Letter from my therapist

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My therapist told me verbally that I have 2 diagnoses of Dysthymia and General anxiety disorder in addition to the Asperger's syndrome that I was diagnosed with as a child. I have been asking her to give me a letter stating my diagnoses for my records for over 2 months. Yesterday she had promised to give me the letter, but she forgot and told me she would screen shot me a copy today I'd I reminded her via text. When she sent me the letter, it didn't say anything about dysthymia or general anxiety disorder. It only showed the psychological codes for phobia anxiety and autism. I asked her why it didn't say my diagnoses and she said that those are under those codes. When I looked up the Autism code it says specifically that type 1 does not include Asperger's syndrome. Also, the anxiety code is not general anxiety disorder. It only covers certain phobias and fear of choking. I do hae phobias, but I'm also anxious about other things too which I've told him. Neither of the codes include anything about Dysthymia. Dysthymia has it's own code. Also, the letter has some minor typos and doesn't go into any detail (It's only like 1/3 of a page). In addition, I tried raising the point to her that to the average person, those codes don't mean anything because most people don't know what the codes mean. When I first saw the letter, F40.298 and F84.0 didn't mean anything to me.

This bothers me a little bit because I have been telling people about my dysthymia and general anxiety disorder when asked or appropriate. Now it leaves me wondering if I even really have them. I was hoping that in the 2 months she had, my therapist wound have written a nice, formal, professional letter stating my diagnoses and how they affect me mentally sometimes. Her excuse this time was that her mother was injured and had to go to the ER last week. I feel bad about that, but at the same time, she has a new excuse seemingly every week for something. Any insight on this matter would be appreciated.

I can't speak to most of your questions.

The one I can: my understanding is that Aspergers is Autism Level 1. Aspergers is no longer formally used, but it was used for so long it's still widely used informally.

I think asking for naming the conditions is reasonable and very useful - not just the diagnostic code.

She just told me today via text that I was reading the old DSM guidelines, but the site I read says 2023 codes. As for the names, I just think that the average person who reads the letter for proof won't know what the codes mean. It's just confusing.

those codes are for billing purposes, not for general information for individuals receiving services.
The diagnostic codes cover a lot of different problems from physical to psychiatric and all other kinds of medical care.
The doctor may have access to certain notes and records that other doctors have made, that are not available to you. "medical speak" codes and terms are used differently than we in the general public use them and may have other meanings. I think you can trust her when she is telling you that you have had dysthymia mentioned before in your records! understanding your dysthymia is good, finding the actual source of the mention of the diagnosis is not as important as learning to understand yourself and finding the best way to live a healthy life. Cheering you on from the sidelines.

[quote="autisticelders"]
The doctor may have access to certain notes and records that other doctors have made, that are not available to you. "medical speak" codes and terms are used differently than we in the general public use them and may have other meanings. I think you can trust her when she is telling you that you have had dysthymia mentioned before in your records!/quote]

That's not true, as a patient, you can receive all medical records that pertain to you. this includes summaries written by everyone providing treatment as well as chart notes. If dysthymia was merely mentioned as a possibility, it was probably not charted and not formally diagnosed. that's why its a good Idea to formally request a copy of the available records in writing.

[quote="DanielW"/quote]

That's not true, as a patient, you can receive all medical records that pertain to you. this includes summaries written by everyone providing treatment as well as chart notes. If dysthymia was merely mentioned as a possibility, it was probably not charted and not formally diagnosed. that's why its a good Idea to formally request a copy of the available records in writing.[/quote]

That's exactly what I want. She verbally said several times that I have both general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder (dysthymia). I am going to talk to her on Saturday about this and say that I'm really confused and while do get the overall point is to focus on ways to heal myself and not the diagnoses themselves, I want to understand myself and what exactly I have that makes me have weird feelings and thoughts sometimes. I'm just bummed because it's going to eat up more therapy time which is short enough as it is (45 minutes once a week if that). She was supposed to work on this on her own time for me outside of our sacred time and I thought she had it covered. Now I have to take time on Saturday to explain what exactly I was hoping the letter would say about me and debate whether or not I really have depression and general anxiety or just phobic anxiety. I'm starting to think that I should get a new therapist.