Please Help; therapy, counseling, finding a therapist?

Post Reply New Topic

All my life I have been affected by abuse both indirectly and as the primary victim. As a small child I grew up with a father who mentally and physically abused my mother. Then, when he remarried the physical mistreatment was not inflicted upon my new stepmother and brother, but the psychological abuse continued both with and without the aid of his alcoholism. He left me alone until the age of 12 when he began to prey on my insecurities about my weight and my peculiar traits (which I would later learn were and are caused by AS). He began to tell me that I was fat despite the fact that I was at a healthy weight. This led to my five year struggle with anorexia. Then, at 15 years of age I was sexually assaulted by one of my half-sibling's grandfathers, only to be victimized in the same manner by a young man I thought was my friend a short two months later. I am now in college and I need to seek out help to better manage my AS and my PTSD caused by these experiences. I can receive help from one of the specialists working at the university I attend, or look for a doctor outside of the school. Based on your experiences with therapy, which of these options would you recommend, and do you have any other advice? My mother says that if I don't find a therapist soon she's simply going to force me to visit someone of her choice. I want to make a decision while the opportunity to make my own is still available. Please help

I would talk to the University people first as that is generally more cost efficient and a convenient location, but if you do not feel like they are helping, listening, you are not "clicking" with them etc, go and look outside. If they cannot help they may know who can. I do not know where you are but I know some good people in the Dallas, TX area.

I've been to several therapists, both before and after my diagnosis. Some of them were helpful, and others were not.
My most recent therapist was very good, and was in fact the person who diagnosed me (although I had had suspicions long before that.) I chose her because I read her bio online, and autism was listed as being one of her specialties. Finding someone who works with adults on the autism spectrum might not be easy, but it certainly helped in my case. I am no longer currently seeing her, but she helped me a lot, and I would go back if I decided that I needed therapy again. In fact, I referred her to an NT family friend whose son is autistic.
If someone at your university specializes in autism, you might be able to get help there, but the university where I was a grad student was not interested in talking to me about autism, because in their view I was too well-adjusted and socialized. (I did see a few therapists there for unrelated issues before I was diagnosed. One psychologist was very good, and another was not.)
If anyone suggests group therapy, turn them down. It did not work for me, and probably did more harm than good.