Finally booked appointment to see GP about getting assessed for autism. Any tips or advice?

Do an AQ50 (many online) and write a list of reasons you think you might be/ stuff you struggle with.

That appointment might not be necessary if your GP will take it by letter. I wrote to mine. He text to say he'd referred.

I would say just be honest, don't try and hide your autistic traits. I was brutally honest and said what the impacts are on my life, my restrictive diet, relationship issues etc. However don't hold your breath waiting for an assment as it is likely to be years.

Well done on taking the first step! I know it is scary. I personally did all of this via email with my GP because attending the doctors for me is quite stressful and also not convenient in my town.

My top tip would be to write down a list of statements of things you want to say/points you want to cover and also write down a list of questions you might have for the doctor. I often feel quite overwhelmed and anxious in GP appointments and that can make me forget important things that I wanted to say or ask, so the list is helpful. 

Maybe even ask if you could record the session on your phone so you have it to listen back to when you're back in the comfort of your home? I don't know if that is possible but it might be. 

GOOD LUCK :)

I just went with a big long list of things I’d noticed about myself, things other people had commented on and what difficulties I was currently having and had faced throughout my life.

well done on making the first scary step :) 

GPs must know more about autism now then than they did when I was diagnosed 5 years ago. Mine just asked me a few irrelevant questions like was I good at maths? (Yes a lot of autistic people are but it doesn’t follow that if you are good at maths you are autistic) Mind you as you suggest I had done my homework on the triad of impairments and I basically told my GP to refer me. I also timed it well because my local NHS trust had or was just opening an assessment centre so I was diagnosed within about 8 months and probably could have been diagnosed quicker if I didn’t have autism-related problems going on in my life at the time.

SongBird1992 said:

I don't know what to say to my GP or questions they will ask me.

I assume you suspect you believe yourself to be autistic so I would start by getting an online test (free) to see if you score at the level which confirms this - it may be you are ADHD, bipolar or be otherwise neurologically different to the majority of people.

There is a free test here: https://enna.org/autism-test/

The next step if this comes back as indicating you are autistic is to look at the spectrum of traits that are common for autists and list these. To find the traits have a look at:

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism

For each of the traits consider how much they impact your ability to function and rate them from most problematic to least and make a note of why these are a problem for you.

If you can, type this up and you can present it, along with the test outcome to your GP - you have done all the work they will ask for so it should be a slam dunk and you can then discuss the question of wait times for a diagnosis. Expect between 3 and 5 years depending on where you live.

The trick is to get on the list then a few weeks later go back to the GP and say you have heard about the "right to choose" for going privately (where the NHS pays) - this should drop the wait time to less than 6 months.

That about covers it - good luck.