Could Someone Explain IN DEPTH the Process of AS Diagnosis?

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I'm thinking that I need an official diagnosis and I'm asking for people to provide me with some in - depth information about what goes on during evaluation, (perhaps a step by step guide?) and if you could share as much information as you can, that would be helpful. I want to know what I'm letting myself in for so I wont feel too nervous when I get round to getting evaluated. (I'm English by the way so experience of people that have gone through the NHS is preferable.) I have looked up a certain amount on Wikipedia but I want to know from people that have experienced it directly.
Thankyou.

been through NHS diagnosis, you have to be referred by your GP to see a psychiatrist, you have to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist, who talks to you, then Community practice nurses (CPN) visit you in your home and ask you more questions, somehow they just know your aspie, then quietly tell you your aspie. It's usually very obvious to them if you are. It's not very interesting at all, takes about 3 to 4 months.

For me so-far I was referred by my GP (who had no idea what asperger's was) to the primary care mental health practitioner, it took about nine months to get to see someone, given the mess of mental health care on the NHS. After one session they confirmed it wasn't their job to diagnose this so went off to check my psychiatric records and discuss the matter with the regional mental health team. Psychiatrists will rarely diagnose this from what I understand as it's too specialist an area, they can guess at it and in some cases may be able to confirm, but it seems more likely to see a specialist team to diagnose AS.

As my psychiatric records from when I was a child stated they suspected asperger's (being psychiatrists they went the social anxiety route first, and I was lost in the system after I refused to attend group therapy any longer) they referred me straight to the diagnostic team. There is no local service for this so I have to get an assessment at the regional pervasive development disorder service a few towns over, which requires separate funding from the primary care trust...

...which is where I'm at now, I need to go back to my GP and find out how the hell I go about seeing this other diagnostic team. I think it's still been under a year since I first went to my GP about this, not sure how much longer it'll take. I would imagine it differs greatly from one region to the next, yet more joys of the NHS. I've been told there is significant difference between how AS is diagnosed too.

I've heard from multiple sources that IQ tests can be used - but this seems unlikely in the UK, not sure why this is, other than the idea that it seems not to be a good indication of if someone has AS. I've heard that they need to talk about your childhood or talk to your parents, this seems very common because it addresses issues of childhood development which is an important factor, although tough for those of us who have little memory of childhood and are estranged from our family. General talking seems to be a big part of the diagnostic factor, I'd imagine specialist teams will be able to pick-up fairly quickly if you are on the spectrum or not, and more detailed testing or questions into your childhood maybe cement where on the spectrum you are. I'm told diagnosis itself takes the best part of a day, or several sessions.

My story goes thus, I slipped into agoraphobia bout 6-7 years ago and it is not something I'm very happy with myself about but needed help to sort out, so I went to the docs and they sent me to a cbt clinic for assessment, I had a few sessions when the cbt therapist said there was something about my behaviour that she couldn't recognise and wanted a second opinion from her superior, i.e the psychiatrist (beautiful women very patient).
After the first session I was instructed to take the AQ test, which would have meant waiting until the next session to find out and I'm not a very patient person, so I did some research and sat the test online, and scored 34 after an hour.
On the next visit I gave her the score and she wanted me to make a printout (doh, should of foreseen that one, too used to surfing through stuff), now when I hear the word "Test" I picture things like driving test, the tests we took at school, in fact pretty much every test I've taken which have normally had 30-1hr timescale, so I thought it meant take time on every question and answer it accordingly, go back and check see if your happy with it before calculating your score. Anyway I retook the test again but this time my wife read them out to me, mainly so I wouldn't get sucked back into thinking about the answers I'd already given we treated it like a questionnaire and finished it in seconds, the scores were remarkably different, still awaiting the next step.
After reading through information online it dawned on me that a lot of it was spot on, and after reading some of the posts from other users I can relate to a lot of what people have been saying, and no doubt will contribute my experiences with you too at some point.

