What childhood information is relevant for diagnosis?

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I have my first appointment for a diagnosis on Monday. The psychiatrist wants me to bring along relevant information from my childhood. He said things like emotional and social history, school reports etc.

I'm not sure wha this means really. I'd like to have some notes written out before I have my appointment, just so that I can remmber everything when I'm speaking with him face to face. So I've been trying to think out an emotional history of my life, but I've been finding it very hard. I can't really be sure whether my childhood was happy or sad. When I'm in a good mood, I look back on it with nostalgia, but when I'm in a bad mood, I look back on it with horror. I can think of memories that stick out more prominently than others, but just because I remember them better than others doesn't make them more relevant than rest of my experience does it?

How do I figure out what information is relevant?

Are developmental milestones important? The age I started walking, talking, reading etc? Could anyone make a list of the things I should find out about my development. These are things I'll have to ask my parents.

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I've never visited a psychologist or psychiatrist and it's been years since I've visited a doctor. This is all a bit confusing

A good psych will know that early child development history is the most important to make a dx in regards to developmental disorders. This info can not really be given correctly by anyone else other than the parent or carer.

I don't want my parents involved though. They don't need the hassle right now, and if I turn out not to have AS, they'll obsess for years about how to get me fixed.

There must be a list of relevant criteria that I can ask them about and pass on to the Psychiatrist without getting them involved.

No not really not unless some one else know you well enough to know you when you was too little to remember and of your early childhood history.

My parents were interviewed both times I was diagnosed. Did you not receive something like a questionnaire to fill out before hand, for you and family? I can try to dig them out when I have time. Some of the questions are different conditions, though.

Basically any school reports, any accounts of behaviour and health when you were young. Developmental history is important. That is normal miles stones like, breast feeding, talking, walking, and preschool interactions, etc.

To be honest it would have been impossible to get this on my own because of my memory problems, but even if I didn’t I don’t see how I would know about these accurately without being told. If you don’t know what is “normal”, then it is though.

If you are struggling to know what to bring I would ask him to be more specific.

The Dr who diagnosed me asked specific questions so it was easy to answer. Get a copy of Tony Attwoods book,or if you dont have enough time look at his website and note down things you did as a child that meet the criterior.

For example in my case it was commented on by people that I spoke in a teacherish way, like a professor. I was told off from an early age for correcting the teachers. I flap my feet all the time and my fingers since I was tiny. Ive always had sensitivity to light and sounds since I was a baby and my mum commented that I used to cry in the sun as a baby. Things like that really, all my sourses were the bitchy remarks made about me by teachers, parents and grandparents lol.

The doctor did not want to see my parents only me. It was not as traumatic as I had expected and the Dr was very understanding and nice. It was hard to tell someone all my faults as I am so used to hiding them but that was also some what of a relief too. If they run a post diagnosis group do go to it, as I think it makes all the difference in coming to terms with the diagnosis. Ive had a lot of residual grief for my old identity and I think that would have helped.

Good luck

A big thing would be to determine if your behaviour as a child was similar compared to how you are now. Obviously, being a childhood neurological disorder, the evidence will always be there if you have it (you may be better or worse as an adult, but it'll still be within certain boundaries).

Both times my mother was needed to provide a history of my symptoms, i.e., I've always been this way to some extent or less since an infant, rather than my condition arising in adolescence/young-adulthood.

In general, yes, milestones are very important. Any professional should ask for these. The age you talked and if you had any delays in walking, motor development, articulation, self-help skills as well as the academic field. Write down anything you can find - the professional will ask you for details and sort the important information out. Better to know more than what you're asked for than being asked for more than you can tell. Also, you should/could get asked for any huge and/or traumatic events, sudden deaths, family separations, accidents that are relevant to you and so on.

And of course: is there any evidence that you showed the symptoms that are in the DSM-IV-TR/ICD-10 in your childhood? That's probably most relevant and, if you don't know exactly what to look for, pretty much impossible.

I gave most of it myself. That's not that unusual if your parents are unavailable and/or if you have an exceptionally accurate memory that goes back to your earliest childhood.

Which is unusual though as was explained to me, because the memories of normal people are supposedly inaccurate - well, obviously not if you're as nuts as me hehe

While the ASD diagnostician readily took it, the ADHD diagnostician didn't even ask me if I knew anything. Any professional will have their own expectations when it comes to childhood reports.

Developmental history is good if you have it. It's helpful to know things like when you learned to speak. It's also helpful to know about milestones related to motor control (when did you crawl, walk, etc). It's also helpful to have some idea of what kind of playing you did as a child. When you were 2 or 3 years old did you engage in pretend play? It might also help to know whether, as a small child, you were unusually "tantrum prone" or, conversely, if you were unusually easygoing.

It's particularly helpful to be able to talk about how successful you've been at age-appropriate social relationships. I imagine that he/she is likely to ask how many friends you have and how many romantic relationships you've had. He/she may also want to know what kinds of things you do with your friends.