Diagnosis

[jb68]

Hi everyone,
Have recently joined and am interested to hear how people came about being diagnosed. I have suffered anxiety and depression (possible Bipolar 2) for many years and had a few psychiatric assessment most recently through the NHS where I was referred for a Adult ADHD assessment. Whilst looking into ADHD I read about Aspergers and have done the tests on aspietests.org. RAADS is 150, AQ 34, FQ 39, EQ 23, SQ 84 and the Aspie quiz 139/200 aspie and 86/200 neurotypical. I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems.
My main issues relate to work I have never got on in a corporate environment, I don't like the social side and open space offices are awful for me. Most of my depressive episodes relate to times when I have been very unhappy at work, unfortunately far too often and as a result I've had 23 jobs in 24 years (to be honest I am lucky to still be in work given how I have moved around).
I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems so wondered how others got diagnosed?

 

[xudo]

I went through the NHS to be diagnosed. My husband was referred for a diagnosis by the community mental health team, where he was seeing someone for depression. Through the process of filling out forms and questionnaires for him, he thought a lot of the things sounded a lot like me. So I eventually brought everything up with the GP, who referred my to the mental health team (they have to refer you to ASD assessment team in Cardiff). They saw me and referred me on, and from there it was an autism nurse who then referred me to the professor who actually carried out the assessment.

As for your situation, I would definitely bring it up. Even if the people assessing you for ADHD can't help you directly, they should definitely know who you would need to be seen by for a potential ASD assessment.

 

[Suzanne]

It has been suggested to me, that I take a list in with me, of traits and then ask them to assess me on that, but as yet, I am not confident in doing so, because I live in France ( but am also from the uk).

But in your situation, you could try that or test the waters first, so to speak ( lol see a hand moving side to side in the water; that is being literal thinker for you)! and if you detect that the therapist is not prejudiced about the internet, then you could gently introduce the idea of aspergers and show her or him the link.

 

[Streetwise]

Hi everyone,
Have recently joined and am interested to hear how people came about being diagnosed. I have suffered anxiety and depression (possible Bipolar 2) for many years and had a few psychiatric assessment most recently through the NHS where I was referred for a Adult ADHD assessment. Whilst looking into ADHD I read about Aspergers and have done the tests on aspietests.org. RAADS is 150, AQ 34, FQ 39, EQ 23, SQ 84 and the Aspie quiz 139/200 aspie and 86/200 neurotypical. I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems.
My main issues relate to work I have never got on in a corporate environment, I don't like the social side and open space offices are awful for me. Most of my depressive episodes relate to times when I have been very unhappy at work, unfortunately far too often and as a result I've had 23 jobs in 24 years (to be honest I am lucky to still be in work given how I have moved around).
I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems so wondered how others got diagnosed?

I had a really bad time after taking two drugs which mix badly and went and saw the doctor when I was looking let's say very autistic and he said I think it's autism
If you're in the Northumbria Tyne Wear area of the UK there is a team just for autism if not it could be a psychologist and speech therapist who ever

 

[Streetwise]

Hi everyone,
Have recently joined and am interested to hear how people came about being diagnosed. I have suffered anxiety and depression (possible Bipolar 2) for many years and had a few psychiatric assessment most recently through the NHS where I was referred for a Adult ADHD assessment. Whilst looking into ADHD I read about Aspergers and have done the tests on aspietests.org. RAADS is 150, AQ 34, FQ 39, EQ 23, SQ 84 and the Aspie quiz 139/200 aspie and 86/200 neurotypical. I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems.
My main issues relate to work I have never got on in a corporate environment, I don't like the social side and open space offices are awful for me. Most of my depressive episodes relate to times when I have been very unhappy at work, unfortunately far too often and as a result I've had 23 jobs in 24 years (to be honest I am lucky to still be in work given how I have moved around).
I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems so wondered how others got diagnosed?

Just remembered the official waiting time is three months most people wait six months to 2 years in England maybe the rest of the UK

 

[Streetwise]

Just remembered the official waiting time is three months most people wait six months to 2 years in England maybe the rest of the UK

If you can check on all the relative who can remember you when you were very young child as professionals need to know if this started before the age of four

 

[Streetwise]

Hi everyone,
Have recently joined and am interested to hear how people came about being diagnosed. I have suffered anxiety and depression (possible Bipolar 2) for many years and had a few psychiatric assessment most recently through the NHS where I was referred for a Adult ADHD assessment. Whilst looking into ADHD I read about Aspergers and have done the tests on aspietests.org. RAADS is 150, AQ 34, FQ 39, EQ 23, SQ 84 and the Aspie quiz 139/200 aspie and 86/200 neurotypical. I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems.
My main issues relate to work I have never got on in a corporate environment, I don't like the social side and open space offices are awful for me. Most of my depressive episodes relate to times when I have been very unhappy at work, unfortunately far too often and as a result I've had 23 jobs in 24 years (to be honest I am lucky to still be in work given how I have moved around).
I am planning to raise when I have an ADHD assessment but am worried they may just focus on that and not be interested in potential other problems so wondered how others got diagnosed?

The post should've said take a relative

 

[Khendra]

Hi. I was diagnosed in 2014 at the age of 29. Though I did very well academically and needed no accommodations for anything growing up, forming and maintaining friendships has been a challenge, and especially maintaining employment for longer than a year.

I was diagnosed with mild OCD in my teenage years.

My main issues are handling interpersonal conflict and disagreement on the job (usually related to problems reading social cues), subtle visual-motor coordination and executive function issues, and not being able to transfer some forms of knowledge across multiple contexts. Sarcasm and humor, too, are often lost on me.

I'm thankful to have always had supportive parents and a loving husband, who puts up with (and even loves) many of my "quirks."

 

[Sid Delicious]

I was initially diagnosed with 'autistic traits' as a teen and later changed to 'high functioning autism' and then 'aspergers' (have no idea what the difference is). At one point in my late teens I was given a range of other labels based on symptoms that were later changed (as in hindsight they were directly related to autism). Manic depression, social anxiety, panic disorder and schitzophrenia (because I used to copy accents and mannerisms all the time as a child). I think that is fairly common with undiagnosed aspies. ADHD is another one that comes up a lot.

Cycling through multiple jobs is another common factor from what I've seen. I now work mostly in contract IT roles through choice (and IT tends to work like that anyway), but before falling into more technical work I jumped from one job to the next following insane amounts of stress over not being able to cope with basic things like multi tasking, understanding customers, taking messages on phone calls, etc. I imagine someone who spends 20+ years going through that would be pretty burned out, so you have my sympathy! I couldn't have continued like that for more than a few years, so I feel bad for anyone who is stuck in that situation long term. I would make a point of highlighting the cause of your depression/anxiety when you go to the assessment, so they understand exactly what you struggle with. I went to an ADHD assessment with my ex several years ago and they did check for non-ADHD issues as well. I think it will depend on the clinic and how much depth they go into.

 

[jb68]

Thanks Sid Delicious, my ADHD assessment is still 3 months or so away but have decided not go private due to the costs. I, like you, have worked in contract IT work, so I have been able to get away with regular job moves on my cv, although in most cases I have moved on at contract renewal time when I could have stayed on at the same company because I've usually had enough! I doubt I would have managed to stay employed had it not been for that. I mainly work from home now as well so can control my environment, which makes a huge difference. Most of my contact is via email or Skype which is perfect for me. My family think it is very odd that I don't want to go into the office more!!