What's the most ridiculous thing you've ever been told by anyone in the mental health profession?

[AtomicNewt]

So, yeah, that basically. Reading and listening here sure up for some absolute gems.

I'll go first: initially the top one would have probably been being told that I had an "intensely negative outlook" by a shrink. This diagnosis was bestowed upon me after a serious car accident, as a teenager, on morphine (drug didn't agree with my brain, Boo) having being told that I might never walk again. Yah. Sure most people are positively peachy at that point... Let's swap roles buddy and I'll assess you - you be positive whilst crippled and crapping in a pan and I'll tell you to buckle up and give us a great big smile?

But recently was told by one that I'd deliberately entered into an abusive relationship because my ptsd meant that I craved control. I mean, Really? Is this a genuine approach? No, I got into an abusive relationship because I was vulnerable, also, and this REALLY is the key point here, I didn't realise he was an abusive arsehole. Stick that in your psych pipe and smoke it.

 

[Mr2005]

After several years I started going out again and some new person I'd never seen before took one look at my diagnosis and told me I needed to stop going out and take my pills. That was the moment I said "fuck this" . I did however end up in a psyche ward about a year later where it was determined I wasn't depressed?!

 

[woxihuanni]

So, yeah, that basically. Reading and listening here sure up for some absolute gems.

I'll go first: initially the top one would have probably been being told that I had an "intensely negative outlook" by a shrink. This diagnosis was bestowed upon me after a serious car accident, as a teenager, on morphine (drug didn't agree with my brain, Boo) having being told that I might never walk again. Yah. Sure most people are positively peachy at that point... Let's swap roles buddy and I'll assess you, be positive whilst you shit in that pan, otherwise you're a headcase yeah?

But recently was told that I'd deliberately got into an abusive relationship because my ptsd meant that I craved control. I mean, Really? Is this a genuine approach? No, I got into an abusive relationship because I was vulnerable, also, and this REALLY is the key point here, I didn't realise he was an abusive arsehole. Stick that in your psych pipe and smoke it.

You are awesome, and fuck them sideways. That's it, nobody enjoys misery and nobody goes into abusive relationships knowingly. The beginning is always heavenly, that's how it happens.

 

[oopswronglife]

psych pipe

I am going to pretend that means the arsehole....and use it liberally as a term.

My worst experience was unknown to me at the time. I thought this therapist was a kind and reasonable person. I was applying for benefits and they seemed supportive...but after being rejected I read the entire file and the report they sent was very hostile...accusing me of faking and claiming I stated I was just there for the benefits. I never said that...it wasn't true...but it permanently affected the course of my life.

 

[eve2004]

Let me just say that any trivial and unrelated to treatment comments about your body, be it positive (in my case) or negative are disturbing...

 

[kkatt]

Not exactly a psychiatrist but such a gem,just can't resist.
It was a GP (general practitioner). Before I could even explain the problem,he started showing me videos on his phone of an Australian woman speaking in tongues. He said I need to "pray more"

 

[woxihuanni]

Not exactly a psychiatrist but such a gem,just can't resist.
It was a GP (general practitioner). Before I could even explain the problem,he started showing me videos on his phone of an Australian woman speaking in tongues. He said I need to "pray more"

Ahah, a nurse said that to me. It was one of those moments I could punch someone's face in, and did not. Kudos to me.

 

[Skathon]

"They plan to include vegetarianism (as a disorder) in ICD-11".
(note: the phrase is translated and, therefore, slightly paraphrased)

 

[eve2004]

If you have mild psychological issues, not often distressed, and manageable symptoms but just need to talk it out, these people can be paid to help. Otherwise they don't have the skills to help enough and psychiatrists have no idea what these meds are doing, it would be healthier as a society to give everyone placebos and bounce from one placebo to another with zero side effects, at least then you can buy a bit of time without making a situation worse or trading in an aneurysm for a non-functioning liver...

 

[eve2004]

"They plan to include vegetarianism (as a disorder) in ICD-11".
(note: the phrase is translated and, therefore, slightly paraphrased)

My nutritionist kept telling me I had an eating disorder due to my vegan eating habits and the fact that I'm on the low end of the normal weight bracket for my height. So the DSM IS coming for the vegans too haha. ED-V : Eating Disorder - Veganism

 

[burnedCookie]

Once a therapist told me "I understand"
He was so good I didn't even have to finish my sentences...

