Had assessment today

well done, treat yourself, get a tattoo, take a holiday. dont put yourself under any stress for 3 months 

Had my outcome review today and was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder/ asperger type.

Been a long time to get to this and the wait between the assessment and finding out today was tough bit now pleased to have gone through it and know I was right to feel the way I did.

I appreciate the responses I have received on this site in the last year or so whilst I have been waiting and it has been helpful to post things like this as I went along.

It's difficult (diagnosed at 46) - I had a heads up from my assessment team about a month after assessment and before the draft  report was sent over to me to cast my eye over which was several weeks later. I found the assessment disorientating and it took me a few days to get over that and back into a functioning frame of mind.

The wait isn't easy. I got the feeling my psychologist had pretty much figured out I was on the spectrum from the conversation she had with a works colleague who helped to secure the referral and funding. The only thing I can suggest is to trust the process. There's things I picked up on the day of the assessment which I hadn't really thought about before but indicated to me there was something going on (I struggled with some of the creative tasks, was hopeless on the verbal information-recall and I really found it unsettling to switch between the task and informal conversation with the assessors). There's other things that were picked up on that I wasn't even aware of - it surprised me to find out how many blind spots I have to certain behaviours and assumptions I make about other people. 

Everything you need to know about the assessment will be be in the report. I took it as whatever came back that there's nothing that was going to change how I led my life today while waiting. That carried me through a lot - as well as having someone I could just talk things over with when I got a bit unsettled. 

Why do some people seem to get their answers on the day, yet the 2 people I had my assessment with kept telling me that have to go back to their team and write the report first before they can give me any information.

Not liking that some are able to get an answer at the end of the day and others weeks after. Not sure how I feel about still not knowing and still waiting.

Just hoping I hear something soon, it's hard work waiting!

Sorry for the very slow reply, the last few days have been exhausting and I didn't see the notifications. 

Yes hopefully, I'm stuck where my local services won't actually give me access to the talking therapies until I have had the assessment first as they felt my issues appeared to reflect this. Very frustrating so hopefully I won't have much longer to wait to be able to get some kind of help.

Its been a long few days.

u're nearly there ,,,, soon u will know something new about yourself

yeah I've gotten myself in bad situations at work too with outbursts of frustration and anger. If you think your report is wrong you should question it and get a second opinion (oh wow I didn't know you could when the other person is typing lol) hopefully you'll get that better sense of self that I got from my diagnosis it definitely helped me with big time.

And yes if you're diagnosis isn't autism it doesn't mean you don't have the issues that you deal with you could 'have' something else ADHD and ASD can be very very similar and it crosses over ALOT

I'm not good at all with learning things that I'm not interested in that I would say is one of my biggest downfalls and it's not for a lack of trying either I just cannot get information to stay in my head if I'm not interested in it.

No I can relate to your last section for secondary school. I wasn't getting bullied again and I would say that I can be very blunt and intimidating and also became a bad kid as they say but my work was always a very good quality and most of the time better than those that weren't misbehaving too. I am like a sponge and do not find it difficult to learn and if its a subject I enjoy I could happily spend hours on it at home.

People were surprised by my grades at the end. I think they assumed by my behaviour and angry outbursts and skipping lessons or being stuck in the internal exclusion room that it meant I wasn't capable of getting decent grades.

As I've got older and there's more things to contend with I felt like I couldn't keep up the show and was having many outbursts in public. It was the one at work that made them introduce me to the works mental health team. 

I do think there's many times over the years there could have been interventions or things picked up earlier. But on the same hand I didn't think that for myself until early twenties more through lack of knowledge and poor understanding and to have the woman at work bring it up without me mentioning it made me brave it and speak to my doctor. 

I am very capable at times and can do a lot of things but it does come at a cost and there are lots of sensory sensitivities on top that are physical reactions. 

I think some people who know me will say no they wouldn't think that but then anyone who actually knows me will say yes I can see that ... 

I just need to have the outcome of the assessment then I can go from there until then its hard to say yes that's the case but also doesn't dismiss the fact that these issues do not dissappear on the outcome of the report. Regardless to that I still have these difficulties and trying to learn to navigate those is the main thing 

I'm just regular ol' male lol.

There seems to be an issue with females getting diagnosed for some reason it gets brushed of as just being shy and/or having social anxiety, I know a lot people say that autism presents differently in girls but I don't necessarily see that as I thunk my traits are quite "feminine" traits more so when it comes to masking it. I've seen a lot of things saying girls mask a lot more or are better at it but I mask ALOT and I can't always help it it's become some what of a defence mechanism for me like our fight or flight system. Now I'm educated in the autism and is officially diagnosed I'm more aware of myself but it tends to be like when I'm gone from whatever situation I'll realise how much I was masking whereas before I wouldn't know I'd just be super burnt out which still does happen to me.

