Your path to better focus
What is Autism?
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that is present throughout their lifetime. It is how our brains are wired when we are born and see the world differently from others. Everyone is born different, some are social, can talk to others with ease, and can make friends without much effort. They can maintain relationships and friendships without many difficulties. You need to have social and communication skills. People with Autism have difficulty with how they interact and communicate with others. For example: if someone says, "My boss will kill me if I don’t finish the job". Non-Neurodivergent could tell if they are joking or serious by their tone of voice, non-verbal clues, facial expressions, body postures, or even on the phone call without seeing them. Someone with Autism would struggle to pick up this communication and can misinterpret it by taking literal meaning and may struggle to understand why this person is saying it if he doesn’t mean it.
In addition, people with autism have behaviours and interests that are stereotypical, repetitive, restrictive, or narrow. For example: They can get interested in specific topics such as Climate change, Sharks, Dolphins, Fish, Specific TV shows, Trains Etc. They would repeatedly talk or show interest as they would have spent most of the time researching about it or collecting facts or themes about it.
They also show Neuro sensitivity such as being sensitive to touch, sound, smell, temperature, light, and texture.
They like routine, and structure and can be described as being regimental preferring to do the same thing every day once they are awake, they may have a cup of coffee, shower, go to work, play video games, or work on building models, go to the gym on Monday, go to restaurant Tuesday, go for running Wednesday, the takeaway from the specific shop on Friday, etc and they tend to follow this routine for many years. They would feel quite uncomfortable if there was any change in routine. Say for example: one of his or her friends turns up and asks to go to the cinema which can cause them anxiety or meltdowns as it is an unexpected event.
How do you diagnose Autism?
There is no one physical test or psychological test to diagnose Autism. We at Cheltenham Psychiatrists follow the NICE guidelines and best available practices for diagnosis and support.
We will send out an Autism self-report and an informant report which may take up to an hour to complete. The informant report is completed by parents or close family members. Depending on the age we may ask the school to complete a form to gather social interactions. We offer an appointment with a Psychologist/ Speech and language therapist or Neurodevelopmental specialist to conduct ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Scheduled) which involves history taking, some tasks to complete, and observing your interaction with the examiner. All this will be conducted online via video consultation. The consultation may take up to 60 to 90 minutes.
Following this, an appointment will be offered in a few days with a Consultant Psychiatrist, who is a Mental Health Doctor to take the full developmental, physical, and mental health history. The consultation may last up to 90 minutes and at the end of the consultation outcome is concluded. A report will be sent to GP including one copy to you. If you fulfil the criteria for Autism, your GP will be able to update their system once they receive the report.