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Assessment Queries

PJ

TW: Abuse

Hi All,

I'm sure this may have been asked a million times but I'd like to have a thread of my own to refer back to.

So I'm just now realising that I may be autistic. I'm a 38 year old student at university and am on a waiting list for a pre-assesment.  I've filled out the AQ10, AQ50 and the EQ. Those were enlightening I can tell you. 

I'm worried about the assessment from the point of view of not having a parent to comment about my childhood behaviours.  I can remember a lot of what I was like as a child, my school years etc but how do they get around this for diagnosis if a parent can't comment?

In all honesty I don't want my parents anywhere near my assessment process and they aren't going to be made aware of any of this before I am ready to tell them (if i ever do). My mother is abusive and I don't want her filling out any questionnaires for me or having anything to do with me and my health.  My father was hardly around when I was a child and was manipulated by my mother about our behaviour so has a warped view (my mother would say we were bad and my old fashioned father would believe her blindly and act to punish us regardless of whether we were bad or not). 

Anyway, can they ask other people? My sibling is only 15 months older than me so probably can't remember much as we are so similar in age.

It's one thing that I am just getting anxiety over and would like to hear others experiences of this part of the assessment process.

Thank you all,

PJ

  • You should be able to identify an alternative. I recently went through the assessment process. When it came to a second opinion, they wanted someone who had known me as long as possible. My mother is dead, and my father isn't well and it wasn't fair to ask him, so I asked my wife, who has known me since 1995. That was fine. I think one of the issues is that the process sort of assumes that it is being done in childhood, and that a parent would be available. I would just start with the people who have known you the longest, and work down the list until you get someone who you'd be happy to suggest.

  • I've just asked this very question as I'm in the process of seeking assesment for myself at 34 having had a very abusive childhood. I've contacted two separate assessment centres and both have informed me as long as I'm able to share my own memories of childhood experiences not having family input or input from anyone other than myself and my GP will not prevent an assessment from being carried out. I'm not sure where you are but I've chosen to go through psychiatry UK and they do a right to choose process so that I can request my GP refers me directly to them and their waiting times are months rather than years. I got so anxious about the idea I wouldn't be able to do the assessment without outside input but my experience so far has reassured me this is not the case. 

  • I worry about this too. I'm not in contact with anyone I met before the age of 20 and have absolutely no documentation from childhood: no journals, no pictures, no school reports. I don't even have medical records as my last GP lost them. I can tell an assessor "I rarely spoke until I was 7, had frequent meltdowns when I couldn't be alone, and every school report said I was doing fine academically but should contribute more in class" but will they believe me?

  • Well, they can certainly take your recall. And yes, they could take the recall of people other than your parents. Have you a friend or an older person who has known you since childhood.

    I also gave them all my old school reports and teenage diaries, which had a lot of clues. Any old video? 

    I was lucky, my mother was still able to contribute, but the process didn't hang on her word alone and lots of people of our generation get through this without parental input.

    I would start writing down all the stuff that was difficult for you as a child. It helped my assessors to have my extensive notes from that.