Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm having a problem with my GP, he won't refer me for an autism assessment because in his eyes ( and the second opinion doctor ) people my age are rarely diagnosed because it's always caught in childhood.I know that's not true, more and more adults are being diagnosed.I had been seeing a psychiatrist a few years ago and he leaned on thinking I have BPD ( I looked at his Twitter page, he seems like posting about BPD)I researched BPD and though I did understand it, it didn't match what I go through or how I feel.I've been called autistic since school, though I never knew what it was.I was getting called the same thing when I joined college, so I started looking it up and they actually seem to be right. Not all of those people were being cruel, some said they had autism themselves or had family who did.The GP won't listen, and I'm going to have a huge problem trying to pay for a private assessment.What the hell should I do?
Yes, it is appalling that so many GP surgeries rely exclusively on 'on the day' early morning phone calls for making appointments. The online service 'Patient Access' has both appointment booking and messaging services, neither of which my practice is making use of.
yep, have to call at 8:00 in the morning, then disregulated for the entire day and that's just to get the appointment
super well done, I also hate these kinds of phone calls/emails
blimey
No worries, it's only taken me 3 months to make a phone call and an email.
(and 20 minutes writing a sentence)
excellent work u are also helping other autistics coming after you, so thanks
Update - I sent the GP a completely unedited email telling them how to make a referral as they clearly weren't aware of the local service and they have now completed the form and sent it in.
Hello VulVoken
Sorry to hear you are in this situation. GPs can be a tricky bunch. Can I suggest contacting your local CCG?
Ask to speak to the project manager for adult mental health pathways/adult neurodiversity. Ask them to confirm the steps/criteria GPs should be following/applying in your area and explain that your GPs are in effect locking you out from accessing help.
Here are the NICE guidelines for adult ASD assessment: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg142/chapter/Recommendations#identification-and-assessment-2
Have a read through and try to evidence where your GP is not meeting these guidelines. If you can (it will be hard, I know) rise above the emotions and use the evidence to embarrass the GP/CCG.
The tide on accessing assessments for neurodiverse adults is turning against old-fashioned attitudes but we need to stick together and persist to make sure things continue to improve for us and others.
You are in the right - keep that in mind.
yes, sorry, just found that out myself - i was looking forward to using them
Well, I'm a late-diagnosed autistic and I was selectively mute for 3 months straight when I started infant school. Then I was selectively mute at school on-and-off for shorter periods of time for years afterwards. This was just ignored because I spoke fluently at home. If anything was shouting that I had a problem, I think that should have done the trick. I think that If you were in the school system before around the mid 1990s if you had anything other than very severe and obvious problems caused by autism, you would not have been considered for assessment, never mind received a diagnosis.
I've got a similar issue with my GP, they are fixated on midlife crisis because you can't possibly function at the level I do whilst having autistic traits. I am also married to a GP who is pretty certain I have ASD and ADHD, I have children who have ASD traits and one of them is in the process of getting an ASD diagnosis so it's really important that I have certainty of my diagnosis to be able to support them.
I also know that their peers consider them to have an Autistic Profile but they lack the self awareness and this is leading them to project their masking onto me as a patient.
Whilst its been really frustrating and every attempt to make progress leads me to dysregulated and shut down, I've actually had to look at my masking behaviour, to understand what it is that I do and what might be useful because it now seems we have to justify our successes.
There is nothing stopping you changing GP's, part of the problem is the number of GP's with ASD without a diagnosis, there are also a lot of GP's with children with ASD who are part of the solution.
Unfortunately this seems to be for England only, not UK
read this,,,link 1, then try these people in link 2----
be careful getting into a fight with your GP as they can remove u entirely
link 1
psychiatry-uk.com/.../
link 2
I actually messaged them through their new website asking to change my GP when I was asking for a second oppinion. The request seems to have been ignored.I tried to call up today but the phones are busy, I will try again.
your gp's a idiot. he judges it by todays standards in which kids get thrusted on any alphabet label if they dont have one, thus kids are overdiagnosed these days... but adults were not diagnosed at all because in our day when we was kids no one gave a *** about alphabeti spagetti and kids were just kids and no one got diagnosed for anything. so your gp is totally wrong to judge all by todays kiddo generation when we wasnt in this generation.and yeah if your pshiciatrist is obssessed with bp he probably is a "activist" for it and will thrust it on everyone to grow his bpd group biasedly because he loves it lol everyone with their prefered group will try and grow it and make it more influential and big, that is basically what other certain loud groups that are orientated on sexuality also do....
Can you change doctors?