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Advice needed re counselling

Lotus

I had to take a few days off work last month due to anxiety and depression and the doctor recommended a local counselling service as he though I would benefit from CBT. Since then he has assessed my AQ test results and confirmed I have aspergers and offered to refer me to a specialist, which I have not taken up at the moment.

I have returned to work and made a change in my life to lower the stress, and have been reading a lot about aspergers, which is helping me to understand myself and recognise when I'm getting stressed so I can try to calm myself down. 

I haven't had any counselling sessions yet and my first assessment appointment is due next Saturday. I started wondering today if it is going to be of any help now that I seem to be coping OK again?  I've heard that some aspies don't find CBT helpful. Does anyone have any advice or experience with CBT they would be kind enough to share? 

Thanks 

Parents

  • Hi Pixiefox,

    I totally agree with Johnsb, you must find someone that understands and is versed in Aspergers.

    I was given 'therapy' through my work and they assigned me to a coach (not even a counsellor).  We aranged to meet and when we sat down for our initial chat he looked at my notes and said "I'm going to have google High Functioning Autism"...the alarm bells were ringing for my immediately and I should have left, but as work had paid for the session I felt obliged to continue. Needless to say it was extremely distructive for me personally; the coach had me doing a specific exercise that actually sent me into a full on meltdown and had me in floods of tears. Then to make it worse he kept on pushing me saying "it's good for me to see a meltdown as I haven't seen one before!" He was also very poorly versed in my condition and had no understanding o HFA (when I told him I wasn't very good at maths he said "I thought autistic people were all good at maths, you're not very autistic are you?") Anyway, it was so bad that after the session I had to be sent home from work and spent the next three days in a mute state where I spoke to absolutely no one. It was very very destructive for me and my thought process, my anxieties have been bad since; I now seriously am back to square one again and struggling with all the little things in life that I seemed to be getting a handle on.

    Needless to say I cancelled all my future appointments with him and I am now seeing a pyschiatrist who specialised in females with HFA. We have an amazing rapport, I trust her and she actually understands all those finer nuances of my problem that most people just don't understand. I am currently having CBT but without the 'B' bit (my behaviours are pretty much already what you'd expect from a regular person so I am having to try change my thoughts only!) At the moment I can't say I am getting much from it, this may be because I am still only a few sessions in, it may be because I am still coming to terms with my brand new diagnosis...I don't know. Either way or whatever path you chose the ony decent bit of advice I can give you is for your own sanity, state of mind and general health....find someone who knows, understands and deals with Aspergers specifically xx  

Reply

  • Hi Pixiefox,

    I totally agree with Johnsb, you must find someone that understands and is versed in Aspergers.

    I was given 'therapy' through my work and they assigned me to a coach (not even a counsellor).  We aranged to meet and when we sat down for our initial chat he looked at my notes and said "I'm going to have google High Functioning Autism"...the alarm bells were ringing for my immediately and I should have left, but as work had paid for the session I felt obliged to continue. Needless to say it was extremely distructive for me personally; the coach had me doing a specific exercise that actually sent me into a full on meltdown and had me in floods of tears. Then to make it worse he kept on pushing me saying "it's good for me to see a meltdown as I haven't seen one before!" He was also very poorly versed in my condition and had no understanding o HFA (when I told him I wasn't very good at maths he said "I thought autistic people were all good at maths, you're not very autistic are you?") Anyway, it was so bad that after the session I had to be sent home from work and spent the next three days in a mute state where I spoke to absolutely no one. It was very very destructive for me and my thought process, my anxieties have been bad since; I now seriously am back to square one again and struggling with all the little things in life that I seemed to be getting a handle on.

    Needless to say I cancelled all my future appointments with him and I am now seeing a pyschiatrist who specialised in females with HFA. We have an amazing rapport, I trust her and she actually understands all those finer nuances of my problem that most people just don't understand. I am currently having CBT but without the 'B' bit (my behaviours are pretty much already what you'd expect from a regular person so I am having to try change my thoughts only!) At the moment I can't say I am getting much from it, this may be because I am still only a few sessions in, it may be because I am still coming to terms with my brand new diagnosis...I don't know. Either way or whatever path you chose the ony decent bit of advice I can give you is for your own sanity, state of mind and general health....find someone who knows, understands and deals with Aspergers specifically xx  

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