Autism v trauma

Hi Snookiebookie 

I’m glad that you are getting support from your therapist.

The tests that you have taken with scores can give people an indication if it would be worth seeking an autism assessment, but they cannot give people a diagnosis. Certainly your traits show similarity with some traits people with autism might have but then again there could be other reasons and conditions for your traits. I’m not qualified to say anything more than that.

Snookiebookie said:

My concern is if I go to GP I'll get 'filtered out'.

You are saying you don’t want an assessment. Is that because you are reluctant to ask your GP for a referral? I don’t understand what you mean by filtered out.

If you are in doubt about whether or not you might be autistic, it would be worth speaking to your GP. Most private referrals from clinics that adhere to NICE guidelines charge more than £1200 for a full assessment and medical report. If you seek this route and want the diagnosis in your NHS medical record, just check with your GP that they will accept the diagnosis from your clinic of choice.

I'm sorry, I don't think I explained myself very well.  I am concerned that as soon as I mention my history and emotional trauma, any GP (and clinician) will just see that, and jump to the conclusion that is the only problem.   And they will filter me out. I feel my GP wouldn't refer me in the first place too.My therapist also thought this might happen. 

I'm not looking for a full diagnostic work up. Just an initial assessment. More for my peace of mind. To understand if this was why, despite all the therapy, I still struggle.   Even an initial assessment, saying that autism was possible would help. That would be enough 

I know what you mean about there being no before trauma, I'm in much the same position myself, like you I've had loads of therapy and to an extent feel at the end of my thereputic journey, thats not to say nothing will come up again. I was diagnosed at 50 and I felt a huge sense of relief to have a diagnosis to work with and explore. I also understand your fears about being '.filtered out..' from my own experience this didn't happen, but then I'm very lucky with my GP's and with the psychologist I saw who was Ok with me not dragging up every instance of trauma and going over it again because I didn't want to be retraumatised.

Autism or trauma is a bit of a chicken and egg question, was the trauma the result of differences you displayed ffrom an early age (autism) or have your autistic tendencies been made worse by the trauma? To be honest I'm not sure it matters in anything but a intellectual sense, if you've scored highly on self tests then there's a high possibility that they're right. But bear in mind that these tests are gendered towards how autism manifests in males rather than females, women tend to manifest autism differently. Try reading Gina Roppon's The Lost Girls of Autism, to see how and why this is.

I know what you mean about there being no before trauma, I'm in much the same position myself, like you I've had loads of therapy and to an extent feel at the end of my thereputic journey, thats not to say nothing will come up again. I was diagnosed at 50 and I felt a huge sense of relief to have a diagnosis to work with and explore. I also understand your fears about being '.filtered out..' from my own experience this didn't happen, but then I'm very lucky with my GP's and with the psychologist I saw who was Ok with me not dragging up every instance of trauma and going over it again because I didn't want to be retraumatised.

Autism or trauma is a bit of a chicken and egg question, was the trauma the result of differences you displayed ffrom an early age (autism) or have your autistic tendencies been made worse by the trauma? To be honest I'm not sure it matters in anything but a intellectual sense, if you've scored highly on self tests then there's a high possibility that they're right. But bear in mind that these tests are gendered towards how autism manifests in males rather than females, women tend to manifest autism differently. Try reading Gina Roppon's The Lost Girls of Autism, to see how and why this is.

The way assessments are done now has changed loads since I was diagnosed, I don't think there was a crib sheet sort of thing assessors had to work through, I think it was more down to what the indiviual assessor thought.

Thank you for sharing your experience.  It's good to know someone has had a similar experience. 

I don't need a full formal diagnosis. I'd probably be happy with an initial assessment, even it just said, "yeah, this is possible "