When the mental health professionals fail, we only hear from the survivors.
So in this dark head space, I then called the supervisor and said, I need help and I'm not willing to go back to the therapist I felt betrayed by, or the therapist who stuck her finger in my face. And their response was to say, well, maybe our clinic isn't for you, then maybe we can't help you. And at this time, I was sobbing to them. I was telling them I was feeling suicidal and I needed help
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 3:39
Christina, thank you so much for sharing your story with us here on Swell. Although you are not seeking any means of validation, I would extend my energy to you in a form of validation. It's interesting how many people kind of go to that, as you stated, oh, you need some help, professional help. We look towards the mental health practitioners as car mechanics, all right? We just assume they know what they're doing. They went to school for it
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 5:00
When we experience trauma, we believe that this is only happening to me, but this is a universal thing, and it may not be 100% same, but there are people who are in an almost similar situation. Like you mentioned, one thing that I could relate to was, you know, like, eight years back, I was going through a phase, and I started therapy, and I went to this training therapist because I couldn't afford an expensive one or experienced therapist
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 5:00
I've done so much campaigning and so much protesting I can't even nothing happens because nobody shows up to protest these things. We are just putting up mental health. Mental health. And then done nothing else ahead of it. And I completely ranted
And so these other things, the things that were happening at the time in my life, everything else sort of fade away because they're irrelevant at this point. They left scars, of course, which helped shape who I am today. But the growth and healing that happened since then, I can't even quantify it. I'm just extremely, extremely grateful for where I'm at today. And thank you for extending your energy and your thoughts. Thank you
It's funny. This is the first time in my life where finding out that I'm not alone or I wasn't alone had the absolute opposite effect, because I could make sense of what happened by considering that maybe each individual in that scenario had their own things they were going through. Right? Or maybe there was a flaw in the procedures of that particular office
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 5:00
You can pick a lot of things about the counselor or therapist and they are actually really good actors, most of them. They try to mask their emotions. They have the degree and everything, but they have lots of unresolved issues as well. But they try to turn the table around and always focus on you if you try to ask them something and they are feeling guilty about something or they feel vulnerable. And yes, many people do that's. A thing called transparency
It's lip service to say that, but it's really about humans thriving or doing well or surviving or living or you know what I mean? Just wow. I think after reflecting on some of the responses here, that I have somehow developed higher standards for a therapist than even regular doctors because of this subtle aspects of and the compassion and empathy that is expected of a quote unquote professional versus a friend or a regular doctor. Right. And to just dismiss and say, we can't help you
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 5:00
She knew what was going on, but she had to defend herself and was trying to say, oh, maybe I can provide you with this therapist, or you can go to this person, or whatever. And they're very manipulative people. What I've observed is the most of them, just like doctors, have their own they have a union in their fraternity. They're very close net they will support each other. The same way. There is this networking of counselors and therapists as well
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And not necessarily helping people but keeping them hooked so that they can make more money, which then people are not getting better or finding what they need. And so it funnels people straight into therapy. And then in therapy you're going to see somebody for however long and again more money is being spent and again, it's not about actually helping people and it's really disgusting when you think about it, just really disgusting. I am overly cynical today
More recently, I had one where it was an Instagram account that I had followed for a number of years. And the man had posted photos of same content all the time. Never had we interacted. He has like, I don't even remember, but thousands of pounds and thousands of followers. And so there's no reason for him ever to talk to me. And he reached out and started asking questions, and he wanted me to I don't even remember
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 4:56
And unfortunately, where I live, I don't know about all the therapists, but what I've observed is that it has become a luxury more than a necessity, although it's the other way around. The people who actually need it, unfortunately, they can't afford therapy. And it has become a very elitist thing where I live, and it's so expensive. 80% of the therapists, basically what happens is they come from a corporate background
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 4:42
So yeah, some people are experts, corn artists who can pull things off in a very delicate way that you are unable to pick something out. And this documentary call Tender Swindler, this guy was catfishing women or something. And such characters are there around the world and I guess that's how they get a rush. Or maybe they're afraid of being who they are and they sort of choose this path. And many people fall for that, unfortunately
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 4:58
Assessing who you go to for help is so important. And as hurtful as the behavior of this clinic was to you, I think it's good that they shut their doors to you because then you wouldn't have gotten the care that you eventually ended up getting, right? So that is such conceited reasoning on my part because you could have taken it the other way as well because the help was not available. And this is the thing with mental health
And I don't know how much of that was on me and how much of that was on her, or a bit of both. But yeah, it's interesting. So as cynical as I have been, there are some regulations and supervisory sorts of organizations, I guess. I don't know all the ins and outs, but each province in Canada has their provincial group for licensed therapists. Counselors don't have that necessarily
And if you click that and then say edit, you can change the spelling of her username. And if you put just the at symbol in there and you start to type Benite, it should give you the option to choose her from a list. So you don't have to get the spelling entirely correctly, you just have to get the first portion of it way. Once you do that, then she'll get a notification for it
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 4:10
You don't want to give every case a million. But d***. And then even better, let's go to the root of the issue. If we see a trend of a number of issues omissions, errors, et cetera, shouldn't we go to the root of the issue versus focusing on how large the Band Aid could or could not be and actually affect change to the people that are providing the care at the bedside in these offices, et cetera?
But then women of color have it so much worse. And I'm like, how can any doctor say that that is normal and just let her leave and not be concerned, not follow up on it, not do any tests or find out anything. This is just inexcusable. Like, I feel like so many people that whoever she saw, all of them needs to have their credentials reviewed if this is their Mo. But the problem is this isn't unusual, right?
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 4:52
And it's like even with something as physical and as visual as physical health, we have these kind of problems with medical personnel mental health, though, we still have ways to go. Because from what I have seen, based on personal experiences, experiences of family members and people I know, and those of some friends for depression, they prescribe heavy duty narcotics and they put you to sleep. Now, courtesy of depression, you are sleeping anyway, as is, right?
Because like you said, failure in that instance is not an option. And quite frankly, in this situation, a little bit of understanding and even saying like, I don't know what to do right now, but you can speak to me and I'm a safe space and actually being a safe space goes a very long way. So this really anchors me. I have given people advice to seek out mental health help. But what you're saying is I know true
One with my 18 year old daughter, just turned 18 and it was bipolar and all the things like and both circumstances, I mean, God, I worked so hard, but I almost lost them because of these therapists. Like, I suspect in the circumstances there's different reasons. So this happens. And yet there are things in place where that's not supposed to happen. There's a term, I can't think of it right now, but they're supposed to go through a process
Like you said, we're not always our best advocate when we are struggling or another parenthetical. I have drama around things like this of not being believed, whether it's a doctor or what have you, because too often they don't. And it's like, what am I supposed to do when systems and people and all I don't know. It's very, very frustrating. And I know I'm not the only one