UK people...especially older ones....Medical records?

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I'm writing this as an appeal to anyone here who's in the UK - I know we have a few - because I've no doubt the system in the US is very different, but anyway...

I grew up in the 1970s and was never diagnosed with AS back then because, obviously, not many people were aware of it.

However...what I do recall is that when I was about six or seven, at school, I was put in remedial class.

My mother, back when she could remember anything about it, said that I was put in there just because I was 'naughty' and 'disruptive' and 'needed to calm down'. However, some years earlier she had mentioned that the teachers had said I was 'hyperactive'. Specifically, I couldn't actually be relied upon to stay in a classroom; I was always wandering off into other part of the school, exploring. I can actually remember some of those incidents. I also know that I was refusing school lunches (largely, as far as I can remember, because I had issues with the textures of certain foods), and there was some other disruptive behavior I won't go into here.

Point is, I'm not absolutely sure they weren't saying I had ADHD. I don't recall that anyone used that term until fairly recently anyway. I wasn't, as far as I'm aware, medicated for it (I've only just recently found out that some kids were given Ritalin back then; I didn't think they started prescribing it till much later.). But, ADHD aside, I'd kind of like to know what exactly was being discussed about me at the time because, obviously, I don't believe that was the only problem.

(Remedial class didn't work particularly well, by the way. I think it was aimed at kids who had actual educational problems, which I didn't. When I came out of it and back into normal classes after a few months, I found none of the other kids in school would even talk to me, which at least some of them had before, because I'd now been in, quote, 'the sp****cs' class'. I even found some of the parents wouldn't let their kids talk to me. It was about that time that I stopped even trying to approach people to make friends with them.)

What I wonder is if anything from that time would still be in my medical records. I know; I'm 40 now, and it's a very long shot. It's from the days before anything was computerized, and I don't know how much information would have been transferred over. I'm not even sure if any of what happened was even considered a medical issue. My mother's far gone enough in dementia that she can no longer remember anything, and I doubt she'd tell me the whole truth anyway - she was always really uneasy when I brought it up. But, I'm curious. And, I figure this kind of information might be useful if I did take the step of going to ask about an AS diagnosis, which I'm not decided on yet.

Any thoughts, anyone?

I used to work in a hospital about five years ago, and worked with finding medical records a little (only as temporary cover work). The medical records departments there were very large rooms full of row upon row of filing cabinets on rollers, with each patient's records in a cardboard folder. They went back many years (fifteen? twenty?), but when looking for them, the records were quite often misplaced or misfiled. I don't remember how long ago the earliest ones were being kept from but it was quite a long time.
I don't know how GPs store records, and I don't know whether there's been any great modernisation of records, but if you attended a hospital for any diagnosis, there's certainly a possibility that your records are still sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

I have issues with this very subject of medical records. I chased the records up, but was told that I may have "grown out" of any AS symptoms. No one has suggested what I should do now and left it at that.

I'm certainly not as naughty as I used to be any more and achieved academic success by keeping quiet about it all so I wouldn't be negatively judged/denied opportunities.

I have been negatively judged and talked down and simply to when people in authority know about the records.
I've had a good education.

Some environments I can function very well in, but others...

Oh dear...oh dear oh dear...

Why do people want to hide things from me?

Who am I really?

I really wish I could help, but I've had similar issues myself.

I have seen my medical records, and they are not a good record of my trips off to see my doctor. They are not very detailed.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

School records from Primary should be at your secondary school, I too went on a breif quest to dig up past reports... the tutors were not helpful, but they exist (not sure how far back they store permenent records, or whether yours is still open?) My condolances both to your mother and yourself, if mine forgets, noone else could step in, is your father able to assist you?

Hope you find them...

Jenk.

You're about ten years younger than I am when I was at school (in England) If I remember correctly, 'disruptive' hyperactive' were the way teachers would describe some children then and they thought at the time such behaviour was it was linked to food colouring and additives or general poor parenting and discipline. Oh, the bad old days, but maybe that was just my school. Although I remember a school report that mentioned 'withdrawn' 'doesn't mix well'...sort of aspie-ish, with hindsight.

I'm not sure about this but I would expect that whoever you go to for a possible AS diagnosis would take into account your memories of what happened to you at school and interpret it retrospectively rather than you having to have medical and school evidence. I suspect a lot of adults with AS were mis-categorised as children and that most AS behaviour which wasn't obviously autism was classed as 'withdrawn' or 'disruptive', or something along those lines. It would be helpful though if you could find something in a file gathering dust somewhere.

Good luck with your search.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HealthAndWe ... G_10036450

Maybe ring the school as well. See what they still hold, or if they have staff from that period still.

Thanks, all. I'll have to check into those avenues...

(Those of you who mentioned my mother - my dad died some years ago, and she's in a nursing home - neither my brother or I could care for her 24/7. It's vascular dementia, not Alzheimer's, although practically it doesn't make that much difference.)