I can't really comment on the school experience apart from saying mine was very different than yours I wasn't bullied but I think that I might come across as a bit intimidating so bullies never targeted me and I'm definitely cleverer than most people but I didn't do well with my grades because I had a lot issues day to day with self identity and how things were taught and how I wasn't social and school rules baffled me I ended becoming the bad kid so I wouldn't get bullied for being dumb or anything like that but now I know I should have had help.

I had a teacher speak to my mum when I was in year 4 (only found that out since seeking an assessment) and as she was a single parent and my younger brother was also a bit difficult she admits she brushed it off and got offended and didn't need anyone looking into us when we were happy and healthy in her eyes. 

I got offered a scholarship for secondary school for my maths ability but remember pleading with my mum not to send me to the special school for being clever I wanted to go to the normal school like everyone else. I had been really bullied towards end of primary school for my super geeky traits and being teachers pet. 

I had a counsellor I would see 1:1 on a weekly basis through the secondary school for being disruptive and skipping certain lessons ect. A lot was put down to me being a troubled teenager with a single mum with her own mental health issues and me taking charge of my siblings. My grades were always kept up and I would have my work finished well ahead of most and that's where I would struggle to not be disruptive. Had my grades been an issue too I'm sure they wouldn't have been as persistent with me. 

I also think being female has a lot to do with why it's took so long to get to this point too. Can I ask if you are male or female? I don't want to assume just from the ex girlfriend comment.

Yeah exactly the same as me, always knew I was different from everyone else but didn't know why or what. I had a few people in my say to they thought I'm on the spectrum but it was never anything more than a passing comment and because my ignorance I didn't know that autism can present its self they mine is. mainly because of unconscious and conscious masking that I'm still learning about, My ex girlfriend said me to me a few times that I should go and see someone because she though "something was wrong" but didn't know.

Well hopefully it doesn't too long for you to officially find out you get lucky like me and they push it forward, it depends though my psychiatrist was extremely confident in his diagnosis at the end when we finished he said he was "astonished" that it wasn't picked up while I was at school because the school I went to had a fully funded up to date SEN department that was pretty much created for the purpose of helping kids with austism and other LD's and looking for kids that might be undiagnosed. (I am a pretty heavy "masker"  though )

Thanks for your reply! They told me they had to have a meeting with the team first and would potentially call my mum if needed - they didn't and they also mentioned a potential face to face assessment if needed which was almost dismissed at the end. So I got the impression that they have all they need and I should find out soon but they can't officially say anything until they have done their paperwork... 

I'm 27 and a fair few years ago I had suspected I could be, I know most people don't think or see things the way I do. I had it almost laughed at/dismissed by my ex boyfriend and I didn't mention it again.

I then carried on struggling and ended up having a few outbursts at work among other issues and wasn't coping well at the time and resigned from my day contract to work with the out of hours team to make things easier and they provided me with a mental health service. It was the counsellor there that brought it up after going through some of the problems I was having and that's when I went to my gp for a referral. I didn't have trouble getting referred, once I have spoke to the doctor about the issues I was having and why I was exploding at work he referred me straight away.

The assessment service in my area is only part time and the pandemic didn't and isn't helping the wait times on their side. 

Would have preferred to have been told on the day like you were and just hope it's not too long before I find out.

Hey Bumble,

I was diagnosed just over 3 weeks ago and the dr told me at the end of the assessment "welcome to the club you are a textbook case" so it wasn't something I had to wait on in terms of confirmation, not sure about your self if they told you straight way or not. He also said to give him at least two weeks to write the report but he sent it 3 days later. So you might get lucky and they fit you into their schedule put you ahead other work they might need to do.

When you do get the report take time to read it and just know there might be some terms in the there you might not understand that are medical so have google at the ready if you come across things you don't understand. Give yourself time to process it.

It's been three weeks for me and I have been thinking about my whole life and what could have been different if I knew sooner so you're not alone with that one if you are at all thinking about that. I have to say these forums and social pages are nice to look at though because there is so much that you come across and go "oh wow I thought I was the only one". 

if you don't mind what is your situation? Wanting to know if you might have been in in similar situation to me.

I'm 22 and I have been struggling my whole with a l a lot of things but never knew anything about autism and reached a point and got quite low and by chance came across some autism traits videos on you tuube and related to them the rest is history I spent 2 months day and night researching everything I could about autism in adult and hey presto got assed and got diagnosed with ASD and now I have lot better sense of self identify, bu t I do still have a lot of questions for my self that I'm answering.

Sorry for the long reply but I want to try and paint the best picture I can for you in this thread.