Which MH therapies are UNHELPFUL for people with AS?

Hi, I realise that this thread is over 6 years old. I am also looking for information on the same - people with ASD that have had unhelpful/harmful therapy - did you get anywhere with this?

CBT is really great. It's very logical just how we prefer and can be tailored really well to anyone AS or NT. Would definitely recommend.

Perhaps I should have worded the question as to whether anyone personally found a particular therapy unhelpful or made them worse, but I am sure there must be some research out there on outcomes of therapy in autistic people.

That's good Susie163.

Is there anyone who has been damaged (or at least gone nowhere with) by therapy?

I've recently been for hypnosis - I did not ask for or even wish for a "cure", I simply wanted to regain some faith in myself, some self confidence and the strength to deal with the "stuff" that troubles me. I realise that I'm going to always have differculties with lots of things - to be able to accept that and be strong enough to work my way through things without falling in my usual heap was my request to the therapist. It 's working - not in a "wow that's amazing" way but there's been subtle but positive changes in my attitude. I've got to keep at it and accept the not so good days (plenty of them!) but by far the most useful and best thing i've tried so far.

I think co-morbid conditions are conditions which left unchecked will become also primary later on. So co-morbid is time by cause and effect. If a few of these co-morbid conditions add up to pathogenically primary, you are as good as dead,, by "complications".  

I think co-morbid is just secondary genetic ladder rung weakness caused by the primary holding leg of the ladder rotting away slowly, so the rung is weakened as a secondary cause, until the whole ladder collaspes (dead).

If the hull is weak, the ship sinks as a whole, when the stress on the beam structure collaspes at shear point.

I realise you are speaking metaphorically, but because of this it makes heavy going to read (and heavy going with it's "doom and gloominess" ).

Do you mean literally dead?  That if you get enough mental health conditions or they get severe enough you will die from them?  I don't believe that is possible.  You might die from acting out suicidal tendencies or whatever but I don't think (other than degenerative brain disease such as Parkinson's) that you die from mental illness (even though it can feel like a living death).

Anyway, I'd really like some input on my original question if anyone has any.  I am sure I read it somewhere but it might have been anecdotal or the opinion of an armchair philosophiser - although it does make sense.

IntenseWorld said:

...For instance, I understand CBT can be quite helpful if tailored to our neurology.  But with CBT part of it involves facing up to the thing that causes you anxiety, and something like that could be incredibly traumatic for us.

I'm just coming to the end of a course of six sessions and, although I was extremely doubtful at the start, I have found it very helpful mainly, I  think, because the therapist has knowledge of AS through working with children and is prepared  to listen when I try to explain how things affect me as someone on the spectrum.

I said from the beginning  that I didn't expect to be cured of my anxieties because I knew they were basic  to my make up; what I wanted was  to learn how to manage them so they cause me less stress and I have had success with this.  I just hope that I can keep it going once the course is finished.