What's your experience with therapists?

Not very positive.

Warning, big ramble ahead. Will delete later bc my sis saw rhe same therapists and is a frequent redditor will recognize me by these therapists.

Both therapists I saw were kind of hippie-like and liked to talk about things that interested them more than things that would help me

For example, About my first therapist, I mentioned to her one time that i liked birds and they brought me great happiness and then our sessions became mostly about birds!! Like- lady, help me. im dyng. I love birds but goddamn i have other issues too that I want to talk about. And she would talk endlessly about her photography boyfriend and her late husband and his art and her life issues and travels too.. like... WHAT? Why?? Im not YOUR therapist, why are you telling me your life story????

Then the second one.. well.

The TLDR of that is that she bought me so much shit, knowing that the reason I come to her is that I have a hard time saying "no". WARNING: The following paragraphs are ACTUALLY a "long story short", as info has been cut out, but theres so much shit hes done i just. Cant shrink it anymore. Seriously. She got me 2 laptops, a few plushies, and a fuckton of other little shit like trinkets n prints from my favorite artist. It was fucking horrible and a breach of a proper patient-therapist relationship. She was more like a sugar aunt and it felt more like "retail therapy". She also talked abour her kids a lot and wasted a lot of time talking about her own interests after the session was over, instead of just telling me we were out of time. (The clock was behind me from what I remember so I couldnt tell.)

She also downplayed my problems sort of..?she expected me to REALLY PUSH for a subject if I wanted to talk about it. Id mention one sesssion at the very beginning "hey im suffering so much anxiety over thoughts of death of myself and loved ones and I know its irrational but I keep thinking of it constantly." And she's be like "Exactly, its irrational." And then bring up my schooling or something and its like.. LADY. I KNOW ITS IRRATIONAL, I TELL MYSELF THAT BUT IT DOESNT STOP.. SO WHAT CAN I DO... AAAAAAH...

Either she'd do that, or id being up smthing like that one zession, shed change the subject, and id being it up again the next session and she just. Forgets i ever mentioned it. She'd be like "you never said that" and I'd just be like "ya.. i did..." and she'd be like "no" (did I mention she never took notes?) And it was SOOOO frustrating.

Anyway... It was bad....

Shes an extreme version of a bad therspist though, I assume. I know not all therapists are like that and usually once ppl notice those problems they leave, but i stayed for a full. Year and a half maybe? So i experienced the FULL PACKAGE of shittiness from rhat.

Both times I realized I needed to leave them were when I went to google and asked a google for help because my problems were downplayed, and words from GOOGLE brought me more comfort than either of them had ever given me in a single session.

I made a huge mistake staying with both of them for so long before finally leaving but.. its whatever, man. It do be like that.

/r/AskReddit Thread