Anyone Else Feel Like They Have Asperger Syndrome?

The short answer is a psychologist is not a medical doctor and a psychiatrist is. They are both full of themselves. And perhaps it has changed but an AA degree in psychology used to be what was given 25 years ago. Alot of the degree program initials have been altered recently. I will look through my files
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fredfam1


If you don't believe at all in these professions, why are you quoting them as definitive sources?
 
Bottesini said:
fredfam1


If you don't believe at all in these professions, why are you quoting them as definitive sources?
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I do believe in mental illness caused by physical problems, and I have seen and been taught by many really good therapists. What I object to is trying to define things that are physical disorders as mental. For instance a neurological disorder is a problem with the central nervous system. treating a neurological disorder as a mental illness with medication because the cause is unknown is dangerous.

I quote them because when I quote other sources I was accused of spouting propaganda. There are many in the mental health field who also recognize the dangers of things like hypnotherapy and counsel against its use, going against many of their peers. The entire field is subjective in nature and not science based.
I dislike the use of drugs in mental health issues when other measure have not been tried first, like Individual Amino Acid therapies. The mental health field has caused way more harm than good in my opinion, because they are so tied to the pharmacutical companies.
 
fredfam1 said:
Just a measely little AA degree in psychology. I quickly decided the psychiatric field was full of pseudo science and people who were getting paid to do the job a best friend should be doing. You know as well as I that people who have a trusted best friend do much better emotionally than those who see therapists.
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And that is why you are totally unqaulified to pass judgement on the topic. And the psychology field does even offer a degree below a Bachelor level.
 
Doug5 said:
You mixed me up with the other Doug. I was wondering where this thread went. I cant believe how big it got. Im gonna read it tomorow after I get some sleep
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Sorry about that. But take out the nurse, and the criteria I have listed still apply.
 
fredfam1 said:
Just been quite a while since I was exposed to the field. Its still pseudo science.
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In your opinion, it is psuedo science, but this is generally a claim made by those with virtually no understanding. Since the concepts can be tested and supported empirically, it indeed is a science by all standards.

Naturopathy is a psuedo science,
 
fredfam1 said:
The short answer is a psychologist is not a medical doctor and a psychiatrist is. They are both full of themselves. And perhaps it has changed but an AA degree in psychology used to be what was given 25 years ago. Alot of the degree program initials have been altered recently. I will look through my files though.

And a trusted friend doesn't have to be a professional. Active listening skills are often intuitive in these situations and clergy are trained in these skills. I think in the future we will find that all so called mental illness is simply physical in origin and that is what needs to be addressed. We are wasting time and money on drugs that are still a shot gun approach to therapy the only thearpy I have seen that is effective is short term CBT and it is really only a skilled guiding of a persons thought processes and disrupted thought processes are usually learned behaviors.


The Myth of Biological Depression
2000 UPDATES
"Brain scans cannot distinguish a depressed person from a nondepressed person and they have not located a cause for any psychiatric disorder. Indeed, they are mainly used in biopsychiatry to promote the profession to lay audiences by giving the false impression that radiological technology can distinguish between normal people and those with psychiatric diagnoses. The usual sleight of hand involves comparing photographs of a brain scan of a depressed patient and a nondepressed patient where there happen to be other differences between the two brains. Sometimes the differences simply reflect normal variation and sometimes they reflect drug damage. Brain scans cannot show differences between the brains of depressed and normal patients because no such differences have been demonstrated." Peter R. Breggin, M.D., in his book Reclaiming Our Children (Perseus Books, Cambridge, Mass., 2000), page 293.

"A serotonin deficiency for depression has not been found. ... Still, patients are often given the impression that a definitive serotonin deficiency in depression is firmly established. ... The result is an undue inflation of the drug market, as well as an unfortunate downplaying of the need for psychological treatments for many patients." Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in his book Prozac Backlash (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000), pages 197-198.


