent. Several fathers described it as feeling less like support and more like scrutiny — being looked at rather than helped.

For those who adopted privately, the 10-day revocation period was among the most psychologically difficult experiences they described. Fully attached to a child, living with the possibility of losing them at any moment, with no real support in place for what that was doing to them.

Eggshell parenting

The most significant theme that emerged from my research was something I came to call eggshell parenting — the experience of living on edge, of never quite knowing what will trigger a difficult moment, of carrying a persistent low-level anxiety about what comes next.

Children who have experienced early trauma can struggle to feel safe even in loving, stable homes. That struggle can show up as challenging behaviour, emotional volatility, or difficulty with attachment. Over time, parenting in that environment leaves many adults in a state of chronic hypervigilance. Walking on eggshells.

Many of the fathers I spoke to didn’t have language for this. When I described eggshell parenting to them, the recognition was immediate. Several said it was the first time anyone had accurately named what they were living with.

The mental health gap

Research suggests that up to 24% of adoptive fathers experience symptoms of depression following placement — comparable to rates of postnatal depression in new mothers, which has been a public health priority for decades. The mental health of adoptive fathers has received a fraction of the same attention.

The fathers in my study reported that what helped most wasn’t professional support — it was other adoptive parents. People who had been through it and didn’t need things explained. That kind of peer connection is something adoption services in Canada have been slow to build deliberately.

How we can help

At Solasta Counselling we work with adoptive families across Calgary and Alberta. We understand that the challenges adoptive parents face are distinct, and that fathers in particular often carry a great deal that goes unacknowledged.

If you’re an adoptive parent struggling with the weight of what you’re carrying — the hypervigilance, the relationship strain, the grief that never quite resolved — counselling with someone who understands the adoption context can make a real difference.

A free 20-minute consultation call is available to help you find the right fit.