If so what was the process involved in seeing one? Was it hard to persuade the relevant people that such an assessment was worthwhile ? People are saying I need to see one re my concerns about ASD/Dyspraxia/Learning difficulty/NVLD.
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I had a look online before responding to you. I started seeing a clinical psychologist last week, and it looks like there is cross-over with Neuropsychologist and Clinical, as a clinical one can do the same types of things with a particular endorsement. I guess it will depend on your local NHS trust. My psychiatrist told me they have two for my town, which is supposed to service 100,000 people - one of them is also part time…
For my appointment/assessment it was fought for very hard by my psychiatrist who said I needed it, and took over a year to finally get to see one, I think he put me on a waiting list but didn’t tell me that is my suspicion so I wouldn’t worry about it. I honestly don’t know what is going to happen with this.
She seemed nice enough, but I am not entirely sure how she is supposed to help me. I thought I was there for an assessment, so at the end I asked her if anymore appointments were going to happen and she said she can manage her own diary. So I have another appointment but not sure what for. I guess we’re going to talk about stuff, as she said we needed to stop my constant rumination and she said I was having flashbacks which I didn’t realise that’s what they were.
I wrote her a letter for the appointment after speaking to someone explaining how I was feeling, and she said that was really useful. I did this before and it led to an acceleration in treatment, as I couldn’t verbalise what I was experiencing.
That might be something you could try. If you put your concerns in writing, then you may get your message across to you doctor or nurse? I struggle to remember everything I want to say, so spending time writing that letter clearly put things into perspective for the other person. Just a suggestion. I was on my own with this person, and usually I don’t really communicate very well with these people unless someone else who understands me comes along, as people always seem to mis-interpret what I am trying to say.
@Joker Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I did think I’d have to go through a psychiatrist which is the crux of the problem. My mental health workers over the years have never considered I have problems in the areas I have mentioned on this forum.
I did get a care coordinator about a decade ago to arrange for me to see a psychiatrist to discuss my concerns . She had told him that she had told me dyspraxia was hard to diagnose(The symptoms that get seen as dyspraxia in the UK often get seen as NVLD in the USA). The appointment was an unmitigated disaster. I was asked a few irrelevant questions before the subject was curtly dismissed.
Due to a past history of abuse , by being branded awkward,demanding and troublesome for seeking more help and support, I was too scared for years to press the issue.
Over the last few years I’ve made tentative attempts to raise the issue with nurses which have very much fallen on deaf ears.
It seems to be very much the case that in the eyes of the mental health professionals I am my diagnosis,my diagnosis is me ie everything is related to the mental illness.
This of course is a load of unintelligent bunkum but getting anyone to look beyond a mental health diagnosis to see the whole person is an uphill struggle.
One thing is certain with the proper help and support I deserved and needed I could have functioned much better.
I am currently getting support from my stepdaughter and a care agency she works for. With that my depot nurse says I am high medium/medium high functioning but was much lower when I was living in Essex without it.
However this support is basically at the level of allowing me to stay living independently . We are not looking at anything higher than that.
I can completely relate to this. An example, I got horrible akasthia on Lurisdone and my care coordinator just told me to put up with it as there are no doctor appointments free.
I feel the same way about asking for their support, as I get told by them all the time how tight things are and they’re only really equipped to deal with ‘acute’ cases. I am sorry you have had those experiences, it’s not good at all.
I ended up emailing my concerns to PALs and then they did something about it. Maybe that would be an option?
I hope you don’t mind me posting these things. I hope they might help in some way.
That sums it up well. It’s glaringly obvious that ‘acute’ cases get preferential treatment. You can be doing well 80% of the time and doing not so well in an acute way 20% of the time and you’ll get more support than someone who is chronic and struggling to function adequately 100% of the time.
The question of whether self knowledge is enough or an official diagnosis is warranted is a big one . I think to a large degree it depends on age(I’m 61) and how much extra support it will bring (support for ASD,LD etc is very patchy/ a post code lottery).
If we’re intelligent enough when a diagnosis might not bring extra support do we really need a psychologist to back up what our own research has told us?
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