2001 UPDATE
"Part 6/Psychiatric Disorders
"ENDOGENOUS DEPRESSION AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE DISEASE
"Etiology
...
"Biochemical Theories The biogenic monoamines (norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine) are the key elements in these theories. ... However, the aforementioned CSF [cerebro-spinal fluid] findings have not been consistent; in some patients with depressive illness, the CSF concentrations of bioamine metabolites are entirely normal. Most of the neurochemical theories of depression have been the result of reasoning backwards from the known effects antidepressants on various neurotransmitters. ...serotonin and its pathways are currently most strongly implicated in the genesis of depression; however, the reader should be reminded that only a decade ago it was widely held that depletion of norepinephrine fulfilled this role. ...
"[T]he biogenic amine hypothesis...leaves several fundamental questions unanswered. ... Why are the therapeutic results so inconsistent with the use of tricyclic antidepressants, the MAO inhibitors, and the serotonin reuptake inhibitors, all of which should favorably influence the balance of biogenic amines at the proper receptor sites? And why are the clinical effects of these drugs delayed for weeks while the biochemical reactions are almost immediate? ... At the present time, it must be conceded that there is no reliable biologic test for depression. ...
Psychosocial theories ... Among patients with primary depressive disorders, life events of a stressful nature were found to have occurred more frequently in the months preceding the onset of depression than in matched control groups. In the study of Thomson and Hendrie, this was equally true of patients with a positive family history of depression and those without such a history. Nor did patients with endogenous depression differ in this respect from those with reactive depression." (In other words, even people with supposedly endogenous depression had good reason, in terms of life-experience, to feel despondent or "depressed.")
Maurice Victor, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Neurology, Dartmouth Medical School; and Allan H. Ropper, M.D., Professor and Chairman of Neurology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology - Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing Division, New York, 2001, pp. 1616-1618.
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And the fact that you are relying on introductory information gained 25 years ago is the biggest problem you have. You don't even understand the implications of the information you are pulling from the net. This article shows quite clearly that you are still confusing etiology and precipitating factors.
 
Aleser said:
First, I may be mistaken, but a course in psychology would be (I didn't even know they issue such degrees at associate level!) an AS, not an AA.

Second, if you honestly cannot make the distinction between psychology and psychiatry and view whatever it was you learned in such a poor light, your teachers have most seriously failed you.

A trusted best friend is not a professional- they don't have the education or equipment to handle the whole host of very serious disorders.
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You are correct, and such a degree does not exist at the Associate's level. Even if it did, it would not go past a 200 level course, which is considered to be introductory material designed to provide one with a very minimal and general type of information.
 
fredfam1 said:
I do believe in mental illness caused by physical problems, and I have seen and been taught by many really good therapists. What I object to is trying to define things that are physical disorders as mental. For instance a neurological disorder is a problem with the central nervous system. treating a neurological disorder as a mental illness with medication because the cause is unknown is dangerous.

I quote them because when I quote other sources I was accused of spouting propaganda. There are many in the mental health field who also recognize the dangers of things like hypnotherapy and counsel against its use, going against many of their peers. The entire field is subjective in nature and not science based.
I dislike the use of drugs in mental health issues when other measure have not been tried first, like Individual Amino Acid therapies. The mental health field has caused way more harm than good in my opinion, because they are so tied to the pharmacutical companies.
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No one is saying that some mental disorders don't have a phsyical etiology. You are the one that continues to argue that fact, and are doing a very poor job in doing so.

And again, you are very, very wrong about the field not being scientifically based. It is indeed, a field that employs the scientific method and uses empirical data.

So, you would take a schizophrenic patient in the middle of a psychosis who is posing a danger to himself, and rather than use proven, empirically supported psychopharmacology, and subject them to a bunch of unproven and psuedoscientific naturpathic solutions? Good luck with that. By the time you find out if your remedies are of any use at all, this particular patient would most likely be dead.
 
jillio said:
And that is why you are totally unqaulified to pass judgement on the topic. And the psychology field does even offer a degree below a Bachelor level.
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You are wrong about 28 years ago I obtained a 2 year degree in psychology from Anchorage Community College in conjunction with University of Anchorage Alaska. I have a degree. I can not remember if it was AA or AS but I do remember getting it. I was taking to courses concurrently with my nursing courses.
 
jillio said:
In your opinion, it is psuedo science, but this is generally a claim made by those with virtually no understanding. Since the concepts can be tested and supported empirically, it indeed is a science by all standards.

Naturopathy is a psuedo science,
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Now you are demonstrating virtually no understanding. Naturopathy is a science and can be demostrated emperically. The concept is called Hormesis.

Counterintuitive toxicity: increasingly, scientists are finding that they can't predict a poison's low-dose effects. - Free Online Library
 
jillio said:
No one is saying that some mental disorders don't have a phsyical etiology. You are the one that continues to argue that fact, and are doing a very poor job in doing so.

And again, you are very, very wrong about the field not being scientifically based. It is indeed, a field that employs the scientific method and uses empirical data.

