Going for the diagnosis...

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OK, here's my situation. I'm in my late 30's, and self-diagnosed myself as an Aspie last summer, starting from, of all places, a Yahoo news article on Prosopagnosia. My first epiphany. Anyway, identifying my face blindness led me to consider whether I had other neurological disorders, and Asperger's was mentioned as often occuring in prosops, so I googled that, and had my second epiphany.

Anyway, I've debated whether to get diagnosed and decided to do it; partly for confirmation, but mostly so I can get professional help in figuring out which of my odd problems, quirks and habits are AS derived, and which are just me, figuring out the degree of imparement or confusion in various areas, identifying any other disorders, and things like that.

So the question is how to go about it? I've always struggled through, so I don't have a psychiatrist or anything. I haven't had a regular family doctor or anything, well, ever.

My health coverage is Kaiser. I've got a Doctor's apointment on Friday, and was planning on bringing it up then. But the plan says I can have 20 "Mental health visits" or some such per year, and don't need a referral to a psychiatrist. Would it be better to go directly to a shrink?

Second question is, how is it diagnosed for an adult? I mean the process, not the diagnostic criteria. I've seen a couple diagnosis guides online, but they were for children, and involved interviewing the parents, observing interactions with oither children, etc. A bit impractical for me. I've taken a couple quizzes online, but those specifically say they are not diagnostic tools.

Third question is, what sort of obstacles might there be? Some have mentioned their diagnoses took a long time. Why? Bureaucratic obstacles? Misdiagnoses? A sceptical psychiatrist? Personal resources or obstacles?

Fourth question is, is there any fourth question I should have asked?

Getting dxed is a waste of time unless you're severe enough to need benefits, or just want closure. I went to three psychiatrists who had no idea what AS was (I got one "you can't have A.S., they're really good with numbers and don't like people", one who didn't even know what it was, and one who kept insisting it's just OCD, when even I know that any OCD I have is extremely mild and AS related). I finally found an A.S. specialist who obviously didn't give a crap about her patients, and after she DXed me I realized I couldn't work with someone like her and it'll be too hard to find someone that COULD help me, so I just left it alone. Now that I have a DX, I kind of feel like I wasted my time, except now I can't be accused of faking/self-DXing. I don't have a piece of paper or anything so I can't apply for SSI/help in college/whatever unless I go back and get a document or whatever.

All in all, unless you're going to achieve something in specific, it's kind of a waste of time.

fourth question? SURE! There is ALWAYS something new you should have asked!

Sorry, I couldn't resist!