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Ai_Ling
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22 Aug 2011, 2:58 am

Does anyone know type of therapy is effective with an aspie young adult who also has social anxiety and obsessive thinking. So far Ive spent the past 4 yrs going from doc to doc with no promise with anyone except for one in talk therapy. The one who I worked well with left the area so I cant see her. So far, a lot of these therapist are not working very well with me. They dont seem to get me. Do other aspies have this problem that most therapist dont get them? Me and mom are getting tired going thru all these people and them not getting very far with me.

DOnt get me wrong, I have progressed quite a bit but thats mostly due to life experience and messing up a lot and putting in a lot of work. But therapy is not working. If I could find effective therapy then I feel I could progress quite a bit. Considering I've just recently found effective meds and Im a motivated hard worker.

Autism specialists are too expensive since they often dont take insurance and my parents dont want to pay a fortune for and get very little return. I havent worked very well with them either. Do most autism specialist not take insurance? It sure seems they can get away with it quite easily since autism rates are skyrocketing and parents can be despirete. Since Im an mild aspie, me working with autism specialist has not been a must.



John_Browning
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22 Aug 2011, 3:15 am

Have you tried Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? That frequently works well for those on the relatively high end of the spectrum. Some do better in group therapy since others may say something that the ASD individual is struggling to express.


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Tuttle
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22 Aug 2011, 3:57 pm

I've found that working with anyone who isn't an autism specialist does nothing for me. I felt misunderstood, was hurt by assumptions they were making, and what they were trying to do did nothing for me.

I've seen some autism specialists who take insurance and some who don't. If you're looking at ones who don't, people who are trying to get their practice started up tend to have much more reasonable rates. Most of them I've seen take insurance.

I find it worth seeing a specialist, jumping from therapist to therapist without finding one that works just wastes more money than seeing the specialist would unless you have a really low co-pay, doesn't help, and might hurt.

The specialist I'm currently seeing doesn't take insurance but charges $75 for an initial 2 hour session, and $50 for one hour sessions after that. Seeing as my co-pays would be $40 if she took insurance, its not at all bad for pricing.



Koan
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22 Aug 2011, 11:48 pm

Tuttle wrote:
I've found that working with anyone who isn't an autism specialist does nothing for me. I felt misunderstood, was hurt by assumptions they were making, and what they were trying to do did nothing for me.


+1 on that. And on CBT as well. See what works for you.



KWifler
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23 Aug 2011, 2:48 am

Agreed on most points.


Some suggestions:
Try looking up pressure points. For instance, press lightly on the impression in the middle of each eyebrow.
Do something that you find uniquely slow/difficult to think about that isn't exhausting. For me it's deep slow breathing.
Try looking up self therapies for PTSD. They seem to have some effective activities.
Role playing that everyone is a creature in an imaginary world and nothing is too serious.
Practice exaggerated emotional expressions in the mirror for hours, and then practice them around people.
Become obsessed with stress relief techniques and hippies.


Don't pay attention to these:
Be silent, do nothing, and you will never regret what you did.
Walk around with your eyes closed and hands out in large crowds.
A hammer to the head.
Dehydration.
Hallucinogens.
Hyperthermia.



Ai_Ling
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23 Aug 2011, 3:20 am

Tuttle wrote:

The specialist I'm currently seeing doesn't take insurance but charges $75 for an initial 2 hour session, and $50 for one hour sessions after that. Seeing as my co-pays would be $40 if she took insurance, its not at all bad for pricing.


Ive gone to see 2 autism specialists and they charged a fortune and they about as much as any non-autistic specialist therapist did. They misunderstood me like anyone. I can only provide introspection into 1. This is what I thought, he focused all on logic and quick fixes and things that would progress my social development. But he didnt hit on the real underlying emotional issues. I remember explaining to him a situation and he gave a quick fix suggestion. And for me, it took a yr of introspection to figure out what was truely going on emotionally. So Im highly skeptical about trying another autism specialist who doesnt charge insurance.



