Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello
I am new to the Autistic community and i am looking for some advice.
I am a 42yr old Male and recently decided to get tested for autism as i have always struggled with social situations, anxiety, making friends and general interactions also i have never been in a relationship because i cant seem to connect to other people romantically as well. Also in therapy sessions due to anxiety/depression i struggle to engage as i struggle to verbalise what is wrong with me, i just end up making things up or agreeing with the therapist.
My GP agreed and I now have an appointment with Psychiatry UK for an assessment.
I am now starting to freak out about this appointment as i am terrible at explaining myself especially what i am feeling as well as how i am feeling, and i am not very good at communicating things about myself. Can someone tell me about these assessments? was it wise to go private to get assessed? Also i have heard it takes 3 or 4 sessions to get diagnosed but Psychiatry UK say they only offer one session.
I am worried that the time is not long enough to properly assess me and that i will be misdiagnosed. I am also worried that i have 'faked' being ok for so long that it will con the assessors, in some ways i am "normal" and in other ways i am not normal"
Apologies if this is hard to read like i say i struggle to say or write what is happening for me.
Thanks
Adam
Others will have to explain how Psychiatry UK work (I didn’t use them) but you really shouldn’t worry about it. Assessment isn’t stressful in itself and the assessors are used to putting people at their ease.
You mention that you’re not good at explaining things about yourself (join the club) so I’d suggest writing down all the points you want to make about yourself - significant points about your life history, things you find difficult, anything else you think is relevant to having autism. Then you just use the list as a reminder during the assessment.
It would seem reasonable to me for you to ask what will happen during your assessment - what methods they will use etc - in advance. They should be used to autistic people needing this. The clinic that diagnosed me explained the process in detail beforehand.
Hey thank you for your Advice, i have began writing things down that i am noticing but am a little worried i might not be able to mention them in the time available, i will try.
Writing about my history is a great Idea thank you i will try as i have have had a lot of problems in the past which now i look back is probably autism in disguise..
thank you for the response and apologies for the late reply i never got an email that some one had answered me..
Amerantin said: I’d suggest writing down all the points you want to make about yourself - significant points about your life history, things you find difficult, anything else you think is relevant to having autism. Then you just use the list as a reminder during the assessment.
Solid advice.
I would start by looking at the list of which of the neurodivergent traits you exhibit:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/signs.html
Start writing down the ones you can clearly identify with and make notes on how this presents itself, whether to you internally (eg anxiety) or externally (eg lack of facial expression).
Once you have gone through this list, pick to top dozen traits which are most of an issue for you and expand on these - think when they manifested if you recall, how they present and how the affect you.
Be honest about these, even if you feel shame about them - covering up stuff here is going to work against you.
Once you have finished you have just done all the work that the assessment will cover, so type it up and send it to the people doing the assessment so you can talk about it in your meeting. They will appreciate this as you are making their life easy in terms of teasing the details out of you - it is all there in black and white so they just need to talk to you to make sure if feels genuine.