Do you trust your therapist?

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My disability claim was just denied for a second time and I'm wondering if there's a hitch in the system. My therapist lives on a cloud and thinks as long as I can move away from my mother everything will magically get better and I'll be able to work and everything. This is an implication due to the fact that I've been seeing her for a year and she still hasn't tested me for any disorders. That's why I believe this. I feel like everywhere I go people are taking me lightly. I guess it's because I'm able to look composed even though my mind feels like a deathtrap. Do you trust your therapist? Have they ever messed up your case by taking your symptoms too lightly?.

Just my opinion, I think therapists are a waste of time and money. I have seen various counseling support and all they do is irritate me even more. It's like they don't get aspergers!

Yes, as long as they do their jobs properly.

Well, I trust mine. But I saw him for the first time as a guest lecturer in a psychology class at college, and among the different schools of thought I liked his (humanism, pioneered by Carl Rogers) the best.

I feel like this. Everything normal I needed help with she was awesome. Bringing up Aspergers was another matter entirely. She told me she doesn't think I have it because so many people are being diagnosed with it now. What kind of reason is that?! I've had the same symptoms for the past 16 yrs. I don't care what the trend is. It's the most practical diagnosis I've ever received from a Doctor.

After nearly five years they are beginning to suspect I have Asperger's.

During those five years I have been diagnosed with several mental illnesses and treated for them, all of it being a waste of time. Hence where I am now.

As for trusting people and feeling they are not taking you seriously? you just summed me up in one sentence.

I am currently being harassed by the DWP who think (after never having met me and ignoring my doctor and psychiatrist) who seem to think that without meeting me they have found me eligible for a work related group.

Even though I never leave the house ever unless I am with a few family members and can blend in.

But, I am taking it all terribly personally. Terribly personally indeed. And I too feel like nothing is being done and I don't feel satisfied with it.

It's a frightening condition to have.

Decades ago I was constantly being taken to one psych doc or therapist after another, for most of my childhood and teen years. They didn't do a thing for me, and I never trusted them. They were just there to take money for trying to find fault with me, and then to "fix" me. What's wrong with me can't be fixed, just dealt with by coping methods I had to find for myself over many decades. Once I was legally an adult I didn't have to go to these frauds, until several years ago, when I went for about a year, just so I could qualify for Medicaid on a depression diagnosis. I have other more serious health issues that the state didn't think were serious enough to qualify me, but they would qualify me for depression, so I had to go to yet another fraud therapist who treated me as an insect she had to deal with to get paid. She always had this fake "concerned" tone of voice that wouldn't fool anyone. Fortunately, by the time she said I didn't need to come see her any more, I had used my Medicaid coverage to get treatment of and a medical paper trail of my other health problems, so I was able to qualify for SSI at my first appeal hearing. I was told by state workers that the feds usually deny applications initially, so almost everyone has to appeal.

The first thing you need to do is get a different psych doc--one with experience in Autism disorders.

The next thing you need to do is get an attorney to file another appeal. You can appeal multiple times, buy you really need an attorney to help you navigate the system. If you can't afford one, go to Legal Aid, and get one of their attorneys to take your case. If you lose you pay nothing, and if you win, they get a cut of the back pay on your benefits.

Another thing you need to do is keep a log of all your doctor visits to any docs of any kind. That way the attorney will know who to contact for your medical records. You will need those for your appeal.

I know what I am talking about here. I had no money, and the state assistance people told me about going to Legal Aid if I couldn't afford a regular attorney for my SS appeal, so I did that. I had several conferences with my attorney. She asked about my health conditions and my doctors. While waiting for my appeal (about 18 months) I made sure to see docs for my all of my health problems. This created a medical paper trail that I was able to bring into the hearing. I had enough proof there to win my SS hearing, so now I am getting the federal assistance, which is higher than the state assistance. The state assistance wasn't enough to pay all my bills, so I was paying half rent per month until I was on Social Security. I rent a trailer from my parents, who knew I didn't have enough money at the time, so they gave me a price break. They are still giving me somewhat of a price break, as they are charging me the low end of the market rate for the trailer.