To some degree I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, because I've always known I'm not like the majority of people with the way I think and do things, but could never put my finger on it.

Our mental health services have backlogs so the whole process so far has taken us around 3 years.

I got a referal through Autistic Services, Inc (an NGO). I researched HFA/Asperger's like crazy. I went to see the psychologist 6 weeks in a row. But I basically told him my problems, backed it up with evidence, went through the DSM criteria, pretty much took control of the situation (a bit aspie of me I think). I doubt he has had many clients that were quite as lucid and forceful about something like this.

The problem with you wanting an in depth explanation of the DX process is that everyone seems to have a different experience.. The best outcomes seem to happen when you do you homework and REALLY know about Asperger's and autism and you find a psychologist that also really knows about it. The worst outcomes are when you go in blind, without doing any in depth research of your own and you get a psychologist that only knows a little about autism, but thinks they know a lot.

A good psychologist is not going to accept a self diagnosis without also challenging it and seeing if something else is going on. So they will ask questions and look for things that would contraindicate an autism DX. You need to research other diagnosis and be prepared to explain why these are NOT accurate. A common direction they will go is towards schizo-affective or schizophrenia. If you can't tell convince them that you are not one of these (not easy btw) you may get tagged with something that ends you up on anti-psychotics.

One thing I made clear from the outset is that what I was projecting in the office was NOT typical. Because I had heavily studied it, I was quite fluid in my discussions about autism and my symptoms. My eye contact sucked, but I was highly communicative. But I have much more trouble with conversation when I am not in a situation that is controlled and I let him know that. You have to be careful that you present what you are like outside the clinical setting and why it is or isn't different from what you present while there.

Let's see... Walked into Drs office for grief counseling and 15 minutes later had a DX. Of course it wasn't 100% until he spent 10 or so sessions with me but it sure was 90% within the first 15 min. LOL!

No formal tests whatsoever. I apparently wear the symptoms pretty classicaly and obviously.

Perhaps a little luck involved? It seems the grief counselor was well versed in Asperger's as well.

Similar to above. Looking for answers for my son's learning difficulties at school, knew how much time and effort he put in, knew the teachers were wrong when they said he was lazy and unmotivated. Took him to a psychologist for psycho-educational testing. The psychologist happened to specialize in AS, HFA and PDD-NOS. I had no idea that he immediately identified AS in me by the way I interacted with him when he questioned me re: my son. He did all the testing on my son, parent interview with me, various parent questionnaires, asked to speak to my husband. In speaking to my husband he asked him questions more about me than he did about our son. At first I was very upset by this, but as I began looking into AS I began to see that he was right and it answered a lot of questions about my life. In follow up sessions, we went back to early childhood; my mother's memories of what I was like; etc. It's almost a year ago now.

Perhaps. His wife (the pysychologist right next door) is passionate about ASD and did most of her graduate work with ASD kids and adults. So yeah... He knew a thing or two about it. That said, I am his very first ASD patient ever and I can tell he was sort of freaked out about it. He just recognized it, called me out on it, then made me have a 2 hour session with her to verify his 90% sure (she confirmed making the comment to him, "Wow she is VERY Aspergers"). The rest is history. He is 10000% sure of it now.

Another important factor here is that I have NO other comorbid conditions going on. I had some anxiety RE my visit with him, but am gainfully employed (more sucesful than most NTs in fact), raised 2 girls who are pursuing advanced degrees, etc, etc... I think that if you have comorbid conditions that it makes the whole deal a LOT harder. (like ADHD, etc...)

