Been told no diagnosis without an informant

I received my diagnosis without an informant no problem - it is a common issue for older people where parents are no longer around or are unreliable witnesses (due to dementure etc).

I was able to give a lot of detail of my school experiences from memory and they accepted this. I went privately so there may be a less jobsworth approach used by them. 

What is particularly useful is if you can look up the list of autistic traits and create a note of which of these you exhibited in childhood and how they presented. Basically you are presenting as much info as a parent probably could if they were a witness.

Any supporting documentation will be helpful here - report cards, any other reports from earlier years (school years are most likely to be documented) and if you have any childhood friends then consider askting them to potentially stand in as a witness.

I do see most providers making statements such as the one you recieved and you probably have to do a lot of the work yourself to get the proof together and convince them.

If, at the end of the day, you cannot provide any proof or witnesses then you may have to accept that the system is not really fit for purpose for people in your situation. You may find a sympathetic assessor or the self-documented proof may convince them but you may still end up a victim of an imperfect system.

HOWEVER, in the majority of cases a formal diagnosis is not as important as identifying that you are autistic. A good psychotherapist can help you with this and help you work on the traits that are causing problems for you.

if you need it for work or some other technical reason then it is more of a pain.

It may be worth asking for the official line (in writing) from the assessor as to how they can assess in a situation like yours. They may need to use a different focus much more on how you are now or proof from your adult life. They should be able to clarify and you can focus efforts on searching for that proof.

Good luck

The tip about asking about what types of evidence might be useful is great, thank you. And thanks for your thorough reply. I think it's possible but not absolute that it's autism that is making me basically feel like I have an incurable and relentless form of anxiety - hence the diagnosis being useful for me. I don't have childhood records of any kind. Moved around too much! 

The tip about asking about what types of evidence might be useful is great, thank you. And thanks for your thorough reply. I think it's possible but not absolute that it's autism that is making me basically feel like I have an incurable and relentless form of anxiety - hence the diagnosis being useful for me. I don't have childhood records of any kind. Moved around too much! 

The tests on Embrace Autism are good. They include a lot of the standard tests and there is no need to give any personal details to take them. You could start with the very short AQ-10 test or the longer AQ test.

Thanks! I am beginning to keep a little diary of the things (endless, ridiculous things) that are stressing me, which is helpful to get a picture, because when I get asked some questions I go blank or can't think of an answer, but when I pause when I am stressed and note down why, I spot things that might be relevant. It's tough having grown up in an age where everyone just decided you were a bit weird and left you to it!

Seahorses said:

I think it's possible but not absolute that it's autism

A fairly effective way to improve your certainty is to do a web search for "free online autism test" - there should be plenty to choose from (they are mostly the same test so you may decide to try a few) and at the end the test score will tell you if you are above the threshold to be considered autistic.

If you just want confirmation then this can provide it. If you want a formal diagnosis then I would suggest doing the tests, printing the results and then documenting your autistic traits.

For this last step, have a look at the long list of traits here:

https://thespectrum.org.au/autism-diagnosis/checklist-adults/

Then make a one sentence note beside each one you identify in yourself with how it presents.

Building up this comprehensive documentation should make it clear that you have done the research better than an informant could and that you are taking it very seriously so they have little reason to doubt you.

Many people also freeze up in the assessment or "mask" and try to make out that the traits don't really affect them much. This is a defence mechanism we often develop to avoid bullying or being seen as weak and the documentation will stop this from getting in the way.

More food for thought for you.