Don't forget, you can appeal multiple times, but you need that attorney, and medical records to make your case. You also need a new psych doc. Good luck.

I've found it really is worth the extra effort to find someone who has specifically studied the autistic spectrum. The person I am seeing did a certification program in autism spectrum disorders and she's quite good.

After seeing several psychologists who blew smoke up my ass every chance they got, I was lucky enough to get one who was honest about everything. He admitted that the system is f**ked. He said that he's seen people get turned down for disability again and again when it was clear that they needed it very badly, and he's seen people get approved on the first try when it was clear that there was nothing wrong with them and they just wanted a handout. The people who approve SSI benefits may as well be throwing darts at a board blindfolded. It's devastating to hear something like that, but also refreshing to encounter someone who's supposed to give you the BS political answer to everything but refuses to do so. It's too bad I moved and had to stop seeing him.

I never trusted my therapists and seeing them being forced on me didn't make things any better.

Even now I wouldn't trust them since I would feel that anything I say to them can and will be misinterpreted or used against me.

What sort of therapist is this?

Jason

I trust the therapist I've got now more than I can trust anyone else. He goes at my pace, explains things and is helping me so much. He diagnosed me with Aspergers, and is a psychiatrist who is also trained as a therapist. He's great. Even though the sessions are very hard for me, I look forward to them.

However, this is the first and only therapist I have felt this way about. Previous to him my therapist was horrible. She didn't understand me, didn't try to understand me and I found it very hard to talk to her about things I knew I needed to talk about. I hated going to sessions. I was never doing stuff fast enough or well enough.

Before her, at university, I tired counselling - with didn't work at all because I needed answers and not everything I said repeated back to me!

My therapist is specialized in autism and it feels good being with her. She doesn't want to make me into someone I am not. We even share a special interest!

I trust my current psychiatrist to do what she thinks is best; but we have some differences of opinion regarding what that is. The good thing about it is that she still believes that I should make my own decisions about my own case, and will listen to what I want even if she thinks it's not optimal. So I guess we have a good working relationship, even though we don't match up very well. She's a psychiatrist and mostly dispenses meds, anyway; so that's not a huge deal.

I'm in a group for people with disabilities; I pretty much trust the group leaders, though I'm somewhat annoyed by one of them sometimes--she has a real attachment to being polite and seems to worry a lot about offending us, and I wish she'd understand that she really can't offend us nearly as easily as she thinks, and anyway, that there's nothing for us to be offended about--we're disabled, that's all; disability is a normal part of human experience, not something to walk on eggshells about. But she's a trainee, still--that's why we have two group leaders--and I expect she'll learn.

I have recently been on the search for something or someone near me that could help me with my autistic problems.... where oh where can they be??

Zip, nada, zilch

Over the many years that I have sought help from others, often times these involvements have been just plain harmful for me, mostly just plain useless.

At least 2 therapists have been abusive, and many inadequate.... even most GP's have been woefully inadequate by my high aspie standards.

My guess is this:
if all the hours I spent with quacks, and thinking about quacks, was spent improving my fitness, improving my diet, improving my mind, improving my nerves (meditation, herbs etc)......

I doubt I would need a quack, because I would be healthy and happy.

go figure, go do it yourself, sometimes (most times??????) those idiots will just bring you down and take your money, they are corrupted for cash like most of the medical system being a profit focused discipline

Most therapists are on power trips. They enjoy causing young or vulnrable people pain in the name of doing them a huge favor. My family therapist is like this. And yes, he's "familiar with Autism/Asperger's." The only good therapist I've ever had who isn't like this is a phone counselor I work with. And he was actually reluctant to work with me at first because he didn't specialize in Autism/Asperger's. Maybe he works well with me because he's not trained to cause people with Asperger's pain in the name of doing us a huge favor!