Therapist Slaying

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This idea of therapists who do drug abuse is deeply disturbing, in the UK we had a problem which thankfully ended in about 2000. We had a medical doctor with a history of drug abuse who became the worst serial killer in UK history. Dr H. Shipman was at one point stealing pethidine from work to get high, he got hocked on it. He got suspended and then was readmitted back to the profession.

He then went on to become the monster who went about with a syringe loaded with diamorphine (heroin) killing people with overdoses. A friend of mine who is a medical doctor has seen people die and he told me that you sometimes see some hair raising things when people die, he told me that he thinks that Shipman got adicted to being present as people pass away. Myself, my MD friend and most people love life while shipman loved death.

I hold the view that it is possible to recover from almost all diseases and other ills and return to work, but in the case of drug abuse while the person might recover we need to ask the question of is it wise to allow them to return to some professions after having had a substance abuse problem. I do not want to say what my exact job is but I have unsupervised access to large amounts of food grade alcohol when I am at work, I do not think it is a good idea for a recovering alcoholic to have unsupervised access to large volumes of food grade alcohol.

In the same way a therapist who has had drug problem should not have access to vunerable people until such time as he or she has proven to the rest of the world that they are safe to return to work. I would err on the side of caution. It is better to send a dozen healthy therapists home to continue their recovery than it is to allow one drunk or drug impaired one to work.

If I do have to go to see a therapist I think I will have to go for some form of refreasher training on the correct use of bell, book and candle to get me up to speed. Also a water pistol loaded with holy water might be a good item to stuff inside my waistband.

OMG, y'all make me feel lucky that the worst I got was (1) incompetence and (2) an idiot therapist trying to push his fundamentalist religion on me. I'm agnostic (and he was a PUBLICLY funded employee...ugh). But wow...the abuses y'all are talking about are tons worse....I've never had one ask for sex or be blatantly obnoxious about the AS....just stupid.

~Kate

I've only had one phycatrist who gets the AS. He never heard of ABA until I told him about it (He said it sounded horrible) but seems to know a lot about AS...or at least me. I only had one phycologist who got AS and my new therapist, a former school teacher seems pretty smart about it but it's too soon to tell really. I had one who said in a condesending tone, "I understand you have Asperger's Syndrome." and sat so close she was practicaly sitting ON me. She was so rude and cocky. I never had another session with her. Another was a social worker who was nice but was basically an idot when it came to AS.

Most mental health "professionals" think my diagnosis needs to be changed now becuase I am oh so high functning. He said I might have had autism but I do not anymore. Halluah! I am cured! Someone call Autism Speaks! He also said I was bipolar practialy as soon as he walked in the door and said I needed to go on Abilify. I told him I had such a bad expirence with phyc meds I do not trust them anymore and he told me if I did not take Abilify, he would commit me where they would make me take it. If he would have given me some literature or at least been a tad sympathic, I might have at least tried it. I only went to him to have my paxil refilled and he did but doubled the dosage without my permission or my mother's. I always suspected I might be bipolar because aside from the reckless sexulaity, I am pretty much a poster child for the pedadric version. I might have even had mania as a child but I sure don't appriciate it when people try to diagnose me on the first visit.

Punky, the side effects of Abilify can include increased insulin resistance - my wife went from Type 2 diabetes (controlled by diet) to Type 1 (requiring regular injections of insulin) after being given Abilify for her depression. (She also hated it because it didn't really treat her depression - it just left her pretty much incapable of experiencing any emotion, positive or negative. Zoloft has been much better to her...)

I'd do my best to emulate the Therapist Slayer, were I you - this person may well have killed you by insisting you take a medication without consideration for the side effects and interaction with other meds!

I'm not very keen on them at all

I'd probably deck a therapist who brought up religion. In fact, I got one who asked me if I believed in Heaven and then said I shouldn't be afraid to die if I did. At the time, I was agnostic, but WHO FREAKING SAYS THAT?

I saw about ten therapists when I was going through depression / PTSD / anxiety issues that lead to being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. One of them was very good and helped a lot with the issues that caused the depression. About half of them made the issues much, much worse - it was like reliving every episode of the events that caused the depression / PTSD again, without any relief. Sometimes it felt like they were doing it just for personal curiosity, the way people read the scandalous stories in tabloid newspapers. Three of them said or did things that made me feel so bad about myself that I wanted to die after every session with them.

All the therapists that I saw tried to reframe my problem from their theoretical perspective. They were less interested in learning about me and how my issues affected me, and more interested in telling me why their framework was best. The worst therapists were people with past drug addiction / failed marriage / a child who died by suicide, who were trying desperately to cure themselves by projecting their guilt or other issues onto every patient they had.

CBT, which is the most established therapy, was horrible - my entire identity appears to be a collection of distorted thinking patterns, self-sabotage, resistance to recovery, rejection of well-intended help, psychoses and deviances.

Being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (by a hospital psychologist) was an amazing revelation - suddenly I am not on a cocktail of horrendous drugs with side-effects as bad as the symptoms, all my "deviances" have been explained and I am back to the state I would call normal. I have no idea whether counselling would have been less damaging if I had the diagnosis of AS beforehand, but I have no wish to try counselling again.

Hey, now, some people do benefit from antidepressants while they're being treated for cancer. Being tired and sick and often in pain can cause a lot of stress, and that stress can result in depression. Antidepressants are one way to combat the problem. Maybe this doctor simply thought that this was something that should be standard practice.

Well, I believe in Heaven, and I'm still afraid to die. I mean, it's a dimension completely unlike what we're living in now, where there isn't even any entropy. I've studied physics; I know what that means. This life is where it's all at. This is where things happen.

And I've had a successful therapeutic relationship with a Buddhist therapist who brought up religion only when I mentioned it. If you and the therapist respect each others' viewpoints, then religion can be a useful part of therapy, whether or not you happen to have matching beliefs. (On the other hand, people who are having existential crises should probably be talking to someone who believes something similar to what they believe, since it will be central to the problem being solved.)

Precisely - Many/most therapist are not designed for existential angst and can wreck havoc with an Aspie in this regard. In retrospect I know I was badly matched with those now woebegone "whose name shall not be spoken" therapists. Unfortunately, plenty of them are not educated as to ASD and should not even attempt.

That being said, there are good therapists, absolutely! I've met some who are lovely and can think.

RE: SSRI's (e.g., prozac) - There quite a many practical uses for SSRI's and they can be palliative (ex: PMS responds well to prozac treatment).

Callista - I so much respect what your choice and seems your Buddhist friends/therapist is the right choice in this regard. Mutual respect is a must in this sort of relationship.

it's "slain"

m.

His attitude was that I didn't have permission to be sad and he thought that girls who didn't smile were depressed. I was there for anxiety.

The biggest takeaway I got from this discussion is: never make assumptions: listen carefully, and provide the best possible help, and always ask for feedback along the way.

You rock!




There is a reason why i spell it ASSumption. I once met a therapist that wanted to dig into my "depression" - which i do not have (this happened recently, before summer), i said i wanted help to get an Aspergers/ADHD evaluation. Many people think that i am sad just because i do not smile. I actually have to laugh before people see that i am feeling quite ok.

therapist = the rapist

I've written off two therapists, because I refuse to be a slave to the NTs.