Have any of you gotten incompetent mental health treatment?

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oh shure. theres really only one agency intown here that provides mental health help, and there completey incompetent theyve changed my casemanager withought telling me gave me this letter:



after months of not speaking to me. so i guess they had to let me go, anyways total unprofessionals.

maybe they think you can pay for your own therapy now you have your SSI?

well i really dont know because they hardly ever talk to me. i am now on medicare and not on the states heath insurance wich i was using when i went there wich was rarley. i actually did try to go back to VR though them and they called me two months later after i expressed intrest in going back to work. two months after the fact isnt acceptable. then a few months goes by and they lie on my answering machine saying they need to talk to me about co-pays when clearly ive only been there 3 or 4 times and was coverd under my states heath insurance,. the real reason they wanted to talk to me is because they were going to kick me off there client list, and they wanted to know if i wanted to still be there client. im sure medicare would cover the bills but i dont know and dont care at this point. that place didnt do much of anything for me exept waste my time

One thing I remember from my high school psychology class is psychiatrists dispense meds. That is what they do. So if you don't want meds or in the old days a lobotomy, then go to a psychologist if you want someone to talk to. And don't go to a neurologist for AS. Sure they can recognize AS when they see it, but the neuro I went to believed all Aspies should be on medication. She wanted me on Lamictal.

Call me stupid if you like, but I think certain kinds of physical therapy would be more benefital to Aspies than medication. Come to think of it there's a little guy where I get PT for my knee who seems like he is mildly autistic. He might be Aspie or have ADHD because he can talk. But he's hyper. He goes several times a week and they play games with him and he goes swimming. They seem to be working on coordination and paying attention. It looks like fun. I would have benefitted from that as a child. Actually I could still benefit from it.

No, but I received excellent help from the staff at Springfield Hospital in Manchester and some great outpatient treatment once things had calmed down a little.

Without their work I wouldn't be here today.

Ed Almos

edal, you are the first person I've ever heard from who claims to have ever received COMPETENT mental health care.

I'm quite jealous of Ed because of that.

Sorry to be rude, but if you'd bothered to actually read my original post, you'd know that I was looking for a professional diagnosis, not just "someone to talk to." As I had already said in my original post, I DID have a therapist to talk to, but that therapist was not able to give a whole lot of his own insight.

And just to clarify, I wasn't necessarily trying to AVOID meds. Prescribing meds in and of itself was fine by me. The problem was that the psychiatrist wouldn't do anything other than prescribe meds. I was hoping that, as a doctor, the psych could also diagnose, something that the therapist was not qualified to do.

Yeah, and what's particularly telling about edal's comment is that he got that competent mental health care from a hospital, and he also uses the phrases "once things had calmed down a little" and "Without their work I wouldn't be here today." Which leads me to infer that edal's situation had to get REALLY bad in order for him to receive adequate help.

I have been in therapy for my mental health problems for just over three years, and in that time I have been with the same agency, but have gone through five therapists and four psychiatrists. The therapists were all very good, as is the one I have now, but they kept having to leave for some reason or another. Right now the one I have is only available on Tuesday afternoons, which doesn't always work out for me.

The first therapist I ever saw diagnosed me with schizoaffective disorder, but for what I don't know. I saw another psychiatrist once who didn't think that was a good diagnosis because of my "excellent language skills." Now I am looked at as having more evidence of AS than schizoaffective disorder.

The first psychiatrist I ever saw prescribed Abilify for me. The low dose worked very well, but then she changed it to a higher dose and it made me really sleepy all the time. I told her about it, but she refused to change the dose, saying it was the recommended one. Fortunately she left not much longer after that, and the ones I've seen after her have been pretty okay, but it's been a bumpy ride and I may have to consider changing mental health agencies because it's so hard to see my therapist now.

It wouldn't hurt if you could try being a little less RUDE when you post to people trying to help. Just a FYI what I'm trying to get across here is your psychiatrist wouldn't do anything other than prescribe meds because that is ALL those kinds of specialists do. You can go to psychologists, neurologists and general practioners also to get a diagnosis. Psychiatrists don't like to give diagnosis as much as they like to just dish out meds for bad behaviors. They don't always put a name to those bad behaviors. But then again maybe you didn't get an AS diagnosis because maybe you don't have it, but have something else instead.

I came out at work about my undiagnosed AS at the same time as my drug addictions. I wanted to do it the "right" way, as I was spending too much time scoring pot on my off hours. Noone understood that it was not "in my head", that I have severe social anxiety and depression and there is no cure. I checked myself into Austin State hospital and stayed 4 days in an ASP ward. All they gave me was a nicotine patch and rispodal at night for bi-polar'ness. I came out of there with Atarax (allergy med) and rispadone, one week supply.

I go see my shrink for the first time, and he told me to blow soap bubbles and the MJ was pychological. I left him so confused when I showed him my Aspie side, he was dropping papers and calling his pharmacy friends to hook me up with free samples.

I went to the ER today and got scrip for a month's supply of Rispadone, atarax and a diabetic medicine, as I now have type II diabetes. Screw the shrink and his free samples! Long live Aspies!

mojo123

That's a really good point.

Yes and how.

Senszuri,

Can you contact your local autism society and ask them to recommend a psychiatrist/psychologist who is experienced in diagnosing Aspergers/Autism?

During the process of having one of my sons diagnosed with Asperger's, I did heaps of reading. Therefore, when the first Paediatrician told me what treatment/therapy we should organise for my son, I knew she was an idiot who had no idea!

It's best to do as much research as possible so you can judge whether the doctor/shrink is any good or not. Coming to WP is certainly an excellent place for research.

Regards
Helen

I went to a university's counseling center, and I was told they couldn't diagnose me because I don't line things up in a row.

I was satisfied with the process though, since I now know my IQ.