Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

olgalaloca
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jul 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 12

23 Jul 2011, 11:05 am

In France, in the small citys Psychiatrist are very old fashion, if you have something since childhood let it be tourette, Kanner autism AS AHDH , rett syndrome or whatever they call it "childhood psychosis " ( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychose_infantile)

( my psychiatrist thinks autistic people can not speak ) except if you are able to study normally then they say you have childhood bordeline personality.
In the first case they put you in the psychiatric system for life and give you loads of pills, in the second case they do nothing for you.

This is how I was diagnosed psychotic child as I was 6 given depakine for two years mood stabiliser until I was 8, they stopped beause my parents were against me taking meds for brain at that age and then I was diagnosis evolutive dysharmony afterwas .

Evolutive Dysharmony ( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysharmonie_%C3%A9volutive) is a bordeline condition with waht they call childhood psychosis, it is a concept that only exist in France .
The funny thing is a really had a psychotic short episode two years ago ( but just that for the moment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_psychotic_disorder ) ,
the doctor says I should wait until my studies are over to stop the meds ( in one or two years then, until then I am taking 50mg of solian, yes only fifthy wich is a small dosis ).

But I feel what makes me diferent since I am a child is not taken in account appart from" you have BPD childhood psychosis ( it changes according to the doctors I see) since you are in kinder garden and there is nothing we can do for you."

The only thing that takes AS into account is behavorial foundation called fondamental wich is almost a rigth wing psychiatric organisation but they have special centers where they seak to "hea"l autistic people ( that are they words not mine )

How can I know what I really have and get help for it without being normalise by some stupid ABA tecnic ?

anyone knows a French psychiatrist somewhere in my country that can handle all these conditions?

France as one of the best health system for stuff like cancer or diabetis or stuff like that in the world but for mental health it sucks.

thank you and sorry for my bad english



jmnixon95
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 20,931
Location: 미국

23 Jul 2011, 11:22 am

Sounds like they are at least a few decades behind places like the US and England, which is odd because it is a pretty developed country.
Unfortunately, I don't know much about their systems because I don't live there, nor have I had any real interest, but I know there are some French people on this site and I hope they can help you out.
Good luck!

(P.S. Your English is fine, I can understand. 8))



ChrisP
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 271
Location: La France profonde

23 Jul 2011, 12:24 pm

(Oops, did I reply previously in the wrong place?? Sorry.)

Hmm, thank you for posting this. I had heard that things weren't great in France, but it's depressing to hear it now first-hand. I will be moving there next month with my wife: I'm glad we have been diagnosed here in the UK, and we'll make sure we stay well out of the clutches of the psychiatric profession!

Are there any Groups/Organisations in France which are campaigning for Autism/Asperger's to be properly understood and handled? If not, it sounds like you and I need to start one!!



olgalaloca
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jul 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 12

23 Jul 2011, 4:01 pm

If you live in big citys perhaps you can find asperger association but asperger is badely knowen in france.

Otherwise they are other good things about living in France you don't have in England or in the Us, like a very good health system (except for mental health) and free and very good university system, welfare state in general (even if the government wants to destroy it ) that is you compare it to the UK welfare state. Plus cheap housing compare to UK ( except for Paris ) and cheap and good food. So things are not so hard for me.
For example I get payed to study as a disabled student ( 700 euros a month) while in UK I should work and take a loan, my flat is almost free ( 70 euros a month in social housing but I am loosing it next year because I am changing city ) and I have free health if I get sick ( in france you only pay 30 or 40 euros health insurance a month and then everything is almost free, and if you are poor or chronically sick you don't even have to pay that and every thing is totally free healthwise ) . So I don't complaing to much, plus I lived in france and spain ( where there is almost no welfare if you get sick in USA and you are poor I think you just die ) and I am used to latin culture and would not be able to live in a England or USA even if they was more help for AS over there.


In wich city are you going if this question is not indiscreet ?



liloleme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Jun 2008
Age: 57
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,762
Location: France

27 Jul 2011, 1:13 pm

I am American and my husband is French. We moved one year ago to France, we live outside Lyon. I have two younger kids (three adults still in the US) that both have Autism. My 9 year old son has Asperger's and my 6 year old daughter has classic autism but because of the early intervention in the US (they have no early intervention services in france) my daughter who was diagnosed as severe is now considered high functioning. So the center my kids go to have mainly lower/severe functioning autistics. They have no Aspies, my son is the only one and they love having him, some of the therapists have never even worked with a child with Asperger's. We pushed for services and we got what we wanted. My son will be going to the specialized school with kids who have Autism and other disorders as he is unable to read and write. They believe that he may have dyslexia and dysgraphia but his comprehension and his critical thinking are way above his age level. If they could just teach him to read he would do really well as math comes easy for him. He will have therapy at school and at the center and an aide. He did have an aide at the public school but she knew nothing about Aspergers...or autism for that matter and was not good with him. Also he was being bullied and the teacher kept denying this was happening. Im glad he is going to the other school but I worry because my Autie is going to that school next year. The only good thing is that she is taking her aide that she had at Maternelle and all the little girls who take care of her. She has one little friend who is very protective of her and takes care of her. My daughter knows very little French but she is trying. We give her a lot of credit as she did not start learning to speak until after age 3 and still has a lot of difficulty speaking and communicating. However she is very intelligent and scored very high on her IQ tests (they did them in English for her). So it really does depend on where you are in France, however I am upset by the lack of early intervention....I believe it is why many of the children remain low functioning. I was also very upset to learn that only a few years ago they were still treating autism as the parents fault and also doing some barbaric treatments such as wrapping children in cold wet blankets when they had meltdowns. I believe they are still doing this in some places. There needs to be more education in this country however I give them credit for moving forward.
I have Asperger's and I also have an auto immune disorder and I have noticed that many doctors do not understand it and do not know how to treat adults with autism. Some have been downright verbally abusive to me because I dont understand them and I have difficulty communicating. My French is bad and my husband usually translates for me but they seem to get irritated by this.