Paying Privately for Adult Aspergers Assessment?

It might help if I give an indication of my own position. As I'm constantly reminded by several correspondents on here I'm a borderline aspie: I think that's broadly correct - I've been lucky on the whole.

I was diagnosed seven years ago in my mid-fifties as having good coping strategies - which was frankly bizarre as I had a complex life of evasion tactics, counter difficulty tactics and self-imposed rules and procedures that gave me a very narrow path through life, either side of which I got into real difficulties.

I actually went through diagnosis just to find if the Asperger literature applied to me, as though it seemed to fit, I was scared to let go of my coping strategies, in case the whole world caved in. Hence I was rather surprised to get a diagnosis. I was able to read round the subject (being a habitual research junky anyway) and dump a whole load of hang-ups, baggage and nonsensical rituals. It gave me closure on a difficult past and vastly improved coping strategies and resolved my general lack of confidence and low self esteem.

So for me just having the diagnosis has made a huge difference, life has improved enormously, and as I was already engaged in helping other people on the spectrum, I found myself able to be useful.

OK that raises a big question - if it was so easy to sort myself out, was that just a matter of "sorting myself out" and am I not really aspergers? I suspect this is not far from where you say you are in the process without a diagnosis. It may be however you can use the literature on aspergers to help you to make your life easier.

The way it affects me boils down to three things. I seem to lose a lot in social interchange, leading to people getting annoyed with me. That seems to be down to somehow not understanding the social rules in a given situation and somehow not hearing or registering everything communicated to me. Also giving people misleading messages, being too loud sometimes, too close to people, not rersponding at the appropriate level or with regard to the occasion. I don't do eye contact.

Secondly background noise or complex movement is really destructive. In many social situations other people become unintelligible and it sounds like a foreign language sometimes. My own spoken coherence deteriorates as well. But I'm told this isn't peculiar to autistic spectrum.

Thirdly because I'm concentrating hard on following what's going on I get tired and then start to perform less well. I also "black-out" for periods. So people think I'm bored, or tired of a conversation. But some people think I'm a good listener because I'm visibly trying, so I get used as a shoulder.... - and am no good at telling people I'm not able to help.

Is that enough to be aspergers? My interests are narrow but not that narrow. I can communicate well in formal situations and write well. I'm not to badly organised. I'm not prone to depression and I'm only obsessive in ways I can manage.

So maybe I shouldn't have been diagnosed.

Point is though, why is it just about whether or not you get diagniosed. People clearly have these problems. The Health profession is too obsessed about whether or not its autism to actually address the problem - many people have real needs for help, but are being ignored - by the very people whose chosen profession is to help!

It might help if I give an indication of my own position. As I'm constantly reminded by several correspondents on here I'm a borderline aspie: I think that's broadly correct - I've been lucky on the whole.

I was diagnosed seven years ago in my mid-fifties as having good coping strategies - which was frankly bizarre as I had a complex life of evasion tactics, counter difficulty tactics and self-imposed rules and procedures that gave me a very narrow path through life, either side of which I got into real difficulties.

I actually went through diagnosis just to find if the Asperger literature applied to me, as though it seemed to fit, I was scared to let go of my coping strategies, in case the whole world caved in. Hence I was rather surprised to get a diagnosis. I was able to read round the subject (being a habitual research junky anyway) and dump a whole load of hang-ups, baggage and nonsensical rituals. It gave me closure on a difficult past and vastly improved coping strategies and resolved my general lack of confidence and low self esteem.

So for me just having the diagnosis has made a huge difference, life has improved enormously, and as I was already engaged in helping other people on the spectrum, I found myself able to be useful.

OK that raises a big question - if it was so easy to sort myself out, was that just a matter of "sorting myself out" and am I not really aspergers? I suspect this is not far from where you say you are in the process without a diagnosis. It may be however you can use the literature on aspergers to help you to make your life easier.

The way it affects me boils down to three things. I seem to lose a lot in social interchange, leading to people getting annoyed with me. That seems to be down to somehow not understanding the social rules in a given situation and somehow not hearing or registering everything communicated to me. Also giving people misleading messages, being too loud sometimes, too close to people, not rersponding at the appropriate level or with regard to the occasion. I don't do eye contact.

Secondly background noise or complex movement is really destructive. In many social situations other people become unintelligible and it sounds like a foreign language sometimes. My own spoken coherence deteriorates as well. But I'm told this isn't peculiar to autistic spectrum.

Thirdly because I'm concentrating hard on following what's going on I get tired and then start to perform less well. I also "black-out" for periods. So people think I'm bored, or tired of a conversation. But some people think I'm a good listener because I'm visibly trying, so I get used as a shoulder.... - and am no good at telling people I'm not able to help.

Is that enough to be aspergers? My interests are narrow but not that narrow. I can communicate well in formal situations and write well. I'm not to badly organised. I'm not prone to depression and I'm only obsessive in ways I can manage.

So maybe I shouldn't have been diagnosed.

Point is though, why is it just about whether or not you get diagniosed. People clearly have these problems. The Health profession is too obsessed about whether or not its autism to actually address the problem - many people have real needs for help, but are being ignored - by the very people whose chosen profession is to help!