How can I prepare for a psychologist consultation?

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I have my first appointment with a government health care psychologist in 2 days.

Can anyone offer me some good advice to help both the pschologist and myself streamline the analysis, diagnosis and therapy? Is there anything I should be writing down in preparation to present to her? Should I print out results from ASD related tests available online? Do I try to stay in control of my mind and emotions or just let every thought and feeling present itself?

Apparently ASDs are one of her specialities. I really need her to hear me and consider my symptoms with an open mind. It disappoints me when assumtions are made too soon and the full spectrum of symptoms are not taken into account and measured against all possibilities.

I'm not sure I'm taken seriously by the professionals who have my life in their hands. I am beyond being able to effectively help myself, these people have control of the future of my mental health.

I'm scared.

I have spoken to the health hotline and staff but their questions seem to be steering me in the wrong direction, like they're trying to put me in a paranoia/anxiety box. They didn't listen to me. I had 2 staff members visit my home after I went to hospital, one kept looking at his watch and the other took a mobile phone call while talking to me. I felt like a piece of poo.

I have seen therapists and psychologists before and they have not helped or understood me. One even told me I was wasting her time when I was struggling with my sexuality.

I know this could be a very rough and painful road but can you please help me make it easier.

Printing out the tests might be helpful, if the psych is willing to view them, as well as anything you might want to note from personal observation. I don't know what to tell you on the control vs. spontaneity aspect. I opted for spontaneity as I personally felt she (my psych) would have a better opportunity to "see my mind in action".



Understood. Hopefully her 'expertise' will be beneficial.



I had to go to 3 psychs to get what I needed. The first emphasized my anxiety and depression, and only mentioned AS in passing. The second wanted to do CBT for depression ("I get it, I'm depressive, already!"). It didn't work because it was not situational, but hormonal (and has been dealt with accordingly).

Prior to my first visit with the third, I jotted down a rant about the evasiveness of the other two, and asked for bluntness. She read it, and has been extremely frank and clear, which is excellent. AND she acknowledged the AS directly. I'm now consulting her for SFBT, which is a short-term, concentrated therapy for vocational focus.

I don't know if you can glean anything from my experience that helps, but I hope you can. It's quite a relief to finally know one way or the other.

I have a theory that it's an advantage for a female to consult a female psych (my first two were male), as it might be easier for them to identify that 'difference' in our thinking as compared to NT females.

Good luck!

Thank you

I am going to see one tomorrow and would like an opinion on the letter i sent below.. But first i will address the issue.

I would suggest that you go through you life history in your head and try to look at what emotions you felt during those fazes. It will be very hard to do that and at the same time make sure you are making reference to things that may imply ASD along with other tasks all on the spot.
I would also not go through your history in point form. What they may be looking for is not only your traits but also to what extent you have them. This may require the use of emotions or a proper use of giving information without over or under exaggerating. Which for me is hard as I tend to under exaggerate.

Going unprepared will put you in a position that you may feel you were not properly understood and will come out second guessing your self and them, which will bring you back to where you started minus a couple of bucks.

This is to be avoided at all cost! it is the most depressing thing and also a wast of money, it is better to get up and leave if you feel you are not being understood.

My first appointment i was unprepared for and i wanted to go through the process fast, only went to see them twice, the first time i just answered questions, not going off topic in short answers. She was not asking the right questions so i didn't go off topic as i felt that i would follow her lead.
needless to say half the symptoms werent even brought up myself.

The next meeting I had written down everything all my symptoms related to aspergers or not. I read it to her and jsut going through the list was time consuming enough that we practically ran out of time.

now i will start off by sending this to her by email. Just knowing she has it is fine, in the email i have an introduction and conclusion that basiclly say that i know this makes me look like im making excuses but .......

So let me know what you guys think

I am very nervous about this meeting because I have great difficulty talking about my symptoms and often appear to be fine. The reason for this is the following:

1. Dyscaluclia and other possible learning disabilities.---

Prevents me from remembering numbers. This limits my capacity to, like other Aspies, focus on numbers. This may be taken as someone that doesn't show a high degree of interest in technical fields like computer programing (which i did dabble in) and such things. It also limits my capability to put a time line on events in my life. Usually I try to relate time to what teacher I had. Events from home life can't be dated.

2. Bad Memory

An incapability to remember past events that show signs of Aspergers. And a problem with retaining information in special interests as an adult.

3. Lack of Emotion.

This limits my knowledge of how certain event made me feel. I have learnt that this is one of the key things that people need to hear in order to understand (I need more time to think of what emotion was felt at a given time)

4. A Poor Childhood.

This limits my interaction with toys, books and computers. In my youth, there was no exposure to any special interest. The connection of knowledge coming from books was not made.

5. Problems reading

Now that I have access to a PC and books I do a lot of reading. But, as a child, I was very weak in my reading skills and found it very hard to read. In high school I began to be exposed to fiction in which I had very little interest. So, like mentioned above, I had no source of learning interesting topics as a youth but always wanted to. Reading only became enjoyable once I got my computer and internet as an adult.

