Psychiatrist vent

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Yes, KBerg's comment just made my night.

Pensieve, I have had the same types of feelings after meetings with my therapist. I basically use my meetings with her to get things off my chest, and talk about my problems with someone who is impartial and can at least comprehend the fact that I am trying very hard. I don't get very much in terms of useful advice, but it's still nice for me to have someone to talk to.

If you want to get that useful advice, it would probably be best to try to find someone who specializes in the autism spectrum, if you can.

My situation is the opposite. I know I am capable but others assume i am not and I want them to give me an apportunity to show that I am capable. So I guess from where I am comming from, I would say you are lucky your psychiatrist says what he says. I don't know why you would want to accept the fact that you are "incapable" and will stay that way for the rest of the life. I mean even if it is true, how can you have good self esteem feeling that way. I mean just think about it: FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE you will be living at home without job or life. How does it make you feel? Don't you want to climb up the wall to get yourself out of this situation, even if it seems unrealistic?

I simply could not stop laughing! KBerg, that was absolutely awesome!

I'm seeing a psychologist at the moment. She said she had experience with children with AS, or so she says. I've only seen her for three sessions so far, and at $160 for the first session and $120 for subsequent sessions, it's really putting stress on my HRA account. I really don't see his the cognitive behavior therapy will change my thinking and reduce my anxiety, but I'm giving it an honest try.

Maybe because I'm more affected by my symptoms. Yes my psychiatrist wants me to socialise more and get a job but he's not really telling me how. He may as well tell me to make a cake without giving me the recipe.

Anyway, I was just having a vent because my psychiatrist says the same things over and over again and I'm sure he will at my next appointment. I was pissed that day too. I explained my health problems in my first post but then my mum left me in the waiting room and came at the last minute. I'm not a person that copes well with change. It leaves me feeling angry or panicked. It's a little bit hard to plan any type of future when that happens.
I do look for work but I don't get past the interview. The last job I applied for I handed in my resume and felt uncomfortable because a customer was standing too close and listening to my conversation with the manager. So I didn't get a call back for an interview. I'm starting to just lose hope that I'll be able to get a job. I have been trying to come up with ways to make money on my own. It at least keeps me busy while I'm not working. If worse comes to worse and I can't get the job I want I think I'll just become a shelf stacker or sort through the boxes in the back.

I'm not able to live on my own. I barely survive trying to keep my mum's house clean and eat enough meals in the day. I completely shut down over making dinner so my mum usually does that. I don't know anything about finances and I can't do my own grocery shopping. There's no way in hell I will ever learn to drive. If I can't push a trolley in a supermarket in a sane way then I won't be able to drive on a busy street with other motorists. I can experience sensory problems in the passenger's seat too.

Maybe I do need to work on my social skills but people irritate me. Even on forums I need to take time away from it when people say something that I take offense at. I've got my own issues with being oppositional for the sake of being oppositional, or at least it seems that way.

I won't ditch my psychiatrist. He takes care of my medication and I don't want to live with the worry that I may not be able to get a new script. He's not really that bad. I just barely talked to him because I was pissed and I expected him to just understand why I didn't want to socialise. He does seem to understand my need for a routine. He's not really the type where you talk about your problems to, he's more of coming up with ways to help manage your symptoms and write scripts.

Oh and thanks for the caps lock. I read you loud and clear. No I don't want to live with my mum for the rest of my life, even if she was a decent person. But I have limited skills and symptoms that are really impairing to me. My medication helps me function but I can't be on it constantly or even with an average dose. I don't expect you to understand what it's like having such low energy that you can barely motivate yourself to do something more than watching TV. Or some days you can be so hyper that you barely care about anything or focus on anything and you barely have any feelings for people.

This is what I call "the status quack"...there are too many incompetent shrinks out there when it comes to counseling AS. Most of them are either pill-pushers or cliche-slingers, who will "lead" you towards certain preconceived notions they have of you, depending on their speciality. Maybe I'm just cynical. But I still remember well, in the late 90s when I had a "youth psychiatrist (I was in my early 20s) throw platitudes at me and told me I just have some form of ADHD and social anxiety, and my time to find a girlfriend will come, I just have to be patient...while everyone else around me has one. Then he told me some story about a friend of his who didn't find the right one till his 40s...yeah, real encouraging, pal!

The trouble with these "youth psychiatrists" and maybe I shouldn't call it trouble, but they seem to be more focused in the more common issues of youth, such as death in the family, loss of first relationship, divorce, drugs, etc, etc...you come to them looking for a diagnosis or reason as to why you can't even form that first relationship, they're totally lost. Maybe it's improving now, but 10 years ago, it was totally hit-and-miss.

Are there services for adults where you live, pensieve? I ask because without my mom or staff, I can't leave my apartment (panic attacks, meltdowns, no words, etc). But with them... well, I can do a lot more.

Just employment places which I'm yet to hear from.

My psychiatrist is ok. Just clueless to ASD issues and sounds like a broken record.

My sensory issues are really severe these days which affects my social skills. It's kind of hard to talk to people when they are drowned out by noise.

I don't think I really have any advice to offer... just that I toooootally understand.

I totally get this part... I don't have anything else to offer either but wish you much luck with everything...

I certainly do not know how things might specifically go for you either while or as a result of seeing that particular psychologist, but here is how all of that at least should work (if everything is in order) ...


Even though you are now an adult, she still might be able (or hopefully will be able) to explain and/or to "teach" you some basic principles she presently teaches to children ... and whether or not we are already adults, we all still need knowledge of those principles.


So, be sure to be "rested up" and ready to take full advantage of each and every session!


I think the idea there is to give us different (or "non-typical for us") ways to think about, consider and analyze things, and to then adjust our interactions with others accordingly.


I have never yet completely gotten over the anxiety as to how I might actually be accepted and respected by others -- constant anxiety about performance and acceptance -- but I have become able to be less anxious during interactions with others because I now at least better-understand how they think!