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Planning on diagnosis - what to expect, experiences of others

Deleuze

Hello NAS community,

My name is Deleuze and I am new here.  I have so many questions and thoughts and worries buzzing through my head right now I am struggling to know where to start so I'm just going to keep it breif and work the rest out later.

I'm a 28-year-old male and have been struggling with communication skills and social intuition, interaction and imagination for my whole life - or rather for my whole life as I have only just discovered, seeing as I have kept myself sheilded from others and at a certain distance making my difficulties less apparant.

Over the past six months or so with ongoing discussions with my wife it has become clear that there is something seriously wrong.  Doing research it seems that ASD is a strong possibilty.  For their worth I have done a few of the online diagnostic surevys scoring AQ 42; EQ 10; 71 SQ  (I find these tests fairly clumsy, ironically enough, becuase I tend to over analyse or interpret literally the meaning of each of the questions).  We have undertaken more qualitative approaches too.

Also my wife attended a conference on Autism (run by people on the ASD spectrum) as part of her employment which pretty much cermented our thoughts.  Everything from the mineut stims and mannersims to life experience and learning processes that were discussed corresponded with me.

My one fear and worry is how this will affect my wife as my behaviour and lack of empathy put an unimagingable level of stress upon her.

My questions:

I am planning on speaking to my GP within the next 4-5 weeks to arrange to see a clinical psychologist for a formal diagnosis/assessment.  In order to prepare myself I'd like to ask the community what members' expereinces have been of diagnosis.

I understand that it will hardly be quick, but how long can I expect to be having diagnosis for, will it be a few weeks of meetings and assessments or months or longer?  I'm sure it will vary, what time scales have people here experienced?

Also, upon reading NAS information, I understand that a meeting/interview with a parent or sibling would be likely.  This is what worries me the most, my parents are lovely, but they have a strong tendancy to seeing myself and my brothers in the most positive light and I am scared they will not be as honest or truthful in their depictions of my childhood.

I really appreciate you taking the time in reading my post, and I'd be grateful if you could post your comments and thoughts.

Was that breif?

Parents

  • Goatworshiper said:

    Im getting diagnosed now. Im 29 (30) at the end of the month. My parents and siblings are the same about not admitting fault with "there own". My GF of 12 years is doing the interview as a replacement for parents. I and my GF told the Autism team that they wouldn't give a truthfull account and would cause tension and they were fine with this. My family don't admit to mental health problems so its a complete no go.

    I havnt got a diagnosis yet, but your circumstances sound very similar to mine. Go to the GP and get the ball rollong, the longer you leave it the harder it gets. I thought I had aspergers in 08 and Im oonly just getting checked out now. 

    Hi Goatworshiper,

    Thanks for that it really means a lot to hear it.  Lots of things are changing right now in my life - new job and new home so I'm letting things settle before I go for a meeting with my GP.  also I'm stressing over managing my money during this period.

    I have big anxiety about asking for time off anyway at work and doing so while starting a new job will probably push me over the edge with all the other changes that are happening!  But yes, point taken about getting the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

    That is encouraging to hear that you GF is able to have the interview instead.  I do wonder about my parents - whether it's just my poor judgement or whether I am making the right call here.  Though my wife shares my concerns and she has amazing empathy/judgement in these situations.

    In terms of information and preparation I pretty much ready to go for my initial meeting, so when I feel more comfortable in the next few weeks I'll give it a shot and arrange a meeting.  I'll post how I progress.

    Good luck with yours Goatworshiper!  I just had my Birthday too - so happy birthday for yours.

Reply

  • Goatworshiper said:

    Im getting diagnosed now. Im 29 (30) at the end of the month. My parents and siblings are the same about not admitting fault with "there own". My GF of 12 years is doing the interview as a replacement for parents. I and my GF told the Autism team that they wouldn't give a truthfull account and would cause tension and they were fine with this. My family don't admit to mental health problems so its a complete no go.

    I havnt got a diagnosis yet, but your circumstances sound very similar to mine. Go to the GP and get the ball rollong, the longer you leave it the harder it gets. I thought I had aspergers in 08 and Im oonly just getting checked out now. 

    Hi Goatworshiper,

    Thanks for that it really means a lot to hear it.  Lots of things are changing right now in my life - new job and new home so I'm letting things settle before I go for a meeting with my GP.  also I'm stressing over managing my money during this period.

    I have big anxiety about asking for time off anyway at work and doing so while starting a new job will probably push me over the edge with all the other changes that are happening!  But yes, point taken about getting the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

    That is encouraging to hear that you GF is able to have the interview instead.  I do wonder about my parents - whether it's just my poor judgement or whether I am making the right call here.  Though my wife shares my concerns and she has amazing empathy/judgement in these situations.

    In terms of information and preparation I pretty much ready to go for my initial meeting, so when I feel more comfortable in the next few weeks I'll give it a shot and arrange a meeting.  I'll post how I progress.

    Good luck with yours Goatworshiper!  I just had my Birthday too - so happy birthday for yours.

Children
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