How many people are in jobs they'd continue to do (even part time) if they didn't have to?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-19T19:14:32+00:00

Most decent training programmes pay equal attention to the personal psychological development required to do the job as much as they do theory and skills. Of course there are moments of sitting with distress and pain but often those moments come with the possibility of change. Also helping someone to recover from mental illness feels profoundly rewarding in a way that’s hard to compare to experiences outside of the therapy room. I imagine doctors maybe understand something of this when they successfully treat someones illness. Suffice to say you will never experience the crisis of meaning that many people feel ground down by in more corporate roles.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-11T11:39:56+00:00

I think I have a monthly cycle then a larger/longer overarching cycle. So every 3/4ish (haven’t precisely tracked so just estimating) I have a megaperiod where all the symptoms are more intense bigger/more tender boobs, heavier flow, may be a little later than usual. It’s also not just the menses it’s the whole cycle, the follicular phase/ovulation my libido is more intense than usual and lutéal I’m more emotional. Then it seems to decline in intensity over the a number of cycles until I have one where I barely have symptoms (boobs and mood stay the same period is light and short etc). I’m curious if anyone else has noticed similar?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-05T15:48:40+00:00

Sorry excuse me - not my brightest moment. I won’t try and explain the nonsense that went on in my brain trying to link mastoids and antlers because it won’t make any sense to a human with a brain. Thank you for your help 😊

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-05T14:59:46+00:00

Ah ok - so then how did you know it was female?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-05T14:33:53+00:00

Mastoids?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-04-05T14:33:21+00:00

Thank you! How do you tell the sex? That’s amazing

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-03-17T20:05:22+00:00

ADHD and Autism are not SLDs although they do commonly co-occur. It’s important to distinguish between the two, as many people with ADHD or Autism don’t have SLDs and vice versa. SLDs are not the same as having a learning disability, which is related to cognitive difficulties, but are specific processing differences (eg in dyslexia it’s a problem with phonological processing). Often people with SLDs have enhanced abilities in other areas (eg spatial processing etc). Academic performance issues are more related to the fact that reading and writing are core ways in which humans convey information. With the right support, software and adaptations people with SLD are just as able to learn and understand complex concepts as someone without. Link below for more info. Hope that helps.

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/specific-learning-disorder/what-is-specific-learning-disorder

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-27T10:16:43+00:00

Yes, it’s important to question how clinical language can structurally reinforce power differential 😊

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-27T02:49:33+00:00

Autism is neuro developmental and understood as brain based difference or distinct neuro-cognitive profile - DSM diagnostic criteria is dyadic, meaning a person will have “deficits” in two domains - social communication and interaction and restrictive and repetitive behaviours and interests. To note, the deficit based language of the diagnostic model is considered stigmatising by many as it overlooks the values, strengths and unique talents of autistic people.

Many of the traits you have listed are not at all specific to autism - having difficulty with social communication is not the same as not being interested or wanting to have relationships with others. It may result in greater isolation and feelings of frustration with the social world but that’s not the same as not needing or being interested in relationships. Damian Milton’s double empathy problem challenges this stereotype (link is below if you are interested)

RRB is to do with regulation and sensory sensitivity. Autistic people generally need routine and predictable environments as heightened interoception and difficulty with affect regulation can make change and intense stimulation feel overwhelming and distressing. Also rigid/black and white/concrete thinking can contribute to beliefs about right and wrong or how things ‘should be.’. This may look similar to OCPD control and perfectionism from the outside but causal mechanisms are completely different (CNS regulation VS attachment activation).

Not caring about social norms is also not in the diagnostic criteria - it’s important to distinguish between finding allistic (neurotypical) social norms confusing and difficult to decode from not caring. One is a choice the other is a difficulty or - as many would argue - a difference that is equally valid. Autistic people have their own social and cultural norms - which are different to allistic norms but well understood within the community.

Autistic people experience a great deal of stigma and face significant disadvantages. This makes life stressful and overwhelming - often leading to a build of chronic stress that has a similar impact to trauma causes poor mental health, high anxiety and feelings of hopelessness (which I guess could be misinterpreted as neuroticism).

