Dumb things Mental Health Professionals say

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Anyone have any eye rollers?

My contender is from a Psychiatrist I went to see after a meltdown to see if I should take Anti-Depressants. I hadn't gone my official diagnosis from my NP yet, but my therapist has suggested I had many traits associated with ASD. Anyway, the Psychiatrist was a nice enough guy but he gave me two humdingers:

1) When I told him my therapist thought I might be on the Spectrum he told me that was impossible because I own dogs, and people with ASD don't like dogs.

2) When we discussed my lack of interest in sex and difficulties with interpersonal relationships, he suggested I start taking testosterone and go to the Beach to have sex with some women. To this day, I still have no idea if this was meant to be a joke at my expense or serious advice.

I wish him the best, but I never bothered with a follow-up.

I just realized recently that I've never had eye contact problems with dogs, unlike people . Except that one disturbed dog of a childhood friend who would get vicious when given eye contact.

Anyhoo, I think he needs to study the latest info on ASD ASAP .

Last edited by CarlM on 25 Jan 2020, 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have two border Collies who aren't comfortable with eye contact. One likes to line all his tennis balls up on the ground, and the other will watch me and the other dog from a corner and then try and repeat behavior. Hmm...

I saw a psychologist for a couple months who was extremely into behaviorism to the point that she wasn't interested in having me talk about my thoughts or feelings at all but solely wanted me to release tension in my body through progressive muscle relaxation techniques. I find that stuff helpful, but I also really needed to talk. It was such an odd experience and, by far, the worst one I've had in therapy.

She'd say that "anxiety is a physical sensation." It is true that there are strong physical components to anxiety but the root of it usually lies in one's mental experience.

When I tried to move the session in the direction that I needed, she would stress how muscle relaxation helped her deal with endometriosis pain. That's great for her, but it still wasn't helping me address my complex trauma. I suspect that empathy wasn't her strong point...

It was a strange counseling center. I learned after I started going that up until very recently they only worked with people struggling with addiction (primarily alcohol and drugs). When I'd get there for an appointment sometimes, the room would be full of people waiting for their court-ordered AA meetings (you could tell by the ankle bracelets). It'd be so full that there'd be nowhere for me to sit. Not exactly a relaxing environment.

Anyway, I was new to counseling and thought that my failure to connect with the psychologist was my problem. Now I know better, do my research, and think of an initial therapy session as an interview. If I don't think I'll benefit from a particular therapist's philosophy or I don't click with her in general, I'll try someone else. There's only been one since that experience who I didn't want to keep seeing. There was nothing wrong with her. We just didn't click.

I think it is rare to find a good therapist on your first try. I made the mistake of trying to go through my insurance, and I soon discovered great therapists typically do not take insurance. I do like my current therapists. I see a sexual health therapist as my regular therapist. I also see the NP who gave me my diagnosis once a month. That has great utility for me because it's an hour where I can unmask and just be an Aspie. It's amazing how much stress trying to fit in can put on you.

My PTSD psychiatrist said I couldn't be autistic because I was "too articulate" and well read, despite being an English scholar.

My PTSD psychologist said I couldn't be autistic because I didn't flap my hands and spin in circles like little boys.

I'm very thankful I found a neuropsychologist who specialised in adult autism, who was able to assess me properly and send my report to the two doctors, above.

@Tp, your therapist sounds like they were possibly doing Gestalt techniques. That doesn't work for me either. I'm not even aware of my physical body signals because of alexithymia and poor interoception. I can't even tell when I'm hungry, let alone "where my tension is". Likewise, I can't see the big picture in anything, only the details of my experiences.

I was told by a couple mental health professionals including the one who tested me for Aspergers that I communicated too well verbally & seemed too intelligent to have anything on the Autism spectrum. They were surprised that someone possibly on the spectrum had a high-skewl diploma even thou it was a private skewl & I had received accommodations for my dyslexia, ADD & other related learning disorders, & my my grade was curved in some of my classes so I could pass. Those psychs believed that I had Schizoid Personality Disorder but they also believed I had Borderline Personality Disorder. One of the core features of SPD is being fairly unemotional or at least not expressing much emotion & a core feature of BPD is being overemotional or overreacting emotionally so it seems like both disorders would contradict each other.

