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The Start of my Journey to getting an Assessment

Jenn
over 1 year ago

Hi everyone,

I'm nearly 40, pansexual and have just started working with Autistic adults (3 months ago). I'm also a published author.

Since doing all the awareness etc training and my own research, it's feeling more and more likely I'm Autistic. 

I've always been 'weird', have to decide how to feel and what to say about stuff beforehand, and have various sensory 'quirks' that I always assumed were normal for everyone.

I suppose I'm just here looking for accounts of experiences of the assessment process as an adult, and any barriers anyone has hit regarding other people believing or understanding my suspicions that I'm Autistic.

Thanks everyone,

Jenn.

Parents
  • over 1 year ago
    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.

Reply
  • over 1 year ago
    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.

Children