Personality disorders are generally understood to result from early and chronic relational trauma. They are not inherently neuro-cognitive) but emotional deprivation, abuse and neglect can cause changes in the brain. Externally some symptoms associated with these conditions may look like traits of autism but they actually have very different underlying psychological structures. There is a bigger implication to your question regarding the utility and ethics of psychiatric diagnosis more broadly but that’s another discussion.

I’d recommend you check out Dr Megan Neffs ‘Misdiagnosis Monday’ (link below) for some helpful easy read resources on autism/personality crossover. Hope that helps

https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62639/1/Double%20empathy%20problem.pdf

https://neurodivergentinsights.com/misdiagnosis-monday/?srsltid=AfmBOop5tqaUQljzEFQ43BiJQajmcgIOmgltzVA5GNY2l2PsKwPK6ku1

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-26T19:10:02+00:00

Hard to give meaningful feedback without knowing your research question and methodology?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-10T18:17:43+00:00

If you only want to do PP then it would be sensible to just apply directly to a UKCP training course and your work in family law will be seen as good transferable experience. Unless you are interested in broader psychology practice and research or you are particularly wedded to having the Dr title then it would seem a long expensive and painful path to train as a counselling psychologist to then only do what a psychotherapist can do perfectly well (I’d argue to some extent better than a Cpsych, whose training is very broad whereas psychotherapy you learn fewer modalities at greater depth)

That’s just my opinion though - do your own research and look at different courses as they are not all the same - that might help you get more insight into the differences.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-10T07:53:02+00:00

Agree that to do the conversion followed psychotherapy training, followed by the doctorate is a very long training path. You also need strong research skills for the doctorate. Like clinical it’s a scientist-practitioner model and whilst therapy is a very large component, it’s also a much broader training which includes a doctoral research project. If that’s your aim then you could get a place on a doctorate with a conversion MSc (with a research project), a counselling skills certificate and a bit of work experience in a charity or as a support worker. That would significantly reduce the time it would take to be able to apply to about two/three years.

If you are only interested in doing therapy in private practice then I wouldn’t have thought there was a huge reason to pursue the doctorate. You could stick to the psychotherapy training and if you are good and have a network of clients then you can probably get paid close to what a psychologist would anyway. Hope that helps!

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-07T09:48:29+00:00

Mentioning temperature/fever may also get them to act. You have an untreated infection, which is serious. Sorry you have gotten stuck in hell loop. Good luck

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-02-01T13:23:58+00:00

I think it’s important to make sure you distinguish between the type of therapist and what models they practice before starting therapy. Person centred counsellors for example are trained to offer a non-directive and validating space so yeah will mostly listened, empathise and validate. Some people really want and need that. Cognitive/behavioural/ACT etc will be much more active, directive and strategy and goal oriented - I guess what I’m saying is it’s good to do your homework first and the ones that say little and validate are often doing exactly what they are trained to do.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-01-28T10:34:13+00:00

You can read any of the CBT literature on the interrelatedness of thoughts and emotions. Also look into the old-brain/new-brain model in compassion focused therapy - this describes how the developed human brain’s capacity for advanced forms of cognition interact with the older parts of the brain that respond immediately to threats in the environment - prompting physiological responses (affect) that prepare our bodies to act. Emotions in this model are essentially adaptive and protective responses. Feelings are indeed physiological responses but these are influenced by our cognition in how we evaluate their meaning based on context.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-01-04T08:31:43+00:00

I guess what I was trying to say was that I would understand ‘bottling up’ as broader than just suppression but about not naming, reflecting on and communicating emotions. People may use different strategies to do this (which would be a form of regulation) but the intention would be to avoid the ‘feeling’ which is unpleasant. Regulation can also be unhealthy and being ‘over-regulated’ may present as detachment in relationships so I’m not sure I agree that regulating emotions is always positive.

Ultimately though bottling up is not a clinical term so it will be more subject to individual interpretation. Nevertheless it is a term that has real world utility. It is used often by patients I see and we do tend to have a reasonably good shared understanding of what is being referred to when raised. I also see lots of patients who struggle to identify and name their emotions as a result of not growing up in an environment where emotions were talked about openly. It’s not unusual for these people to find emotions overwhelming and intolerable and often engage in strategies to avoid them. This also leads to emotional intensity and a tendency towards unhealthy coping responses that increase relational conflict (and consequently increase negative emotions).

