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Been told no diagnosis without an informant

Seahorses

Hi,

I posted before about getting an autism assessment as an older adult. I have had the initial consultation, but I am now stuck. They basically advised that, without an informant, it is very unlikely I will get any diagnosis, so they advise only proceeding with an informant. I have no relatives to act as informant, and as I have moved regularly, I also don't have a friendship where I've lived with someone or overlapped with them enough that they'd be capable of doing this. I actually don't know how to proceed, other than not to proceed. Any advice?

  • in reply to Iain

    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! 

  • 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

  • I'm sorry.

    It is possible. Can you try another provider?