• Replies 7 replies
  • Subscribers 77 subscribers
  • Views 1186 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

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
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    CBT is discussed regularly on the forum http://community.autism.org.uk/search/node/cbt and it excites very strong feelings as some people have hopeless counsellors and in some cases people go in expecting magic to happen. Counsellors are only human and they are sometimes very lightly trained - they are not psychiatrists.

    CBT involves challenge. They should challenge your current, ingrained ways of thinking and nudge you to look at things in a fresh way. Things are not as black and white as they seem to be. Autistic thinking leads one to be very categorical e.g. the counsellor is fantastic or the counsellor is hopeless and this tends to lead one to think that the sky is falling in when, in fact, things are not great but they are not hopeless.

    CBT also involves some effort and commitment on the patient's part. You need to be open to challenging yourself and accepting that your life is going in a different direction to how you imagined it. Again, do not expect miracles. Do accept there are limits to how much or how fast you can change.  

    Reading some of the above though should lead one to be wary. If the counsellor has provoked a meltdown then you should walk away and find someone else to deal with. Do not however, give up on the CBT idea - it is the recommended therapy for someone with autism and the alternatives (medication or a life of continued misery) are even less attractive in my opinion.

Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    CBT is discussed regularly on the forum http://community.autism.org.uk/search/node/cbt and it excites very strong feelings as some people have hopeless counsellors and in some cases people go in expecting magic to happen. Counsellors are only human and they are sometimes very lightly trained - they are not psychiatrists.

    CBT involves challenge. They should challenge your current, ingrained ways of thinking and nudge you to look at things in a fresh way. Things are not as black and white as they seem to be. Autistic thinking leads one to be very categorical e.g. the counsellor is fantastic or the counsellor is hopeless and this tends to lead one to think that the sky is falling in when, in fact, things are not great but they are not hopeless.

    CBT also involves some effort and commitment on the patient's part. You need to be open to challenging yourself and accepting that your life is going in a different direction to how you imagined it. Again, do not expect miracles. Do accept there are limits to how much or how fast you can change.  

    Reading some of the above though should lead one to be wary. If the counsellor has provoked a meltdown then you should walk away and find someone else to deal with. Do not however, give up on the CBT idea - it is the recommended therapy for someone with autism and the alternatives (medication or a life of continued misery) are even less attractive in my opinion.

Children
No Data