they rejected my request (i knew it would happen)

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so i just got back from my psychologist , i have took with me a letter i wrote bc am bad at verbal communicating.
in that letter i wrote down my problems i have at living my life and i also had written down for a request to test for "autism" .

there were two of them , i began to sweat a lot while they were reading it . it was silent too i hate that felt like it took forever.
but when they finished it they began to talk and i tried my best to answer all questions.
so they said we don't think it's autism even if it is close to each other, so they are gonna put me on "cognitive behavioral therapy"

she did say , we will tell the instructor to keep an eye on me to see if this therapy really works or if there are signs of autism.

but it will start over 3 months.



so a question to you all..

anybody had this type of therapy before they got autism ? (meaning they seen it afterwards, or they missed it during the interview )

I've had CBT . . . they try to make you more aware of your reactions to things, so that you can gain mental control and reduce your symptoms. It's useful to a certain extent, but it doesn't really alter the problem, it's more learning to cope with it.
If you think you have autism, which I guess you do, you should seek out a psychiatrist (not a psychologist - there's a big difference.) Preferably one who specializes in ASD.

CBT is BS, you'd achieve much more with psychoanalysis.

Are you in the UK? Waiting time that long is hardly surprising over here.

Ask to be referred on to someone that is qualified in assessing for ASCs. Regardless of having CBT, that won't change your diagnosis, and you should not have to wait. You don't say what country you are in so I don't know the laws about what they have to do, or if this is a private psychologist or state.

@Ann2011: I agree that there is a big difference between psychologists and psychiatrists but in my experience psychologists are far preferable. It was psychiatrists who failed to diagnose me and a very thorough and experienced psychologist who got it right (and did a far superior assessment on me).

Last edited by whirlingmind on 04 Jun 2013, 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Haven't tried CBT but have been on a waiting list for it since forever. There's a tonne of evidence that CBT actually works and is useful (unlike a lot of other hokey-pokey in that field).

Yeah, I have a prejudice there. I had the opposite path - seeing lots of psychologists who missed it. But I've seen some pretty quacky psychiatrists too. I guess it comes down to finding someone who is actually good at what they do; which is sometimes quite hard. My other reason for my prejudice is that psychs can prescribe medication, psychologists can't. And medication has helped me a lot.

My main problem with CBT (I think that's what I had- I hardly even understood what therapy was at the time) was that I didn't think I had emotions and definitely had no idea to identify them if I did, so I didn't get a massive amount out of it. I was told I was "overly logical" and "intellectualised everything" which also didn't help. I also had very black-and-white thinking and fixed ideas, which eventually led to being assessed for ASD. I still have the problems I was having therapy for though.

My autism was noticed during the CBT sessions I was having for anxiety/depression. The therapist was initially trying to convince me that I had great social skills and it was only anxiety that was stopping me from using them, but she gradually realised that actually I didn't have great social skills so the therapy wasn't really working. I was referred for my ASD diagnosis by my CBT therapist.

That was similar to my experience, except the psychologist who I was seeing for therapy happened to be qualified in ASD (weird coincidence!) so did the assessment. I don't have a formal diagnosis though because I didn't want to have to involve my parents.

Uhm... whut? Seriously? You have to give me your reasoning for that, because as far as I know, as a psychology student, psychoanalysis is not particularly useful to begin with, and CBT usually achieves decent results.

(If you've had bad experiences with a therapist using CBT, then that would explain why you think so little of it--I would propose that the trouble was with the therapist, since even the best therapeutic approach is useless in the hands of someone who doesn't care, can't communicate with you, or is so bound by prejudices and stereotypes that he can't see you as an actual person.)

