Why it is so hard to get a diagnosis?

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Hi, just wondered if anyone else has had trouble with getting their GPs to make a referral for them for an official diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome? They made a referral for my 6 year old son which is brilliant! But they don't take me seriously and because I go in there with my 3 children, they say 'I have a normal life' and I don't need one and that I should see a psychologist as it comes under mental health (although AS is not a mental illness so I understand!). I'm not very good at explaining things and back down quickly then go away angry at them and myself. I find people hard and frankly a little scary, although I can make friends, I can't keep up the initial enthusiasm and I can lose them quickly which is bewildering because no-one tells me what I do wrong! I've decided to back off now and just concentrate on my family and perhaps make some Aspie friends. My work history is mostly disastrous, not because of the work (I am a work-horse!) but because of some of the people, so I want a diagnosis so I can use the Prospects service for Aspies for when I go back to work, which I will definitely need and perhaps to learn some social tricks and get a little confidence back. I'm from Kent, UK and can anyone recommend anyone that can give a private diagnosis? I have a couple of lists of places but I wonder if anyone has had a good experience privately?

Thanks x

Hello missymissfit,

We have been discussing some of the problems you identity in another part of this forum. CLICK HERE!.


I am happy to help more directly if I am able, however I hope this might be of some assistance.

Welcome to WrongPlanet.

Greetings, missymisfit, and welcome to the WP forums.

To get a DX in adulthood is extremely difficult especially when your a woman. I'm 20 years old and when I was 8 I had a psych assessment done and they completely missed it. Instead they DXed me dyslexic with speech difficulties and social dysfunction. Now my little sister is 4 years old same problems and she was given a DX of moderate Autism. I talked to my GP about that and she wants to help me out but they have no resources for adults yet. Autism is something that is still misunderstood by the system in general. This is what some people's view seems to be, if you are child with developmental delays or difficulty you have Autism, if you are an adult with Autism you are mentally ill. All of my experiences with my AS and the system have been a real downer. The best thing we can do as autistic adults, and parents of autistic children is speak up and try to change the system to better ourselves and future generations.

Older GP's especially, are ridiculously ignorant of autism and AS, let alone AS in adults.
That is because a lot of medical schools don't spend time teaching it, plus plenty of Docs are extremely arrogant and think they know everything, when they clearly don't.
When I first approached a GP with getting an official diagnosis, (He recently graduated), he said "Oh, I know you don't have that, because you don't talk like a robot. The people with that are basically robots."

To WrongPlanet!! !

Thanks so much for your welcome messages and advice. I know what you mean about arrogant Drs, I used to work in a hospital as a medical secretary and the arrogance of most of the Drs never ceased to amaze me!

I was slightly worried about getting a misdiagnosis like yourself and your sister, I hope things are ok for you both and that it doesn't affect you too much. That's why I thought it might be best going private, as the GP doesn't need to know and if it's a misdiagnosis it wouldn't matter.

This issue is being discussed in another forum apparently so I'll have a look and might continue on there, but thank you so much for answering me, I wasn't sure if anyone would!

xx