abruptly ending therapy

everything has fallen apart today, i’ve had to leave therapy with no advanced warning because my dad has said he is done paying for me to go and it’s up to me now (i’m 20, i have no money and cannot work to financially support myself, i get universal credit and working on pip etc but we all know how long this takes and how many hoops you have to jump through to prove yourself disabled enough to be worthy of support). he did not tell me beforehand and waited until i told him after the session that it still needed to be paid for. he’s also forcing me to move out because he simply cannot deal with me being autistic and needing support anymore. i do everything i can to neglect my own needs so i only have to ask for support for the most desperate of reasons - eg. getting a lift to appointments that i cannot miss because i can’t drive or use public transport, asking that he tells me when people are going to come round/when he is going to be away in advance. 

my therapist has been wonderful in the year i have been seeing her, she was the person who recognised i was autistic in the first place and supported me through getting a diagnosis as before last year i was misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder and assumed to be untreatable and permanently mentally ill rather than having a developmental disability. she thinks it is unwise and unsafe for me to stop seeing her right now, let alone so abruptly, and that it is vital i continue to have support or i could be at risk. 

the only time i leave the house currently is to see her or go to universal credit meetings. i have zero support from family and while friends are kind, long distance means they can’t be here for me in any tangible way. i know that stopping what little support i get so abruptly means that my day to day functioning is going to get so much worse: i’ll rely more on rigid and completely unchanging routines and find myself having more and more meltdowns when this doesn’t happen, i’ve been in a state of burnout for years which will only get worse, i will lose more of my skills and become unable to feed myself properly or communicate with people, and my shutdowns will last longer and happen more frequently. 

i have been incredibly unwell for years now, and just as i thought i might have the right kind of support to start some form of recovery the rug is pulled out from under me again. 

it sounds silly and entitled but there are 20 years of abuse, neglect, misdiagnosis and damage from masking that makes my life impossible to live without regular professional support 

Parents
  • Hi Elliot, I really sympathise. I had my final therapy session this morning because my work health insurance ran out. I’ve been seeing the same therapist since last May and she’s often the only reason I leave the house so I understand how big a gap this will leave in your life.

    Is there nothing else the NHS can provide? Have you spoken to your GP.

  • i have had trouble in the past with nhs services as the last time i was in contact with the adult mental health team they said they were not going to offer me any support as i was ‘not showing enough progress’ and ‘unwilling to even try to recover’. this was before anyone knew i was autistic and unable to make progress because i was being treated for the completely wrong thing but that kind of reputation tends to stick to your name and i’m worried about getting in contact with them again in case it’s just the same thing 

Reply
  • i have had trouble in the past with nhs services as the last time i was in contact with the adult mental health team they said they were not going to offer me any support as i was ‘not showing enough progress’ and ‘unwilling to even try to recover’. this was before anyone knew i was autistic and unable to make progress because i was being treated for the completely wrong thing but that kind of reputation tends to stick to your name and i’m worried about getting in contact with them again in case it’s just the same thing 

Children
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