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capers123

First time post here, so Hi

For quite some time I've had my suspicions that I'm higher up the Scale than the average person, to the point that I nearly booked a GP appointment last week do ask for a referral. 

Then on Saturday I found a link to the Channel 4 'How Autistic Are You?' Questionnaire - which gives a non-diagnostic idea of where you are on the spectrum.  It was designed by Prof Baron-Cohen & Dr David Greenberg, so I feel at least it will be quite a good pointer, if not 100% accurate.

A small group of us took the test. One of the group already has a diagnosis of High-Functioning Autism and scored 9 out of 10. The other 3 scored 1, 3 & 6, the latter (my partner) exhibiting some autistic traits.  I scored 10.  The questionnaire recommended considering a specialist diagnostic assesment if scoring over 6, so I have booked a GP appointment.  My partner did question what benefit getting a formal diagnosis would be, to which I replied that at least it would help explain some of the ways I react and see life and why I've often been regarded as a bit of an odd-ball.

I read on some of the information pages on this site that for adult diagnosis, one has to take an informant - someone who knew you as a child.  Aged 55, my parents are both dead, and I have no other relatives of their peer group, nor siblings.  I've started writing down all I can remember from childhood - most of which seem to be instances of perceived injustice or anger at logic not being followed.  Is that likely to be enough or will I not get a diagnosis?

I must say that our children both scored very low in the tests, thus proving that it's not necessarily a genetic trait. Phew.

Parents

  • I got a diagnosis without anyone who knew me as a child. There was a questionnaire that should have been filled in by such a person but I filled it in myself the way I thought my parents and sister would (which afterwards turned out was not terribly accurate, at least for my mum - when I told her later she came up with an enormous list of strange and annoying behaviours I presented). I told the psychologist that I had done it that way because for one thing I was embarrassed and didn't want to tell my family and at least my mum would have struggled to understand the English questionnaire. I also didn't have anyone joining me for the appointment either - it seemed an excuse good enough that coming from Germany would be a bit a long way but I didn't hide the fact that the main reason was that I did not want them to know and was there to not be diagnosed anyway.

    So to make it short, things may be more accurate if you have someone who knew you when you were small but the lack of such a person does not necessarily prevent you from getting a diagnosis if they decide that the rest is clear enough.

Reply

  • I got a diagnosis without anyone who knew me as a child. There was a questionnaire that should have been filled in by such a person but I filled it in myself the way I thought my parents and sister would (which afterwards turned out was not terribly accurate, at least for my mum - when I told her later she came up with an enormous list of strange and annoying behaviours I presented). I told the psychologist that I had done it that way because for one thing I was embarrassed and didn't want to tell my family and at least my mum would have struggled to understand the English questionnaire. I also didn't have anyone joining me for the appointment either - it seemed an excuse good enough that coming from Germany would be a bit a long way but I didn't hide the fact that the main reason was that I did not want them to know and was there to not be diagnosed anyway.

    So to make it short, things may be more accurate if you have someone who knew you when you were small but the lack of such a person does not necessarily prevent you from getting a diagnosis if they decide that the rest is clear enough.

Children
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