I composed a similar thread about a month ago, but I'm still struggling with this issue. I believe I have formulated some better means of communicating the problem and created better questions to ask all of you folks, so I'm going to try again.

I am going to be taking a battery of psych tests very soon. I am also going to be having a hearing scheduled soon for social security disability and while I should get disability easily based on my physical issues, most of us understand that the system is not always fair and not everyone who deserves it will receive it. For that reason, the psych tests are important because they can bolster my claim and increase my chances of receiving disability. But there's a problem.

The way I think makes answering many of the questions impossible for me. Not answering too many questions invalidates the tests, and guessing, rather than leaving the questions blank, doesn't allow the test to accurately assess me. I have explained my concerns to both my psychiatrist and therapist in great detail but they are dismissing my concerns out of hand. They tell me to stop overthinking the questions, but I am not overthinking - this is a normal amount of thinking for me and I simply don't know how to think like normal people do.

I've chosen a few examples to illustrate my consternation. While I'm interested in how to answer these questions out of curiosity, the fact remains that these are just examples. Without a way to figure out how to answer these myself, without help - I'm going to have to pick answers at random to a statistically relevant number of questions.

I suppose what I am looking for is either a new way to try and communicate this problem to my psychiatrist and therapist so that they take my problem seriously, or find a way to answer these questions on my own. Another possible solution is that if this type of thinking has a name, or it sounds like something you recognize, perhaps I could get them to consider that instead of dismissing it. Please believe though, I've spoken of nothing else in sessions with them for the last two months and made exactly zero headway. Incidentally, I cannot change psychiatrists and therapists at this time - I am running out of time to get records in to social security disability to be considered for the hearing, and starting over now would mean these tests won't be given in time to be considered. Here are the examples:

"Do you dread going into a room by yourself where other people have already gathered and are talking?"

I hate social engagements period. That means that I hate going into a room whether other people have already gathered or will soon be gathering. I hate going into such a room equally by myself or with my closest friend. On the other hand, I'm really good at socializing. I don't have social anxiety in that I don't freeze up or don't know what to say. In fact, I always know what to say - I just hate it and would rather have a root canal without anesthesia.

So this is how my brain works:

Do you dread going into a room (party)? Absolutely true.

Do you dread going into a room by yourself? What the heck does 'by yourself' have to do with anything? Now it sounds like they are trying to determine if I need others with me to feel comfortable. A true answer now would lead them to believe that I lack the confidence to go into a room by myself and that is absolutely not true. So I'm leaning toward 'false'.

Do you dread going into a room by yourself where other people are already gathering and talking? Again, 'where other people are already gathering and talking' is a condition of the question that modifies what the question is asking. My answer is still technically 'true' but this addendum just muddies the waters. It is correlating my dread with both the fact that I am by myself and that people are already engaged. That is a faulty correlation.

Incidentally, I have told both my pdoc and therapist this and I've just gotten the 'you need to change the way you think' Okay, the test is in two weeks and I've been thinking this way for over a half century - let's be realistic. Here's another:

"I have close friends who served time in prison."

My wife spent twenty-four years in prison. She is my only friend. But the question says friends - plural. So false? I mean, one hundred percent of my friends have spent time in prison - all one of them. Technically, the answer must be marked 'false' since there is only one friend...but it seems to violate the spirit of the question.The next question isn't the best example, but it is a type of question I have a lot of trouble with:

"I enjoy violent sports and movies."

They are making the assumption that the two, sports and movies, are linked - but what happens when they are not for me? How do I answer? I don't like violent sports because it is real and someone can get hurt. I do like violent movies, in spite of the violence, because I know it's not real and no one is really getting hurt.

The fact that these questions are impossible for me to answer seems more important than how I guess at the right answer - but no one is listening.