Adult Asperger's diagnosis.

[Anita Baston]

Hi everyone.

 

Just a question about diagnosis really. What sort of things did you have to do to get diagnosed. I know I had to fill various questionnaires and psychologist said the results point out to aspergers. Sorry not really sure what to as really. I suppose it's about how you got diagnosed.

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

Anita

Edited January 25, 2012 by Tally

[darkshine]

Hiya, I'm being the laziest person in the world cuz I've said about this before and can't think of a better way of saying it, so everything in maroon is stolen from a previous post

 

I didn't ask to be diagnosed/didn't seek a diagnosis, the process leading up to diagnosis (dx) took at least 2 years.

 

The following quote was me talking about the dx

 

The psychiatrist who did the dx - over at least 4 appointments - one to two hours each time, including one with my parents, he wrote a 7 page report for the results, he outlined areas of deficit or something like that, and under each heading was long lists of examples from present, recent past and childhood - and at the end it said about having future appointments on how to enable me to manage my difficulties.

 

That's the short version...

 

If you want to know more from other people put - diagnosis - into the search box and have a look at what comes up - I remember at least 5 posts that have that in the title, that aren't from too long ago.

Edited January 25, 2012 by darkshine

[LancsLad]

As this is the most recent post on the subject happy to share my story which might I doubt is of little help but might be interesting nonetheless.

 

I had know for a number of years that I was on the autistic spectrum and my partner a SENCO of over 25 years could see a lot of simalarities in my behaviour as those of children she worked with who had a diagnosis for Asperger's. I had recieved a diagnosis for narcistic personality disorder which I never felt really fitted me, more of a knee jerk response from a consultant when I was admitted to a secure unit.

 

When I went to university I applied for disabled students allowance due to general mental health issues around anxiety and depression and had to go for an interview. In this interview which lasted over 2 hours the person involved asked me if I had ever considered myself to have AS, I said this had kind of been suggested but from no one of authority. I then decided to have an in more depth look at the syndrome and came to the conclusion that I would self diagnose myself as a lot of things seemed to fit in place more so than anything else I had ever come across. To be honest I was more than happy at this stage as I had something to get a hook into in re-assesing my life. I need to point out that i had been through two courses of cognative behavioural therapy previously and had made progress but there was something missing and at the time I couldn't put my finger on it. In truth my self diagnosis simply provided a more informed context in which to carry on with this work which accelerated as I found out more and more about AS.

 

As I said I would have been happy with my self diagnosis but for an incident at university when I got very depressed and close to suicidal. A GP in my university's city refered me to the local mental health unit for an appraisal. In the interview the so called expert felt I had no real issues if I was able to get through a masters course. I pointed out that I felt I had AS which he dismissed as a rediculous suggestion and basically said I should pull myself together and get on with things. My reaction was what a load of ###### and though anoyed droped it from my mind. About 2 months later I recieved a letter from the same individual offering me a follow up appointment to which I was incensed as I felt why should I turn up take more abuse simply to provide him with a salary at my expense. I made the decision to act on this and wrote a long letter to the areas director of mental health. I am not going to gop into what the professional outcome was to the situation other than say I was offered a session with a specialist to explore a diagnosis either way for AS.

 

The diagnosis was pretty straight forwards other than the fact that evidence from my parents was wishy washy to say the least still think they are in denial over the whole situation and we have no contact. To be honest the diagnosis didn't make a real difference to me initially as I had already come to the same conclusion. If I have some advice to people out there who are waiting or cant gain access to services if you feel the cap fits then wear it. You need to be able to own a diagnosis for it to have value and if it comes from yourself through well thought out analysis then I would say go with it and make progress in your life. The truth is I left the assesment session after an hour and a half and felt I had barely scratched the surface with the person involved which was kind of frustrating even though they felt it was a clear cut decision. I can understand how this process is not definative for many as how could I sum up at the time 44 years of my life in an hour or so. What I am trying to say is that for me self diagnosis is a process which had to happen in any case with a lot of reflection on my past and how I deal with everyday situations, and the professional sessions seemed very insignificant in comparisson. Of course I can't say how I would have felt if the assesor had been in disagreement with my self-diagnosis.

 

What my diagnosis did do in a round about way is it allowed me to have access to an AS group at university for a few weeks without feeling fraudulent in doing so, I had a piece of paper to say I was the real deal if anyone would have asked, which of course they never did. For me this was the last piece of the puzzle as I could clearly see myself in the other members of the group and for the first time in my life felt comfortable and amongst like minded individuals though we were strangely very different in many ways.

 

I know this route might not be typical but I think it demonstrates that you can make progress whilst waiting for a formal diagnosis or even without one at all if you believe it is the right way to go, hope this adds to the experiences bank of info on the forum.