Does an official diagnosis help

Thank you. I am happy to see how accepted self diagnosed people are here.

Thank you for your reply. 

I am maybe looking for reasons to be kind to myself through diagnosis. I'm glad your mental health was improved this. I am wondering if it would also help me in that way too. I have made progress in managing my anxiety , however I still get frustrated when I can't explain or understand how or why I feel a certain way. 

Hi. I'm glad you're daughter has her diagnosis to access support. 

Thanks for your reply, I have worried that a self diagnosis would-be looked down upon, in a way. This is also a reason for wanting to know more about other people's experience. 

I was relieved when i got my diagnosis in March this year. It has helped me understand me better and some of the things i do. It also helped me understand things i did and didnt do growing up. I was self diagnosing before and mentioned some adjustments at work but was told there couldnt be met without a proper diagnosis.

So i went to my GP, had a discussion, filled in their AQ-10 form and was referred to Psychiatry UK via Right To Choose.

It took 5 months in total from going to the GP and having my assessment.

I was identified last May. The sense of relief was huge. I understand why I am like I am and that is massive. Coming to terms with it has taken some time though. I still haven’t told many people because I don’t think they need to know and funnily enough those I have said oh yes we knew or we are not surprised. Seems I was the last person to know. 

For me an offical diagnosis really helped. I went 19 years of my life wondering why I struggled so much and getting that offical diagnosis was so validating for me. It also gave me the confidence to ask for adjustments and made me feel less alone in my struggles 

Most people, yes. I decided not to pursue one as I don't need any support and would be unlikely to get it anyway, and I am comfortable how I am. It's a very personal decision, but all are welcome here.

Hello.

I'm new here but thought I would contribute to this.

I've been diagnosed 14 years, I was diagnosed with Aspergers. It helped me gain some answers as to why I was so different and that then led to me feeling less lonely when I realised there's thousands of others like we all across the world. I grew less frustrated with myself and have started being kinder to myself, it's improved my mental health all round really.

The way I saw it was I had nothing to lose seeking a diagnosis and a whole lot to gain. It's been more rewarding having my diagnosis than I ever imagined.

I hope whatever you decide on doing it brings you happiness :)

Me and my wife got an official diagnosis for my daughter (paid for service, not NHS) because we could see she was struggling in her life and she was about to start secondary school, so we wanted her to get the support she needed. It wasn't until after my daughter's diagnosis that I considered I could be autistic too, it just never occurred to me until the assessors explained how genetics could factor in, and then a lot of things felt like they clicked into place.

I ultimately decided not to get myself diagnosed. Aside from some potentially off-putting things like the wait time (or cost), I just realised that, for me, getting a diagnosis or not wouldn't really change the world around me. I'm probably very lucky in that I don't think I need many adjustments in my life/work to get by, though I do now understand what I find difficult and what I found difficult in my past. I understand though that some people do need additional support, and a diagnosis would give validation to that. I'm able to make this decision and move on knowing more about myself, but that is because of my own unique circumstances, everyone is unique and special in their own way.

I also know that "self diagnosis" is a bit of a loaded term these days, and some people will consider that in a derogatory way. So I also try to not make much of it, only the people who truly care about me know because I told them, which is my family and my 2 closest friends.

Those are both great reasons to pursue a diagnosis! One thing I did  before being assessed was, if I related strongly to a particular autistic experience, I started unmasking that part of me, and creating better systems in my life (though, I did this with help through work - it helped I already had an ADHD diagnosis and my work were supportive when I told them I was pursuing an autism diagnosis too). 

So, the GP wasn't supportive straight away. I ended up arguing with the first GP  I won't go into it but basically he thought I was trying to get undiagnosed with ADHD (i don't know where he got that from) and didn't listen when I tried to correct him. But, I complained and the second GP was fine. 

As for the assessment, it was one appointment that took approx 4 hours, and i broight my mum along for the develomental history part. I know some places break it up into more than one. Then, 3 weeks later I had the 'feedback session' where they told me the outcome. 

I'm still waiting on the full report that theyre posting out. Hope that is helpful information for you

Thank you. 

Yeah I have seen a lot of people saying the validation was so important for them. 

I do feel I having been looking for that in therapy and haven't fully found it. 

Thanks for replying. 

Oh thanks for the tip, I have heard about long wait times so I guess I would just have assumed that would be why an assessment was taking so long. 

* choose

Thanks for replying. 

I think I am looking for some validation, I have found therapy helpful in managing my anxiety, however, the more I progress in that area, the more questions I have about how I process other things. 

I will look into that, haven't heard of ' the right to child's .

Thanks for replying. 

I'm glad your diagnosis helped you, it does seem for a lot of people to help with their guilt and feelings of not living up to certain things. 

Thanks for your reply.

I'm glad your diagnosis helped you. I didn't realise that there would be such a detailed report, I thought it would just be a kind of yes or no thing. 

Although it has only just come up in conversation with my therapist, I have wondered before if I'm autistic, so it isn't something that has gone away. I do think after people's replies that it has helped a lot of people to know.

For me it did, it answered questions - I hope you find what you need. 

I think it depends.  I work so I didn't feel I could ask for adjustments without a diagnosis (although I could have done).  It isn't a silver bullet though and you will still find that you need to advocate for yourself a lot as many people don't understand what it means, or what it means for you.  However, it did help me in terms of validation as others have said and helped get rid of some of the imposter syndrome.

If your GP refers you for an ASD assessed make sure you get as much information on were the referral has gone too and the status of the referral so your regular updated. My assessment took 5 years because the GP sent my referral to the wrong place then lost track of it completely. Then i had to harrass the GP to send another referral to the correct place before eventually getting assessed and diagnosed. I've heard "right to choose" is really good i eventually got assessed by psychiatry Uk which is also recognised by the GP and NHS