CBT

CBT is often mentioned here, as the treatment most helpful for those on the spectrum. I think that it is being built up in the minds of some people, to be a miracle remedy that will change their lives easily.

CBT is more, an idea about how you can move forward in life. It rarely changes anything on day one, and needs to be worked at, harder than you can imagine.

I had, what I now know to be CBT many years ago. The only thing that changed was that I acquired hope for the future. It was more like taking a fork along a footpath, than some life changing experience.

It is , for the NHS, expensive, and is therefore brief. You are given a set of ideas, and some practical examples of how to use them, then you are on your own. It is you who has to learn how to do it. I had some brief follow up, a year later, with group discussions about how people changed their attitudes, but that is it.

For those who want to try it, I think the best approach might be, to put into practise one piece of advice, given during a consultation, and noting down how you went about changing this one aspect of your life. Give examples of how this has improved one or two situations, you have found yourself in, then ask for more advice.

So many people who have CBT say nothing much has changed, and I need more now. They can follow the specific examples for them, given in training, but do not pick up on the need to implement it themselves in other situations.

If you can show that you have benefitted from help given, and can use it in other situations, then you will be able to access more help, even if it is one new idea, from a health worker every now and then. Too much at once, can be overwhelming, it is fairy steps, not great leaps forward. I still use my training, now knowing the notes by heart, and still go wrong, often, and benefit from a push back in the right direction.

My CBT was for depression and anxiety, but that is what a lot of us have, and as I am undiagnosed, it was not aimed at problems related to asd. That does not mean that it is of no value. I have found that  life changing, eventually.

Parents
  • One of the issues with CBT is it will help you clear out your mind of "baggage", misunderstandings, persistant anxieties, and may help you manage your circumstances.

    But it generally wont cure poor eye contact, or difficulty with reading and generating facial expressions and body language. So social interaction difficulties will still be there, and will create new persistent anxieties, misunderstandings and "baggage". It wont take away sensitivity to noise, or complex noise and movement, or other sensory environments (it might ease the effects for a while). It wont remove overly focussed thinking (though it might temporarily ameliorate its impact) and likewise it wont cure rigid thinking, or coordination, or management of daily routines.

    Too many people are given CBT and then told its up to them to go away and lead better lives. If the unresolved factors crowd in again, and re-establish the problems CBT was employed to relieve,  they tend to suggest it is your fault, somehow. I think it is particularly cynical they way it is sold to parents as a solution to teenagers behavioural problems, but when the environment changes the problems come flooding back.

    CBT is fine if it is used where it is important and not passed off as a magical elixir for curing autism.

Reply
  • One of the issues with CBT is it will help you clear out your mind of "baggage", misunderstandings, persistant anxieties, and may help you manage your circumstances.

    But it generally wont cure poor eye contact, or difficulty with reading and generating facial expressions and body language. So social interaction difficulties will still be there, and will create new persistent anxieties, misunderstandings and "baggage". It wont take away sensitivity to noise, or complex noise and movement, or other sensory environments (it might ease the effects for a while). It wont remove overly focussed thinking (though it might temporarily ameliorate its impact) and likewise it wont cure rigid thinking, or coordination, or management of daily routines.

    Too many people are given CBT and then told its up to them to go away and lead better lives. If the unresolved factors crowd in again, and re-establish the problems CBT was employed to relieve,  they tend to suggest it is your fault, somehow. I think it is particularly cynical they way it is sold to parents as a solution to teenagers behavioural problems, but when the environment changes the problems come flooding back.

    CBT is fine if it is used where it is important and not passed off as a magical elixir for curing autism.

Children
No Data