Question about testing process for adult ASD diagnosis

I went the private route. My elderly father attended both my diagnostic interviews. Many questions about my childhood and my subsequent life were asked, including about my mental health, but nothing that I found embarrassing. My father knew most of it, anyway. I was not asked to do any tasks. I'm 45.

My interviews lasted around 3 hours or so in total. 

Hope this helps.

Yeah well there were no words so nothing to read. She said she would read page 1 and she went on for ages and I just kept looking thinking I had gone mad as I couldn’t see any words. Then it came to me and and I didn’t know what to say.

my report said i frowned a lot - lol  

I went with a person who I knew at the time and who knew me best, but they did not want to talk to them.  At the end I was asked about whether they can speak to my parents, but I was told this was only to find about speech onset to decide whether I would be diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome or high functioning autism.

I really did not want to do that, and have still never told them, so they said they would diagnose me as high functioning autism.  But I do not think they make that distinction any more as the diagnosis now is only given as autistic spectrum disorder.  So maybe they will not want to speak to anyone else.

Did you have to read the frog book?  I still think about it as I do not understand it and wonder if it is real children's book or a special diagnostic one.

I went alone.  No questions were hard or particularly loaded.  You dont have to answer anything you dont want to.  Just go there with an open mind, do your best, answer honestly and the rest is down to the psychologist running it.

They will ask about your childhood.  you went through it, so answer honestly.  It may help to jot down things you remember of your childhood on paper prior to the interview.   The questions tend to be very related to how different you were to others, eg, did you play alone, live in your world, were you gifted or did you struggle to learn ne wthings, etc.  Their was a lot of reinforcement during my interview with similar questions being reworded and posed I guess to see if you were trying to fake ASD.  For me that was the end of session one.

Session two was about the adult end of things.  How doe sit affect you in your life, eg, does it affect you at work and how, daya to day activities you do, routines, obsessions, etc.  Just answer it honestly and dont answer anything you arent comfortable with.

You then get a yay or nay.  They ask if you want the report to be private or a copy sent to your gp as well.  i opted for a copy to my doctor since it will end up in my NHS records and if im ever admitted to A&E after something serious it should show up in my Primary Care Record.  Its up to you if you do or dont.  But it will go on an NHS record regardless, if it was done through the NHS.

Then comes the fun bit.  Knowing means contemplating.  You start to almost see things a little clearer.  Something you maybe do that you never thought of before but is probably ASD related.  Not to mention the consolidation and acceptance that you have a disability on some level (although i see it more as an advancement in many ways).  The whole coming to terms bit, takes a while.  But you will.

Hi aryankanse6

I was worried when I was diagnosed and ended up taking a family member who didnt know me as much as a child but she ended up been quite helpful. The assessment wasn’t the most comfortable thing and I think they did misunderstand some things. An example in my report it said I wore sun glasses inside and couldnt explain why but I did take them off to talk. I really have no recollection of this other than it was a really sunny day and I took them off once I went in, I dont remember them asking me why I was wearing them and not been able to explain.

They also made me play childish games which made no sense to me at all and once diagnosed I really had doubts they got it right, it just seemed they wanted me to play with kids toys and look at pictures. They would set me a task and then there was a nurse who would just start talking to me which I now know is part of the assessment. Whilst I was reading a book she said something about going somewhere with her child and falling over, I didnt really hear her as I was reading the book and couldnt work out if she said she fell over or her child and I also wasn’t sure I had heard that correct as it was so random. It turns out that was a test to see if I was sympathetic. There are lots about the test that really doesn’t make sense, however I found somebody had written about their experience on wordpress and it seemed to match mine. It was interesting to read their point of view. I didnt read it until I was diagnosed, I am not sure if that was a good thing because it meant I was going in blind or maybe if I had read it I may have understood more about what was going on around me

Good luck with you assessment and hope it helps 

I went alone. I was made very comfortable, and I found that the assessment was so well structured that I was never embarrassed at any point by any of the questioning/questions.

Unless your particular guidance from your assessment centre specifically asks you to bring friend or family member along to the initial meeting I'd leave that until later.

I expected my assessment centre to ask about friends or family members so I volunteered a couple of names. I was asked to let my friend/family member know that the centre would be contacting them and that was all it took. The centre handles it all and all they need from you is name, relationship, how long they've known you (in the case of friend) and contact details.

Every good wish
Ess Cee

Not gone through the process yet but from my research, isn't the family member interview done individually?