Holy ***
First of all, I am so so glad to have escape after a really long and immensely difficult time with a horrible psychologist who said many weird and outright disrespectful things to me. The things she had said to me include the following, which stood out the most: "you come in here wanting every diagnosis under the sun" after I said I have a hard time speaking to my mum about my issues. "The only reason why you'd want an ADHD diagnosis is to pop a pill" wtf. "Don't waste your money" after asking about an autism assessment, which she said she thinks I don't have because I'm too sophisticated and know what the meaning of love is?? I'm a late teen in a long term relationship btw like what??
ANYWAYS I finally changed psychologist after the old one was trying to get me to open up about trauma (which also, conflict of interest because she was also my mum's psychologist previously, again, don't know why I stayed with her for over a year) and also didn't believe I experience depression (essentially all my symptoms and experiences including neurodivergent things I explained were classified under GAD "with low mood" to her...). Whatever, well, the new psych did an actual screener for ADHD and ASD and essentially just recommended I get assessed. It felt insane to me because I've spent like 3 years thinking/wondering if I have autism and wanting an assessment, and I just felt so much imposter syndrome and like I was lying to her to finally get that response. My parents + a teacher had filled out a questionnaire for ASD from school, but my old psych was the only one to read it and she just scrolled to the end where it said "characteristics are present but not sufficient for diagnosis" and agreed and left it at that, no one else saw it after that. wtf. The school psych who distributed the questionnaire was awesome and so kind and understanding, she did believe I have autism and gave me resources and helped me a lot during her time at my school, but has left. The current student support officer who has ADHD has also expressed the thought that she thinks I have ADHD too.
I've now compiled all my research of places that do private autism assessments, primarily those that offer a combined ASD+ADHD/AuDHD assessment, into one big table and contacted numerous places for pricing (because a lot do not put the pricing explicitly on the website). I've now chosen a place, and in my most recent appointment with my psychologist I asked if she could be the one to inform my mum (I already mentioned her suggestion before, but my mum was unsure and asked if she was gonna let her know directly), she said yes for the next session and basically now I'm just waiting for that to happen. I hope my mum is on board with supporting it, as I believe misinformation/lack of knowledge, and being pushed away by the old psych and my GP (also disagreed with me having autism) has made her unsure. I have personally saved almost $4K AUD (roughly £2090 GBP) from casual work of a few months (which I have quit lol) which will definitely be enough for the specific place I picked (which is the cheapest, but I also have made sure to check in on what they do and stuff, and it seems very trustworthy and legit, also LGBTQIA+ inclusive, yay for me as a bi enby). The price range was crazy, the total addition of costs for one place was over $6K (£3140 GBP). I'm not sure of the prices of autism assessments for you guys, but here the general range is $1500-$3000 (£790-£1600) for ADHD, $2500-$3500 (£1300-£1800) for ASD, and up to $4000 (£2100) for combined ASD+ADHD.
Lots of yapping here but I'm really hoping I can get assessed soon !!
TL;DR: After 3 years of wondering and a 1 year experience with a bad psychologist, I switched and did an actual screener for ADHD and ASD and have been recommended to be assessed, have looked at many places offering combined ADHD and ASD assessments and have found one, now waiting to inform my mum for her participation in the process. Really happy :3
