Think I'll just have to stay self diagnosed

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The process of gathering info and then organising it to present to facilitate an assessment just seems too difficult for me to cope with. Having read what people have said.

Paradoxically, what you just described is a hallmark of a disorder in "executive functioning"---an essential aspect of Autism Spectrum Disorders......

I see no reason why you should have to organize or present anything to facilitate anything. It's up to the person doing the evaluation to test you, and ask questions to elicit any information needed. You're not required to prove anything.

I don't know what you're talking about when you talk about gathering material together. I do remember having to get the name of a lady shrink I saw a long time ago to get releases, or something.

But basically I just showed up at the doctor's office and promised to pay a large some of dead presidents. And he gave me a battery of tests. And then showed the results to a panel. The only slight problem is getting people who have known you for a LONG time. Ideally you produce your mom and dad. But neither were available (one was dead, and other demented in a home). So had to get my sister, and my girl friend to come in and be interviewed (neither with me there). Both were happy to do so, and the doc said "both were quite forthcoming" about the information he wanted.

Fire Monkey, from various sources and also many reports here, I suspect that the rate of missed diagnosis is highest in older women on the spectrum. If you are more comfortable to stay with self discovery, then that's right for you at this time. So many of us did choose to stay with that for quite some time before making the decision whether to seek confirmation or not. This includes a lot of our male WP members too. However I think that if you do decide to go the diagnosis route, get informed support from other older AS women, perhaps from the Autistic Women's Network also, and establish a peer support group that can travel with you through the process. And bear in mind that diagnosticians (in medicine and AS matters) are far from infallible. Perhaps NAS could also guide you to good quality practitioners if you decide to seek evaluation in the future.

My apologies. The situation for adult men and missed diagnosis seems better than for the women, though still can be challenging, as AspieUtah and others have written about on WP.

Why did you think he was a chick?

@Firemonkey

your siblings would probably be willing to travel to help you out in something important like this. They maybe itching to tell someone about how...friggin weird my brother is! I suspect that maybe why the two folks in my life were so "forthcoming".

I was dx'd at the age of 58 in the UK by an NHS consultant psychiatrist and an Occupational Therapist, with no one else other there but me. My guess is perhaps the dx technique is different all over the country (?), but mine was a LOT of questions, and a lot of them about things long forgotten.

In my diagnosis it mentioned history, direct observation, and testing, in coming to a conclusion. If you have relatives that can provide the history, that is all you need to bring. If you can't, they will work with a self reported history. The rest they will do during the evaluation. I did not find it difficult. Except the tests. They were exhausting.