....to ask how you go about getting a diagnosis as an adult with Asperger?

[Ubertasha2]

That’s it, really.

Don’t want to go into it too much as I know this is who I am and I am more than happy about it tbh, but I actually do want a professional confirming this. I would be happy to have this label so I can bring it up if I want, or if something is challenging for me I can remember that I have this diagnosis.

I have obviously googled how to get a diagnosis but am none the wiser, really. Do I go to my GP first (if I can get an appointment this year)? Or should I pay to meet with a psychiatrist? Any idea on how they test me?
And if I tick some boxes (ie like to be alone, overwhelmed by other people, sensory issues etc), but not others (not lacking empathy etc), what happens then?

I am 99.99999% sure I am on the spectrum. I think you know when you are. I’ve known for decades (particularly when at school, uni, etc), and would be relieved with a diagnosis/professional opinion.

Oh, and you did get the diagnosis, did it change anything for you, apart from explaining a lot and giving you relief?

TIa.

Oh yes, the tests arent too great for women either so i understand

starwednesday I love your list of 8 stages of trying to make/keep friends...definitely is my entire life! Sorry it's also yours but it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

Not everyone is on the autism spectrum as not everyone is autistic.

OP, I have just started this process. I have 3 DC diagnosed with ASD as well as other family members. I am very similar to one of my DC and realised when I read around the subject that I have many traits.

I went to my GP to ask for a referral. He was very arrogant and dismissive, questioned what benefit a diagnosis would be to me and then told me there was no adult pathway. However, I had already researched the pathway for my area and presented him with it after several minutes of having to put a case as to why I should be referred. He begrudgingly agreed though muttered a lot about whether the CCG would fund it .

Within a couple of weeks, I was sent a few questionnaires to complete and a nurse from the mental health services phoned me to carry out a screening appointment where I was asked lots more questions to see if I was experiencing symptoms of any mental health conditions (which may rule out ASD). The outcome of that and the results of the questionnaires allowed me to progress through to being referred to the only person in the area who deals with autism screening / diagnosis. The wait is 18 months.

'Everyone is on the spectrum' really drives me crazy. No. I have someone I see regularly who regularly says this, and I find it hard every time to not respond to it. And before anyone says I should respond - no, I know I wouldn't get anywhere, and she's not someone I can afford to fall out with. But omg it's so annoying.

I’m 99.9% sure I have aspergers. I’ve never been “quite right” - never had friends in primary school, had one strained friendship in secondary school that I ended up cocking up as she got a boyfriend and I was terrified she wouldn’t want me anymore so I ruined her relationship. Didn’t make friends in college. Made a couple of friends at uni but I keep a wall up and keep them at a distance as I need to be alone 99% of the time. I’m awkward, some people say I’m quirky, I can’t hold down a job, repetive noises make me want to kill someone (including music that features a repetitive tone), I get obsessed with stupid stuff, I freak out in crowded places, I can’t handle change, at home I can only drink from the red mugs ... the list goes on

I've sought a diagnosis via my gp.

He was lovely, listened to me and said that he was happy to do a referral. I had a short questionnaire come through the post. I has to fill it in and make another appointment to give it to the gp. He sent it off for me and a few months later I had a letter the neurobehavioural service saying that I'm on the waiting list for an assessment, but the current wait is over a year.

I originally saw my GP at the beginning of November last year, saw him for the 2nd time at the end of the month and my referral date is last December. Goodness knows how much longer the wait will be.

@MemoryOfSleep said "For what it is worth, everyone is on the spectrum."

It really makes the lives of autistic people difficult to see this bollocks spouted all over internet forums time after time after time.
Why do you do it without checking your facts first?
Would you post that everyone is diabetic or everyone is pregnant or everyone has and think it was a reasonable thing to say. No? Then why say it about autism?

Fact, if you have autism, you were born with it, it's a lifelong condition.

Here's some information from the National Autistic Society, do read it all, it tells you a few facts and busts some myths. e.g. The whole of the population of the UK do NOT all have autism.
I've copied the last paragraph for you.
www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/myths-facts-stats.aspx

"Everyone is a bit autistic – myth While everyone might recognise some autistic traits or behaviours in people they know, to be diagnosed with autism, a person must consistently display behaviours across all the different areas of the condition. Just having a fondness for routines, a good memory or being shy doesn’t make a person 'a bit autistic'."

Also, your perception of the autistic spectrum is very skewed, try the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/ for a better grasp of what being on the spectrum actually means. I've attached a couple of extracts.

My ds is 16 and has what used to be Aspergers.

Rightly or wrongly I always made him stick to the same rules as the other kids and he has thrived, has a Saturday job, did NCS and silver D of E. He doesn’t seem to have many friends or be bothered by it.

His dad (we split when I was pregnant) has just got a diagnosis of ASD and seems to be using it as an excuse to be rude, offensive and more of an arsehole than he was beforehand and I cannot understand why he has done it after poo pooing me when I was convinced DS was.

mrs. You have just given 2 opposite sides of the coin in terms of how people deal with autism.

