female adult diagnosis

If you are autistic, your brain works in a different way from other people who are not autistic. Just like your sexuality, or your skin colour, it's how you are born.  Some autistic people do need support to help them with certain things, but not all autistic people. autistic doesn't mean you have a disease, so there's no need to feel scared about having an assessment.

As for the assessment, they don't attach you to a lie detector, or strap you to a share and shine a light into your face. It's a very gentle process of being interviewed by a trained clinician, who has read all the data provided about your childhood and then during an interview, observing your reactions and responses to their questions. They are not there to believe or disbelieve you. They are there to observe and record your responses and match them up with their diagnostic criteria.

Just from reading a lot of posts on this forum I've learned that a lot of people diagnose themselves as autistic long before they go for an actual assessment and this can cause them a lot of stress and anxiety because they are afraid that their own diagnosis won't be confirmed. But the converse is also true where many people go for an assessment convinced that they are not autistic and get anxious about receiving a diagnosis (as is the case for me).

There really is no answer to this only to go into an assessment without any expectations or biases, and recognise that you can't predict the future, and when the future arrives as the present, whatever the outcome of the assessment, you will deal with it there and then.

If you click the link below, it will take you to the National Autistic Society (NAS) information pages.

advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis

There is also some unusually useful information on the NHS website. Strange though it may seem, this is one of the few areas in the Greater Manchester area where the NHS have competent and reasonably supportive clinicians in post.  But it may be different depending on where you are in the UK. 

www.nhs.uk/autism

If you are autistic, your brain works in a different way from other people who are not autistic. Just like your sexuality, or your skin colour, it's how you are born.  Some autistic people do need support to help them with certain things, but not all autistic people. autistic doesn't mean you have a disease, so there's no need to feel scared about having an assessment.

As for the assessment, they don't attach you to a lie detector, or strap you to a share and shine a light into your face. It's a very gentle process of being interviewed by a trained clinician, who has read all the data provided about your childhood and then during an interview, observing your reactions and responses to their questions. They are not there to believe or disbelieve you. They are there to observe and record your responses and match them up with their diagnostic criteria.

Just from reading a lot of posts on this forum I've learned that a lot of people diagnose themselves as autistic long before they go for an actual assessment and this can cause them a lot of stress and anxiety because they are afraid that their own diagnosis won't be confirmed. But the converse is also true where many people go for an assessment convinced that they are not autistic and get anxious about receiving a diagnosis (as is the case for me).

There really is no answer to this only to go into an assessment without any expectations or biases, and recognise that you can't predict the future, and when the future arrives as the present, whatever the outcome of the assessment, you will deal with it there and then.

If you click the link below, it will take you to the National Autistic Society (NAS) information pages.

advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis

There is also some unusually useful information on the NHS website. Strange though it may seem, this is one of the few areas in the Greater Manchester area where the NHS have competent and reasonably supportive clinicians in post.  But it may be different depending on where you are in the UK. 

www.nhs.uk/autism