So, you would take a schizophrenic patient in the middle of a psychosis who is posing a danger to himself, and rather than use proven, empirically supported psychopharmacology, and subject them to a bunch of unproven and psuedoscientific naturpathic solutions? Good luck with that. By the time you find out if your remedies are of any use at all, this particular patient would most likely be dead.
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Short term intervention is different than placing a client on SRIs and using a "lets see which one works best" approach. The schizophrenic in the middle of a psychosis needs to be hospitalized and obvious medical issues ruled out first. And I would rather place my health care in the hands of a skilled natropath than some psychiatrist, yes. I have personally guided family and friends who were being harmed by conventional psychopharmacology to skilled NDs and watched them all recover. My own personal ND works in conjunction with medical doctors who are aware of her skills and psychologists as well as psychiatrists. And her clients range from the severe to the mild. I would suggest you need to investigate this field more. Try to use sources other than just the AMA, and the APA. They are very biased and won't tell you the whole story.
 
fredfam1 said:
You are wrong about 28 years ago I obtained a 2 year degree in psychology from Anchorage Community College in conjunction with University of Anchorage Alaska. I have a degree. I can not remember if it was AA or AS but I do remember getting it. I was taking to courses concurrently with my nursing courses.
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And that Associate's degree qualifies you to do exactly what in the field of psychology/mental health? Certainly not diagnosis and or treatment. You can't even do that with a Bachelor level degree. And still, you have had to course work or study beyond an introductory level, and even that was 28 years ago. You were taught basic concepts. You do not have the advanced knpowledge and training that professionals in the field have. That is quite evident by your many misstatements regarding the tools of assessment used in the field, and a lack of knowldge regarding the use of the DSM and associated texts.

There have been many additions to the field in the last 28 years, and most certainly those apply way past the introductory level of information that you possess. I would sugggest that you spend some time informing yourself of the advances, as well as gaining the knowledge that you lack before attempting to make definitive statements that you are totally unqualified to make.
 
fredfam1 said:
Short term intervention is different than placing a client on SRIs and using a "lets see which one works best" approach. The schizophrenic in the middle of a psychosis needs to be hospitalized and obvious medical issues ruled out first. And I would rather place my health care in the hands of a skilled natropath than some psychiatrist, yes. I have personally guided family and friends who were being harmed by conventional psychopharmacology to skilled NDs and watched them all recover. My own personal ND works in conjunction with medical doctors who are aware of her skills and psychologists as well as psychiatrists. And her clients range from the severe to the mild. I would suggest you need to investigate this field more. Try to use sources other than just the AMA, and the APA. They are very biased and won't tell you the whole story.
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And what you are failing to understand is that short term treatment is not effective for chronic disorders. Short term treatment seeks only to relieve immediate and distressing symptoms.

And, if your ND was qualified to treat mental disorders, then they would not be consulting with those who are. The very fact that they must consult is evidence that it is out of the scope of practice for an ND. And, if they are proposing to diagnose and treat without consultation, they are opening themselves to some very malpractice suits and personal injury suits. Your ND can offer nutritional inforamtion and recommendations only. Her scope may be a supplement to, but is never, never a subsitute for qualified treatment from a trained medical professional.
 
jillio said:
You are correct, and such a degree does not exist at the Associate's level. Even if it did, it would not go past a 200 level course, which is considered to be introductory material designed to provide one with a very minimal and general type of information.
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I think you made need to rethink that statement.

Psychology Associate's Degree

Psychology Associate's Degree

The human mind is one of the most complex organic creations on the planet. If the human mind is what intrigues you, then you should consider pursuing a degree in Psychology. Psychologists study the human mind and try to provide assistance to those who are having problems stemming from mental disorders. Consider an exciting career in Psychology with a Psychology Associate's Degree.

What is a Psychology Associate's Degree?

In order to enter the field of Psychology. a student should consider earning a Psychology Associate's Degree. This degree is a beginning degree that teaches students the skills they need to understand psychology principles and methodologies. Any student who graduates with a Psychology Associate's Degree will have an introductory knowledge of diseases of the mind and mental illnesses. A Psychology Associate's Degree prepares the students to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology or graduate degrees.

Required Courses for a Psychology Associate's Degree:

When a student is looking to earn a Psychology Associate's Degree, he or she must pass classes that teach understanding of the human mind. An example of the classes a student interested in this degree may need to pass are:

* Developmental Psychology
* Brain and Behavior
* Psychology of Learning and Memory
* Social Psychology
* Cognitive Psychology
* Mathematics
* Social and Behavioral Sciences
* Humanities
* English Composition
* Public Speaking
* Communications
* Psychological Principles
* General Psychology

Skills Obtained:

Once a student has received a Psychology Associate's Degree, he or she will understand how the human mind works and how to recognize mental illnesses. The skills involved in understanding this include:

* Developmental Psychology Skills
* Patient Care Skills
* Patient Communication Skills
* Mental Illness Recognition Skills
* General Psychology Skills
* Human Relations Skills
* Brain and Behavior Skills
* Clinical Procedure Skills
* Medical Terminology Skills
* Diagnostic Skills
 
fredfam1 said:
Now you are demonstrating virtually no understanding. Naturopathy is a science and can be demostrated emperically. The concept is called Hormesis.

