Lorna Wing - thought it was prestigious?

[Fobber]

Just had a bit of a telling off from someone in the NHS for obtaining a private ASD diagnosis from LW. They also implied (but didn’t say outright) it wasn’t done properly because it was done in one appointment by one clinician. Opinions?

Mine was done in one appointment - by the NHS!! Some of us can be diagnosed that "easily".

Thanks, that’s how I feel too. I had done so much of my own research around the topic that I ended up presenting it all “on a platter” so to speak. I feel absolutely certain that my diagnosis is correct! I went private because I was worried about being sent away by the GP without a referral (because I can make eye contact and don’t “look autistic” and so on), because of the long waits on the NHS and because I was able to self-fund and wanted it done asap and “on my terms” as it were. But apparently I could have just had it done properly and for free on the NHS!

disclaimer: I’m aware many people aren’t as fortunate as to be able to self-fund - just baffled that my LW diagnosis is not considered “proper”?!

How much was your assessment out of interest? I've been in contact with them lately and told the waiting list was 6 months and that the cost would be £1900!!! Obviously aware that it's different for different people. Just seems like a huge amount.

I paid £1900 and waited just over 4 months from application to diagnosis.

Ah that's interesting. So £1900 seems to be quite standard. That's useful to know.

@Fobber - did they give a diagnosis without an informant about your childhood? I’ve thought about getting a confirmation of my self-diagnosis and suspicions of an EdPsych who did a dyslexia assessment when I was a student. I’ve always put it off because I pass for NT quite well, and my parents wouldn’t be able to be informants (live abroad and both probably on the spectrum). And I’m not sure what benefits it would have.

I got some info from my mother beforehand (she lives abroad) and supplied the rest myself - I do know that teachers often commented on my singularity and quirks for example. My husband came with me on the day as an “informant”.

Thank you @Fobber. Do you think having a formal diagnosis is helpful? If you can explain why that would really help me to decide whether to pursue a diagnosis.

I'm not sure that my husband would help me as an informant because we don't get along at the moment. That's the main reason I have started to think about getting diagnosed formally. I'm really struggling to relate to him, but I am fine with the children.

I can remember plenty of things from my childhood that stand out now that I know more about Asperger's, and my sister says that growing up ASD-type behaviour was just the norm in our household (both parents and both brothers as well as me) and she thought she was the odd one until she was able to see that other families were full of people like her, and not us. Maybe my sister could come as an informant, but she is younger than me.

LW is the gold standard for presentation in women.

DD had an NHS assessment by one clinician in one long appointment. She had 'passed' the MH gateway then waited 18 months from referral and only got the appt because there had been a cancellation, otherwise it would have still been pending.

The lovely NHS clinician who dxd DD only dxs adults and told me that some people do present as 'typical' and a trained clinician only needs to do the very basic assessments because they already know (but need to clinically verify) the results.
Other people are more complex and need either further tests or if they have already supplied other information from childhood and adolescence, then it goes to a team to make a decision.

@SpringerLink - For me personally, having a diagnosis is incredibly helpful as it validates the feeling of "otherness" I've felt my entire life and I guess it serves as evidence, for myself and others (mostly family), that I have not failed at being normal so to speak.

It's also because I suspect my child is probably on the autism spectrum but, like myself, she is female, can make eye contact, is fairly sociable, has absolutely no learning difficulties or speech delay (in fact, she was an incredibly early and "accurate" talker), so does not tick all the typical boxes. She does have social struggles, sensory issues and ritualistic obsessions (which she mostly is able to mask in the school environment by either copying other girls' behaviours or just about holding it all together until she can have an explosive meltdown upon returning home...). Her school SENCO laughed at my suggestion until I disclosed my own diagnosis to her.

Thank you for your reply @Fobber. I doubt that it will be useful for me then. My children all appear to be NT (though my son shares a lot of traits with me, he is way better at infering motivation and feeling from text than me in literacy and he's only 8). My life is very ASD friendly except for my DH.

I think that I don't worry about feelings of "otherness" because I only go places where my traits are not that "other" like my job and social life with my family (siblings and parents, and even some extended family, are probably not all NT). I feel like my DH is the one who is a bit "other" in my life. And my daughters will be...