Have you ever had a really sh***y psychologist?

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I've had my fair share of bad shrinks, dating back to when I was a kid. Back then, Aspergers wasn't even on the radar, & my mom dragged me from dr's office to office looking for someone to agree that there was something wrong with me. She even yelled at one of them because they wouldn't tempt to do a diagnosis without a family session first. That one may have had the potential of being a good shrink but I only saw him the one time. I left very embarrassed by my mom's outburst. Once she had me committed for 2 weeks but was diagnosed as being normal. I knew better even as a teen. Put me in the midst of peers & people get a different perspective of who I really am! I have always exhibited unusual behaviors that I believe are Aspergers or related to autism. Only boys in my age group got diagnosed with behavioral issues of ADD & the like.

As an adult, I heard that I was quirky, had racing thoughts, my personality made me a bad parent (not sure where that came from), etc. I did see a shrink a couple of times earlier this year, & when I explained to him that I thought I had Aspergers, he looked at me & asked me if I wasn't sure it's bi-polar, because as everyone knows, people who have AS cannot give good eye contact. Didn't bother to listen to what I said to him. I have a whole list of behaviors & other oddities that are not bi-polar but are related to Aspergers. Way to go, doc! I've seen at least 10 docs in my lifetime, & so far, none of them get me. I was hoping for a diagnosis to not only help me but to help my 2 kids who also have their own sets of quirks.

Side note, I was in a special ed class & can remember the teacher mentioning that several of us (including me) had the habit of shaking our legs or feet or other unusual figiting behaviors while sitting at our desks. That's just the tip of the iceberg, & though I still do that, it's probably the mildest of my odd behaviors. It's also not a bi-polar symptom, but a lot of people on the autistic spectrum do similar things. I also suffer from anxiety, constant depression, & other things that are related to my personality which I sometimes call defective or broken.

The problem with psychologists and psychiatrists is that often a person gets into the field due to having an interest in it. The problem is that often they don't question why they have an interest in it and never realize its because they are subconsciously aware of their own mental conditions but are in denial.

So they end up in a position where their job is to help people but they only took the job because they wanted to help themselves but are too afraid to.

Then they end up doing it for a paycheck and the faster they can get you out of their office (better or not) the sooner they can get back to (not) dealing with their own mental problems.

lol...I'm lucky that I only had 1 psychologist then...cool.

Pretty much all of my shrinks were stupid. I was forced by the county to see a psychologist because the adoption was not finalized and my biological mother was severely mentally ret*d so they wanted to try and give me all the early intervention as humanly possible to make me normal. Anyways, he said that my adoptive mother was the reason for my "problems". That she was cold and unfeeling towards me. He accused her of being a refrigerator mother and this was the late eighties long after the theory was proven to be false. He said it was not fair to my three older brothers to have their parents constantly doting me and that my adoptive parents should instutionalize me and basically forget about me. My mother told the social worker about him and she arranged it so we did not have to see him anymore. I can't really remember all of the psychologists I had but my parents make it sound like they were pretty sucky. My mother told me that several of them suggested that my parents take away anything related to my special interests away from me. My parents soon looked for another shrink. There was one lady who I met when I was hospitalized for aggression (if you were forced to share your house with six new people without any warning and were constantly being bullied at school you would be a little aggressive too). She never wanted to get to the root of my problems but force any kind of medication she could think of down my throat. She also asked me why I liked Lion King so much and I told her because there were no people in it. She seemed shocked and asked me why I didn't like people. She's the psychiatrist shouldn't she know that. Another lady sat SUPER CLOSE to me and kept asking me rude personal questions that made me feel uncomfortable and made me feel like I was being interrogated. She then told me she understood that I had AS and asked me how it effected me and kept insulting my special interest in meerkats. She thought I had ODD and gave me an out dated questionnaire on ADD. The second time I was hospitalized, I was told I was going to see an AS expert. He kept asking me if I was sexually active and into drugs and what my social life was like. He them left his intern to me. The intern diagnosed me as having schizophrenia and being paranoid of men. There was also a psychologist who had only one prior experience with AS from a lower functioning individual. She kept asking me about AS.

PunkyKat said ..."several of them suggested that my parents take away anything related to my special interests away from me..."

This happened to me too when I was hospitalized! I loved to read....constantly had books (the thicker the better!) to read to be happy. The shrink told my parents to take away my books. It was the one time they didn't listen to a professional. My parents were told that by taking away my books I would be more normal, but they dx'd me as normal anyway. Even then, I knew I wasn't just like everyone else. but it's only lately that I know exactly why I am different!

They're all sh***y in my book.

YuK!! !

No, but the school guidance counselor last year thought he knew EVERYTHING.

One of my friends was (and still is) being abused and the counselor's answer was 'WELL, you can choose to let your abusive parents hurt you or you can choose to take responsibility for it. The police won't help you.'

I've got a great psychiatrist now, but I had an absolutely horrific one previously. When I refer to the bad shrink now, instead of his proper name (an apt one, actually), I always think of him as "Dr. Creepy Old Man". After each session, he would have me in tears. He would accuse me of bizarre things, and derive the strangest conclusions from what I told him. He insisted on not only providing medication management, but also giving "therapy". Essentially, he was emotionally abusing me, and my psychologist at the time was suggesting as directly as he could that I needed to dump the psychiatrist. Being a clueless Aspie, though, it took a while for me to pick up on that.

The final nail in Dr. Creepy Old Man's coffin came when he instructed me to think of him when I was having sex with my husband. WHAT? I may be naive, but I'm not stupid! The man was some sort of pervert. That could not possibly serve any sort of therapeutic purpose. I did not even want to contemplate where that was leading. I dumped him immediately and had my family doctor take over medication management until I could find a GOOD psychiatrist.

About 8 years ago I was having alot of issues. At the time I did not know I had AS. I got up the courage to see someone.
At the first session I told her everything that was bothering me. She looked right at me and said "I don't know what I can do to help you." Her excact words. I walked out.

I went through all kids of wierdo psychologists and psychiatrists with my son who is now 21. I finally found a psychiatrist that he and I really liked. He is the one I went to for my diagnosis. I go and see him for therapy ever other week. Even though they say therapy does not help people with AS I think It helps me to talk and he gives me some good advice sometimes. Also he tells me that it is helpful to him to speak to me because I help him to understand his other patients who are children and adolesents with AS. Maybe he should pay me LOL