Now, granted, any therapy has a chance of failing; but CBT is a pretty common-sense approach. The idea is to learn how you think and what ideas are driving your behavior, and then to correct those to be more realistic. For example, if you had CBT for depression, you might be taught to become more aware of the way you "edit" your thoughts so that you ignore the good things in your life and focus on the bad possibilities. Someone with depression might, when facing a test, say, "I'm probably going to fail; I'm stupid, and I'll flunk out of school." CBT would make you aware of that, and the nonsense of it: That it is likely you will not fail; that if you do fail, that is not sufficient evidence to call yourself stupid; and that if you fail, that is not a guarantee that you'll flunk out of school. Then instead of feeling helpless, you would learn how to plan your reactions to those events, either good or bad. For an autistic person it can help to actually plan out how you might deal with a feared event, for example: "If I fail this test, I'll go to the professor and try to find out how to study so I can catch up. Or I'll go to the tutoring center and find a tutor." That way, you don't ignore the possibility that bad things can happen--but you teach yourself that you can deal with them.

If you do something that isn't good for you--CBT has been successful with people who have addictions or anger management issues, among many other bad habits--then CBT would be used to teach you why you do those unhealthy things, and then to find alternative behaviors you can replace them with. So, someone who drinks when he's discouraged might be taught to talk to a friend, or go for a jog, or read a book to take his mind off things. Replace one unhealthy behavior with a healthy substitute--find out why you do the thing that's hurting you and find another way to deal with it that doesn't hurt you.

The nice thing about CBT is that it takes into account your own mental life. It's not like simple behaviorism, where mental life is ignored and you just try to change behaviors directly--a bad approach, I think, for anything but the most simple problems. Rather, you take into account your motivations and thoughts and what you say to yourself about things. And unlike behaviorism, you're doing the changing to yourself rather than having it imposed on you from outside.

Done properly, CBT can be quite useful, but it does require a good deal of work on your part, and sometimes requires that you tell the therapist that you want to focus on useful, everyday problem-solving instead of sitting and talking about nothing particularly useful. As an autistic person I often go off on lectures about special interests and have to be re-directed off those.

A lot depends on the therapist, and how well you communicate and work together. In CBT, the therapist is sort of a coach--they'll direct your efforts, but you've got to do the actual work. A good therapist will listen to you about what your goals are, what you value, what you want to get out of the therapy.

Last edited by Callista on 04 Jun 2013, 2:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.

just give it a try. at least they are trying to do something for you. CBT does sound like it could be stressful for someone with an ASD, so maybe don't do it if you have any stress disorders with physical symptoms like I have. And just because they say it's CBT doesn't mean you can't make them tailor it to your needs. If you don't understand something, or there is something you do that you never notice but that other people do notice, then be forthcoming about it. Be an open book and ask a lot of questions.

I had CBT before my autism diagnosis and found it to be useless. I basically answered “I don’t know” to every question because they didn’t ask them in a way that I could respond to. Plus I have alexithymia. Nobody picked up on either of these things and the fact that I was trying really hard. From their point of view I just wasn’t engaging. I’ve since realised that I really struggle with abstract and/or open questions due to having Asperger Syndrome. I think CBT would be more useful to me now, post-diagnosis, because I’d be able to explain better to the therapist how they need to communicate with me and why that might be different to how they normally work. I think it is important that the therapist can adapt their communication style for those of us who are unable to adapt our own to other people’s, if that makes sense.

That's true. i don't think what I had was pure 'CBT' because I wasn't responding well to it, and she changed approach quite a few times.

I agree with you except for this:

I was treated for depression with CBT and it was actually harmful. CBT has no effect on depression (depression is a chemical imbalance, not a bad attitude.) I was made to feel that I wasn't trying hard enough. You can tell yourself you're great and successful over and over, but it won't change the fact that you feel like you're dying inside.

Years ago I was sent for CBT . I tied my best to explain to them that my mane problem was my inability to deal with people . All they seemed interested in was getting me in to social situations. No matter how many times I told them that for years I had pushed myself in to every social situation I could (even though I could not really cope with it ) and they would leave me feeling more and more drained until I just broke . All they would do is go on and on about me needing to push myself more . The guy would just get annoyed at me and accuse me of not trying . The experience left me feeling a lot worse and even more of a failure than usual .