Your DS May have been pushed out of his comfort zone. That worked for him, great, but a 'treat them all the same' approach isn't for everyone.

Your EX, having a new diagnosis, may just be taking the piss a bit. However, receiving a diagnosis does skit things into place; it makes you understand, it gives an explanation, and more importantly, it makes you drop a little bit of the social masking you have struggled with for years, and finally, you can be yourself.

Mrs You have just given 2 opposite sides of the coin in terms of how people deal with autism

Yes - that’s exactly what I intended to do.

I work for an NHS trust, and we offer an assessment for autism for adults, thougg the waiting list is long, and there's little (read, no) follow up. You get the diagnosis and are left to get on with it.

Ps have just remembered I assessed a client about 6 months ago (I'm a nurse and it was a generic referral) who I felt net the remit Forman autism diagnosis, and passed her to the Autism clinic for a more precise assessment, which she has had, which confirmed my suspicion. So about 6 months or So from start to finish. My assessment is not usually needed, it just came through as a generic mental health referral and they usually go directly to the Autism clinic.

Fat fingers there.

Hi @Ubertasha2. I'm pretty sure I'm ASD too (don't think they use aspergers as a diagnosis now, just asd) and I spoke to my GP about it a while back. I'd read around asd and add and suddenly my life made sense. However my GP said that as I'm 42, family, university education, professional qualifications, blah blah that I'd obviously got along just fine and therefore there was no point in getting diagnosed. She pointed out it would give me a medical diagnosis that I would then have to declare and didn't see this to be beneficial.

I took my daughter for an initial assessment and was dismissed by the "mental health practitioner" whatever one of those is. She struggles massively with attention deficit but his one hour chat with her apparently ruled this out. I was told she was too sociable and had friends so couldn't have asd Girls present differently.

I read around the subject and take advice from official websites as to how to help my daughter manage. For me it's helped to finally know why I'm on the "weird" side. I have horrendous misophonia which is linked and this is my main struggle along with relationships. I just don't get people. I am very sociable though, just like my daughter, but we don't get people at all and struggle as don't fit in. We are ok with that though and both accept our brains just work in a different way.

I hope you get some answers but I'm not sure official diagnosis is helpful when they offer no treatment.

I was diagnosed as an adult almost 3 years ago. I’d always known I was different but couldn’t work out why. Struggled socially right from the start of infant school. Read a thread on MN about someone who thought they’d got Asperger’s, read the Tania Marshall list of traits in women and it was like a ‘lightbulb’ moment! I couldn’t believe it. I went to my GP and asked to be referred. I took a list of reasons I thought I was autistic. She actually said Well I don’t think you are but if you really want me to, I’ll refer you. Took a long 18 months (they changed the service set up while I was waiting) but I was assessed by a specially trained LD nurse using the DISCO assessment and was diagnosed with ASD, specifically Asperger’s. My assessor said she knew Asperger’s wasn’t technically on the diagnostic tool but she felt it ‘just fits’.

My understanding is that they’re moving away from Asperger’s as a diagnosis because Hans Asperger was actually involved with Natzi work and people don’t favour that association. Not sure if that’s true?

Blanktimes I was going to link those pictures!! I think everyone has autistic traits - everyone has things they’re particular about, some more than others, but it has to impact on your daily living and how you interact with others to actually mean you’re on the spectrum.

Go to your GP and ask for a referral to the adult mental health team (in our area it would be specifically the adult ADHD and Aspergers unit.. Be aware that due to recent cutbacks and huge waiting lists you will be unlikely to get an appointment unless you need/want some help, rather than just a diagnosis.
For example, help with coping in certain situations, professional disagreement resolution, etc. They should be able to offer you group sessions rather than individual therapy, once you have a diagnosis. There are not the resources to offer diagnosis in the absence of a problem though, so be clear what you want.

In many areas there did used to be no nhs pathway as an early poster mentioned.
As far as I know it's available everywhere via GP referral. There's usually a long waiting list, it's a very expensive process, gives peace of mind for some people but otherwise adds very little - and as another poster mentioned does sometimes have a detrimental effect. And there's no follow up or support offered generally - in my area people with a diagnosis are given a reading list and waved off.
It's becoming increasingly common to see patients asking for this as there is ever increasing awareness. I suspect the referral criteria will become much more strict soon for financial reasons. But at the moment it should be fairly straightforward, OP.
In my areas we are asked to give you some pre-prepared written information about the process, some behavioural questionnaires to fill in and ask you to think about it and come back if you definitely want to go ahead.

I think it's quite easy to think you have autism when you don't. So I went for my diagnosis to make sure I wasn't barking up the wrong tree. I went for a diagnosis because I think it will eventually help me get back into work. My life and work history is a complete and utter mess thanks to being an undiagnosed autist for over 30 years. I have always had devastating meltdowns and never known what they are (used to call them panic attacks but they didn't fully match descriptions of panic attacks that I read). Have lost two jobs previously directly because of the meltdowns... have lost all other jobs due to not being able to cope due to being autistic. I'm academically very gifted but can't sustain employment. I have few friends and find managing those friendships incredibly stressful. I could never food shop, cook, organise my clothes washing etc etc etc. The list goes on. Autism to me is a severe impairment worthy of a proper diagnosis. To other people I perhaps come across as a bit weird but if you let me in real life as an acquaintance you wouldn't know a thing unless I told you.

