Reply To: I "Fired" My Therapist

[sdwa]

@Blue Yugo

I probably saw 20 therapists over a period of 20 years before I got my diagnosis. Twenty percent were marginally helpful. Most were a waste of time. About ten percent were harmful and made things worse.

If they don’t have training in working with people who have ADHD, they are not worth talking to.

I second what Larynxa is saying about talking to an ADHD coach. I started working with a coach about a month and a half ago – ? A coach in training, actually, from ADDCA, who is cheaper than a fully certified coach (which is fine, because I had worked with a certified coach before and felt like I knew what to expect). It just makes me feel better. I feel like I’m not alone, and it’s good to be able to talk to someone who gets it and can provide new ways to think about what I’m going through.

I didn’t realize there is such a thing as “ADHD-specific CBT.” My experience with therapists has totally soured me on the entire concept of therapy, although I did attend a support group at one point run by an M.A. in Psych who has ADHD and only works with ADHD patients, and that helped. It was one of my first experiences in seeing and really understanding ADHD is “real” – because of how similar everyone’s challenges were. I learned a little about the ADHD brain, and more about the behavioral issues.

It’s funny, because I’ve been at this for five years and I think I know stuff, but I keep reaching levels of new information or new perspectives that show me, once again, how deeply my self-esteem has been affected and how prone I am to blaming myself. I listened to David Giwerc’s introductory talk about becoming an ADHD coach and cried during the entire call.

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