Psychiatry is a joke

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I am completely shocked.

About a year ago I read 'The Reason I Jump' and my world was turned upside down. I'm in no way stating that my 'condition' is anywhere near as bad as the author but while reading that book, I came to realize that his sentience is like an amplified version of my own.

I have been to multiple mental health professionals over the course of my life and the autism spectrum was never mentioned once... I'm in my twenties and despite my recent attempts; I've yet to find a psychiatrist able and willing to give me a formal diagnosis.

For an unrelated reason, I recently asked my mother for a copy of my childhood medical records; and upon perusing through the pages I found something astonishing... three stapled pages of note-style descriptions of my behavior through my youth. It was basically an aspergers manifesto...

The fact that I was never diagnosed is astonishing. There was clearly more wrong with me than the BS ADHD label they slapped me with... and my family was well aware of it! They wrote it all down! How could the field of psychiatry be so vacuous as to fail me in such an epic way?!

After reading that document; any doubts I've had of my being on the spectrum have been fully snuffed. I am left to simply ponder as to what my life could have been had I gotten the help I needed... Born without skin and cast into a field of nettle... the stinging persists to this day and I see no end in sight; nor anyone able and willing to help. f**k man.

There's a fundamental issue concerning psychiatry and AS. Psychiatry is the study and treatment of mental illness, sociopathy and psychopathy, while fundamentally AS is not a mental illness, not sociopathy, and not psychopathy.

AS is a different neurology vs psychiatrists only look for what they perceive as defectiveness, which can be slotted into some conception of psychopathology that treating gives psychiatrists their living.

There is a fundamental mismatch between the search for AS identity and psychiatry's determination of mental defectiveness, and its categories are subject to social and political factors that are clear the every changing "facts" of each new DSM.

I would far prefer that psychiatrists butted out of AS altogether. That won't happen though, it's a growing income stream for them. Pathologising AS people is a tragedy, unless actual concommitant mental illness accompanies AS. Even then, careful evaluation for the environmental and social impacts of AS on the person should outweigh the psychiatric professions' rush to slap on its default labelling of "mental illness" on AS patients.

This document describes a very sick young man. I've heard people make the case that their aspergers should not be considered a pathology but I cannot imagine a scenario where a person lives the life that I have and doesn't come out the other end with some serious psychological damage. ASD may result in certain proficiencies in life but it can also cause deficiencies that are detrimental to a person's place in society and overall health. We can't all be Elon Musk.

That's a bummer. I can see how you'd be upset. What are you planning to do at this point?

I also want to make sure I understand: when you say "f**k man", do you mean you're mad at all of humanity? Or did you mean something like: 'Geez, man!'?

The latter. I don't know what I'm going to do at this point. I've since sustained a TBI and most of my problems have been worsened and accompanied by an all new set of issues that there is also little to no help for.

I knew I was a troubled kid but I didn't know it was so bad that it needed to be written down... If that document was written about someone else, knowing the things I know about psychology now; reading it would be highly disturbing and sad.

I don't understand how this disorder doesn't break everyone it touches. There are aspies out there who are hyper focused, diligent and untouched by emotional dysregulation... Am I just the freak with all the tragic comorbidities or is my case more common than the media would have us believe?

Wrong. Most therapies try to treat the symptoms instead of getting you really improved. You would have been even more treated as being an idiot and possibly even more felt as one. Get over it because you are on your own with this. Most people even say you can't improve anyway. But they are wrong. Even most people here in forum gave up once it has been told to them. I have found myself on the AS spektrum and I have improved a lot since the first time that I recognised my problems quite a year ago. I've never felt any deep empathy in my whole life and have a lack of many emotions. But now I'm starting to improve myself for both and develop more and more the ability to read other people even empathically and not only visually. But I still have to train myself a lot to improve my skills. I'm already 50. But I'm still able to learn - even if it comes to feel more emotions and for feeling empathy for the emotions of other people.

Last edited by quite an extreme on 25 Sep 2018, 8:17 am, edited 2 times in total.

If you would have a little more empathy you wood know. He is just pissed of with the situation because he thinks that he could have improved a lot if he had been treated the right way. But I'm afraid he's totally wrong with the latter.

I can't read his mind. I was asking him to clarify a statement he made so I could understand what he meant.

I'm close to your age and I tend to agree with a lot of what you've said. I'm torn as to whether or not I believe early diagnosis and early intervention for a child with HFA is helpful or hurtful to their success in society over their lifetime. I could see some skills as helpful such as assistance in learning to identify social cues and perhaps learning techniques to reduce stress in stressful situations. However, defining a person by a diagnosis, catering to their autistic traits and coddling the HFA child, in my opinion, would most likely be detrimental to their ability to succeed in the "real world".

