Originally Posted by
Daffodill
I have been treated by mental health teams in 3 different areas and some have been helpful and others completely abysmal and led to my damaged tendons, severe allergic reactions (now) to paracetamol, missing a chunk of my tongue from seizures...etc. You can't simply compare one and the other.
My point is that autism is a different kettle of fish entirely, and every professional I saw pre-diagnosis thought my inability to communicate and literal interpretation of their advice/comments to be rude and uncooperative, thus labelling me as difficult and totally hindering my recovery. I think ASD services should be separate and MH pros should be trained to refer someone outside their system and INTO an ASD specific system if they exhibit any of the symptoms, not keep them in MH and believe they are depressed or awkward.
Offering compassion to someone with autism is very different to offering it to someone without. I would rather have had no "support" than had them interfere with my life and well-being. Once someone has been settled into an ASD specific system, they could be referred to counsellors or psychologists, but ONLY those who are trained in the condition, lest it do more harm than good.
You wouldn't have an unmedicated schizophrenic talk to a counsellor who had never heard of schizophrenia, nor should someone who is untrained in the field of autism ever try to offer advice to them: our brains are wired differently and there is no room for discussion on that.
The genetic link involved in autism is a lot stronger than mental health conditions, which are often influenced by the behaviour of the adults involved in the child's upbringing/their environment. Autism develops at a certain age, in every situation, and there is always someone in the family who also has it.
I shall explore the links later, but that seemed to refer to a diagnostic tool, not CBT?