 

[Tom9999]

When I first started my recovery work and was looking for a therapist to help me with my anxiety that prevented me from approaching women who I found attractive, one said "Ah, come on, what's the problem, bud? Just walk up to her and start talking!"

That still makes me laugh!

Once a therapist told me "I understand"
He was so good I didn't even have to finish my sentences...

It's baffling that some people can call themselves "therapists" and yet completely lack any understanding of boundaries, subjectivity, and listening. These people do evil.

 

[Skathon]

So the DSM IS coming for the vegans too haha. ED-V : Eating Disorder - Veganism

..yet, ironically, consuming butchered corpses is supposed to be "normal" and "healthy".
Speaking of amusement...
"You are really/seriously cool but crazy". I was flattered, of course, but...

 

[tomz323]

That they've never lied to me.

 

[Rachel74]

That suicide was genetic.

 

[Futility]

"Stop pretending to be disabled to get on disability"
The oh so wise and educated words that came out of the doc's mouth the one time I decided to tell the doc what I was dealing with originally.

 

[WorthlessGirl]

I was told I can't be really depressed because I'm smiling. This is after I was released from a mental hospital...

I smile like a idiot because I get nervous when meeting new people.

 

[Quitter]

I was told I can't be really depressed because I'm smiling. This is after I was released from a mental hospital...

I smile like a idiot because I get nervous when meeting new people.

This! I laugh and smile because I'm a nervous wreck and I deal with feeling uncomfortable in weird ways, not because I'm happy. I'm the weirdo who starts to laugh uncontrollably when you inform me your mother has died.

Edit: to stay on-topic, I was told to get married and birth a child to fix my mental health issues. I still wish I had told him to go fuck himself.

 

[bea1974]

"I think you probably have borderline personality disorder".

After 3 minutes in my company, having not read any of my file, and after asking me just two questions.

These were "are you bisexual", and "are you emotionally labile?". I did not know what labile meant so I asked her, and she said it meant did I typically experience more than two emotions per day.

I do not have bpd. In the 19 years since that day, enmeshed within the "mental health" system, not one of the numerous psychiatrists, nurses, psychologists, psychotherapists or other professionals that have met me has ever suggested I might have.

She was an idiot, and a bigot.

I have complex PTSD.

 

[NBreatheMe]

The first time I told a therapist about my suicidal thoughs she said "What does your mom think about it?" then she called my mother and forced her to make me promisse I wouldn't do it.

I tried a different therapist and he told me "It's normal, I want to do it too."

And that's why I don't go to therapy anymore

 

[woxihuanni]

When I was a kid I was incredibly well-behaved and outgoing, but one day a new teacher bullied me out of nofuckingwhere and everybody ostracised me as a result. So obviously I'm not too chirpy about it.

Mother drags me by the arm to a shrink. Shrink asks 'Why do you want to be different?' I says 'I don't want to be different.' That is just about all. Shrink prescribes hefty anti-psychotics. I find out what they are, and am scared that there is something wrong with my perception of reality.

Even my braindead mother regretted doing that to me while she tried to fish me out of my room crying my eyes out thinking I'd lost my mind and didn't know it.

 

[LastFlowers]

Every and any form of platitude that you see in those Facebook and Instagram "inspirational quote" posts. People really say stuff like that.

I was also told that experiencing withdrawal from psych meds was impossible.

 

[TAW122]

This was when I went to therapists and counselors in the past, there were a few lines that irked me.

"You have the choice to be happy."
"You're putting up many walls around people and don't want help."
"So how do you feel about that?" (Directed at a direct question requiring an direct answer, for fucks sake.)
(Not word for word verbatim, but similar phrases.)

Excuse me? So while mainstream society preaches and advocates for mental health awareness and help, so when I went to the therapist/counselor just like they suggested, this is the "help" that I got. Utterly useless and a fucking gobshit waste of time. What a fucking joke. Therapists and counselors offer no solutions to direct questions and problems that require a direct answer. Instead, they just boomerang the question back at you, dodge/evade the question, and/or even answer a question with a question (often bullshit - I fucking hate that).