I've just been diagnosed this week. I'm in hertfordshire so the process will probably only be like this if you live in my area. First I saw gp who referred me to mental health. I had an appointment with a psychologist and mental health worker. They saw AS traits in me but couldn't diagnose it themselves. They referred me to someone qualified to diagnose AS. On my first appointment he got me to explain what my difficulties are. Then I had to fill in the AQ and EQ tests. That appointment lasted an hour. The next appointment I did a test where I looked at pictures of eyes and had to say what the person was feeling, then he did a sensory questionnaire with me. Then he read out some different social situations and I had to say if any social mistakes had been made. After all that he asked me some more questions. The third appointment someone who knew me well had to come along (I took my sister) and she had to answer questions about my childhood and about me. The whole process took 14 months but I did get lost in the system at one stage so it shouldn't take that long. Hope that helped.

Thanks everyone.

During september 2010, I didn't even knew ADHD existed. A guy at my university got diagnosed with ADHD and told me I show many of the symptoms. I search like crazy, even stop going to my classes to read about this pathology. Then a guy at my jiu jitsu course said that only people with autism could have my kind of pain endurance, and I began to search over Asperger.

I had so much problem during my BAC that I took an optional class to help me begin my master the right way. This class is given by a psychologist who specialise in neurology. During class, he asks people some question to help us understand what we might have that gives us problem at school. Last time I saw him I asked him if I could get an apointment, which I will in 2 weeks from now.

I like when I get what I want fast, so I'll prepare myself as good as possible. Here's what I intend to do or already done:
- Find as much information as possible on Asperger Syndrome. From symptom to testimony.
- Take some online test. I think I did at least 10 differents, in french and english. They might not give you a diagnosis, but at least something to talk about with your specialist.
- I don't know how old you are, but if you can take report card from school or kindergarden. I will take my report card and might even bring a small video from when I was 5 years old.
- Asperger is genetic, so someone in your family might show sign of autism. I have an uncle who's not diagnosed, but for the little I know about him, he's Asperger, or at least show autistic behavior.

Good luck with this

Sadly, in the UK the NHS primarily treats ASDs as mental health problems. They don't even stick to the NICE guidelines at all. Standard procedure is to treat as depression by default, sometimes with anxiety and bipolar or borderline.

Best bet by far for anyone in the UK is to phone the National Autistic Society who will be able to find the nearest specialist that they know actually knows what they're talking about. Took just one day of talking and tests with a proper specialist to get my wife and three of our children their diagnosis.

I've witnessed first hand how badly the NHS treated my wife and my son in regards to their ASDs and would steer everyone clear of trying for an NHS diagnosis.

Was diagnosed through the U.S. Air Force mental health service.

Went to see a shrink due to severe anxiety, frustration, and depression due to both my sh!tty job and having just been recently promoted to a management position.

It took four three hour sessions in which the psychologist was at first leaning towards Schizoid Personality Disorder, but, after taking a family history from my mother, he decided on Asperger's. Previously, I had thought AS was about little boys who memorized bus schedules, talked endlessly about steam engines, and had no imagination. The Shrink told me that yes, some of the boys with AS he had worked with were like that, but I was an adult woman, and AS presents much differently in adult women than it does in little boys.

Did some research. Apparently, I was wrong and he was right. Me = female Aspie.

In the states this what I remember from the test that was given to me by a neuropsychologist.

They gave me a mathematics test.
A reading comprehension test.
A test where I used blocks to reproduce an image with the blocks
A test where I had to name all the animals I could think of as quickly as possible
A test to name all the words I can think of that began with the letter H
I had to put pins in a hole as quickly a possible using one hand
There was a test where I put shapes in a catergory
I had to find what was wrong with a picture
I was asked what was the most comonly spoken language
I was asked who wrote Alice in wonder land
There were some other triva questions that I forgot about but were common
Several tests for memory
They gave me a list of questions for my parents to fill out and mail in.

The test took 7 hours I tested in the average range due to memory issues in the IQ part and above average in the verbal IQ.

Let them know about your anxiety issues before showing so they will do their best to accomidate you. My psychologist knew right away I had Aspergers from the first conversation he had with me. Do not do anything to hide your Aspergers like you do when your in public I met a guy who was so good at blending in appearing as if he was NT the psychologist was suprised he had Aspergers. Good luck and be truthfull.

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