Initial assessment

Welcome to the forum.

Well, firstly, I think it's important to note that experiences vary a hell of a lot; different diagnostic teams seem to structure things differently, and even the NICE guidelines for NHS assessments give several options for frameworks that assessors can use. I wasn't told of any split between initial assessment and continuing investigations for my assessment, which may be because it was a psychologist who suggested my referral, but I'll assume that my first meeting was equivalent.

A fair chunk was taken up with filling in standardised tests, and most people seem to do these; they're just multiple choice questionnaires that give the interviewer a rough indication of whether you are autistic and some hints for what behaviours to ask you about.

After that, the rest was basically just an interview about what kinds of things I'd experienced during my life, focusing on aspects pertinent to autism; social skills, language, depth of focus on hobbies, abilities at planning and carrying out actions, etc. My main difficulty with this was trying to find specific examples of when something had caused me problems; not because there weren't any, but because I'd often get stuck trying choose a single one. So that might be something to think about over the next couple of weeks, and maybe even jot down a few notes about particularly notable events from life to take with you.

Don't try to guess what answers are expected, it's much more important to be honest about what your "inner voice" tells you, even if you've spent your life suppressing it so that you can get along with other people better. However, I found that the assessor was actually very good at seeing beneath all the coping strategies that I usually use to conceal my strangeness. In fact, some interview techniques are partly designed to do that; the way that you answer is as much part of the assessment as the answers themselves.

The assessor that I had was absolutely excellent, I cannot fault her for anything. She gave me a lot of confidence in the diagnosis by stopping occasionally to point out what the things I told her might mean. Someone working in autism assessment should have a far better understanding of autism than any doctor, counsellor, etc. that you've seen so far. I found it very refreshing to talk for the first time to a professional who actually understood what I was talking about and didn't just dismiss things as faulty thinking due to depression or self-esteem problems. Of course, this will depend a lot on the particular psychologist that you see, but you should find it a lot easier than trying to explain things to your GP!

Welcome to the forum.

Well, firstly, I think it's important to note that experiences vary a hell of a lot; different diagnostic teams seem to structure things differently, and even the NICE guidelines for NHS assessments give several options for frameworks that assessors can use. I wasn't told of any split between initial assessment and continuing investigations for my assessment, which may be because it was a psychologist who suggested my referral, but I'll assume that my first meeting was equivalent.

A fair chunk was taken up with filling in standardised tests, and most people seem to do these; they're just multiple choice questionnaires that give the interviewer a rough indication of whether you are autistic and some hints for what behaviours to ask you about.

After that, the rest was basically just an interview about what kinds of things I'd experienced during my life, focusing on aspects pertinent to autism; social skills, language, depth of focus on hobbies, abilities at planning and carrying out actions, etc. My main difficulty with this was trying to find specific examples of when something had caused me problems; not because there weren't any, but because I'd often get stuck trying choose a single one. So that might be something to think about over the next couple of weeks, and maybe even jot down a few notes about particularly notable events from life to take with you.

Don't try to guess what answers are expected, it's much more important to be honest about what your "inner voice" tells you, even if you've spent your life suppressing it so that you can get along with other people better. However, I found that the assessor was actually very good at seeing beneath all the coping strategies that I usually use to conceal my strangeness. In fact, some interview techniques are partly designed to do that; the way that you answer is as much part of the assessment as the answers themselves.

The assessor that I had was absolutely excellent, I cannot fault her for anything. She gave me a lot of confidence in the diagnosis by stopping occasionally to point out what the things I told her might mean. Someone working in autism assessment should have a far better understanding of autism than any doctor, counsellor, etc. that you've seen so far. I found it very refreshing to talk for the first time to a professional who actually understood what I was talking about and didn't just dismiss things as faulty thinking due to depression or self-esteem problems. Of course, this will depend a lot on the particular psychologist that you see, but you should find it a lot easier than trying to explain things to your GP!