Having an assessment

It isn't easy to describe what happens but don't worry, they won't bite and they won't be trying to trick you into avoiding a diagnosis.

For me there were three components

1) A questionnaire for me to complete about what I liked doing, preferences for various situations, whether I had lots of friends, etc etc.

2) A questionnaire for my wife (i.e. someone who knows me fairly well) this gives a different perspective from the outside looking in at you whereas your perspective of your behaviour is likely to be different.

3) An interview with a specialist. They are trying to observe how you handle a number of social and communication situations. They need to see how you deal with being challenged, how you deal with contradictory information, how you deal with authority.

For all three stages I would advise that you be open and honest and try not to think of what the answer should be. Just be yourself.

In each of these they also need to identify whether this is a condition or problem that has affected you since you were very young. It can help if you have a number of anecdotes about situations where you have got into unexpected conflict or just things that didn't make sense to you at the time. They need to make sure that this isn't a psychiatric condition that has developed recently. You may not have been aware of great problems until recently but if you have an ASD then you are likely to be able to remember curious or weird or unpleasant incidents from school or home life that you haven't been able to understand.

Sometimes they want a parent to give evidence from when you were young but this is not absolutely necessary, it can help though IF you have a co-operative parent to hand. Sometimes parents can have problems themselves and sometimes they want to deny that their child has a "mental problem" so they don't co-operate. In my mind ASD is a difference, it is not a mental disorder!

Have you done the free online AQ test? It asks similar questions and its a fairly reliable (but not guaranteed and certified) test that may help you.

It isn't easy to describe what happens but don't worry, they won't bite and they won't be trying to trick you into avoiding a diagnosis.

For me there were three components

1) A questionnaire for me to complete about what I liked doing, preferences for various situations, whether I had lots of friends, etc etc.

2) A questionnaire for my wife (i.e. someone who knows me fairly well) this gives a different perspective from the outside looking in at you whereas your perspective of your behaviour is likely to be different.

3) An interview with a specialist. They are trying to observe how you handle a number of social and communication situations. They need to see how you deal with being challenged, how you deal with contradictory information, how you deal with authority.

For all three stages I would advise that you be open and honest and try not to think of what the answer should be. Just be yourself.

In each of these they also need to identify whether this is a condition or problem that has affected you since you were very young. It can help if you have a number of anecdotes about situations where you have got into unexpected conflict or just things that didn't make sense to you at the time. They need to make sure that this isn't a psychiatric condition that has developed recently. You may not have been aware of great problems until recently but if you have an ASD then you are likely to be able to remember curious or weird or unpleasant incidents from school or home life that you haven't been able to understand.

Sometimes they want a parent to give evidence from when you were young but this is not absolutely necessary, it can help though IF you have a co-operative parent to hand. Sometimes parents can have problems themselves and sometimes they want to deny that their child has a "mental problem" so they don't co-operate. In my mind ASD is a difference, it is not a mental disorder!

Have you done the free online AQ test? It asks similar questions and its a fairly reliable (but not guaranteed and certified) test that may help you.