After a few false starts when I got fobbed off, I finally have an appointment with an adult autism team for assessment. It is in mid April and they say it will take 2 hours, after which I might be invited back for a further two 2 hour sessions and then a results discussion. So it sounds very thorough.
For many years my mother has believed I have Aspergers. I had many traits as a child but as I'm female and it was the late 70s / early 80s these things just weren't on my school's radar.
I now have 2 sons, the eldest has an ASD diagnosis and the youngest has some traits (but is too young to know for sure if he's ASD or just copying his brother). I've attended a couple of parent outreach / training events and the more I learn about HFA / Aspergers the more I agree with my mother. I see so much of my own behaviour in my older son, I feel I "get" him but my other half struggles to understand the same things - for example to understand why certain rituals are important and meaningful to our son, and that he gets pleasure and a sense of safety from going through them.
Now I have the appointment I'm feeling strangely excited - like if I actually got this diagnosis it would explain so much about why everyday life is a bit of a stress for me, why I approach things differently to the average person, why I HATE doing some "normal" things like phoning strangers and why most of my friends are goths, geeks, mathematicians, coders or other slightly "off the beaten track" types.
Reading this forum and seeing the direct way people reply to one another, and the concise and precise language used, feels like coming home.
I really really hope I get a diagnosis!