What an assessment is, and isn’t
An ADHD or autism assessment is a structured process in which trained clinicians decide whether a diagnosis fits. There is no blood test or scan. The decision is built from evidence: your history, questionnaires, interviews, and usually the account of someone who knew you as a child. That is why the evidence you bring matters so much, and why the guides on this site spend time on preparation.
An assessment is not a judgement on whether your difficulties are real. People leave without a diagnosis and with very real difficulties. The assessment’s job is to say what those difficulties most likely are, so the right help can follow.
Why people ask
Adults usually ask because a pattern that has been there since childhood is now causing problems: at work, at home, in study, in relationships. Often something changes first. A child is assessed and the parent recognises themselves. A job gets more demanding. The structure of school, or a partner’s organising, falls away.
Parents usually ask because school, nursery or a health visitor has raised something, or because they have watched their child struggle with things other children seem to find easier.
None of these are wrong reasons. The question the assessment answers is not “is this person coping?” but “what explains the pattern?”.
The screening questionnaires
Two short questionnaires come up again and again.
- ASRS (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale) is a six-question screener developed with the World Health Organization. It asks how often things like finishing the last details of a task, or feeling driven by a motor, happen to you.
- AQ-10 (Autism Spectrum Quotient, ten-item version) is a ten-question screener for adults. NICE suggests it as one way of deciding whether a fuller assessment is worth considering.
A screener gives a score that suggests whether a full assessment might be worthwhile. It cannot diagnose. A high score does not mean you have the condition; a low score does not rule it out, particularly for people who have spent years learning to hide their difficulties. Treat the score as one piece of evidence and bring it to the GP.
Things that can look similar
Part of the reason an assessment asks about so much is that other things can produce a similar picture: anxiety, depression, poor sleep, thyroid problems, the after-effects of trauma, menopause, hearing or vision difficulties in children, and learning differences such as dyslexia. Some of these sit alongside ADHD or autism; some explain the difficulties on their own. A GP may want to check some of them before, or alongside, a referral. That is not a brush-off. It is part of the process.
Deciding whether to ask
Four questions help.
- Has this been there since childhood? Both ADHD and autism are lifelong. If the difficulties started recently, the explanation may be something else, and the GP will want to look at that first.
- Does it affect more than one part of life? Assessments look for patterns across settings: home and work, school and home.
- What would change with a diagnosis? For some people the answer is medication, which for ADHD can only follow a diagnosis. For others it is adjustments at work or study, which do not strictly require a diagnosis but are far easier to get with one. For many it is simply understanding.
- What would it cost me not to ask? Waits are long. Starting the process now does not commit you to anything; it keeps the option open.
What to do next
If the answers point towards asking, the next guide covers the GP appointment, what to bring, and how referrals work across the UK. If you are asking for a child, the parents and carers guide covers the school’s part and the records worth keeping.
You do not need to be certain to ask. You need to be able to describe what is happening, specifically, and for how long.