20 Year Old Woman Diagnosis

I’m 20 years old (female) and I’ve had the suspicion that I’m autistic for a while now; I scored 193 on the RAADS-R test. I had all the signs as a child but my mother was too proud of my intelligence to get me diagnosed and chose to ignore the signs, and also because I’m female I probably slipped through the cracks in school.

I have absolutely no idea where to start regarding getting a diagnosis and I can’t believe I’ll have to wait another TWO YEARS, AT LEAST for the assessment. I really need this diagnosis so I can get the support I need at work and at university when I decide to go back (I dropped out of uni because I was expected to perform the same as a NT person and obviously that’s not how it works!).

Neither of my parents are in my life anymore and obviously since I left school quite some time ago ago there isn’t many people who knew me well enough as a child who could fill in that form (I can’t remember what it’s called).

Any advice on how to get the ball rolling? 

Parents
  • As others have said, ask for a referral from the gp. Also ask if they can pay for an assessment via a private provider. Not many will say yes. Think about the private route. You can ask to pay in installments which might be easier to manage if your appointments are evenly spaced.

    Regarding the developmental questionnaire, you can answer a lot yourself. You can also check with your mother about how long your birth was, what type etc, and any accidents or illnesses you might have had. Try to get a bit of info on other relatives were useful, and think about you, how you played, what you enjoyed, how many friends you had, things you found difficult etc as a child. That should be more than enough, when coupled with the other questionnaires, the interview and the observations.

Reply
  • As others have said, ask for a referral from the gp. Also ask if they can pay for an assessment via a private provider. Not many will say yes. Think about the private route. You can ask to pay in installments which might be easier to manage if your appointments are evenly spaced.

    Regarding the developmental questionnaire, you can answer a lot yourself. You can also check with your mother about how long your birth was, what type etc, and any accidents or illnesses you might have had. Try to get a bit of info on other relatives were useful, and think about you, how you played, what you enjoyed, how many friends you had, things you found difficult etc as a child. That should be more than enough, when coupled with the other questionnaires, the interview and the observations.

Children
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