Advice for adult seeking diagnosis with no family input

This was not an issue when I got diagnosed a few years ago on the NHS. I explained my situation to them. I asked an older cousin, though, to fill in a form about what she remembered from our childhood. Not sure whether that would have absolutely been necessary. My cousin did not really remember a lot. You could also ask a former teacher or bring school reports if you did not hide all difficulties at school. Anybody you know who witnessed any sensory/social/routine related differences in your childhood, and with whom you feel comfortable asking them and are able to contact them.

It is helpful to get as much information as possible about how autistic people can experience the world differently, and then to make a thorough list of what one has realised about oneself. My list has since kept growing. I am still realising the more I learn (sensory differences, social & communication differences, routines & predictability), why certain situations were so difficult for me and which were actually not "neurotypical".

It is fine to start with your current understanding and then take it from there backwards. I had started to list what I experienced on difficulties at the time when seeking a diagnosis (which is why I had realised about a decade ago that I needed an official diagnosis), and have since worked my way backwards. It helps to put down anything that ever came up in talking with ones family and stands out as potentially related to potentially autistic differences in experiencing the world.

It is also important to know about masking, to realise when and how one is masking and to start to unmask when it is safe and then intentionally to unmask for the duration of the assessment.

This was not an issue when I got diagnosed a few years ago on the NHS. I explained my situation to them. I asked an older cousin, though, to fill in a form about what she remembered from our childhood. Not sure whether that would have absolutely been necessary. My cousin did not really remember a lot. You could also ask a former teacher or bring school reports if you did not hide all difficulties at school. Anybody you know who witnessed any sensory/social/routine related differences in your childhood, and with whom you feel comfortable asking them and are able to contact them.

It is helpful to get as much information as possible about how autistic people can experience the world differently, and then to make a thorough list of what one has realised about oneself. My list has since kept growing. I am still realising the more I learn (sensory differences, social & communication differences, routines & predictability), why certain situations were so difficult for me and which were actually not "neurotypical".

It is fine to start with your current understanding and then take it from there backwards. I had started to list what I experienced on difficulties at the time when seeking a diagnosis (which is why I had realised about a decade ago that I needed an official diagnosis), and have since worked my way backwards. It helps to put down anything that ever came up in talking with ones family and stands out as potentially related to potentially autistic differences in experiencing the world.

It is also important to know about masking, to realise when and how one is masking and to start to unmask when it is safe and then intentionally to unmask for the duration of the assessment.