Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
My son 7 year old son has just been diagnosed to be on the spectrum, I'm completely new to all this. I was expecting them to tell me what 'type' he has, but they said they no longer do this, it's just classed as having ASC? Is this true, or do I need to go privately to have a more detailed diagnosis? I'm pretty convinced he has Asperger and I think it would be helpful to know this.... but I might be just wrong or naive?
Any help, gratefully received. Thank you.
Interesting question as the Doctor who rang me today and said that after the completion of some Early Years Forms and chatting to me that I will come out with a diagnosis of Autism and she is expecting it to be Aspergers. She uses the current ICD-10 which will be changing next year to be along the same lines as the American DSM-5 so at the end of the assessment will put wording along the lines of "Aspergers however if diagnosed under ICD-11 would receive a diagnosis of ASD"
But I'm wondering what you actually get told at the end ...I mean do you just get told you are Aspergers ...or do you get a report and if so what does it say on the report???? She said the next bit will take 3 hours over zoom and will be tick box questions. I wish I'd aske d more at the time but I only think of these things after the event !!!
"For the purposes of this assessment the Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA – Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright 2001) was used."
"SUMMARY OF AAA RESULTS: Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD/C according to the DSM-5), previously known as Asperger’s Disorder according to the DSM-IV."
"is a 22-year-old British gentleman with clear ASD traits that seem to have caused significant functional impairment in his life. In terms of sign and symptoms, 'O' (I took out my name) shows impairment in modulating facial expression, gestures, and body language during interactions. He has somehow learnt to better integrate his facial expression, gestures etc...but that does not come to him intuitively."
Hi Agatha,
I took this small extract from my report so you might get a small look at what it might look like. It seems to me that I was diagnosed with "ASD/C" for the reason you stated that Aspergers will be removed from the ICD-11.
But they may use other means to assess people as seen when he used the "AAA" rather than going just from DSM as they want to get a better sense of the person who they are assessing the DSM criteria is quite vague, but it has to be as it is talking about every single person with potential autism it needs to lay some kind of baseline for what is considered autism. Then you'll have other assessment techniques that will be used for an individual when they go in for an ASD assessment, so that the assessor can make the correct diagnosis.
So, they do give you something on the particular manifestations for you as an individual then. That's good.
My mum is 80 now though and already saying her memory isn't what it was 6 months ago. She's really deaf and phone conversations with her are really hard work. If they wait too long she may not even be here any more. Her capacity to participate may be diminished. I know it sounds selfish, but I had to get her to walk through the questionnaire now.
My relationship with her is not straight forward, I have huge communication difficulties with her to be sure. But I am not without compassion. The poor woman had a lonely childhood and was closed off due to her own childhood tragedies, then the daughter she so wanted, rejected her hugs from birth, seemingly, and refused to play or interact with her...It's so hard to talk to her, but I hope she gets answers as to why I could never be what she wanted before she goes.
It's delicate territory, but I hope she she gets some healing too.
Yep that's what was spoken about too during my assessment he was asking my mum all these questions about my childhood that were basically just simple yes or no answers but they were more specific than what you get on the AQ questions and about 80% of them she was just saying yes, yes, yes and he didn't even get the end of the assessment and just said that he can clearly see that I'm autistic and he has no idea how no one picked up on it. I believe he said "this is a classic text book Aspergers" but he can't give me that officially that's why my report says ASD/C.
If you're getting diagnosed as an adult you really need someone to be there that can talk about you from their perspective especially about your childhood because they need know what you were like before you started masking which in my case started early and I got good at it.
Something similar for me. Being a medical phobe with an A&E nurse husband in a pandemic is a recipe for a MH crisis. With the services refusing to do anything to help and major melt downs happening everytime I went to the shop or the doctors, I was forced to investigate what they were for myself. Clearly, they weren't panic attacks, no personality disorder or anything else either seemed to fit me or explain it...then I came across the descriptor of melt downs on this site. That what it felt like, my husband agreed that's what it looked like. I then scratched my head a bit, 'cos I'm hardly autistic, right? And then, I read the childhood markers...and oh God! Then, I spoke to my mother, oh my God!!!
Yes !!! I cant stop thinking about it and ...my diet has totally failed as I'm a great stress and comfort eater !
Covid has made the mental health diagnosis "industry" extremely busy people spent a lot of time introspecting and realising that there's about themselves that should be addressed. That's exactly what happened to me and I'm glad that I did and if there's one positive thing I have to take away from the lockdown situation is that without it I wouldn't have found out I'm autistic and I would most likely be counting to suffer without knowing what's going on with me.
Haven't had it yet. The NHS will take 18 months to two years. I'm going privately through the Lorna Wing Centre instead. They've had all the developmental forms from me and my mother, but they've got a back log due to COVID.
Yeah I was lucky I didn't have to wait as long as they said it would, did you get a private assessment or NHS the private are faster usually at least.
Brill! Thanks. That's helpful. It's just killing me going through the wait, but I guess we've all been there or are going there.