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The diagnosis process

Ian Hirst

For the past year or so, I have been on an interesting journey. To start with, I was unsure why I was so different to everyone else I knew, wasn't sure whhy I struggle with making and maintaining friendships, progressing at work and wondering why I think different to everyone else I know (mainly the way I process things). Considering I work in the education sector, I started noticing students who had a diagnosis, displaying traits that I am too familiar with myself. I went on a couple of training sessions and had some professionals ask me  outright whether i was on the spectrum or not... My response was "probably". I sought out some assistance from my GP who referred me to the Suffolk welbeing team, who rang me to discuss why I thought I might be on the autistic spectrum. After being referred for an initial meeting (which took a couple of hours truth be told), I received a letter stating, once at the top of the list, I will be asked to have a sesion with a clinical psychologist. That letter arrived throgh my door two days ago, for an appointment in a couple of weeks time. I am absolutely bricking it, and my anxiety is through the roof. Can anyone tell me what to expect, so I can process what might happen during this session that is going to last all day. Please?

Parents

  • The assessment process seems to vary, a lot of adult assessments still seem to use strange storybook based questions that seem more appropriate for young children, whereas for others (including myself) it was more like an informal chat.

    In my case, I was only diagnosed early last year at age 55 & possibly the reason I avoided the storybook nonsense was that I made a joke about having read up online about what the assessment might be like & hoped that I wouldn't be asked to make up silly stories about frogs on lilypads. The assessor said I shouldn't really have tried to read up in advance, to which I said I was in my fifties & automatically research everything on the internet. After that though, she said they didn't need to use that material & could do the assessment more informally.

    My assessment actually took two seperate appointments, not because talking about frogs would have made things easier, rather that having had a lifetime to learn how to mask most of my symptoms, I was harder to diagnose. As long as you will be happy with the result one way or the other, I don't think the assessment itself is anything to worry about, as it isn't an interrogation like those awful DWP assessments, they just genuinely want to help.

    Congratulations on getting an assessment so quickly though, for me the entire process took almost a year, but for others it was even longer.

Reply

  • The assessment process seems to vary, a lot of adult assessments still seem to use strange storybook based questions that seem more appropriate for young children, whereas for others (including myself) it was more like an informal chat.

    In my case, I was only diagnosed early last year at age 55 & possibly the reason I avoided the storybook nonsense was that I made a joke about having read up online about what the assessment might be like & hoped that I wouldn't be asked to make up silly stories about frogs on lilypads. The assessor said I shouldn't really have tried to read up in advance, to which I said I was in my fifties & automatically research everything on the internet. After that though, she said they didn't need to use that material & could do the assessment more informally.

    My assessment actually took two seperate appointments, not because talking about frogs would have made things easier, rather that having had a lifetime to learn how to mask most of my symptoms, I was harder to diagnose. As long as you will be happy with the result one way or the other, I don't think the assessment itself is anything to worry about, as it isn't an interrogation like those awful DWP assessments, they just genuinely want to help.

    Congratulations on getting an assessment so quickly though, for me the entire process took almost a year, but for others it was even longer.

Children
  • in reply to Pirate Santa

    Thank you so much for replying! I always research everything I am involved with, including the tests they might use. I think my tendancies tend to run me this way. It has been a while since i was ffirst referred (11 moths ago for my first phonecall, nearly 9 months ago was my first appointment). I have even completed the autistic quotent test in which I scored very highly (42 out of 50), which put my head i a bit of a spin because, here at 40, I've kinda done ok up til the last year or so. What is more on my mind, more than anything is what if i'm not actually autistic.. sounds daft i know. Thanks again for the response!