Oh and I am also really funny about socks.

met* me not let me. What is it with autocorrect on this website being so much more zealous than anywhere else?

Hi,

My husband was diagnosed at the age of 50. We went to the GP, who is usually the first point of contact and referral, with a short history of his experiences. The GP was treating my husband for a mental illness and he thought there was sufficient 'evidence' to consider referral for assessment.
A few weeks later we were contacted by a centre in Sheffield that undertakes adult assessments. My husband was sent some forms to complete. Developmental history was hard to acquire because my mother in law was in her late seventies at the time, but she remembered enough to help.
He attended the centre for an assessment and, after two or three hours, received a diagnosis.
However, since then, although the diagnosis has helped my husband to understand and reinterpret some of his experiences, it has been very difficult to find services and support for him. He cannot work due to his MH and the diagnosis has helped with respect to claiming for ESA.
Additionally, I have worked with adults with autism and they have used their individual budgets to pay for autism related services that help them develop employability skills and social events.

I've been considering getting a diagnosis, my son was diagnosed age 7 and I'm fairly sure my dad is too.

What keepsputting me off is the referral form that needs filling in, with the question "what do you hope to gain from a diagnosis", thisquestion makes me panic because I'm not entirely sure, peace of mind maybe?

I have recently pushed forward with asking about getting assessed for autism. I took the AQ and EQ tests online at the beginning of year and it suggested I had had traits and should be assessed. I decided to ignore it and carry on but I had an incident at work which made me realise I needed to get assessed. I thought I had insulted someone, I went home and spent the weekend in a total mess. It turned out I didn’t insult anyone and I misread the situation.

I’m so glad I recently changed doctors as my old one would have fobbed me off but the new listened to me and asked me questions, not just about how I think and feel but how my home life and work life is. What I struggle with and what I’m good at. He got me to take the AQ test again, which some of the questions were worded differently from the one on the internet and I scored higher in this one. He’s referred me but there is a long waiting list.

At this point I want to know what is making my mind tick, do I have autism or is it something else. I think I just need an answer even if it’s not the one I want.

I cant hold down a job long term either. Not usually through falling out with people, that does happen but i can navigate it fairly well. I just...its hard to describe. I really have to fucking try now though because im running out of chances :( not sure what help/support can be offered if i was diagnosed though. My sister gets more overt help but that kind of stuff i dont need. I'm just about ok at running my peculiar little housdlehold

@PerverseConverse
I'm a bit concerned about your GP's comments. Sadly many GPs, like much of the population are frankly clueless when it comes to autism.
However my GP said that as I'm 42, family, university education, professional qualifications, blah blah that I'd obviously got along just fine and therefore there was no point in getting diagnosed

But how do you feel, if you're exhausted with masking all day and need downtime before you can function the next day and feel a dx would be beneficial, look at the work of Lorna Wing and Judith Gould, they've specialised in diagnosing women and have carried out pioneering work in the different presentation of women with autism for decades. They are the 'Gold Standard' for diagnosing autism in women. Many women in their 40's are asking for dx, many of them have an aha moment when their kids are dxd.

She pointed out it would give me a medical diagnosis that I would then have to declare and didn't see this to be beneficial

Where does she think you have to declare your dx?
DVLA only want to know if it impairs your ability to drive.
Work only need to know if you decide to request reasonable adjustments. Ditto any educational courses you may attend. Disclosure is up to you.

I was told she was too sociable and had friends so couldn't have asd
That's astoundingly ignorant and on a par with the other common myths like has empathy and can make eye contact. It sounds as though your dd was seen by a 'gatekeeper' on the diagnostic pathway. It's a bit of a catch 22 for women because unrecognised autistic symptoms, particularly anxiety can be something that a GP has previously treated as a MH issue so that's what it's noted as on your medical records. Then it's difficult to be referred on via the gatekeeper whose job it is to decide whether the client has MH issues or if none are present .I advocated for a relative and I had to explain to the gatekeeper who said they knew nothing about autism, how anxiety is a driver for autism, not a seperate MH issue, so the referral went ahead.

In your shoes, I'd see a different GP for both of you and take plenty evidence of both of your presentations and explain why you think a dx would be beneficial in each instance.
If it was affordable, I'd bypass the GP altogether and book in with the Lorna Wing Centre for dx. they are "accredited" or whatever the official term is that means their dx will be accepted by a local authority as on a par with an NHS dx should your dd need to go through the ECHP process which lasts until she's 25.

www.autism.org.uk/services/diagnosis.aspx
Good Luck

Greensleeves definitely go to a different go or contact an autism/AS charity. (In Ireland it's Aspire)