Does the thought of BEHAVIORAL treatment make you twitch?

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It scares me to death. I don't know how to get over my fear of it. Or of a society that would allow such things.


Translation of behavioral treatment: you are taught how to do what you are supposed to do, how not to offend anyone around you except yourself if you have to (by keeping unhappiness inside if you are unhappy, so as not to wreck relationships or jobs or careers or education). You are taught to succeed in society at all costs, including your happiness/mental health. You are taught to get along and keep your true feelings inside. This is not psychiatric treatment, nor is it psychological. What goes on in your head, to behavioral therapists, does not matter and is impossible to find out anyhow. Your shallow surface success matters. What you do matters. What you think or feel does not matter. What's important is staying out of line, "staying in the game", "no missed opportunities" (except to be happy and well-organized INSIDE), "being a productive citizen", "living in our world" (living your life pain-free on the outside but not on the inside), "being a contributing individual" (not necessarily being a happy individual), You are taught self-censorship ("self-control"), "not offending others" (keeping your feelings inside and/or not being honest), "life rules" (you need to do this, you have to do that, you had better do this), I don't know, from what I've heard about behavioral treatment it's FRIGHTENING. It's all about society, not about you or the people in it. We are here to make sure the state survives; the state is not here to make sure we survive. Uuuugggh! They teach you how to FAKE it. Because it's the mature and responsible thing to do.


Matthew Israel actually said in one article that what's going on in the mind does not matter and cannot be found out anyway. He said it was IRRELEVANT. How can it be irrelevant? I don't understand.


I am so lucky I never received any kind of behavioral treatment.

Well said Ana,

I've never undergone anything like that either but it all reminds me of 'A Clockwork Orange'. Anthony Burgess surely saved many people from undergoing such things by waking them up to the potential horrors of behavioural treatment.

I was given Ritalin as a kid and I hated it. Didn't like that it made me different than other kids and didn't like the way it made me feel. But what I felt didn't seem to matter to anyone. So, I started to pretend I was taking them and instead I'd bury them in the school yard. The doctors eventual took me off the prescription because they thought that it had worked. But instead, I learned how to cope on my own, probably much better than if I'd allowed them to make me reliant on the Ritalin to direct my behaviour.

Learning to socially adjust via forced methods is like learning to swim without taking off the water wings.

It is scary, they just want you to integrate and be absorbed into the system at all costs.

dont you ever feel like not adjusting? God how to explain. Saying hell with it and letting your stims show, rocking in your seat instead of going slowly crazy inside. And not feel bad about it.

a frightening concept that is. that is just a blend you in method which will result in a nervous breakdown.

the pressure of trying to blend in with the nt's and the pressure caused me anerveous break down, one day i just couldnt function like that anymore, i proke like a clock in old cartoons, springs flying out of me , gears burning.

The idea annoys me... not because they just wanna change us... but because they want us to change and do a ton of things that they consider "normal"... yet, if you ask them for direct reasons as to exactly what such and such accomplishes, they cannot give you a reason.

It's like they are saying "do this because it's what I do, and if you don't do it, you are wrong".

I often wonder if I were to attempt to undergo it, would it even help at all? The main reason I don't just do things other people do is I don't see the point, I don't understand the importance, and since they cannot even answer why it is so important, I can't even begin to imagine actually doing it.

I'm not sure I could ever stop questioning things long enough and actually just DO them just for others' sake. It would defy my natural instinct to try to do what comes naturally to others... and it just seems silly to work twice as hard to do what they do, while fighting the urge to question everything, and still have absolutely no idea as to why these things must be done in a certain way...

Actually, Asperger's Management is evolving all the time.

If you find up-to-date health professionals and teachers they are very refreshing.

Our sons psychologist and new general medial practitioner have independently stated that they believe the major priorities for my 2 Aspie sons are:

- learning to manage their anxiety/emotions
- learning organisational skills
- building on their strengths and interests

They mentioned social skills, but in the context of deciphering what is happening in social situations.

Helen

Yes. I used to have behavioural therapy when I was little, and it sucked.

I find that behavioural therapy has its applications, and I do try and behave a certain way around normaller people, though I am a bit too manic and often my real stuff just bursts out anyway.

I used to think social stuff was superficial, but I have realised, actually, that is the whole idea.

I think that the only way to survive in a social world which is actually like a psychological battleground, is to be superficial around people who want that, and be more real around people who prefer that.

I now know that superficiality is a way of building defences around yourself to protect yourself from people who are too different to you to get along with.

This is why NTs do all that stuff.. it is to protect themselves, not to get closer to each other. NTs who are truly close are more real with each other, because they are not afraid.

Thats what I think, anyway.

Behavioral therapy has to be completely the choice of the person getting it. No forcing, or it ain't gonna work. Like, I wouldn't mind taking social skills stuff just for fun, and if it's insulting to my intelligence, well then more advanced ones, or whatever. If someone suggested it, even that might be okay. But ordered it? Nope. I might still do it for fun, but I would still tell the person off.


Knowmadic-- Hmm, as for Ritalin, it's a stimulation that might have helped me. Maybe there's a lot of s**t about it I don't know about but I think from what I heard that I could have done with some! I can so relate to you though for hiding it; it's scary when you're forced to take something you don't trust.


Smelena, that doesn't sound bad at all; if your sons like it it's probably good for them. Building on strengths and interests sounds good. It makes me trust it. It's helping them be themselves. It's not shallow enough for me to consider behavioral therapy like what I was thinking... hmmm...



SteelMaiden, if you ever want to tell your story, please do!

I'm glad that I've never had to go into behaviour management.

I've never heard such an oxymoron as "behavioral health". Well, it makes sense, but only in one sense. Like ,you have friends and having friends is stimulation and stimulation is healthy. But if things were done differently, you would have a lot more stimulation and be a lot mentally healthier or whatever.

Behavioral therapy? Eww… No, I’m tired of modifying my behavior just to make everyone around me comfortable.

*picks nose and wipes it on the nearest person’s sleeve.* Not that Lumina would do that, but it bring up an amusing image. Tee hee!


Anyone who hasn’t been through any type of worthwhile behavior therapy, consider yourselves lucky. I’m sure there are newer techniques that could work for some of us, but I have yet to find them. Me thinks I need to jab my therapist into checking out new methods of assimilation that require little to no effort. ‘Cuz I’m getting’ lazy and the people around me are gettin' pickier. They're sticklers for social niceties that make them feel good. "But what about me?", I bellow.

On the other hand, what’s the harm in my running yippy skippy through life without the exhaustion and isolation factor I have to deal with? As long as I’m doing no one any harm, everyone considers me to be human and lets me have my space, it's all good.

Never had it, so I wouldn't know.

The idea of someone even suggesting that I need "behavioral treatment" irks me. Maybe I do need it but it has such a condecending and even punitive overtone to it. I envision cracking them in the mouth and loosening a few of their teeth. "There, how's that for behavior.......... @$$hole!".