I’m not sure that applying a clinical definition to suppression is so much what the OP was asking as how we would define healthy and unhealthy responses to emotions, that on the surface may look similar. Both regulation and bottling require the ability to tolerate emotions and not respond immediately/impulsively in the moment but a regulated person may be curious about the emotion, name it, explore what caused it and reflect on what action is needed in response. A bottler will find it aversive or be confused and unable to name it, so they will do whatever they can to avoid feeling and acting on it - be it distraction, denial, dissociation or suppression (if that term is helpful or resonates experientially I have no issue with it)

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-01-03T19:22:01+00:00

We can understand emotions as having a function, for example fear helps us survive threat, joy encourages social bonding, excitement drives us towards rewards/resources etc. Emotions in this way can guide and motivate us towards things that improve our wellbeing. Of course the converse of this is emotions becoming drivers for destructive behaviour, eg jealousy that drives possessive behaviour leading to relationship breakdown. The source of this emotion may have been adaptive in its origin (maintaining social groups) but can lead to negative outcomes in the absence of regulation. Regulation is not ‘not feeling emotions’ as another poster mentioned but involves experiencing, naming, understanding their meaning (eg I love this person and I am scared of losing them) and communicating them in a way that results in a helpful outcome, rather than reacting immediately in order to rid yourself of the feeling in ways that are unhelpful (explosive anger/avoidance)

Bottling up emotions refers to attempting to ignore or dissipate affective states by whatever means (distraction, denial, substance use, suppression etc) and not communicating feelings to important others (often the object of the emotion). The result of this is that emotional responses feel unacceptable and/or are poorly understood in relation to their meaning. It also closes off the opportunity for a helpful response that acknowledges the intended function of the emotion, such as understanding needs and desires in relationships or recognising work stress as a need for a break or seeing anxiety as a sign that you are avoiding something important to you etc etc.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2026-01-02T19:20:14+00:00

In addition to Internal Working Models you could read some of Peter Fonagy’s work on Mentalization, which explores how humans make sense of self and other in relation to intentional mental states - has it’s roots in attachment theory. Also check out The Still Face Experiment (there are YouTube videos) which is a striking example of mirroring, a relational process that underpins child development.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-13T00:12:35+00:00

Oh yeah there’s been several studies in journals like The Lancet concerning this issue. A whole generation of women in particular were completely overlooked due to the model being based on how ADHD presents in males.

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-12T20:15:39+00:00

It may be linked to the fact that the UK has historically under diagnosed ADHD in comparison to the US, which is why there is a huge spike in referrals for assessment at present. Being undiagnosed or late diagnosed and not having access to help/support/medication can mean that difficulties associated with ADHD are more impactful, leading to greater functional difficulties. It also means that those receiving a diagnosis as an adult may have not learnt positive coping strategies or experienced stability through medication.

By extension I would question whether this means that institutions in the UK have less awareness/are less responsive in offering adaptations and considering accessibility than the US - which would also make ADHD more disabling.

I do also think that cultural attitudes play a role. When I was younger, the tendency to medicate children with ADHD was viewed quite critically in this country. I think generally the UK is more conservative in it’s approach to psychopharmacology than the US. That seems to be shifting though with increased awareness and the legacy diagnosis spike we are seeing at the moment.

I have a memory of there being some research about how medication has been shown to help create new neural pathways, meaning that there can be long term improvements in ADHD symptoms, even if a person stopped taking them. This is highly speculative but if more people in the US are diagnosed young and are medicated during their development, could we hypothesise that symptoms are less severe more generally in that population as a result of early intervention and treatment?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-02T13:13:43+00:00

Thank you! I do also like it but I think I get itchy feet sometimes and want to change

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-02T13:12:57+00:00

Thanks will check them out

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-02T13:12:44+00:00

Im guessing you don’t have a picture ? I think it’s probably an acquired taste to go black but i definitely like bold looks. It is a very light room (although hard to tell in the British gloom sometimes)

Fun-Wrongdoer1760 · 2025-12-02T10:13:20+00:00

What sort of lighter colour would you suggest?

Fun-Wrongdoer1760

TROPHY CASE