Seeking a diagnosis?

I've been on the waiting list for an assessment for Asperger's for a few months (my GP referred me in April): today I received a letter from my local psychological services saying that due to my need for a specialist assessment, I'd most likely have to wait until 2012 for an appointment. In the meantime they gave me the Autism Quotient and Cambridge Behaviour Scale to fill in. What amused me was that the Autism Quotient questionnaire had 50 sets of answers (i.e. 'Strongly agree-Slightly Agree-Slightly Disagree-Strongly Disagree' was printed on one side of the page 50 times), however only the first eight questions were printed: next to the other 42 answer-sets was blank space. My response was to write in the questions myself, then criticise the wording of three of the questions (I can't recall right now which these were).

Anyway, I filled those both in and sent them off - but now I'm unsure what to do. I told Mum when she asked who the post was from (they came in a handwritten envelope - they'd originally arrived at my uni-house, and I asked one of my now-former housemates to forward it to me at my parents'), and she suggested that I look into getting a private diagnosis if I'd have to wait so long. She gave me the email of somebody recommended by one of her friends- I did get in touch, however the response was that a complete assessment would cost £900 or so, while a shorter one would cost £600. Hmm. I had a conversation about this with Cat, which was both helpful and left me more confused, if that makes sense. I put a post about this on WrongPlanet, one reply suggested that I get in touch with the NAS and ask about other assessment centres, in the hope that they may have shorter waiting lists. I've now done this, and I've also asked about private assessors: I imagine that since it's the weekend I won't get a reply until at least Monday, and given that we're in August I might not get a reply for a while longer.

Mum did ask me why it was important to me to get a diagnosis: Cat asked me this at one point as well. I can't remember if I've written about this on my blog or not, but at the moment I'm feeling rather tired (it's 1.26am) and I'd rather wait until I'm more awake to go into the reasons (or is there just one reason? Unsure.).