Psychologists can be humble too

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I had an appointment with my psychologist today. She wanted to know how my psychiatric treatment was going. She had diagnosed me with schizoid personality disorder since we first met. However, after a while she found out that I knew about psychological disorders. She asked me how I would diagnose myself, and I said Asperger Syndrome. Amazingly, as soon as I told her and explained why, she wrote that as the new, final diagnosis. Officially and stuff. Perhaps she had come to the same conclusion, or perhaps she was actually trusting my diagnosis!

After that, she asked me to diagnose my family. I said my mom could have Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and she wrote it down too, as if it was her own professional opinion! It was really surprising. Despite not being a psychologist, my diagnosis was being taken as official. How cool is that?

Once we were done with the session, our last one, we had a nice talk about philosophy and Abraham Maslow. It was great to be talking to a professional as if I were her colleague instead of her patient. I do know a lot about psychology, but I still don't know as much as professionals should, so it was very flattering. She said I could count on her anytime I needed it, and we parted ways.

Has anyone else gone through similar experiences?

Not even close to my experiences with mental health.I'm glad you found someone you like,she sounds amazing.


I did have one psych tell me that he had to give me a DX for me to receive the funding for the therepy I needed.He said that although I had some "historical" traits similiar to BPD,that it didnt explain my psychology very well for varies reasons(this was before AS,1990).He said that I would get the label of BPD for the money(so I could stay in treatment llonger)but that it wasnt accurate.I thought that was pretty compassionate and honest.

hmm well it certainly not like any of my experiences.

I think most mothers are narcisssists, there's something in motherhood that fosters it, either that or narcissists are more likely to breed (more of me, more of me to lerv kind of thing).

keep us posted

I've had no problems with professionals. :/ They've helped me immensely; I wouldn’t be able to type these words without their assistance.

I told my psychic I was autistic, he agreed (after going through the DSM-IV-TR with me); I told a professor that I had OCD, he agreed with me too. I've seen like twelve zillion and they all were helpful enough; the psychos and their treatment differed the most from one another, but I could still see the logic behind their stances (whether it was helpful to me or not); to be fair to them, none of them knew I was autistic at the time.

I think it's great that she listened seriously to your self-diagnosis and agreed with you. However, I think it was wrong of her to write down the NPD diagnosis for your mother- whom she hasn't even met! I can see her writing something like "X feels that mother may have diagnosis of NPD" but I hope she didn't write down "X's mother has NPD." Imagine if your mom had been to see her, and had told the psychologist that *you* had NPD, and the psychologist just accepted it without ever talking with you. That sounds really unethical.

Most psychologists and psychiatrists are caring intelligent people. Because this area of science is not black and white I suspect that they are always willing to accept a second opinion, how many times have you heard 'what do you think doctor' in the movies?

Twenty five years ago I had a nervous breakdown and things were so bad that I was confined to a secure mental unit for the first ninety days. Once the fog caused by the drugs they gave me had worn away they realized that I had a good head on my shoulders and that I could use my brains to get better. By the end of my treatment I had been allowed full access to the medical library at the hospital and I was assisting other patients in their recovery.

Ed Almos

Thank you for taking the time to post your experience, and congratulations....it must feel great to have your feelings and thoughts validated.

You have instilled a bit of hope:0).

tyger