The Start of my Journey to getting an Assessment

I've asked to be referred through right To choose via Psychiatry-UK. It's a service that will assess you for both adhd and asd and that's funded by the nhs. Wait time I think is just a few months. I worked in primary care for a while and sent patients to them all the time.

Hi Jenn. Welcome! 

I typed out a reply earlier but it hadn't uploaded for some reason, so I'll try again...

One of the best resources for female and non-binary autistic people that I've found is Squarepeg : squarepeg.community/.../

Amy, the creator, is a late diagnosed former teacher. Her podcast is now in season 8, so lots of episodes to choose from. 

As for diagnosis, wait times are long as more and more people are becoming aware of autism and then questioning if they are. There are not enough assessors to keep up with demand. My son was diagnosed 18 years ago and the wait time was 6 months (it's meant to be 3 months). I was told wait times for my diagnosis would be 4 years in the area I live in. I decided to go private. This isn't possible for everyone, and it's perfectly fine for you to self-identify. The autism community that I know of does not discriminate against those that have a medical diagnosis and those that don't. However, you will not have legal protection as an autistic person without formal diagnosis. So you can take your time to research and see how you feel or go to your GP and try to get on a waiting list, depending on how you feel and what you want from diagnosis. 

Hope that helps somewhat. 

I've done lots of tests and filled out the AQ50, all say I have some traits.

Hi Jenn. Welcome! 

One of the best resources for female and non-binary autistic people that I've found is Squarepeg : https://squarepeg.community/podcast/

Amy, the creator, is a late diagnosed former teacher. Her podcast is now in season 8, so lots of episodes to choose from. 

As for diagnosis, wait times are long as more and more people are becoming aware of autism and then questioning if they are. There are not enough assessors to keep up with demand. My son was diagnosed 18 years ago and the wait time was 6 months (it's meant to be 3 months). I was told wait times for my diagnosis would be 4 years in the area I live in. I decided to go private. This isn't possible for everyone, and it's perfectly fine for you to self-identify. The autism community that I know of does not discriminate against those that have a medical diagnosis and those that don't. However, you will not have legal protection as an autistic person without formal diagnosis. So you can take your time to research and see how you feel or go to your GP and try to get on a waiting list, depending on how you feel and what you want from diagnosis. 

Hope that helps somewhat. 

The barriers I had were all about the services being kinda run down by the pandemic and also some human decisions which have hammered the NHS. At the time I was referred my borough didn't do adult assessments and it took probably around a year in the end after I got some lucky breaks. 

The actual assessment process I found difficult but manageable. My main worry at that time was that after being told autism was behind my struggles, if they said I wasn't, that kinda leaves you in no man's land. If your approach is not so much of the "I need to know how my brain works to keep myself from going insane", you might not have as strong a reaction about whether you are or aren't. 

Jenn said:

it's feeling more and more likely I'm Autistic. 

Have you tried a free online test to see how likely this is?

https://www.thevividmind.org/blog/test/autism-test-online/

The reason I ask is that other conditions present with similar traits to autism (ADHD, bipolar etc) and it can be helpful to see if autism is at least one of the conditions you experience.

There are a number of other discussion threads that may help you in explaining the process:

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/health-and-wellbeing/7653/pros-and-cons-of-assessment-benefits-of-assessment

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/31473/autism-assessment

My personal experience was spending 15 mins with a psychiatrist who knew in the first 5 mins that I was probably on the spectrum and used the next 10 mins confirming it. He set me up to take a RAADS test online and we had a follow up appointment to go through the results and talk about my reactions to it.

That was it for me - less than 2 hours all in, about £500 and a diagnosis. That was the easy bit.

Then came the therapy. My psychiatrist said there was no need for their expensive services as a psychotherapist was the most effective way to work through my issues, so I took months and months of sessions at the lower cost of £40 for 45 mins each - good value for the results in my opinion.

The therapy is the tough part - digging into your past to relive traumas and expose them for what they really were and come to terms with them. Look at the damage my actions had caused and learn to manage the behaviours that led to the actions etc.

Awesome stuff for me.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps you.

I will! I'm a musician too (among my other many talents lol - special interests and all that).

My job is my first foray into management and the service I work for is going through massive changes which means I'm having to relearn the job over and over. It's really overwhelming!

I have an appointment on August 3rd to discuss my referral so, fingers crossed!

OMG me too, so many similarities to my life that it made complete sense, I feel for you, I cant make friends, I am always over analysing what they think of me. I work with Learners who have ASD, im a study skills tutor, and mentor for university learners, My passion is music, I didn't get my degree till I was 42,  thought I was a failure. 

im so glad im not alone, let me know how you get on with your assessment.