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Adult Autism Assessment

NAS85668

I've requested an appointment with a GP to be referred for an autism assessment. I am awaiting to hear back.

My child was diagnosed with autism last year and during the assessment process, I couldn't see a huge difference between how we lived our lives. All the 'abnormalities' appeared 'normal' to me. It occurred to me then that maybe we could both be autistic. It has taken some time for me to come to terms with this and the more I've looked into it, the more it makes sense.

The worry I have is, I don't have any contact with my family, so I'm not sure exactly how or if this will affect an assessment. When my child was assessed, we had to answer so many questions relating development and history. I won't have anyone to do that for me.

I'd really like to know the step by step process of how adults get assessed. I'm getting really overwhelmed with looking online and would rather hear it from people on here if possible. Will not having contact with anyone who knew me as a child affect the assessment in any way? Will it make it harder or maybe even impossible? Or will it not affect at all? 

If anyone could please help/assist with the above, I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you.

  • I couldn't bring any of my family to the assessment and it was fine. They asked me some things about my early chidhood, and could answer myself because I have quite a good memory from when I was about 3 1/2 onwards. My mum filled out a relatives questionairre, but that was only a small part of it and they can do it without if there's no one you can ask.

    Most of my assessment was talking through this questionairre in detail with the assessor: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134766/ . That wasn't too bad. Then there was another bit that I didn't like very much where a different assessor was trying to assess social interaction/language/body language differences and I had to do some activities. I guess I thought the tasks were kind of pointless so I got annoyed, and it feels odd that you know someone is watching you quite closely. But it's not anything to worry about.

    Mine was online. I think it'd be a similar structure in person.

  • in reply to Alice-nice-Alice

    I have mine at Willis house next week. Nice to hear you had a good experience 

  • Hiya. Well done so far. I’m 65 and my assessment took place in the Xmas-NY gap just gone at NHS in Whiston. . Both my parents have passed on so this could have been an issue for me too, fortunately though my mum had given me all my school reports and luckily for me all the adoption papers and correspondence. From these the assessor was able to see important details from my early months and years. I’m beginning to appreciate from posts here that it’s a luck-of-draw on assessors, mine was very proactive and supportive, went to great lengths to find the features she needed to to secure the diagnosis, and made the entire 8 hour process a pleasure. Unfortunately though it seems not everyone is so fortunate. 

  • Interesting that you should mention this, as when chatting to someone at a local community centre to try to find support for my own adult autism, the lady there said parents bring thier children in for support and assessments only for the staff to discover that the parents have Autism themselves 

  • Hi. Firstly, good on you for seeking an assessment. I hope that your chat with the GP goes well and that you get the referral. As far as my own experience goes, I went privately (the waiting list in Northern Ireland is 4 years otherwise) and asked at the outset if their standardised suggestion that a family member - idealiy a surviving parents- supply third party statements about my younger life- was written in stone. They said no, I could keep the whole thing private to myself if I wanted and be the only provider of my life story. It did mean that I had to really think back quite forensically ahead of the three assessment sessions as I don’t want to leave out things of significance. But really I found it more helpful to be the sole recounted of things, as the intensity of my inner landscape in moments that externally would have seemed insignificant even to the most attentive adult was in my opinion key to putting across the persistence of unease and anxiety and processing delays and so forth in a person (me) who had learned skilled masking from the very best - my parents. Secondary school was where the cracks started to show - that radical change of life ‘format’ with chopping and changing between classes etc., extra social dimensions creeping in and so on. But don’t be afraid to deep dive into even small things from nursery or primary or how it’s been said to you you were as a toddler. 

    Now  that I think about it, they can hardly insist on a family member’s involvement as some people have total estrangement or bereavement that would make it impossible but the entitlement to an assessment would still be there. Best of luck with it all. 

    p.s. my own motive was not estrangement and I’m lucky that my elderly parents are still alive. I just wanted it to be a private matter, until I was sure. Then when it was a confirmed ‘diagnosis’ I took some time to process it then told them.