waiting to be assessed

NAS86677 said:

I have also recently ended an abusive relationship and to be honest, most of the relationships I have had have been abusive, I am really bad at realising when people are not good for me

Welcome to the forum, and don't worry about your age for being diagnosed. I was 55 when I got my diagnosis and it has been the catalyst for me to make a lot of very positive changes to my life.

I get the issue with abusive relationships and it is unfortunately all too common for autistic people to find themselves in this situation. I don't know if we are simply being preyed on or whether our "naive" nature is a trigger for many non-autistic people to find their more base instincts coming to the surface.

The end results are the same however.

We are famous for having logical thinking processes in many cases, so if you consider all the tests and all the results you have had - it really points to you most probably being autistic.

If you are then it is a fact - in the same way sking colour is a fact or height etc. Once confirmed then you can find a world of information that will help you make the best of the situation and shape your life into something much more comfortable and rewarding for you.

I urge you to get an assessment. You can do these privately for less than £100 I believe - I opted to use a psychiatrist who could give a more clinical diagnosis (by my thought process) and it cost £250 - it involved a 45 min session spit over 2 days and an online RAADS test (multiple choice and striaghtforward to do).

He could tell within 5 mins of meeting that I was autistic and the test confirmed it - he sent me a diagnosis certificate to use with my GP and any other official body that would need it (eg your workplace etc).

Once diagnosed you are not obliged to disclose it to anyone you don't want to, so it isn't going to change anything you don't want it to.

There is loads of literature out there that is helpful to us so if you go through with the assessment then please come back and we can help with specific questions, recommendations of books to educate yourself with or just a support group to talk with.

Good luck

Hi Iain thank you for your reply, so kind of you

I am going to get my assessment. I saw my GP about 2 months ago but not sure if he made the referral. I am happy to pay. Do you know where I can find out how to get a private assessment? 

With kind regards

Helen

NAS86677 said:

Do you know where I can find out how to get a private assessment? 

I used a company called Harley Psychiatrists as my wife was already using a therapist there who was giving good results.

harleypsychiatrists.co.uk/

I believe normal practice is to be assessed by a Psychiatrist and they will give you a recommendation on how to proceed. Unless you need someone who will prescribe drugs then they will probably refer you to a psychotherapist if you want treatment - they are also expensive (£120/hour I think compated to double that of the psychiatrist).

They are based in London (a bit posh for my tastes but they seem well respected in the industry) and can do face to face or remote sessions. You can reach them on the contact page of their site

I felt that having a psychiatrist do the assessment would give it the level of authority to convince any organisation that needed to see it, and the money was thankfully not an issue for me (I think it was about £400-500 for the initial assessment, test and review of results plus diagnosis document).

Being a bit Scottish, I ended up looking at another site and have found a great therapist that I still use and who is less than half the posh companys price.

www.psychologytoday.com/.../counselling

I have no connection with either company other than as a patient.

I'm happy to give the names of the people I spoke with if you need this, but they are quite used to the process and everyone I had dealings with there was professional and capable.

The ongoing therapy has been very useful as unsurprisingly there accumulates a lot of trauma from our autistic traits and societies problems in integrating us (especially schools and the workplace) and this can cause behavioral coping issues on top of our autism, as if we don't have enough to deal with...

NAS86677 said:

Do you know where I can find out how to get a private assessment? 

I used a company called Harley Psychiatrists as my wife was already using a therapist there who was giving good results.

harleypsychiatrists.co.uk/

I believe normal practice is to be assessed by a Psychiatrist and they will give you a recommendation on how to proceed. Unless you need someone who will prescribe drugs then they will probably refer you to a psychotherapist if you want treatment - they are also expensive (£120/hour I think compated to double that of the psychiatrist).

They are based in London (a bit posh for my tastes but they seem well respected in the industry) and can do face to face or remote sessions. You can reach them on the contact page of their site

I felt that having a psychiatrist do the assessment would give it the level of authority to convince any organisation that needed to see it, and the money was thankfully not an issue for me (I think it was about £400-500 for the initial assessment, test and review of results plus diagnosis document).

Being a bit Scottish, I ended up looking at another site and have found a great therapist that I still use and who is less than half the posh companys price.

www.psychologytoday.com/.../counselling

I have no connection with either company other than as a patient.

I'm happy to give the names of the people I spoke with if you need this, but they are quite used to the process and everyone I had dealings with there was professional and capable.

The ongoing therapy has been very useful as unsurprisingly there accumulates a lot of trauma from our autistic traits and societies problems in integrating us (especially schools and the workplace) and this can cause behavioral coping issues on top of our autism, as if we don't have enough to deal with...