How To Approach a Counselor about a Botched Evaluation?

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So I finally got my report from an eval. that verified my autism back last week, which was to be distributed to other specialists as needed (possibly, without my say however). Safe to say at least that it has to be one of the most misleading and possibly offensive things I have ever seen communicated about me in the psychologic practice.

As a couple of first pointers. I am on the spectrum, but I also live with chronic neurologic health problems as of 2016, am on a benzo which is doing damage to my nervous system that I can't get off of, and live with a number of physical disabilities or restrictions to prevent my health problems from getting worse. As a result of these struggles I have been living with chronic depression as well. I have severe trust issues as people have repeatedly given me the bad hand when it comes to getting help or support for any of the above problems.

Yet, it seems that this summary was completely ignored and here is how my evaluation went down:

1. My counselor put into writing a lot of false inferences about why I behave in certain ways. She blamed some of my bodily gestures or expression on stereotypes of autism rather than my physical disabilities and avoidance of migraine triggers.

2. There was a ton of personal exchange manipulated to support a paranoid diagnosis. In doing so my counselor basically misconstrued my past life and medical history, said that my worries about what is a damaging health condition was a marker of insanity, and that my complaining of losing my hearing was irrational/delusional compared to the neurotypical standards.

3. My counselor deliberately left out a lot of other personal information that would have explained that what I'm really going through psychologically is SPD and sensory meltdowns/dissociation, as a result of organic hearing loss. That is the /real/ cause of my severe depression and many of my psychiatric struggles, yet she was once again trying to market this whole situation as anxiety/paranoia/psychosis.

4. A lot of other information regarding autistic traits was omitted or never asked from me, when it was needed for a proper evaluation (i,e motor functioning, sensory integration functioning, other neurologically based aspects). This could have provided invaluable information to neurologists and psychiatrists regarding how my nervous system is functioning and why it is going in a bad way now, which is what I wanted the most.

5. Eventually tried to diagnose me with bipolar and borderline personality disorder. Keep in mind that I have /never/ had a manic episode or any history that would suggest such. I have absolutely no history of BPD in my life as well; I'm simply furious over not getting help for my current health situation and deteriorating in the face of widespread apathy from my community.

6. Said that I was deliberately avoiding the more important things in life (i.e., I need to follow the neurotypical 10 commandments and get a job) because of my preoccupation with my chronic illness and hearing loss. Seems to deliberately disrespect the fact that I cannot do so because of physical disabilities and because of my autism meltdowns, which at this point are inevitably triggered by putting myself through a lot of stress. Those classify as disability by the government if I am not mistaken.

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So this all being said, I am deeply offended, both as an autistic person but also as a human being. This report did nothing short of damn every aspect of my life, desires, and hopes. If it is disseminated without my consent (and I think it already has), it will also damn all of my chances for getting help for the things that I need help for (nervous system disorder, getting off a dangerous medication that is causing side effects, sensory processing disorder). Nobody listens or cares about people with a psychosis diagnosis, fabricated or not.



That being said, how the hell do I approach her and tell her to fix the sin she is writing? I have thought of simply emailing her and confronting her, but for all I know she could try to manipulate that too to appeal me for institution.
I don't know what otherwise to do than request it be shredded. I want my autism documented on medical records for medication purposes and for trying to piece it in to my current health problems, but that is all I need it for.

You should be GRATEFUL, even if the rest of the report "wasn't true", the counselor did verify you have ASD.

This person could have written you are a hypochondriac, have bipolar disorder/ BPD, and have a benzo dependency. THAT would be a hell of a lot worse because the medical doctors will write you off as a nut.

I don't know where you live, but adults around here don't get the kind of treatments you are looking for. You go to detox for the benzos. Maybe a university setting might evaluate you for the SPD. Around here (Midwest) those services are only offered to the pediatric population.

My two cents...I would not go tear it up with this therapist/counselor. 1. Any medical doctor (unless it's a big deal university setting) isn't going to plow through the report. They only care about your physical nervous system. (Neurologist). The counselor isn't a MD, so most MDs do a hard eye roll on reports from non medical doctors anyway. They skim through it. The counselor isn't qualified to diagnosis physical medical issues any way.

Your psychiatrist probably won't read the whole thing. She'll want her own opinion on you first, then go back and use the report for verification.

This is ONE therapist's opinion. The neurologist/psychiatrist can even write they DON'T agree with the ASD diagnosis.

You are putting more weight into this report than it's worth. This is coming from someone who sees 4 medical specialist. Medical doctors don't give midlevel practioners' reports a whole lot of weight. Especially if it deals with mental health.

So you got your report. Use it for your next step. Getting the ASD diagnosis on paper is a bigger deal than the rest.

If you decide to go raise hell, ALL of that will be document in your chart.

You are quibbling about a bunch if stuff no MD is really going to care about. My new psychiatrist never read anything my other two sent.