Since you're in Germany, I don't know if you have access to Netflix or if Netflix has the show Atypical about an HFA teenage boy. The character was diagnosed as a child and his entire development through childhood was directed by autistic assistance by the school, mental health (therapy), etc. His mother has attended a parental support group for autistic parents for years. His NT sister says that basically the family revolves around the autistic son's life and they cater to his extraordinary needs as an autistic. I find the show interesting. One reason I find it interesting is because I believe if I was diagnosed as a child and I was raised with the same attention and in the same way as the character Sam, that I would be very much like him in most every way. I was instead thrown into the cold water of the deep end of the pool like any other person not diagnosed as a child and forced to, as you say, 'figure it out on your own'. Harsh life in the regard? Oh, yes. But I can function on my own, be independent and successful. I don't believe I would have achieved what I have if I would have been labeled HFA as a child and treated differently. I'm to a point in my life after life has burned me out in many ways were I can decide how I wish to communicate with people, what kind of routine I want to have and make decisions on the activities and interactions I do or don't want to have.

Last edited by Magna on 25 Sep 2018, 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

People are not psychic. All the guy was doing was trying to get clarification.

Where do you see the "lack of empathy" in that?

I don't blame him for the question because many autistic people lack empathy. Just as he says: 'I can't read his mind.'. The question just showed me that he can feel for him but that he can't imaginary take his position and feel like him. If he would be able to take imaginary the position of the OP and tried to 'feel' the really bad emotions of being pissed off that are within his words he hadn't even asked his question. The OP isn't blaming the whole world and didn't even mean 'Geez, man!'. He is just pissed off because he thinks that he was always treated the wrong way. I'm always trying to imaginary take the position of other people now just to learn empathy and I'm slowly getting better at this.

Logically, being properly diagnosed and treated should result in a better outcome in life. After all, professional treatment and meds help people get rich. Or is that all they do?

^ They help *the people prescribing, manufacturing and dispensing them* to get rich. The rest of us, not so much.

>sigh<

B19 makes an excellent point. ASDs are neurological... to put them into the realm of psychiatry was to pathologize them unnecessarily. Of course there are co-morbid conditions, but (for example) when someone with severe Parkinson's is depressed, we have the brains to grasp that this is probably due to the Parkinson's and its effects on that person. Folks with ASDs aren't as lucky.

Also, depending on where you live, psychiatry is a very expensive joke indeed. Especially because you are expected to pay for it - as for all medical visits - regardless of whether it helps in any way whatsoever.

Last edited by Esmerelda Weatherwax on 25 Sep 2018, 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

You can't tell this for all people because you don't know all.

All people on this spectrum are quit differently and without knowing you and your special problems it's hard to say what is wrong with you. Most aspies have either an anxiety disorder, are to emotional or have a lack of emotions and for this also a lack of empathy for the missing emotions or they have a mix of all that. The causes are partional genetically and partional the result of a really bad treatment as a child.

My opinion: The nongenetic causes are mostly self protection mechanism that really small children develop, i.e. unconscious self protection movements or skip feeling attraction to people or just stop to feel empathy because it always caused a really bad feeling. It's quite hard to get rid also of the nongenetic problems but it's sometimes possible after recognising the reasons.

You're correct in that I can feel for people "sympathy" but it's true is is difficult for me to pretend that I can know or feel where a person is coming from with particular experiences they may have that I have never had "empathy". If I have had the same experience (e.g broken bone, severe stomach cramps, etc), then I can have hyper-empathy where I'm probably genuinely more concerned with and for the other person than would generally be regarded as "normal". I score very low on the EQ empathy quiz. I have a hard time accepting that most "empathy" people give to others is really all that genuine. After all, by definition, empathy if one hasn't actually experienced the same thing is a contrivance.

I see many people, for example, share a misfortune or bad experience they're having and those around the person will often have what looks to me like an over exaggerated look of sympathy, maybe tilt their head to the side, say "tsk" and "awwwwwww", make an over exaggerated overly obvious frown of sadness that to me doesn't seem genuine. That kind of response does not make me feel better if I'm the one having the bad experience.

I don't want to monopolize this thread. My apologies.

To feel yourself better is not the point. To read other peoples mind and to become better with woman is more important to me. It's make the life also more colorful and interesting to see or feel the emotions of other people. And you'll also recognise big emotional differences of people. It's a kind of a power and I got some first positive experiences. Others aspies should also be able to improve if they really want it and try it. If you are lerning something new the brain generates additional neurons in the related regions. The emotional part isn't different to this. But it takes time. It's like learning a new language. But you can't develop empathy for emotions that you block. Therefore you shouldn't suppress feelings any longer especially for people that you really like. For improving your empathy you should start to guess how people feel and what they may want. Look at the people around you. Imagine you would stand where they are and in the way that they do. Ask yourself why would you do it the way that they do. How would you feel if doing so? Do this always and anywhere. Also if watching TV and all kind of videos and films. You 'll become better and better with it and you'll recognise more and more details over the time. And this is just the way to go for learning to read people - at least for me.