Is it normal to wait a long time for diagnosis?

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I am 23 years old and was told by a licensed mental health counselor and a clinical psychologist that I'm possibly in the autism spectrum, but should contact the Regional Center to be sure, so I did.

Apparently the process can take four months as they need to check records, manuscripts, etc.

Is this normal? If not, what did others do to get their diagnosis?

Yes. Actually 4 months is considered a short time. It took me 1,5 year.

I would have got diagnosed by the time I was seven... though not then by the time I was either 10 or 11,

From what I have heard online from others who got the diagnoses, yes. I have never heard from anyone having it happen in a few days and getting their results those same days.

It took about 3 months from setting up the initial appointment to getting the results. I live in the country though and there's not much going on around here.

For me, from the initial referral to actually receiving the statement took almost 14 months.

That sounds like what I have experienced. My process from initial appointment to diagnosis appointment had been about four months.

It might depend where you are. I am still halfway through diagnosis and have waited seven months so far for the second part. No effort is being put into taking care of my case at the minute because I am an adult and the kids are more important than the adults, so, we are put on the reserve list and will have our cases looked at whenever there is time. The waiting time is up to one year...

I'd say, it took me about two months to get my diagnoses in 2014.

Waiting list in my area is 15 months

I waited 2 years, first waiting about a year for an appointment and then twice for "taking care of the children" in August and November, when they took 6 weeks to "settle the children at school" and then make another appointment with me.

Took me 3 months to get an appointement with a doctor to talk about my mental issues. Then it took another 5 months to get my first appointment with someone specialized in autism. My 2 following appointments only had a time gap of around 2 weeks each.

It depends on how long of a wait list you have for services in your area. For me it took about a month, but that was because the Dr. who DX'ed me had seen me in the past and already had everything he needed to proceed. My cousins son got his DX over the summer, but he didn't have to deal with a long waiting list.

Four months is great! Be glad you're not using the UK NHS, which is now as long as 2 years in some places. Private in the UK is more like four months depending on the specialist, so the comparison to the NHS wait times makes four months feel like nothing.

From start to finish, I had an official diagnosis in less than 2 weeks. After many hospital stays in the Behavioral Health Unit, and not much help long term, I basically diagnosed myself. The next time I was hospitalized, I told them I thought I has Asperger's. Two days later a specialist showed up and gave me various tests for three days. WISC, IQ, and a bunch of others. They did a phone interview with my mom as well. They left, saying that I most likely was on the spectrum. A week later, the official diagnosis report and test results came in the mail. Perhaps I had good timing? I don't know.