How long did your Aspergers diagnosis take?

[Fly]

From a very young age I have been different to a lot of my peers and have been aware of it. When I got into my last 2 years of secondary school I really started to become extremely self aware and realised that my social abilities and the like were not at all up to par. I won't go too in depth... My point is, I began being diagnosed for aspergers when I was around 15 years old. This is because I was struggling a lot in school and my relatives heavily suspected that I had ASD as it runs in the family. I'm almost about to turn 18 years of age and I have only had ONE 3 hour long appointment and the person I spoke to determined that I am autistic... They have not spoken to me or any of my educators and I have not recieved an official diagnosis, it feels really scummy after 2-3 years of waiting. I am struggling heavily in college and I'm not allowed any form of autism support until I have an official diagnosis!

 

[Bolletje]

I was 29 when I was diagnosed. No one had considered autism before. The diagnosis process took less than a month, with weekly appointments with a psychologist, the psychologist interviewing my mom, and a lot of tests.

 

[Fly]

I was 29 when I was diagnosed. No one had considered autism before. The diagnosis process took less than a month, with weekly appointments with a psychologist, the psychologist interviewing my mom, and a lot of tests.

Wow! Might be because I'm younger and there are a lot of people my age being tested for autism.

 

[Gritches]

Diagnosed at 23. Took about a month, maybe two; it's hard to remember. It was just a referral from my regular psych to an autism specialist - two interviews with her, totaling about 4 hours. I brought my dad along, and most of the questions were directed at him, in the "when he was a child" vein.

As an amusing anecdote, the specialist I saw was blind. It didn't matter one single damn how good I was at faking "normal". Even though she was blind, I've never had someone see through me quite that intensely.

 

[FreeDiver]

For me. It took about a month for the scheduled appointment. then about 2 hours for the first visit and then 1 hour for the next visit about a week later. BTW: I was 45 years old at the time.

 

[ksheehan88]

I was diagnosed at 29. It took around a year from start to finish to get a diagnosis.

 

[StephF]

It took me 18 months from referral to assessment. Once I finally got the appointment it was two days of talking and tests. They gave me the outcome at the close of the 2nd day but it took a month & a half to get the written report.

Yes it took a long time but I feel it was worth all the waiting. I know now that I am not stupid or defective, I just work differently. My brain runs a different operating system

 

[Mr Allen]

Diagnosed at 23, as I recall the complete process took 2 months, would've been quicker but the useless halfwits at the Hospital "lost" the results of my MRI so I had to have another one.

 

[Steve0001]

Mine was a private diagnosis and cost around GBP 1,000. As we live in Dubai, I had to travel to the UK for a personal appointment. The interview was in two stages and took around 3 hours in total. There was also a Skype interview between the clinical psychologist and my partner which lasted about an hour. The whole thing took a couple of weeks to conclude to final report, but was well worth the cost and the effort. There are not a lot of people who are qualified to give an "official" diagnosis, so make sure that the person you see has the correct qualification.

As I'm sure you will have read countless times on this forum, just having the diagnosis is everything. We Aspies are totally convinced that we are right and can only be swayed once it is proven to us incontrovertibly that we are wrong. To explain to NTs, I always use the analogy of the "flat earth". If I hadn't been into space and seen the curvature of the earth, I would still believe the world was flat. But now, having seen it personally, I know the earth is round and am quite happy to change my thinking to accommodate for a circumnavigation. They still find it difficult to believe, but there really is no grey when dealing with an Aspie; it's either black or it's white.

On the subject of help, my experience has been pretty negative. No matter how well intentioned, most clinical psychologists just don't get us. Our minds work differently and that's something that no amount of therapy is going to change. Understanding and accepting that you are different to others is the first step to normalising your relationships and interactions.

Good luck and let us know how things work out.