6. Guilt.

This happens a lot when someone is accusing me of something I didn't do or i feel like I'm being evaluated. The fact that I have to go beyond my explication and have to incorporate emotion to become convincing some how makes me feel fake and also comes across as fake. This fake feeling is seen as a lie, and I know it is. This in turn makes me laugh. I have this problem often with doctors and while people are trying to judge me based on my emotions.


7. Not knowing I had Asperger's

This, and alot of luck, put me in more "social" situations as I grew then probably most people with asperger's. I also learnt a lot of social tricks like.
Eye contact,
What is inappropriate behavior and how to be polite.
Not to talk too much
To be around people I don't have to talk to in order to protect my self from being bullied.

These things helped me out a lot making life easier. But, also taught me not to speak my mind and just to try my best to conform or face the consequences of being alone. A problem I had over-exaggerated in my head.

When looked at more carefully, it may be seen that some of these tricks are used incorrectly. Such as my smiling, which is over used to make up for my lack of laughing. Or showing signs of being needy to be friendly.

8. My Love of business

As a youth I visited a business uncle and fell in love with the idea. It was the second time I had been exposed to something I could put my focus to. Since it did translate to profit for me I kept on that interest for a long period of time. Every aspect of my life was now looked at from a business prospective. Also, I had a partner that was an old roomate who I learnt an abundance of social tricks from. He also pointed out things to me that I adjusted. One of my special interests were to improve myself and I took it very seriously. Some people with aspergers may have difficultly judging how much they should talk about special interests or how to behave in a profesional atmosphere. But I feel I have learnt this and find that it actually comes naturally to me. Its only the superficial conversation I just cant fix.

9. Having to Move out at a young age.

I went through A LOT of roommates, which took my focus off special interests. I love being around people but cant focus when someone is in the house. Most the people in my life were in a situation where they were forced to be around me, such as a roommate. These people learnt how to deal with me as they had no choice and I learnt how to deal with them. Through this they also guided me directly or indirectly on how to behave in social situation.


Also it may be wise to bring up certain facts that you may feel will play against you in this social situation.

Hi, not sure if I can help you or not.

My 21 year old son just went threw the diagnoses process, (he's an aspie)
I wrote down every thing I could recall, all the milestones, all the quirks emotional trauma, everything. I didn't label anything because I didn't want to sway or off side the doc at all.
We were also asked to bring in past school reports and any other evaluations he may have had.
Eg,

walked unaided by 13 months but walked on his toes until 3-4 years- I personally tried to train the toe walking out of him, so from toe walking to stomping.

By age 3-4 could recite entire episodes of "land before time"

Would demand the same videos be played again and again from ads to credit, would scream if we tried to fast forward.

Would scream, kick, bite, punch at having to go to school (every day) Would spend the whole day at school crying. Would cry and scream so much about school would have an asthma attack then throw up.

Had a phobia about flies going near him and would cry and scream if he had a hair on his hands.

Only ever had one friend, very rarely see's this kid now.


These are just a few things that I wrote down for him, I think I ended up with about 3 pages. We also included a copy of an on line quiz and the results.

Gather up as much info as you can before you get there if you can, you may not recall everything once your at your appointment.

Good luck

Would'nt this seem as trying to fake it, for example if i took your list and read it to my psych he would either assume i had it or i was just copying symptoms of the net and unable to remember them?

do you think the list i sent was not a good idea and my have offended her ?

I did the list for my son, the list is based on what I recall of him as a baby up until now. It would be difficult for the person being diagnosed to be able to recall from birth up in detail.

My only real concern with your letter (meemoi) would be that you might be seen to be pushing and trying to justify fitting an aspie profile. I did it the way I did because I just wanted the psych to get the facts. They all want to know about walking, talking and all the other mile stones and this is what I gave them. I also told them about my sons special interests and what he does in his spare time. I hadn't even twigged that all of his interests/hobbies are/were solitary. I didn't read the list out, I left it with the doc, he actually has thanked me several times for it. Yes I was scared that the doc would think that I was trying to back him into a corner with his dx of my son. At the same time though I knew my son wouldn't be able to give a clear picture of what he was like as a child.

Do you have family that can write out what they recall of your childhood? This I think would help.

thanks your right i should write history down too, and bring it with me if needed I can pull it out

Good luck.

When you write it try to just give facts. If you give your own personal perspective state that this is how you felt, or this is what you thought at the time.

eg, I never did well in maths at school I could feel myself zoning out and or becoming anxious (if you have a school report, bring these to)- I found the numbers confusing and couldn't make sense of it all, I couldn't relate it to anything to do with me, I've since gotten a little better or I've now learnt how to use a calculator to add up my bills. Or consequently I am now in huge financial debt.

eg, memory difficulties, I get really frustrated etc because I can't seam to recall past events that others feel I should be able to recall.

these are just some examples of things that I have pulled out of your letter, I could be way off track, but I've tried really hard not to box the reader into a aspie dx. Facts from your letter have been stated and possible feelings only.

I suggest you write down what you want to say, so that you can stay on track and not get lost in the communication maze. Explain that this is what you are doing, because you know their time is valuable and you want to be sure you get everything covered.

Thanks so much you guys are very helpful very appreictaed

At the end, ask if you can email them anything you can think of afterwards.