Counterintuitive toxicity: increasingly, scientists are finding that they can't predict a poison's low-dose effects. - Free Online Library
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Did you read the article in the link you provided? That has absolutely nothing to do with anything being discussed here. By using it as support for your point, you are again demonstrating your total lack of understanding.
 
fredfam1 said:
I think you made need to rethink that statement.

Psychology Associate's Degree

Psychology Associate's Degree

The human mind is one of the most complex organic creations on the planet. If the human mind is what intrigues you, then you should consider pursuing a degree in Psychology. Psychologists study the human mind and try to provide assistance to those who are having problems stemming from mental disorders. Consider an exciting career in Psychology with a Psychology Associate's Degree.

What is a Psychology Associate's Degree?

In order to enter the field of Psychology. a student should consider earning a Psychology Associate's Degree. This degree is a beginning degree that teaches students the skills they need to understand psychology principles and methodologies. Any student who graduates with a Psychology Associate's Degree will have an introductory knowledge of diseases of the mind and mental illnesses. A Psychology Associate's Degree prepares the students to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology or graduate degrees.

Required Courses for a Psychology Associate's Degree:

When a student is looking to earn a Psychology Associate's Degree, he or she must pass classes that teach understanding of the human mind. An example of the classes a student interested in this degree may need to pass are:

* Developmental Psychology
* Brain and Behavior
* Psychology of Learning and Memory
* Social Psychology
* Cognitive Psychology
* Mathematics
* Social and Behavioral Sciences
* Humanities
* English Composition
* Public Speaking
* Communications
* Psychological Principles
* General Psychology

Skills Obtained:

Once a student has received a Psychology Associate's Degree, he or she will understand how the human mind works and how to recognize mental illnesses. The skills involved in understanding this include:

* Developmental Psychology Skills
* Patient Care Skills
* Patient Communication Skills
* Mental Illness Recognition Skills
* General Psychology Skills
* Human Relations Skills
* Brain and Behavior Skills
* Clinical Procedure Skills
* Medical Terminology Skills
* Diagnostic Skills
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Posting inforamtion obtained from an online university attempting to sell you a degree is hardly supportive of your case.

The fact of the matter is, an associates does not qualify you to even work anywhere in the field. It is a 2 year degree, and offers only courses to a 200 level, which in introductory level. A Bachelor Degree in psychology does not qualify you to diagnose and treat. A Mater's level will qualify you to sit for an LPC, or an LPCC, provided that you have completed several hundred hours of internship in a clinical setting along with the Master's level course work. If you want to call yourself a psychologist, and practice as an independent, you must have a Ph.D. and licensure for the state in which you practice.

If you think that 2-3 courses of into psychology qualify you to understand the intracies of the human mind and to recognize the often subtle symptoms of mental illness, we have just discovered the reason that you continue to make such ridiculous statements. Likewise, even if you were an exceptionally bright and intuitive person, and could recognize the symptoms of all the mental disorders and properly classify them (which is next to impossible after 2 years of study), you would still not be able to do so as a professional, so your skills, by and large, would be totally useless.

And please note, in the courses listed, there is not a single course in clinical psychology or practice. The diagnosis of mental disorder is the clinical field. You have not shown a single course that you would have taken that would even provide a minimal knowledge of clinical psychology or mental disorder.
 
Likewise, even if you were an exceptionally bright and intuitive person, and could recognize the symptoms of all the mental disorders and properly classify them (which is next to impossible after 2 years of study), you would still not be able to do so as a professional, so your skills, by and large, would be totally useless.
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Which now brings this discussion into the realm of Asperger's.
Totally useless skills obtained by extreme concentration on narrow areas of study.:P:P
 
You know, I would just like to add, so that people are completely informed, a Ph.D. in Social Psychology, Educational Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, or Applied Psychology does not give the holder the ability or the legal means to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Only a Ph.D or a PsyD. in Clinical Psycholgy grants that priviledge, and that is only after licensure.

One can sit for their LPC (liscensed professional counselor) licensure with a Master's level degree in Counseling psychology, or the LPCC (licensed, professional clinical counselor) with several hundred hours of additional training and internship under supervision. However, an LPC rarely deals with psychosis, and is more likely to provide therapy for the less severe disorders. An LPCC will often provide therapuetic services for the psychotic individual whose disorder is controlled to the degree that therapy is warranted, but in conjunction with the psychiatrist who provides the prescription of the psychotropics that control the psychotic features of the disorder.
 
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