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Should I request an autism assessment?

Grogu
over 2 years ago

Hi there,

I am looking for some honest advice from others who are going/have been through the process of autism diagnosis in adulthood. 

Some background: I am a female in my 30s. I have OCD (diagnosed in teens) and anxiety (recently diagnosed). I have always done well academically, gained 2 degrees and I work within the healthcare sector. However, throughout my life I have always felt ‘different’ to my peers - but put this down to my OCD. Over the years, several people have made flippant comments about me having ‘autistic traits’, which I never really paid attention to tbh  

Over the past 6 months or so, I’ve looked more in depth at my OCD (as I was going through counselling). However, another recent comment from a colleague had me looking into undiagnosed autism and I now can’t get the thought of it out of my head. I have done several of the autism screening tests, all of which have returned high scores:

AQ-10 - 8

AQ-50 - 34

RAADS-R - 126

I’ve begun noting down some characteristics as I notice them:

*I like routine, and struggle with change to routine/plans

*I like to be in control of situations, and like to carefully plan ahead

*I feel the need to complete tasks perfectly/completely right, and I really dislike not completing a task before moving on

*I see everything in black & white

*I struggle to build/maintain relationships, outwith family I have 1 friend (I have work colleagues, but don’t socialise outside of work as this is something I really struggle with)

*I find social interactions difficult - making/maintaining eye contact, often struggle to interpret peoples thoughts/feelings, I very often worry I’ve upset or angered people after I’ve finished a conversation even if there’s no indication of this.

*Social events make me very anxious - since my teens, I can count on one hand the number of social events I have attended without a close fanimus member or my husband with me

*I will often talk very fast when anxious/in a group of people or if discussing something which heavily interests me

*I will point out small mistakes (even in conversations, much to my husbands annoyance!)

*As a child I was a very fussy eater, much of it was down to food textures in my mouth - certain foods would literally make me gag. I am still like this with textures, although I am less fussy

There may be others I haven’t noticed/listed as of yet. 

I am apprehensive about following this up, as I am worried I’m overthinking/worrying and would be wasting peoples time.  There’s aspects of my life/characteristics that make me believe I am just worrying over nothing - for example, I am married with children, can deal well with loud noise (concerts/football crowds etc), I loved imaginative/role play as a child. I also worry that some of these could just be classic characteristics of OCD/GAD instead of autism traits  

I guess I am worried I am referred for assessment, have a long wait and then waste peoples time to be told I don’t have autism. Have others been through similar and could offer me advice? 

Parents
  • over 2 years ago

    I have 3 degrees, worked in scientific research for 34 years, have a wife and 2 children and 15 minutes into my autism assessment the psychiatrist doing the assessment said he would be diagnosing me with ASC. I was also diagnosed with GAD and social phobia, my OCD tendencies were ascribed to my autism. Reading the description of your traits, I  think that you would benefit from an assessment. It gives a level of certainty and validation that I think is very valuable. Just because you cope with life, it does not mean that you do not have difficulties, you are every bit as entitled to go for an assessment as anyone with similar or more severe traits.

Reply
  • over 2 years ago

    I have 3 degrees, worked in scientific research for 34 years, have a wife and 2 children and 15 minutes into my autism assessment the psychiatrist doing the assessment said he would be diagnosing me with ASC. I was also diagnosed with GAD and social phobia, my OCD tendencies were ascribed to my autism. Reading the description of your traits, I  think that you would benefit from an assessment. It gives a level of certainty and validation that I think is very valuable. Just because you cope with life, it does not mean that you do not have difficulties, you are every bit as entitled to go for an assessment as anyone with similar or more severe traits.

Children
  • over 2 years ago in reply to Martin

    Thank you for your response! This is very helpful and reassuring, my biggest concern is approaching the GP and being told no/it couldn’t possibly be autism because of my background and the fact I can ‘cope’ with life. 

    It’s so difficult because autism is a spectrum, with such varying degrees of severity and every person will present differently. I feel like - having researched it in some depth - I certainly appear to meet a number of criteria, and the screening tools all return scores which are indicative of autism. However, it’s just a constant niggling worry that I then go through it all to be told it is not, and then be left forever wondering why I am the way I am. 

    Thank you for your help :-)