Hello, I am a pediatrician and just turned 54. I have struggled in my career with social communication and not being able to read people, colleagues and especially the parents of my patients. This led to never knowing their unspoken expections, and complaint letters, leading to verbal and written reprimands. I was 42 when I was diagnosed with Asperger's as it was on the cusp of becoming mild ASD. I refer to myself as an "Aspie" if I feel the need to use this as a description. After the diagnosis, i remembered many things from throughout my life, and it put a lot into better perspective. The one thing that didn't improve was my career. Aside from the same challenges, though a little better in some ways due to learning over time, I faced incredibly malicious harassment, intimidation, and discrimination from the most unexpected sources....a Pediatrician boss, and most recently and by far the most severe in my life was from Child/adolescent play therapists and 2 child/adolescent psychologists!!!! I thought a job with mental health professionals would be understanding and supportive!!!! How wrong that was! I was treated as an inferior by all of them, bullied, harassed daily, and then fired out of retaliation after discovering one psychologist had violated her professional license in many severe ways, including practicing medicine without a license by telling parents of kids under 6 that they cannot get medication for their kids (with ADHD). She used her own bias against medication to give these parents False Medical Advice!!!! (The FDA officially lists amphetamines as indicated down to 3yo). I reported my professional concerns to her, she responded with het air of supiority and completely blew me off! I reported it to the owner, the other psychologist. She told me a few days after I sent her the letter that I was terminated! She used my concerns against me to accuse me of violating my medical license by trying to tell a psychologist how to do her job! She treatened to teport me to the medical board!! She made up so many lies to justify getting rid of me, and then in the following 30 days til my last, she and her COO husband used frank intimidation to threaten me not to tell anyone, including the parents who knew and trusted me, that I had been "fired, terminated, or told to leave involuntarily!!" None of them ever knew what my job entailed, and they never knew how much knowledge and confidence I had in treating complex mental health conditions in kids 4 to age 21. I took a course for that job, and ironically discovered that after 28 yrs in Pediatrics, I FINALLY FOUND MY PASSION! I love diagnosing and the medication management for mh conditions. Best of all, my diagnoses of ASD and the common comorbidities of ADHD, Anxiety, OCD, and a chronic motor tic were all seen as ASSETS by the parents, because I openly discussed my diagnoses with the parents and kids who had these diagnoses too! The parents knew I could understand them and their kids more deeply than any other provider! For the 1st time in my career, I felt good about myself! The dichotomy of those feelings and an extremely toxic work environment led to a constant sense of "unreality", including that mh "professionals" of all people would be the ones to inflict this cruelty on me, a colleague with autism! My own psychistrist suggested I start my own practice because he saw how I lit up when talking about my job and the patients. Due to the severity of emotional abuse, I suffered severe PTSD, anxiety, and situational depression that is only recently getting much better. I spent the 1st 3 months after my job ended trying to write a long narrative to report BOTH of the psychologiststo their board. I had the great feeling of satisfaction when I sent this and actual proof of all of my allegations to the state psychology board! I hope they get suspended and fined!! The "good" to come out of all of this is that I finally got enough mental strength back to be able to take positive steps to creating my own practice, focusing only on diagnosing and med management of mh conditions in kids 3 to 18yo. I officially "opened" on July 15, 2024, and now need to be approved by insurances so i can get more patients since the o erwhelming majority of people cannot afford this as self pay. I started with telehealth only because i used our very small savings to get it all started. I am now about to finish my 50 page business proposal to apply for a small business loan for $250,000 to support the 1st year or so! Otherwise, due to lack of a job in 2017 for a year after leaving the clinic with the pediatrian boss who discriminated against me, and now this past 15 months with no income myself, we are personally out of all savings by the end of this month!!! Terrifying, and incredible feelings of guilt that I am not financially successful like orher pediatricians in practice for 28 yrs. I am hopeful though. I want PInecone Mental Health Pediatrics to be a success and help kids in smaller towns around San Antonio to get access to the resources i provide, because of their lack of access to child/adolescent psychiatrists who would normally do this. My website is about to be live any dsy now (took forever to juggle that monumental task of writing content with also trying to create a comprehensive business plan!). Check it out, especially if you live in Texas, someone in a large radius around San Antonio and know of children who need this help, but cannot get ready or timely access to a C/A psychiatrist. Pineconemhpeds.com My business secure email is listed there. I also have a page with info about the children's book i wrote published 2014, then again as lexile rated, chapter book. The 2nd time was Brown Books, and sadly is not listed on Amazon like the original is. Floppy Lop-Ears Tries to Get Off the Spectrum is not being published anymore, but I have many copies. The 2nd version, Floppy Lop-Ears and the Spectrum is being stored already printed in a warehouse. I have lots of copies too. I just can't get the marketing right! (Need money for that too!) I am excited to have just learned about this site. Hopefully I can connect with others perhaps nearby, or online. Thx for reading! :) Rochelle

Posted by Rochelle F at 2024-11-08 14:23:31 UTC