"All boys reject their mother by the time they're 7"

Me: I'm depressed because I can't seem to make any friends and I never feel like I know how to handle interactions.

Therapist: That's not true, you're only thinking things like that because of your depression. Now, why are you depressed?

When I was dealing with seeing psychs for 5 years, I found they didn't understand the causes & effects with me. They got em mixed up which is one of the reasons why Aspergers was officially ruled out when I was tested & then when I saw another psych for counseling. In your therapist defense darkwaver, lots of people who have friends believe they don't when they develop depression. They push their friends away cuz of their depression & then it makes their depression worse. It becomes a cycle. However there's also lots of people like us who struggle to make & keep true friends & that struggle can contribute to depression. It's important for the psychs to look at the patient's long term past history with things so they can better understand the causes & effects. In my case they believed I didn't have good social skills due to being disinterested in social relationships which explains Aspergers getting ruled out in favor of Schizoid Personality Disorder. However I've struggled majorly with social relationships since I was very little(I was bullied a lot 1ce I started skewl in kindergarten) & that caused me to withdraw from social relationships. I found by posting about things online, doing my own research & analyzing myself, that I can treat my mental health better than the psychs & docs do. The psych meds I've asked my GP to prescribe worked better for me than the 1s I was on in the past that my psychiatrist put me own. However I recently started seeing a psychiatrist again(I went over 10 years without seeing one) because the meds I'd like to try, I highly doubt my GP will be willing to prescribe them at least at 1st. Plus I'm not entirely sure what direction I want to go in with my meds. I really like my girlfriend's psychiatrist because he really listens to ideas & he also listens well to her experiences with various meds(she tried quite aLOT). I wanted to see him ideally but knew that was likely a conflict of interest since he was seeing my girlfriend & apparently it is so him & my GP talked & I'm seeing a different psychiatrist I was referred to. I'm not sure what to think about him yet, I only had a couple appointments & the only med change he made was reducing the dose of one of my meds. I'm gonna have a bit to talk about next time I see him because I still feel moody even thou I'm able to control it better(I'm not sure how much longer I can) & I've been having problems sleeping for a while now that are gradually getting worse. I probably need a sleep study. My new psych did think I had Aspergers during my 1st appointment with him & he mentioned it again during my 2nd so that's good at least. The psychiatrist i saw years ago also believed I had Aspergers during my 1st appointment but that got ruled out when I was tested & she said it didn't really matter which diagnoses I had. It f#cking did matter thou because I was trying to qualify for autism supports & services that were only available with an official diagnoses & that was the reason I agreed to go through the testing in the 1st place.

"You can't be on the autism spectrum because you don't play with fire, wet the bed, or torture helpless animals."

"You can't be Autistic because you have a job, an apartment and (at least at the time) a girlfriend. Autistic people aren't capable of living on their own or holding down a job."

"It's called Azburjers"

"We have a special book that the public doesn't have access to." I later found out it was the DSM IV, which I already read and memorized the section on Asperger's Syndrome and knew it better than the Psychiatrist.

"You don't need help. You are fine!"

All said to me, who did live on their own until getting married, has worked almost continuously since 1999 (even if underemployed) and who has been officially diagnosed as not only as Autistic but with ADHD traits, severe anxiety and severe depression.

"ADHD does not exist"
"Everyone is a bit autistic"

"Everyone on earth has a mental condition"

^ if this was true (to person saying this) why the hell are you treating anyone?

"It could be a chemical imbalance"

^ please provide a graphical prinout of the levels please...

I've heard something similar in that everyone gets anxiety, feels sad, blah blah blah to which I always respond "no sh!t!" The ASD specialist I saw pointed out how incredibly invalidating that is to someone who has a real, observable, diagnosable condition.

I should also add while not strictly a Mental Health professional, a pediatrician once said to my parents that I was a class clown and an attention seeker. I was practically mute and tormented daily by bullies and literally mice are bigger attention seekers than I was at 10 years old.