Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
I’m ParaTed, . I’m looking forward to hopefully getting to know some of you and hopefully reading lots of posts and getting some help and advice.
A little about me, 30’s, work for the emergency services, love love love my job. No children, married. I’ve been off work for 6 months with anxiety related issues, during this time I spent 2 weeks in an acute mental health hospital after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. I have a heart condition (which I will one day need surgery for) however currently it’s managed with medication, this has meant that getting the right medication to help with my anxiety has been hard as a lot of the medication usually used would have interacted with my heart condition. I finally feel like the medication I’m on is helping the anxiety and I’m hoping to go back to work soon.
Ive been referred by my GP for an Autisim assessment, which I’m certain will come back that I am indeed autistic. My whole life I have struggled socially, I feel like getting this diagnosis will really help explain a lot of the struggles I face in everyday life, and hopefully will help prevent any more admissions to hospital.
Does anyone have any idea of what the assessment involves, how many appointments it will take etc?
Thank you all so much ️
Mine was a very similar experience. Slightly shorter appointment though. For me I feel it was worth the quicker diagnosis, I would have got very anxious waiting for an nhs appointment. The centre were very reassuring that there would be no difficulties with it being a private diagnosis over an nhs one but I've only just been diagnosed so time will tell.
Oh wow, that’s very different & quicker than I expected. I’ll see how this first appointment ent goes and depending on what they said I may look into the private route, would you say for you it was worth getting a quicker diagnosis?
A lot of us on here seem to have had very different diagnostic processes.
Mine (about 6 months ago): went private as NHS wait was 2 years. Cost £800. Single 4hr appt with 1 psychologist, verbal diagnosis of Aspergers on the day, written report followed about 1 month later.
I was quoted between £500-£600.
The NHS route for me has been a few initial assessments, then a follow up to decide whether I should be formally diagnosed. The initial stages were over 6-8 months.
thank you so much for your reply. I actually was referred around 2 weeks ago and have an appointment just before new year, but the letter doesn’t specify who it’s with, or what it’s for, so not sure if after that I’ll join a waiting list.
Sorry if it’s rude to ask, do you know how much going private will cost? Money isn’t a huge problem for us, so it could be a viable option.
Thanks, ParaTed
Hello and welcome. I'm on a similar journey this year. I too was hospitalised under similar circumstances but thankfully only for a few days.
The waiting list is quite long, up to 18 months in some areas. There's always the option to go private, which I am in spring next year, but that can be expensive.
You'll find a lot of people here who relate to your life experiences.