Autism Assessments and Advice

I'm an 18 year old girl and I have a lot of traits that affect my daily life & relationships (although actually help me academically imo) and showed symptoms when I was little, although they were less prominent in my later childhood and early teens. I want to know what the autism assessment process was like for anyone who has gone through it, how long the waiting list is and if I have to involve my parents. I'm also going to university in September, so I don't know if I should wait until then to apply for a diagnosis as I'm not sure how it works with changing GPs or if there will be someone there I can talk to about it.
Thanks

There’s two ways you can do this:
1) Adult autism assessment - it’s through a GP - waiting times are VERY long (talking years) and that’s just for the assessment not a diagnosis. You don’t need to necessarily involve your parents - you can legally register yourself at a GP as an adult.
2) Second option - and probably the most useful to you - register with your uni’s “Accessibility and Disability Service”, they can help you with getting an autism screening test and if you display strong enough traits of autism then you’ll be entitled to the same accommodations as someone with a full diagnosis. (These accommodations are VERY useful and are there to make your life easier - I wish I’d done so on my undergrad for my ADHD.) They may require a GP to second this screening test - but the screening test itself can also be taken to a GP as a self-referral for an autism diagnosis which still triggers the sequence of events in the first option.
That latter part is for if you feel as though you would benefit from a formal diagnosis - many self-diagnosed autistic folks don’t feel like they need one, but it’s very personal and depends to what extent it impacts your life. As a ‘bonus’ - there are quite an abundance of people trying to game that ADHD diagnosis system “because you get drugs” and so GPs are very reluctant to refer more people - especially if you’re a student. However, fewer people put themselves forward for an autism diagnosis, so inherently you’ll hit fewer barriers.

thank you so much for your response!! i think i will do the uni accessibility route. i mainly want a diagnosis/confirmation to explain why i act think and feel the way i do. i really appreciate the help

thank you so much for your response!! i think i will do the uni accessibility route. i mainly want a diagnosis/confirmation to explain why i act think and feel the way i do. i really appreciate the help

the uni route will not give you a diagnosis, which sounds like what you are looking for.

is my only choice going to the GP then? the first answer said i could use the screening test as a referral for the gp, not that it would give me a diagnosis itself, unless i've misunderstood. do you have any advice?

Sorry, I know I'm effectively replying to someone else's post but I can clarify what's being meant:
I would say definitely still use the uni route while you will be at uni - the uni route will still give you a screening test (this is done internally by the university's own professionals.) This is so that you can access the same support that someone who already has had a diagnosis as a child would have access to, you'll be really glad you did this. Then you can still go to the GP after, with the results of the screening test (which the GP should be grateful that you have) in order to pursue a formal adult diagnosis. Whereas if you just went to the GP - and not the uni at all - you would just be going through their own systems in order to get a diagnosis - but without any support from uni, unless you took the doctor's information to the uni.
Uni can't get you a diagnosis (never said that they would; you read my initial post correctly), but the doctor will be much more likely to process your referral if you have had a screening test at uni first. Arguably, the uni will be better at identifying and recognising autism in girls because they're more used to seeing the effects of it in an academic context and environment than a GP (no disrespect to GPs, but I have known autistic girls who have had to fight their GPs for even a self-referral.)
I hope that clarifies things.