Published on 12, July, 2020
I suffer from chronic depression, as well has having been diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum. I have been re-referred to a psychiatrist, who tells me that a lot of my current problems are caused by anxiety, and I need to resolve the issues that are making me anxious before they can help me further.
The trouble is, I don't actually feel anxious, never mind be able to identify what it is that might be causing it. I've tried suggesting various things that could be causing it to the psychiatrist, and the only response I get is along the lines of "well I can't tell you what's affecting you". Can anyone suggest any way out of this impasse? Or if I can indeed be said to be "feeling" something, if I've only got someone else's word for it that I'm displaying the symptoms?
Thank you for this - maybe this will help me get somewhere.
Take what I say as a fellow sufferer of "Chronic" Anxiety AND Depression. The "CHRONIC" means that you are used to it, and so what you need to identify is not what causes it, but rather WHAT makes YOU YOURSELF RELAXED or LESS ANXIOUS/DEPRESSED. Start a diary or a notebook, and jot down whatever makes you LESS anxious/depressed... it does not matter what it is: a tree, a bird, a paving stone, a person, an event, a kind word...anything at all. You must do this for a long while, before you may identify what cancels out your feeling relaxed, and then you may begin to identify and jot down the difference in both feelings for yourself. The main point there is to ignore how OTHER people say they feel about the same matter. No-one knows you better than yourself.
Yes, suppose that's also a possibility, maybe the more likely one. Perhaps I should have said I admire you for not turning into a two-year-old. I seem to have never-ending energy for this...
Hope you get somewhere. Will you see this psychiatrist regularly? Perhaps not, perhaps some counsellor is better for helping you to find out what is causing anxiety and perhaps that can be initiated with what the psychiatrist said? Don't know your circumstances except for what you wrote, but I've only been send to a psychiatrist to figure out what's wrong with me, not to actually do anything about it. It seems strange that someone you have never met before is supposed to know any better than people who know you (at least when they are counsellors as in my case) but he was probably the person understanding me best out of all those people.
I know what you mean. It's hard to scrape up the energy to stick up for ourselves. I had a report which said I was ok going out , no evidence I was anxious enough because I wasn't getting mental health support. Now I will have to justify that if I decide to reply and might have to use the link myself .
Thanks for the Autistica link - something for me to read through which might help. I'm not sure if it's patience with them, or simply don't have the energy to argue about it any more, but this info might give me somewhere to start from.
I'd be interested to know how much the psychiatrist you saw knows about and has experience of anxiety. It seems a very odd way to treat you when it is well documented that depression and anxiety often occur with asd. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rPD_yzMHJls I found this interesting and helpful.
And just found this
https://www.autistica.org.uk/what-is-autism/signs-and-symptoms/anxiety-and-autism
Cant believe how insensitive the psychiatrist you saw was. Didn't they know we find it hard to separate and identify what's happening with ourselves?
Ladynicotine I don't know how to help just feel appalled.
Erm, that seems incredibly helpful - well, not...
Should they not at least help you to identify the reasons, maybe by asking the right questions? Think if I had been in your appointment I would have walked out being convinced that they are taking the piss and really upset about yet another thing that isn't working and about them intentionally hurting me because surely they must realise that. I'm not suggesting this is the case, it's just how I tend to see it when stuck inside that sort of situation, but I think they should perhaps consider that it can have this effect. I kind of admire your patience with them.