Ettina
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23 Aug 2011, 12:22 pm

Sorry, I can't help, I've got the same kind of problem. I wrote a blog entry about it here.



Tuttle
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23 Aug 2011, 2:39 pm

Ai_Ling wrote:
Tuttle wrote:

The specialist I'm currently seeing doesn't take insurance but charges $75 for an initial 2 hour session, and $50 for one hour sessions after that. Seeing as my co-pays would be $40 if she took insurance, its not at all bad for pricing.


Ive gone to see 2 autism specialists and they charged a fortune and they about as much as any non-autistic specialist therapist did. They misunderstood me like anyone. I can only provide introspection into 1. This is what I thought, he focused all on logic and quick fixes and things that would progress my social development. But he didnt hit on the real underlying emotional issues. I remember explaining to him a situation and he gave a quick fix suggestion. And for me, it took a yr of introspection to figure out what was truely going on emotionally. So Im highly skeptical about trying another autism specialist who doesnt charge insurance.



Well, I was assuming if you're focusing on emotional issues, you'd be trying to see someone who focuses on emotional issues. There are specialists for ASDs who focus on that as well - that's what I'm seeing.



Ai_Ling
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23 Aug 2011, 4:37 pm

Tuttle wrote:
Ai_Ling wrote:
Tuttle wrote:

The specialist I'm currently seeing doesn't take insurance but charges $75 for an initial 2 hour session, and $50 for one hour sessions after that. Seeing as my co-pays would be $40 if she took insurance, its not at all bad for pricing.


Ive gone to see 2 autism specialists and they charged a fortune and they about as much as any non-autistic specialist therapist did. They misunderstood me like anyone. I can only provide introspection into 1. This is what I thought, he focused all on logic and quick fixes and things that would progress my social development. But he didnt hit on the real underlying emotional issues. I remember explaining to him a situation and he gave a quick fix suggestion. And for me, it took a yr of introspection to figure out what was truely going on emotionally. So Im highly skeptical about trying another autism specialist who doesnt charge insurance.


Well, I was assuming if you're focusing on emotional issues, you'd be trying to see someone who focuses on emotional issues. There are specialists for ASDs who focus on that as well - that's what I'm seeing.


Dont get me wrong I would be willing to try out another one if they used insurance. Cause these ones often dont go thru insurance so they can charge outrageous rates 200-300 a session out of your own pocket. I need an autism specialist who focuses on both emotional, logical sides and who can regulate meds. Im not about to go to another autism specialist who charges costly amounts and doesnt end up helping me. I dont know how others do it, Im guessing its the "you gotta suck it up and pay the price cause your neurology sucks method". Come on majority of the pop is not made of money, most people cant afford services like this. If it was a guarenteed, I know this person is gonna work well with me. Then I would just suck it up and pay the price.



Tuttle
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23 Aug 2011, 5:09 pm

One who both deals with medication and deals with the other thing might be why its so hard to find. I've never worked with someone who deals with the medication - if I went on medication that'd be recommended by her, but prescribed and managed through my primary care doctor.

But seriously, I've not seen someone charge more than $75 a session out of pocket. I'd really suggest looking more, because not everyone charges $200-$300. I'm seeing someone for $50 a session.



Ai_Ling
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23 Aug 2011, 5:53 pm

Tuttle wrote:
One who both deals with medication and deals with the other thing might be why its so hard to find. I've never worked with someone who deals with the medication - if I went on medication that'd be recommended by her, but prescribed and managed through my primary care doctor.

But seriously, I've not seen someone charge more than $75 a session out of pocket. I'd really suggest looking more, because not everyone charges $200-$300. I'm seeing someone for $50 a session.


yeah I'll make it a point to look. That just seems extremely rare unless the person is in a clinic or part of a psych part of a bigger community which in which you are a part of, like a school psych. The college I went to had counselers which students could come in and see, the price per session was affordable, however they were general counselers and none had experiance with people on the spectrum. Most psychs with insurance costs around 130-200.

The autism specialists, once well known around the area can easily jack up the price due to demand.