 

[Jean Améry]

I was 'treated' by a shrink in private practice (fleeced is more like it) and I once had the foolish idea of showing her my world view might actually not be pathological but an expression of deep wisdom. So I took part 2 of Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation with me and asked her to read the beginning of the chapter 'on the vanity and suffering of life' in book 4.

Her reaction: that's rather pessimistic, isn't it? Right then and there I knew she was dumb as a mule. It's a miracle she actually graduated med school. Even as a shrink. Unlike most actual medical doctors psychiatrists usually are brazen idiots. No wonder they are attracted to the most inexact, ideologically charged part of medicine.

In the olden days they would have become theologists, nowadays they are called 'soul doctors': in both cases they have a license to proclaim complete and utter nonsense with impunity and without the need to ever have to prove even the slightest bit of what they claim.

 

[eve2004]

My therapist sat there speechless, wracked with anxiety, staring at his notes and I wanted to ask if he didn't know what to say or was trying to find a way to say it...

 

[Shamana]

I was 'treated' by a shrink in private practice (fleeced is more like it) and I once had the foolish idea of showing her my world view might actually not be pathological but an expression of deep wisdom. So I took part 2 of Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation with me and asked her to read the beginning of the chapter 'on the vanity and suffering of life' in book 4.

Her reaction: that's rather pessimistic, isn't it? Right then and there I knew she was dumb as a mule. It's a miracle she actually graduated med school. Even as a shrink. Unlike most actual medical doctors psychiatrists usually are brazen idiots. No wonder they are attracted to the most inexact, ideologically charged part of medicine.

In the olden days they would have become theologists, nowadays they are called 'soul doctors': in both cases they have a license to proclaim complete and utter nonsense with impunity and without the need to ever have to prove even the slightest bit of what they claim.

These days they are mainly big pharma's drug dealers and unfortunately the drugs mostly aren't that good. However helping psychiatric patients can be really hard, depending on how complex their problems are.

 

[BipolarExpat]

There's a long story about how "chemical imbalance" essentially saved the psychiatric profession.

Before the term was coined, they were beyond useless, lacked any respect in the medical field and had a very grey-looking future.
Then one bonehead came up with "chemical imbalance" in the brain, it took and *boom* the prozac craze began.
There's been practically no looking back since....just more drugs.

One shrinker said to me once, "confidentially, we have no idea what we're doing. We can only listen, prescribe and hope you check back in. It's pure guesswork till we stumble on the right mix."

Depression Delusion: The Myth of the Brain Chemical Imbalance - Dr. Terry Lynch

“A game changer. . Brilliant . . Essential reading. Highly recommended . . an incredible work . . the definitive book on ‘the chemical imbalance theory’.”

doctorterrylynch.com

 

[Jean Améry]

One shrinker said to me once, "confidentially, we have no idea what we're doing. We can only listen, prescribe and hope you check back in. It's pure guesswork till we stumble on the right mix."

That sounds about right. Pick a winner and hope for the best... It's beyond strange that there are still med students enrolling in that crap and embarking on a 'career' pretending to know what they're doing. Which ironically probably helps a lot of the simpeltons out there: pure placebo-effect.

 

[eve2004]

That sounds about right. Pick a winner and hope for the best... It's beyond strange that there are still med students enrolling in that crap and embarking on a 'career' pretending to know what they're doing. Which ironically probably helps a lot of the simpeltons out there: pure placebo-effect.

The only thing they are good for is having some reason to leave the house for a appointment, a face to face person to talk to without having to pretend to be OK, and .... benzos. Regular docs don't want to dish out benzos but psychs will do it almost liberally.
Those who also do therapy are at least a bit more useful...

 

[k75]

After making me tell her in detail why I felt so hopeless (I was trying to deal with an extreme, complicated personal loss and grief over feelings of mutilation after a difficult surgery), she told me I need to stop being a "Negative Nancy" and that I'll never feel better with that attitude.

There have been other things, but that one really stuck with me.