Taking that first step...????

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I suffer from a lot of anxiety and major social issues, among many other things, and it's beyond time to get professional help and maybe a diagnosis. I just got my new insurance card. There are over 2,000 general practitioners within a 50 mile radius of me that are covered by my plan. 800 of those doctors are within 30 miles and 200 are within 20. People tell me that good doctors are hard to find and I have to experience the trial and error myself. To just pick a doctor that's covered and if I decide they're no good, try a new one. How the heck do I pick 1 out of 2,000?? Even 1 out of 200 is absolutely overwhelming. It is so so hard for me to explain my issues and effectively communicate them with someone... Plus I can't trust a random doctor because they might steer me wrong and I have to be smart enough to spot "bad doctor advice"... How am I supposed to sift through 2,000 doctors?? I am so discouraged.

My dad uses a process of elimination.
First eliminate those outside of a certain radius.
Then eliminate those who just for whatever reason don't seem like a good candidate.
Then eliminate those who practice a particular branch of medicine.
And so on until you get a good candidate.

Yes I totally get why an abundance of choice is unsettling; its similar to sensory overload. However, you are (as an aspie) likely to be well endowed with analytical ability so I reckon you should look upon this as a challenge you most certainly can and will overcome. Who knows, you might end up becoming the master guru rating agency for autism service provider. Who knows; life has a strange way of directing us to our true calling in life.

There are over 200 licensed mental health professionals in your city?

Any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist will be good enough.

Previous posters are correct that you should narrow your search to doctors in the mental health area. You don't have to go to a GP first to get a referral.

When I was sifting through the 30 or so gynecologists in my area, I resorted to reading reviews on Yelp. I actually found a really great OB/GYN by doing so.

If it was to find a new dentist, I might ask my coworkers on the same insurance plan who they recommend. I see my coworkers ask each other this all the time. But for a counselor, I would googlesearch your location + autism psychologist or your location + autism counseling since many counselors who don't specialize in autism sometmes don't even recognize it in their patients. That's one reason a lot of people with milder autism end up with borderline and biopolar diagnoses when they shouldn't (oops).

Hello,
I apologize if this sound self-serving, but I have a website you should check. www.asd-dr.com. It is a list of autism service providers and therapists that you can search by location. People who join can also make recommendations/ comments on people they have used - or add people that are not already on the list.

I created it because we had a really hard time finding good therapists in our area and only discovered a great behavior clinic by word of mouth - I wanted to help other families impacted by autism avoid the issue of going to a doctor or therapist who had no idea how to work with autism.

I am just starting out so I don't know that there will be any recommendations for your area, but all of the doctors/ therapists listed are ones I found on autism websites.

Membership is free and there are also a lot of links to regional/national organizations that may have more information you could use.

I would also appreciate any feedback you wanted to give to help me make the site better.

Good Luck.