While You Wait for an Assessment

Assessment waitlists can run from months to over a year, and that limbo is genuinely hard. This worksheet is about supporting yourself — and quietly getting ready — in the meantime.

Supporting yourself now (no diagnosis required)

You don't need a piece of paper to start meeting your own needs. Self-accommodations are yours to use today.

One self-accommodation I could try this week:

e.g. e.g. noise-canceling headphones, written instructions, scheduled downtime.

______________________________________________

Another that might help:

e.g. Small and doable beats ambitious.

______________________________________________

Building support

• Autistic and neurodivergent community spaces, online and local.
• Your own therapist — ideally one who is autism-affirming.
• Trusted people in your life who believe you.
• Reputable resources over viral checklists.

One community or person I'll reach out to:

e.g. Naming it makes it likelier to happen.

______________________________________________

Getting ready for the assessment

Assessments often ask about your developmental history. Gathering this now makes the appointment far easier on you.

• Notes from childhood — school reports, baby books, family memories.
• Examples of your traits across different stages of life.
• A list of the situations you find hardest, and what helps.
• The questions you want to ask the clinician.

Start jotting examples here — moments across your life that capture your experience:

e.g. You can keep adding to this over time.

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

One question I want to ask the clinician:

e.g. Your appointment, your questions.

______________________________________________

Tending the wait

How are you holding up with the wait right now? (1 = really struggling, 10 = doing okay)

Rate from 1 to 10: ____

What would make this waiting period a little easier on you?

e.g. Be specific, and be kind to yourself.

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

A gentle note: If the wait is weighing heavily on your mental health, please reach out to a therapist or a support line — you don't have to white-knuckle it alone. This worksheet is a learning tool, not an assessment or treatment. Only a qualified professional can make a formal diagnosis, and your self-knowledge is real and valid either way.

Go deeper

Ready for more? These lessons pick up where this worksheet leaves off.

• What You Will Be Asked, and How to Prepare, from The Assessment. The questions an assessment is built from, and how to prepare without turning it into a performance.
• Reading Your Own History, from Self-Identification. A structured re-examination of a life you have already lived — and the document an assessor will actually ask you for.
• Finding Your People, from Self-Identification. What the community offers, how to walk into it, and what to expect once you are there.
• Am I Allowed to Call Myself This?, from Self-Identification. Where self-identification came from, what the research found, and how to hold a description nobody handed you.