Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi All. A few years ago I was seeing a psychiatrist for depression, and one of the mental health nurses who assessed me before seeing the psychiatrist thought some of the things I was saying sounded like autistic traits. I was given two questionnaires to complete to assess the autistic traits; one came back positive and one negative. I found the questionnaires very difficult to complete as I find my thoughts and feelings very confusing and has to understand. As I was mostly seeing him for the depression it was sort of left there as a semi diagnosis of possibly a bit autistic. Fast forward to now, and my current counsellor has helped me to try to explore my thoughts/feelings and why I struggle to understand myself. We both feel that a better diagnosis and more robust understanding of what is going on would help. I also have a 6 month old daughter, and my partner wants to understand how she and my daughter in the future could best understand/support me.
Can I ask how a formal autistic assessment works? What can I expect, either in terms of waiting on the nhs or cost privately, and at the actual assessment? Do they need to observe me? How definitive can they be if I am not sure myself if my thoughts/feelings?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any advice you may have.
So this is my personal experience. It might not help because I was a teenager but I'm sure it's similar.
Usually you see a GP and they refer you to the adult diagnostic services.
NHS waiting times can be around 2 years for a diagnosis.
Privately can cost around £2000.
In the assessment they do observe you. But not like a monkey at the zoo. Usually it's more informal. They will also take a family history and your developmental history.
There is a very distinct criteria on autism and it's not super subjective. The fact that you're not sure of feelings suggests that you meet the criteria. It might be worth looking at the criteria and finding examples or instances where you have met the criteria beforehand. This will make it a bit less stressful and you are less likely to miss anything out. It may also help to speak to any friends or family members about developmental history as this is a big part of the diagnosis.
If you are really really high functioning you might have something called PDA. PDA can be just as difficult if not more sometimes. It just has a different criteria to your classic ASD and is more often missed becuase people with PDA are often quite sociable or they're good at masking. Girls are especially good at masking. You may also want to check this out.
Don't apologise for the long post because it gave me enough information to try and answer the post properly.
good luck!!!