diagnosis in the UK

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i'm still waiting to hear about my referral (for about 9 months, now, sigh).

what i'd like to know is...

what was the process of diagnosis? in the UK, please, cos that in other countries won't be relevant to me. and as an adult, cos i certainly ain't a child (well, not chronologically, anyway).

what i mean is that i've heard that the psychologists (or whoever) need to know about childhood, etc., and i can't really get my family involved hugely (my mum's a little, shall we say, dippy, and probably has AS herself, and is incredibly defensive about me as a child), and so i wonder what exactly hapens (i.e. what they ask/want to know) during the process.

is any of this making sense? my brain seems to have gone AWOL...

all relevant input appreciated

I saw a psychiatrist who specialises in neurological conditions and especially AS.

Because I am married my wife was sent a questionaire to fill in before the appointment.

Although I wasn't asked to I prepared some details myself (actually about 30 pages ) on what I thought fitted with diagnosis and what didn't. I sent this to the psychiatrist in advance although I don't know how useful it was.

On the day I saw her I went alone and saw her and another psychiatrist who sat in (probably for training).

She started by asking me what my very earliest memory is which I told her. Then she asked me questions about my life starting from that memory onwards until the present.

All throughout she was making notes and I recognised that these were at points that I said something relevant to the diagnostic criteria.

At the end she asked me some general questions (probably tidying up lose ends and things that had not been covered sufficiently in the previous discussion).

She made some notes about the way I presented (eg eye contact etc).

After some time she said that she had no doubt that I am on the autistic spectrum. She said that without further information on my early years she could not say 100% whether I was HFA or Asperger but that she was sure enough to confirm me as Asperger.

For my own peace of mind I then discussed some things with her that I thought did not seem to fit the diagnosis but she reassured me that in her experience everyone is slightly different and that none of what I said would affect the diagnosis.

She even told me what sort of Asperger behaviour I displayed most commonly. Apparently we tend to exhibit behaviour that is described as 'Odd' 'Aloof' or 'Passive'. I tend towards the passive category which means that I accept some limited social contact but don't initiate it myself.

Anyway it was, overall, a very positive experience and I felt that although I had hidden my difficulties all my life the real me was still visible to someone who knew what they were looking for.

oh, this is really helpful - ta very, asparval, you're a star!

Might have told you before Morgvis...
I was diagnosed by a consultant clinical psychologist who specialised in ASDs (eventually, after the NHS trust finally coughed up for the diagnostic referral after 18 months of nagging). This took place over five sessions which included an account of my childhood (though as I remembered quite a lot he didnt need to speak to my parents fortunately, just Mel), a run through the Gillberg criteria, and a test using a version of the Wechsler (sp?) IQ scale to see how different areas of my cognitive functioning, erm, differed. As it was clear that I met the criteria in all areas and had significant problems with executive functioning, sensory processing and language pragmatics (I was docked marks on part of the Wechsler as my replies were 'too concrete and pedantic' ), I was diagnosed with Aspergers.

Dunc

You're better off paying for the consultation yourself, Vision. My experience of the NHS, as far as something that could have been a serious medical problem was concerned, didn't inspire confidence. So when it came to the AS, I payed to see a Consultant Clinical Psychologist specialising in ASDs. It was the same guy I'd have seen if I'd gone through the NHS, but I didn't have the stress of waiting for years, or the humiliation of explaing my life's problems to the GP. Just a small dent in my bank balance, instead .

hmmm... not a small dent in my world, i'm afraid - between £200 and £1,000, i've been quoted.

but ta for all the advice so far - it really is helpful.

An official diagnosis is completely out of the question for me as there is simply no way in a million years I would for even a split second consider getting my bleedin' mother involved , and there simply isn't anyone else who knows me personally to anything like a sufficient enough degree to be able to play the role of "advocate" that seems necessary to get a diagnosis. I'm pretty much happy with being self-diagnosed, personally, anyway which is just as well...... I have more than enough of the individual symptoms (although mostly quite mild by most aspie standards it seems) to convince me, and that's sufficient. I'd definitely go the private route if I were going to do it though as the cost is no big deal to me......