Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone my name is Pauline and I am 47 years old,I recently did an AQ10 questionare and it came up high for Autism which I had suspected for sometime,I contacted my Dr who basically said that it's very difficult to get a diagnosis and you would need a family member to corroborate what I was like as I child,the problem I have is because I am older both sets of parents and grandparents have passed away and my half sister and myself are estranged and she didn't grow up with me anyway.my GP isn't really interested in helping and said she can't refer me just solely on the AQ10 test so I am now at a loss as to what to do?any advice would be appreciated.Pauline.
If you have around £1,000 available, you can get a private assessment with no need to involve your GP. It should take about a month, or less, to get an assessment, it can be online.
The diagnostic criteria require evidence of 'problems' existing from an early age, but this is not a legal case requiring 'courtroom levels of evidence', it is just a clinical assessment, and requiring older people to have parents alive to corroborate is just nonsense. Like any medical condition a case history from the patient should be sufficient. I had no living parents and I just stated how I behaved as a child and what I remembered my parents telling me about their memories of me as a young child.
I would have a look at the DSM V criteria for ASD diagnosis, go through all the separate aspects, for each criterion then write down the traits you have that fit, add all you can think of concerning past and present incidents of you displaying these traits. Create a document and take it or send it to your GP. Also include how your traits negatively affect you at the present time.
Take more tests online - AQ50 and RAADS-R - and include the results.