Published on 12, July, 2020
Just been looking through my psych correspondence. There's a copy of a letter from my then care co coordinator to my pdoc where she mentions to him I've spoken several times about my balance and difficulty with practical tasks . She then goes on to say I know that dyspraxia is quite hard to diagnose(something I never said). That was back in March 2008. Well I got an additional appointment on the back of that where the pdoc asked a couple of irrelevant questions and then rather huffily dismissed the subject. The subject has never been raised again by a professional although I occasionally drop the words dyspraxic and dyspraxia into the conversation. It seems to me completely irresponsible and bad clinical practice that a pdoc would dismiss something as a possibility after a few questions that really had no bearing on the matter at hand. Even if they had been relevant I doubt a 5 minute conversation would have been enough to arrive at a definitive yes or no as to the possibility of dyspraxia. It's crap like that that helps people to be sceptical about psychiatry and the intelligence of psychiatrists. Psychiatrists tend to be dismissive if you have the intelligence and insight to have noticed things they haven't picked up on. Then there's the fact that if you have a psych diagnosis everything is seen through the lens of that diagnosis. The trouble is psychiatry in its ignorance fails to take a holistic approach. Couple that with the fact that a psychiatrist may not be the sharpest tool in the box and you have a recipe for bad treatment.
I have to testify that talking to a psychologist helped me a lot. I have this theory that I'm very literal minded, and when she tells me she's convinced that it is possible to have positive experiences with work done by a handyman, it keeps me going, it allows me to give it another go. I don't have to give up on my usual carefulness... I still make a cost/benefit analysis, the difference is, I keep going and the results are a decently maintained house and a satisfied household (of 4, of which 2 teenagers) (hah, this was a to the point reply ...:))
It sounds like you’re doing really well MDC. I recently started to take antidepressants. I was terrified of taking them because I didn’t think I was depressed, but my instincts told me to take them and they started working almost straight away. They have quietened my mind down a bit, but I’m not currently considering them as a long term option, but so far so good.
Usually I'm never diagnosed with depression. Just the monotonous talking and rational self-observation...
Before, I took lithium. My brother took this too. He kind of diagnosed me. The doctor went along in prescribing it, she insisted I would see a psychiatrist soon after, and I did, and the psychiatrist just asked me: 'ok, I see you already take medication, how do you feel...' and since the answer was 'better', that was the end of that discussion. For ten years it worked like a charm, but I felt the need to lower the dose, because my action radius between peeing was a bit short... and the tremor...
When you're an autist, you're trapped inside yourself, it's depressing to see that your opinion is easily overlooked... but fighting the depression is not tackling the rootcause.
On the other hand, if you have a heavy cold, taking something against coughing may make you feel better...
forgive the phrase 'usually I'm never' ... In Dutch it is a permitted expression, but I think it's frowned upon in English...