Little point in going in for an assessment

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Went over history with mental health nurse today. Mentioned issue of autistic traits. She said she could certainly get me an assessment but after that ,if diagnosed, there wasn't much help for adults in the area.

If you don't need the closure peace of mind thing, then probably no point in it. I think your history and experiences speak for themselves.

It does seem pointless if it won't result in more help and support. It seems to be a nationwide issue re adults.

Things might change, support may improve as more adults are diagnosed, so in that respect it might be worth doing. There might come a time where you do need to present yourself as being on the spectrum and have the proof in the form of an official diagnosis. It may become more difficult to get a diagnosis in the future (In some places I think you have to pay, that may spread to other areas).
I put it off for years but I'm glad I finally did it.

It is likely that any support for adults will start in the area of job training. Why? Because it gets people off public assistance. The state or government isn't interested in helping you with friends or relationships, unless you are in a country that worries about population decline like Japan. I doubt that h is going to happen in the UK or US in your lifetime.

That's where we are at the moment, for sure. I'm just clinging to the hope that it will be easier to get financial assistance at some point. The job market is predicted to shrink rapidly with the increase of AI in the workplace and those with specific needs are likely to be among the first to lose their jobs, unless they're the one's actually coding the AI.

The thing is I'm as certain as can be I'm neurodiverse ,but less certain that I am on the spectrum. Having said that I do score above the threshold on various tests online for asd. I see myself as probably being more nvld(there is an ongoing debate whether that belongs on the spectrum) . My primary problem is socially. I have always struggled with social interaction. I am reckoned to have very poor social skills. I recently found what I'd always thought of as a friend from prep school on twitter. He blocked me. Over 60 years I have had less than a handful of friends.

I also have never worked. As well as the ASD/NVLD there is probable dyspraxia and learning difficulties I am one of those who fits a 'spiky' profile with much higher verbal than non verbal ability.

It would be good to get official confirmation that there is a reason why I am as I am, if only to kick years of being accused of being awkward/demanding/troublesome/passive aggressive etc into touch . And yet I am scared that even that won't happen. I'll go for an assessment and be told it all relates to my psychiatric diagnosis. I've spent so many years with my problems being ignored, because everything has been seem through the filter of a psych diagnosis, that I'm scared any assessment will just end up going down that line, although I'm intelligent enough to know for certain there has always been more going on.

If you don't want or need it for your own personal reasons or any other sort of benefit, I see little reason in wasting professionals time or resources that could better utilized diagnosing a young child who's then going to receive umpteen years of assistance because of it. That's my take.

If you really need the professional validation of your suspicions to move forward go for it.

As you are not working making it "official" might get you disability benefits.

Sorry but I find the comment about wasting professionals' time offensive. Of course I want it for my benefit but have been told there is little there for adults. If anything it is the professionals who have wasted my time in not bothering to recognise the full extent of my difficulties.
As for personal reasons. How about the need to have something to counteract years of quite frankly ignorant and moronic mental health professionals dismissing me as awkward/demanding/troublesome/passive aggressive , and failing to grasp my full range of difficulties.

Or are you one of these people who believe only the young deserve help and the rest of us can go get f***ed?

I said IF you don't want or need it for your own personal reasons.

If you do, go get it. None of us are stopping you.

And I never said only the young deserve help. YOU said that you've been told there is no help for you to access even if you had a diagnosis so there's little point in it for that.

IF you want or need it for your own peace of mind & the value you place on a diagnosis is not attached to an ability to get adult support that isn't available to you, then go ahead and get it for yourself.

Last edited by goldfish21 on 14 Dec 2017, 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If the nurse arranged the assessment, do you know what it would be, or who with?

If it is specifically an autism spectrum assessment with people who routinely diagnose adults, I would say that you're quite likely to get a "fair hearing", as they will be used to seeing people who present with "masking", previous history of mental illness or possibly erroneous diagnoses. If it is with a general clinical psychologist, then I would be more wary, as that could lead to a repeat of your previous experiences, or simply rubber-stamping one of the possibilities that has already been put forward.

I'm don't know if knowing that would tip the balance for you either way, but I would certainly find out as much as you can about what exactly the referral would be. Although it is true that there is very little assistance for adults on the spectrum, you might also consider whether a diagnosis could be useful when accessing other services - for example, once diagnosed, I could insist that I be allowed to arrange doctor's appointments in person rather than by phone, as it was considered to be a "reasonable adjustment" for my disability.

This is what I could find . http://www.awp.nhs.uk/services/speciali ... c-service/

Hmm, it's an adult specific unit, so that's promising. It's also interesting that the team leader is an Occupational Therapist rather than a psychologist, so presumably would have experience of working with patients outside the consulting room environment (i.e. some idea of how context affects traits, as discussed in your other thread.)

Don't know if it would be any use to you, but I found that the unit has a Facebook page (I don't do Facebook, so I can't access quite a bit of it.)
WASD Facebook Page

I left the following visitor message:

I guess I'm scared of what may be an all or nothing throw of the dice. That they decide I'm not ASD(which would be fair enough) but in doing so it shuts down any attempt to find out why and how I'm neurodiverse, and the difficulties I have.
That I'm basically left having shot my bolt with no other bolts to shoot.