Adhd or asd

[superplumb]

My son was diagnosed with adhd from 360 adhd. We paid privately. At the time I hadn't thought about asd but now school have mentioned this. We are still waiting on cahms but told it will take years. He is medicated which seems to make his asd worse.
All this has forced me to look at my struggles. I have many many symptoms of adhd but also some asd. How do both get diagnosed? Can this be done ? 360 charge around £1k for private diagnosis excluding meds. They do a sep asd assessment but that will cost more. Together with peri symptoms I'm feeling generally shit and much worse ad I get older. I really don't know what to do.

Might be worth starting with your gp to ask about being assessed for both. Peri is when the wheels really fell off for me. Although there'll still be a good wait for assessments, lists for adults don't seem to be quite as long as for children. I did my asd assessment privately through work's health insurance. Adhd was via the NHS and took 18 months beginning to end.

Same here, peri-menopause was a time when the shit really hit the fan.

I'd been continually fobbed off by GP's - 'you can't be autistic/you're married/have your own home/have a good job/you don't look autistic' - all kinds of crappy comments to dismiss me.

Eventually, a consultant recognised significant autistic traits and demanded my GP refer me for an assessment. At that time, the NHS wait time for autism assessments was around 2 years, so I paid for a private assessment (and also later got a diagnosis from the NHS).

It was also highlighted that an ADHD assessment was needed, and I waited 2 years for that via the NHS.

My advice, go to your GP but before you go, read the NICE guidelines about autism assessments and adults and bring it up during your appointment that you've read the guidelines.

He is medicated which seems to make his asd worse.

This is apparently very common in AuDHD people. I have been taking Elvanse since December 2021 and while it helps with my ADHD traits, it has amplified my autistic traits ten-fold.

I had to have separate assessments for ADHD and ASD; unfortunately there are very few "holistic" clinicians who will look for both during a single process.

We are still waiting on cahms but told it will take years. He is medicated which seems to make his asd worse.

How old is he @superplumb? Would he be eligible to be assessed by Caudwell Children?