Therapy

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I just wanted to know what you think about psychotherapy and AS. Personal experiences & opinions.

Thanks

I'm seeing a psychaitrist and a therapist. Again, I didn't get to have a choice whether I should see a therapist or not. I think you have to work your own program. I just don't know what to say when I see mine and life isn't real peachy and she acts all peachy. This makes me feel like I have to pretend I'm also peachy. As for my psychiatrist, I have to have them. I have major depression issues that goes along with this AS. I was dealing with many problems so I'm glad I have one. I think they sort of saved my life even though I was reluctant to see one.

I think I know what you mean by peachy. Mine pretends everyone in the world will be nice and kind if only I'm nice and kind to everyone and always give the other cheek. She'll go berserk if I contradict this or dare say some people are cruel no matter how I behave.

After years of mistreatment and abuse by so many psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and other mental health care providers since I was twelve years old, I fail to see the benefits of therapy any longer.
I have issues with depression and anxiety too, but I realized that too many mental health professionals have worse problems than my own.

There is an excellent book titled,"And They Call It Help" that sums up the mental health care system truthfully.

Yeah, I don't understand some of these therapists. If I'm that depressed, how am I going to go along with being peachy. It's like if there's something wrong with me then I need to get help. I thought that's what a therapist was for. So I feel like I have to pretend my whole life is good. I think just interacting on this site is better than a therapist b/c you can at least be honest with how you're feeling and get honest feed back whether they be good or bad.

As for psychiatrists, I have to seem them every 3 months so I can stay on my meds.

I see a psychologist, therapist, community support worker and his manager. I see my community support worker twice a week, he comes up with things for us to do that teaches me social skills. He's the one who got me into going to the gym. I just wish I could see his manager more often than every three months, she is SOOO attractive.

I see my psychologist every three months and my therapist every month.

Therapy does not help with AS. I can attest to that after about 30 years of therapy, gross. This has also been written by the specialists in AS.

Therapy, if you're lucky to come across one of the extremely few good-for-something therapists out there, can help you deal with the effects of rejection, bullying, attacks - the trauma and all the psychological distress related sufferings that come from being different from the herd. Therapy can also act as paid for human contact for those aspies who lack even minimal relationships, like me. And if you have a supportive therapist, it can help you a lot with forgiving yourself for your inability to fit in and guilty feelings about having AS, which are so often instilled in us by society.

Further analysis and introspection for someone who already over analyzes and is too introspective is not a good match.

In getting therapy, I can't help but feel that I'm spitting in the wind.

At this point, the only way I feel it's helping is that talking to the therapist is, sadly, just about the only person I have to talk to. I don't have anyone to confide in, other than my fiance. And there's only so much she can understand, her being NT.

I just about feel that therapists aren't there to help you. I have been getting the feeling that therapists are there to keep stringing you along, just to drain money out of you.

I will have to agree with joku_muko. Aspies already hyper analyze ourselves. Dumping even MORE over analyzation on top of that really doesn't accomplish anything.

Same here, except it's every 6 months for my meds.

I am the only therapist that I'll ever need. I now know more about myself, than any Dr. could ever know. Literally, I could never, accurately describe my thought processes to another. It's that lack of communication skills thing.

That's exactly the point. I finally decided to quit the therapy, I'm sick of wasting my time constantly observing my mental states, it drives me completely crazy, it paralyzes me, always trying to figure out if what I'm doing is right or wrong. F--- ! I just wanna live my life, doing the things I like, yes, making mistakes, enjoying my friends, and to hell if I have poor social skills and I'm emotionally fragile, that's just who I am and I have people who like me for who I am, focusing on my weaknesses just make me feel bad and I don't see the point.

Thanks, I'm glad the anti-therapy party prevailed !

I don't know if I'd call it psychotherapy by I've been seeing a psychologist for close on 11 years now. Not regularly any more, but close enough.

They are great for dealing with the symptoms. I.E. how to overcome certain obstacles or unhealthy thought processes that might crop up. I was a self-harmer, my therapist worked with me on that. We role play a lot on how to deal with certain situations. And it also serves as a proxy social interaction when I go for those periods when I just don't talk to anybody for months at a time.

So, as greentea mentioned, they can't "solve" your AS. But they can help you cope and come up with strategies for self-acceptance and devise ways to "adapt" without changing who you are. Well... the good ones can anyhow. I was very lucky when I landed with the therapist I do have now.

I have therapy because of autism and it helps me. It's at a therapist who specialises in autism spectrum disorders/autistic children and who is quite nice, not at all peachy. I don't need a therapist for emotional issues and I doubt anybody but me could help me if I had those.

I'm perfectly able to reflect myself entirely. I know my inside. Just not the outside and since I'm not NT... well:

I wanted therapy because to understand more about the other people, about autism, how to act around people and how to manage overloads and meltdowns. I had no idea other people were so different form me, I was totally clueless about how normal people... are... well... different (different from me I guess).

Non-verbal communication? Didn't know there was one before I started reading up on it! Guess I really need therapy because of autism. It's the wrong planet so to speak. Maybe some of you aren't as clueless as me, but I can be quite thick with some things. Also, I cannot imagine how another person sees me, unless they tell me.
I learn most of the things myself, but I really need a mirror like a therapist who knows about autism, because I don't know how other people are beyond their obvious actions. That I can adjust to it, quickly react and change what I do accoridng to what action I see doesn't mean I understand the reason behind the action and that's what my therapy is for mostly. And it's time I understand it so I stop feeling like the only sane person on this planet.

Try to explain that to an NT. I'll soon have so that the therapy gets paid for the next months. Haha, the fun of it.


I guess the slogan of my life would be: It talks like a dog, it acts like a dog, but hey, it's a (copy) cat!!

Oh yes, role-playing is an invaluable therapy tool for aspies! I did lots of psychodrama work and the role-playing was fun and useful.

And Izaak, I cringe at the thought of the world being deprived for months of talking to someone as nice and interesting as you.

See also:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt57955.html
("Tell me about your shrink")

I meet with counselors (a clinical social worker & also some sort of talk-therapist) on weekly basis, and I find it helpful. Wouldn't presume to say "therapy" is good or bad for anyone else-each client & each counselor are different. Happen to have gotten lucky, this time, in finding compatible people-in past have had some (not all) bad experiences with "mental health" professionals. Don't have to pay a penny for my sessions, due to some sort of Medicaid waiver that funds the clinic (and my dx qualifies me to attend there, because it's considered "severe & chronic" condition-and my life was in much worse shape when first I applied for acceptance to program).