My Mental Health Appointment

I had an intake appointment for my anxiety this morning. It was pretty disappointing. I brought up the possibility of having Asperger's and she didn't seem to know what it was. She told me that I'd probably have to go see my regular medical doctor to get screened for it. I must have looked doubtful, so she offered to go ask someone else. The director of the mental health department told her that he didn't know of any screening or anything that they would offer for it, but he thinks that the children's mental health had something like that. So she is going to ask the head of that area and get back to me. I think that if my regular medical doctor knew anything about it, she would have let me know about it a long time ago. I also think it is odd that no one in the adult area would know about it or specialize in the spectrum.

At the end of my appointment, she wanted to sign me up for their anxiety classes so I can "learn how to get rid of all that anxiety". They would be weekly meetings and all the available times are in the middle of the day. So I told her I can't take that much time off of work. She wasn't understanding at all about that. She kept haranguing me about it and pointing out that I'll never get better if I didn't take steps to fix myself. I told her that I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage if I didn't go to work and lost my job, and I'd rather be "broken" than make my family homeless. I left there very mad and tense.

**Edit** - One of the things she suggested was to try to desensitize me to the social situations which trigger my anxiety.