So back in 2019 I started the journey to getting a diagosis. It took ages to get the initial paperwork, got it all filled in, added some personal notes along with mood diary to show my feelings as I'm not good otherwise at expressing them.
Nothing for a year. GP writes them a letter asking what's happening, and they respond back to me with... more of the forms. So I go through the process again, send them off and several months later:
A letter appears!
"The information you have submitted is not reflective of autism"
Okay.
But here's the really really weird part: They want to refer me to have "assessment by other professionals" without stating who or what or how. The close of with "should they consider autism is a possibility we will revisit undertaking a full autism assessment within our service"
So basically I've been fobbed off and bundled off elsewhere (where I don't know yet), and if they say its probably autism then an assessment will be made.
I know the forms they gave me (AQ50) I score highly on. My documentation went through my life detailing (for want of a better term) autistic-type moments or examples where I seem to have exhibited traits.
The only thing I had concerns with was my parents view of my childhood. My perception of things and my parents are often two completely different observations. The fact I had to learn masking techniques because I was born with a mild hearing loss would have easily covered this up. Learning to 'follow along' with conversation without understanding half the words, things like that.
It completely knocked me. I manage my life as an autistic would, but I don't feel I can call myself as such. I've always referred to myself as a 'probably autistic' and used little tips and tricks I've read around the net which have really helped manage my life.
Obviously I'll be in touch with my GP to find out what is going on now, because I don't know. If they're referring me to psychiatric services that would be a waste of time as I've already tried that route just prior to looking into the possibility of bein autistic. I got refused then because despite my mental health issues, I wasn't a "risk" category and didn't score highly enough on their depression test. Despite struggling with depression for the last 25+ years (it's a persistent cycle).
Has anyone else been bounced around different departments? I don't have the luxury of affording a private assessment and we have a singular autism service in Wales.
