Positive Psychiatry UK Experience - 16 Days from request to diagnosis

Agreed! I used psychiatry uk under the NHS 'right to choose' scheme and got a quick response. The process was smooth but definitely not as quick as the private route. However, 2 months in and I have finally been diagnosed as autistic. As a high-masking 51 year old woman, my life makes sense at last.

I think it is around a six month wait, I applied around the start of July and I received an email on November 6 to upload id and some forms to fill out. 

The forms are taking me quite some time, for me certain sections are mentally draining, especially going back over my school years and reading the few school reports I have were emotionally upsetting. It feels like a life time of being ignored or dismissed in some ways, it's made me feel broken as it all feels rather negative. I give myself credit for the ways I have found to cope in various situations and I think it'll certainly help my son who is autistic and aged six. 

At the moment I am waiting on my parents to fill their form out, but my sister has just said they aren't doing it because I am not autistic! I find this astonishing, I get that they might feel guilt that it was missed, but I am 49, so it was very different then to now. 

I just wondered if anyone else encountered family members being a bit dismissive and how they resolved it? 

Linus said:

going back over my school years and reading the few school reports I have were emotionally upsetting. It feels like a life time of being ignored or dismissed in some ways, it's made me feel broken as it all feels rather negative

For me the forms were very emotionally draining. I stayed up really late one night filling most of it in and it was distressing, particularly realising all the struggles I've had and how I've suffered so much (unnecessarily). I wish I could go back in time and just explain things to my younger self about why things were so difficult for me. I never should have been going through all that but I was trying to be as normal as possible and didn't understand why it never worked.

Afterwards I couldn't bring myself to look at it again for weeks, and then I went back and rewrote some of it and got upset all over again. It's not good to dwell on the past when I have a history of being depressed for most of my life, but the task of filling in these long questionnaires is basically reviewing your entire life with a specific focus on difficulties.

Linus said:

I just wondered if anyone else encountered family members being a bit dismissive and how they resolved it? 

I am trying to proceed without the involvement of my family because I don't see them very often and they have said some very dismissive and insulting things about autism so I don't believe they would be supportive. And I don't have any friends.

So we'll see whether P-UK allow me to continue without an informant. From what they told me my own answers and the interview will be the most important parts; the main purpose of the informant is for things you won't be able to remember (in early childhood) and anything you might not have noticed yourself or not be aware of (e.g. things you did and it never occurred to you were not normal, because your own perceptions might be coloured by the autism).

Linus said:

going back over my school years and reading the few school reports I have were emotionally upsetting. It feels like a life time of being ignored or dismissed in some ways, it's made me feel broken as it all feels rather negative

For me the forms were very emotionally draining. I stayed up really late one night filling most of it in and it was distressing, particularly realising all the struggles I've had and how I've suffered so much (unnecessarily). I wish I could go back in time and just explain things to my younger self about why things were so difficult for me. I never should have been going through all that but I was trying to be as normal as possible and didn't understand why it never worked.

Afterwards I couldn't bring myself to look at it again for weeks, and then I went back and rewrote some of it and got upset all over again. It's not good to dwell on the past when I have a history of being depressed for most of my life, but the task of filling in these long questionnaires is basically reviewing your entire life with a specific focus on difficulties.

Linus said:

I just wondered if anyone else encountered family members being a bit dismissive and how they resolved it? 

I am trying to proceed without the involvement of my family because I don't see them very often and they have said some very dismissive and insulting things about autism so I don't believe they would be supportive. And I don't have any friends.

So we'll see whether P-UK allow me to continue without an informant. From what they told me my own answers and the interview will be the most important parts; the main purpose of the informant is for things you won't be able to remember (in early childhood) and anything you might not have noticed yourself or not be aware of (e.g. things you did and it never occurred to you were not normal, because your own perceptions might be coloured by the autism).