Post-diagnosis, my therapy has been cancelled....

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I think I heard about that I think they must think if your ask for help about being suicidal it can't be that bad and your not going to attempt it. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to ask for help when your suicidal and it might be the only time you ask. If you have no support ( family etc ) your screwed. Last time I felt suicidal I threatened doctors that if they didn't help me I would hang myself from the hospital building with a sign saying how I was failed. Needless to say they gave me new meds and sent me packing ( If my GF hadn't been with me , I would of gone straight to the roof.

I always thought it was kind of a strange concept - wanting to kill yourself and asking for help. Totally valid, just strange you know, how the mind can work against itself like that. From what I've seen of crises like this, the hospital just kind of hopes you have at least one person who cares about you (or feels obligated to care), so that they can fob you off onto them. This was certainly the case with my brother; they just wanted me to take him off their hands, when really he needed professional help... Actually at the time the doctor assumed we were twins, so in effect he thought it was OK to let a '17' year old handle a sibling in the midst of self-harm/delirium rather than a medical professional. Needless to say it wasn't. Your case sounds similar, I'm glad your girlfriend was there for you, but it would have been nice for the doctors to have been too !

Yeah , she's the reason I'm still here.
I'm scared to ask about your brother.

He's alive and... not well exactly, but better than he was then. He was always the social, sporty and outgoing one, but since that breakdown he's become a recluse. He hasn't left the house for 2 years . He just started studying though and that seems to be rebuilding his sense of purpose and confidence. Very frustrating to think that this could have been prevented, on multiple occasions, if anybody with professional obligations had actually bothered. I'm doing my best but as someone on the spectrum myself it's a tall order sometimes lol

Phew! I felt really awkward mentioning him but had to ask ( sort of ). When ever I hear stories similar to yours it always reminds me of the saying - A woman is like a teabag , you'll never know how strong she is till you drop her into hot water .

A few months after my diagnosis with autism, my therapy for anxiety and depression was cancelled.

OK, not so much cancelled as discontinued: the psyhotherapy service of our local National Health Service trust went through one of the hostile reorganisations we get these days. My therapist was re-allocated, and all patients were discharged, requiring a re-referal to get a new therapist.


My doctor seem very reluctant to re-refer me. I'm trying to understand why. Maybe he thinks that since autism is the "real" problem, the anxiety and depression WEREN'T real problems. Maybe he thinks it's not cost-effective since now he knows I'll never be discharged as "cured". (True, a hefty proportion of "regular" anxiety and depression patients are never permenantly cured, but the profession is still carefully ignoring that fact.)

Thing is, this therapist was very, very good for me. He gave me the help I needed to start living something approaching a normal life, and his ongoing advice stopped me from sliding back when things got tough this time last year. Since my final appointment, I've gone into freefall. I'm having a difficult time generally, and I'm adjusting poorly to my autism diagnosis. Many aspects of my life are starting to slide out of control. I do have some ability to help myself, but not enough. I feel like I've been dropped at the worst possible moment.

Has anyone else here had this problem? What arguements are there to overcome this attitude in my doctor?