Hi; a couple of years ago I had a diagnosis with the Avon Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (whom the CQC recently criticised heavily). I came away without a positive result. I was told the result was inconclusive and that I needed to provide a lifelong history to examine in order to get a final result. This is not possible for me, and I believe it shouldn't have to be.
Afterward in discussion I was told the Dr would speak to the ADD department as that was mentioned as a possibility. Subsequently that never happened and when i chased it up the Dr lied and said she had no memory of agreeing to such a thing. A few months ago after discussing all this with my GP (who isn't much help either tbh) she spoke to the ADD people who said they couldn't test me because they said I suffer from anxiety. This isn't untrue, but they have no basis for making that assumption since I have never been formally diagnosed by them for anything.
The test I had IMO seemed oriented to children. Part of the test I had to look at a picture book with a visual narrative (no text) of frogs on lily pads floating through a town. I also had to pick some little toys (the sort you find in an xmas cracker) and make up a narrative that connected them. I felt self conscious and stupid. What frustrated me is that, in investigating aspergers and similar conditions (to try and make sens eo f my life's experiences and the difficulties i face) I have done a number of the online tests/quizzes that are available. While I understand these are no substitute for a proper diagnosis, they at least ask pertinent questions. I was never asked anything like, for example: "do you find making eye contact difficult" (yes).
Other tests involved looking at cutaway pictures of peoples eyes and associating an emotion from a list. I foudn this ridiculous as some of the expressions could encompass multiple emotions: laughter or surprise or even sadness.
Another test featured watching a painfully acted foreign language (and thus dubbed) interaction between people planning a dinner party. The plot was so obvious and the acting so bad I felt it unrerpesentative of any real life situation. I presume the point was to determine if i can read social situations, but it was so poorly scripted I felt it a waste of time.
I mentioned all this when discussing the result, but to no avail. I don't really understand why the tests were conducted this way and I would like to know if this is the norm for adults and what I can do in lieu of providing a full lifelong history. I can't remember my childhood with enough clarity and objectivity myself, nor do i really see why it's necessary, even if aspergers is a lifelong condition.
I'm due to be assessed for ESA soon. I have the form to fill in and without any concrete evidence I'm really going to struggle. This means facing going back to signing on/looking for work and that's not something I feel I can cope with. There's no support available and my GP vacilates between understanding where I'm coming from and then not. For example she asked me to print out the test resutls fromt he online tests I mentioned, then when I did seemed to completely lose interest.
Thanks for reading.
10 Mar 2016, 8:12 am