 

[jlhagerty]

I was diagnosed at 33 years old, it took 6 months to determine whether I had provisional Asperger’s syndrome, in 2010. Reason why I found out is because the office of student with disabilities at my university required that I had assessment completed in order to get the accommodation that I was asking for. I needed more time to finish my assignments and least distraction site to complete my exams, I often needed more time to finish my exams. My brothers and my father were diagnosed with ADHD. I thought maybe I had ADHD because I was so easily distracted by certain circumstances.

Not only that I had been diagnosed with depression/anxiety and Borderline Personality Disorder, had been hospitalized multiple times till one of my case managers told me that if I don’t stop acting out I could end up in state hospital for the rest of my life in 2005. I kept begging the doctors to get me off but then I would act out and have really bad temper tantrums. My case manager said that I had the will power to control my own behaviors, the medications does not control my behavior. I truly felt like the medications were really driving me crazy and making me feel worse. In those hospitals, psych wards, I have seen horrors that I never seen before, except maybe on television. It felt like prison for me.

When I was in middle school and high school, I remember that I always was a bit different from my classmates and I felt left out of many social events, as I often made a lot of blunders in social activities. People used to tell me that I was a very sweet and smart young lady. My mother was always a overprotective and authoritative parent. I often felt like I had no freedom to be myself, to do things that I liked without fear that it would be taken away if I did not do what my mother required of me. I did poorly in elementary school until I got to middle school and high school, I started to work harder on my academics. I loved to hang around the library to read and to socialize with older people. The people who were my age, I had difficulty connecting with. However, I hang out with younger children and those who were outcasts of the school. I was never popular, though I tried to hang out with the popular kids. They often would mock at me or shut me out, when I did anything that was out of the norm.

I honestly did not think that I had Asperger’s until I was taking the assessment. I was angry and in denial at first. My therapist and I talked about it many times during my sessions, it took six years for me to fully accept it.

 

[Progster]

From my initial appointment with the GP, to my referral to a specialist, about 3 weeks. I received a verbal diagnosis at the end of the session. Then another two weeks before I received my written official diagnosis and report.

 

[sabrdawg]

My diagnosis only took about 3 months. My initial appointment with my psychologist was in January. I was interviewed and given assessment for my parents and myself to complete. I turned them in at my second appointment, and we talked some more. Finally, at my 3rd appointment on March 19, 2014, I was diagnosed with ASD Level I Had I been diagnosed before the DSM-V was implemented (I'm in the US), I would have most likely been diagnosed with Asperger's. They're basically one in the same.

 

[55853]

I'm almost about to turn 18 years of age and I have only had ONE 3 hour long appointment and the person I spoke to determined that I am autistic... They have not spoken to me or any of my educators and I have not recieved an official diagnosis, it feels really scummy after 2-3 years of waiting. I am struggling heavily in college and I'm not allowed any form of autism support until I have an official diagnosis!

Is it possible for you to find out what's happening? Does the organisation (or whatever it is) involved in your diagnosis have any methods of contact?

We Aspies are totally convinced that we are right and can only be swayed once it is proven to us incontrovertibly that we are wrong. To explain to NTs, I always use the analogy of the "flat earth". If I hadn't been into space and seen the curvature of the earth, I would still believe the world was flat. But now, having seen it personally, I know the earth is round and am quite happy to change my thinking to accommodate for a circumnavigation. They still find it difficult to believe, but there really is no grey when dealing with an Aspie; it's either black or it's white.

Please speak for yourself. This couldn't be further from the truth for me, and almost certainly at least some others with autism, if not a significant amount. Everyone on the spectrum is different. I'd recommend you look up the problems associated with blanket statements.

 

[Lady Penelope]

For me. It took about a month for the scheduled appointment. then about 2 hours for the first visit and then 1 hour for the next visit about a week later. BTW: I was 45 years old at the time.

Similar here. About a month of weekly 1 hour appointments. No parents involved... I was 35.

