" He later texted me and asked what time I was born , where , and what hospital . It turn out he desire to get an astrological chart done on me . "
take down : This Wiley Post contains mentions of felo-de-se , eating disorder , substance insult , and trauma .
When first starting therapy, sometimes you need to hop around a bit to see which therapist makes you feel the most comfortable and communicates with you in a way that makes you feel seen. While some therapists might not be the perfect match, others might just be…a straight-up red flag. Recently, Redditoru/Demos_00asked those in the Reddit community to share the moment they realized they had aterrible therapist, and they didn’t hold back:
1.“I mentioned to my psychiatrist that I’m gay, and she went, ‘Oh, honey, that’s okay! You have plenty of time to change your mind.'”
2.“I told my therapist about my traumas, and she said something like, ‘Have you ever tried getting 15 minutes of sunlight a day?’ I’m not saying that doesn’t help, but I’m not going to pay someone $200 a week to tell me something I can find on WebMD. After my first month, I stopped seeing her.”
— Plastic_Top5413
3.“I told my therapist I was losing my grip on reality. Her response was to tell me to reframe it positively to ‘you have a strong grasp on NON-reality.'”
— inadequatepockets
4.“My former therapist told me it was impossible for me to have an eating disorder because I wasn’t underweight. She didn’t know my weight; I was, in fact, underweight. I went to a different therapist and got diagnosed with anorexia.”
— Jumpy_Ad_1457
5.“There were SO many signs I overlooked. The exact moment I realized, though, was when I started private sessions with my therapist rather than doing them through the charity I’d been using. When I entered his private space, it was…his bedroom. Then he said to me, ‘Hey, you can just get on my bed and sleep, and I can watch you for an hour.’ I didn’t do it, but I sat there in discomfort for an hour while he said weird shit. Then, he proceeded to charge me for the experience. When I left the house, he later texted me and asked what time I was born, where, and what hospital. It turns out he wanted to get an astrological chart done on me. Of all the things that should’ve been the red flag for me, theastrology chartwas the thing that pushed me over the edge.”
6.“When he told me I didn’t have bipolar because bipolar people have a ‘specific look behind their eyes’ that I don’t have. Mind you, I am textbook bipolar type 1.”
— Alert_Chemical8334
7.“My therapy topic was miscarriage and grief. Once, my therapist got a bit annoyed when I talked about worrying all the time about the small things. She said something along the lines of, ‘You can’t worry about every little thing. When you have children, you’ll understand. You’ll only have to worry about them, and nothing else matters. Well, I had just miscarried, so thanks for the advice. Needless to say, I never went back there.”
— kaarioka
8.“I have a wonky knee that I got from my father. My therapist said it was symbolic of my daddy issues. Here I was thinking it was just genetics.”
— lichen_Linda
9.“I was a very shy and depressed kid at the time, so I wasn’t good at advocating for myself. I asked my school for help, and they sent me to this guy. I only spoke a few sentences during our sessions; he spoke the rest of the time. One time, he told me to bring my parents in, and he informed them that I said I hated them. Not only was it a breach of privacy, but I also had never said that, and it wasn’t true. It took a long time to go back to therapy after that. Thanks for nothing, asshole.”
— lucklater
10.“My therapist started crying and kept interrupting the session. She then told me she needed to go see her own therapist.”
11.“I always showed up to my online appointments, logged in on time, and waited for my therapist to start the call. Sometimes, she’d be a few minutes late (fine, it happens), but once, she was 20 minutes late. When I asked her about it, she said she had been waiting on the call the whole time and that I was the one who was late. I’ve used this same system with two other providers and have never had this issue before or since. I told her I didn’t think that was the case and started texting her screenshots of the page showing how long I’d been waiting.”
" And it went like that : she ’d log on , fluster , and expect why I was former . It was fairly obvious from her tone , eubstance language , and how defensive she was that she have a go at it she was do it up and just did n’t require to own up to it . I think she lied to her society about the state she lived in , so it was make time zone issues with her appointments . Being tardily was one thing , but blame me to bring through face was just too far . I ’m pretty sure she was a terrible therapist anyway , but that was the final blow . "
— BraveLittleEcho
12.“When their response to my very traumatic story was, ‘Have you ever tried getting over it?'”
— Marvelous_Marigolds
13.“When she tried to sell me her friend’s book about how crystals can heal you. What makes it worse is that she was the ‘atheist, no mumbo-jumbo option’ on BetterHelp. I never saw a therapist on there ever again.”
— Dani_abqnm
14.“When the psychologist told me to stop coming to the free government clinic (that I qualified for) and to see her at her very expensive private practice because, apparently, I was ‘taking services away from people who needed it more.’ That’s obviously not a great thing to say to a suicidal teenager who thought she was evil and not worth putting in the mental energy to save. She referred me to a psychiatrist, and it was then I experienced a mental health professional who actually cared about my quality of life for the first time.”
— victorian_vigilante
15.“I literally told her that it felt like I’d dug myself a hole and couldn’t get out and that I needed help to find my way out. She said, ‘You seem well-adjusted and coping fine. Why are you here?’ My next therapist diagnosed me with PTSD, depression, and anxiety.”
16.“When they told me that I should find Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I went to a therapistbecausesomeone at AA recommended it. Good grief.”
— motivemeans
17.“When I got diagnosed with OCD and told my therapist my intrusive thoughts, she said to ‘just ignore it.’ Like, OMG, why didn’t I think of that?! Totally cured me. Luckily, I got a better therapist, and she helped me find the root cause of my anxiety.”
— katerinaromanova
18.Lastly: “When I brought up my body image issues with my therapist for the first time, she told me I was wrong, that I didn’t actually have those issues, and that I was simply confusing them with some other emotional problem. Why would she say that you might ask? Because I was her ‘most attractive patient.'”
— hjak3876
Note : Some story have been edit for length and/or lucidness .
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services;GoodTherapy.orgis an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
TheNational Eating Disorders Associationhelpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.
Dial 988 in the United States to reach theNational Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline is available 24/7/365. Your conversations are free and confidential. Other international suicide helplines can be found atbefrienders.org.The Trevor Project,which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.
