What to expect when seeking a diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

Tomorrow I am going to a holistic health clinic that specializes in Autism, Asperger's and personality disorders. I am going in for an initial evaluation to see if I fit the criteria of an Asperger's or HFA diagnosis.

I have been studying autism since I began hearing many alternative views of the syndrome (eg: Simon Baron-Cohen's view of autism as an extreme version of the male "systemizing" brain; positive views of autism as a disorder that affects many aspects of social life but also helps an individual thrive in a very highly specialized or detail-oriented field) and realized I fit the bill. I also began to have my suspicions about myself as I moved out of my small bubble of friends that I had made while living in community housing in college (as in, I found myself unable to make friends outside of having our living situation and eating/studying habits in common, and my friends in college were either ADHD, autistic, very shy, or druggies). I found autism coming up in many conversations that I did not initiate (not that I really initiate conversations ) and others would speak to me about the huge 'epidemic' of adult autism diagnosis.

So, to make this short: for those of you who have been diagnosed as adults, what should I expect from my initial interview? Do I tell this person about my quirky childhood habits (no food allowed to be touching, compulsive counting, irritation from small noises,insomnia, desire to entertain only myself often by drawing repetitive patterns, smashing things, walking circles around the school play-yard by myself, frequently running away into the forest, self-injury since 11 yrs old)?

My habits as an adult (loss of contact with all friends, fear of socialization, silence in social situations, terrified of driving, night terrors, monotone voice, either no eye contact or direct stare into another person's eyes, taking everything very literally, sense of humor that others do not find funny, laugh FAR too much, etc.)?

What kinds of questions will I be asked? I am terrible at keeping my stories flowing in a line and getting to a point, and I'll either ramble on or run myself into a wall and be unable to figure out where I was going with what I was saying, so I have been writing some things down but I want to be able to think out my concerns very well before I bring them to the headshrinker, as I tend to seize up under confrontation (EG open ended questions, haha).

So any insight you can provide would be much appreciated! Thankyou!

I just got diagnosed today. I had an initial appointment about 2 months ago at the local health centre with a general type psychologist. The aim of this was to decide if there was reason for a referal to a specialist for proper assessment.

They decided that there was. (Obviously)

The initial appointment was pretty much just me saying why I thought I had Asperger's. I was asked a few questions about family history and about possible acute problems, like suicidal thoughts. Other than that is was all over very quickly.

I found the article linked below very useful. It's guidance about what you should think about before your appointment:

http://www.autism.org.uk/About-autism/A ... dults.aspx

Don't worry about it. They'll ask what they ask, just answer as honestly as you can. If you're dealing with a psychologist experienced in autistic adults, they know what to look for. Chances are you'll be given a personality inventory to rule out any other type of psychosis, then a battery of other things to test your processing speed and abilities to handle and juggle certain types of tasks. Its interesting, but you don't need to try to prove anything. If you're dealing with someone with little experience with adults with autism, ask for somebody else. Professionals who haven't worked with autistic adults have a tendency to misdiagnose it as all sorts of other stuff.