 

[psychgirl95]

I learned about Asperger’s when I was 13; I wasn’t officially diagnosed until I was 20. (It took a lot of convincing to get my mom to realize it.) However, I had to see 3 psychologists to finally get the diagnosis.

The first ASD specialist I saw said she couldn’t actually diagnose me because she was an educational psychologist. She just basically said that it was possible I had ASD. It was a wasted hour, to be honest. My first actual assessment was typical of what a young child would receive (because the place I went to usually only assessed young children); it included an IQ test, the ADOS, a short interview with me, an interview with my mom (while I took the IQ test, I believe), and some anxiety/depression self-report forms. It was pretty much a disaster; the psychologist apparently didn’t ask my mother the kind of questions she should have asked and ultimately diagnosed me with social anxiety.

In hindsight, I learned that a “typical” assessment is not appropriate for an adolescent/young adult who suspects ASD, so I don’t think you should worry about how your assessment went. Like you, my motivation for an official diagnosis was school accommodations so I was pretty devastated. However, I ended up being diagnosed with ADHD about 4 months after that initial assessment (by a psychologist who said that I definitely had Asperger’s and that I should go see a local ASD specialist) and was able to get accommodations with that diagnosis.

I actually had the psychologist’s info for a while but finally decided to make an appointment with him after my ADHD diagnosis. So I went to see him and he diagnosed me with Asperger’s (ASD Level 1) about 20-30 minutes or so into a one-hour appointment. He mostly asked my mom questions, probably partly due to the fact that I couldn’t answer his initial question of why I was there to see him. According to my mom (because I didn’t notice this), he changed his approach after that and only asked me concrete questions like “How old are you?” I think the last 30 minutes or so was basically spent answering my mom’s questions (like why weren’t my ASD symptoms noticed earlier), discussing my future career plans and how he could help me work toward them (I want to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist who specializes in assessing teens and young adults with ASD), and my “special interest” (which, at the time, was the DSM).

That was 2 years ago. I now see him about once a month.

 

[nbtxdude]

I got diagnosed at 39 when I went back to college after burning out in my first field. I went to campus center because I was depressed at the time and they diagnosed me in the course of 3 hours of taking assessments and an interview with me. Since I have no mate nor parents still alive, they had to get by with only my recollections. Granted, it was fairly obvious that I was on the spectrum (High Functioning Autism). I don't know if my mum or dad ever knew if I were tested back when I was in regular school as a kid. It would have helped me to know because I felt like I was so different and weird that made me cower from others.

The actual diagnosis doesn't mean much anymore because I had to spend most of my early adult years learning how to work around and present myself as being more normal.

 

[Dillon]

I was officially diagnosed at 3 years old but the only signs that doctors can figure was me not speaking at that age and not interacting like I should be. My aspergers became more aware in elementary school since the signs of it were more prevalent towards others
I didn’t know myself since of course I was little and don’t remember half of the stuff I did anyway.
However when I was In elementary and middle school I would have someone from the school test me monthly to see if I still have aspergers.....uhh it didn’t go away.

 

[Steve0001]

Is it possible for you to find out what's happening? Does the organisation (or whatever it is) involved in your diagnosis have any methods of contact?


Please speak for yourself. This couldn't be further from the truth for me, and almost certainly at least some others with autism, if not a significant amount. Everyone on the spectrum is different. I'd recommend you look up the problems associated with blanket statements.

do speak

 

[clg114]

I was diagnosed in 2008 at age 62. I suspected that I was a Aspie for a year or two before that but I wanted to know for sure. So I got my GP to refer me to a psychologist with experience with AS. I went to three appointments and was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It cost me $450.00, which is not to bad. I have read on our forum that it can cost up to $2000.00 and take years.

 

[As sweet as-pie]

I was diagnosed when I was 17. The actual diagnostic process only took 7 months from first seeing a psychiatrist to getting diagnosed. (2 appointments and the actual assessment)