This might be the worst organization I’ve ever dealt with made worse by the fact that it’s supposed to be a mental health service.

I initially signed up with them over a month ago. My first therapist seemed like a great fit (despite showing up 10 minutes late to our first appointment). Following up on the first session he no showed our second session (despite me messaging him ahead of time to confirm the meeting). After this session I asked to switch therapists. The second therapist was ok and I never booked a follow up.

In the time since I get reminders every week about my upcoming session with the original therapist. Those sessions never show up on my schedule since I switched from him. There’s nowhere in the app to completely cancel everything. I have contacted support after every time asking to cancel my account / refund / and stop all reminders of weekly sessions that don’t and shouldn’t exist. Support is always five plus days delayed in getting back to me. Despite multiple requests to completely delete everything they continue to send me the reminders and charge me.

At this point I don’t know what to do. This has been insanely mentally distressing considering I was already in a state where I signed up with them to seek help and they’ve done anything but.

Just a word of warning to anyone even thinking of signing of for this based on convenience.

I find this to be interesting because I've been in therapy for many years throughout my life, starting in childhood. Autism never came up. Recently, when I explain my current experience to my therapist and psychiatrist, they tell me I might have autism. When I tell them I don't think that's true, they essentially elude to me being in denial. Basically, a little over a year ago lots of components of my life fell apart/felt unmanageable at once: breakup, friend circle dropped me, navigating a new narcolepsy diagnosis, all while taking difficult pre-med classes at an academically rigorous college (and I have lots of childhood trauma lol). I always tell them that before this shitstorm I had none of the symptoms I struggle with now: inability to follow/engage in conversations, very socially anxious, executive dysfunction, brain fog and an inability to apply myself intellectually. Before this event, I was a social butterfly, who, yes had anxiety and depression, but I could navigate a room with ease. I was clearheaded and confident. A high achiever. When I try to talk about the grief I feel surrounding this personality shift it's sometimes met with "you have autism". I'm like no this is a SHIFT! I just took the RAADS test and got an 86. Both of them have shared that they are somewhat on the spectrum themselves so maybe it is being ascribed to me for that reason? I do have ADHD, so maybe that's part of it. I dunno. I just needed to rant because I'm frustrated. I feel like therapy just isn't for me sometimes. I don't feel like my experience is being understood right now

I've done four group sessions so far. The number of participants is a little overwhelming though they seem quite supportive.

My speech output is very low due to my Processing speed and difficulty to feel safe around people. Sometimes I cant speak without a prompt. I told the group I need help to talk more and did receive some prompting. However, I haven't spoken enough to felt heard by them despite spending three hours each day.

I'm not sure if I should quit now or keep trying. I dont think this program will help me, but it could be very valuable if it helps me feel safe enough to talk more. The other consideration is that it's costing me 2-3 hundred a month that I dont really have.

In my late 20s and have crippling social anxiety that has been made worse by health issues i been dealing with.

Some people i met reached out to me a while ago and were trying to be my friend. And these people are sweet and intelligent and i really like them.

But when they reached out i was really kinda far gone very isolated and happy to hear from them but embarrassed of not doing okay. At first i declined but then i was so lonely and wanted to see them so i agreed to hang out and we hung out maybe 10 times and i was so awkward pretty much every time.

My behavior came off like really tense and my mind went blank and didnt have much to say anf just felt very stupid and insecure. And they noticed but gave me more chances .

Until something happened that ended it. Basically i had a panic attack and was so embarrassed i just never reached out again. And i assume they havent reached out cuz they were either uncomfortable or confused.

This situation has made me very unhappy and i wish i could get another chance but seems like something i have to accept somehow

I have significant childhood trauma, C-ptsd, disorganised attachment and various other issues.

I've been seeing my therapist, the only therapist I've ever seen, for the past 9 months.

During that time I think I've become attached to her. Not sexually or romantically at all, but there's definitely feelings of some sort.

She's gone on vacation for two weeks and I'm really missing her.

It's weird because I've never really missed anyone before, I thought it was just something people said, not an actual feeling you experienced in your body.

I didn't expect to feel any way about it, logically I can tell myself it's fine, but the feeling just stays, I miss her.

Is this normal ?

Therapy:

-kept me grounded to time when isolation, day-to-day uniformity, a sleep disorder's lethargy and cognitive impairment, and the rhythms of navigating the U.S. medical system otherwise conditioned my perception.

-enforces a system of accountability that can prevent deeper spirals when a new, sudden development threatens to cage you.

-enables you to more lucidly navigate slow-emerging life changes that offer fleeting chances. don't let your life's speed or frequency of deadlocks warp your view of this.

-can involve real camaraderie its involved transactions never make "superficial." don't let your desperate loneliness, your hunger for a friend abundant in shared interests and available for small-talk anytime, warp your view of this.

this post might preach to the choir (and i don't mean to convert anyone who's faced clinical malpractice), but i would have needed these reminders before i lost my mind and fucked everything up for myself. feel free to add similar revelations about therapy.

22M just saw a therapist for the first time ever in January. This was a major accomplishment for myself because I never thought that the things I was going through “were ever worthy of getting help” and I’ll explain why.

Growing up, I lived in a household where my parents really struggled raising my brother (who had hyperactive ADHD). There were nights I remember being so scared when they were yelling at him or washing his mouth out with soap for something he said. I also remember my parents praising me for my calm demeanor or remaining the quiet one. Eventually he grew out of these tendencies but what I learned in therapy is that it is why I am a major perfectionist. I never wanted to be the problem child or be a burden to anyone else.

The real shame is that it’s what’s prevented me from getting the help I truly needed all of these years. I would always mask the issues I was facing with attention and executive processing. I never wanted to be associated with what the issues that my brother had. So as of May, my therapist said she strongly recommended I go and get evaluated for ADHD.

I am writing this post because I have once again felt the anxiety and pressure to talk with my parents about this. I also believe that since I have kept a lot of this inside my whole life they don’t believe I need any assistance.

Any advice or thoughts?

How do you know if your problems are "serious enough" for therapy?

I find it difficult to not be emotionally affected by that kind of thing, especially when having to help, persuade, or work with the other person, especially if I find the person very dislikable.

I become stimulated to where I can't regulate my emotions in time or my emotional regulation is overwhelmed and end up raising my voice, criticizing (often it comes out with a "punch"), or emotionally reacting. Or my feelings get hurt or my self-concept or self-image gets negatively affected and I start questioning myself on things I know aren't true but that emotionally make me doubt myself and go "Are they right, though?" It hurts my self-confidence. Or I get into a negative emotional state after being emotionally worn down from annoyance, frustration, dislike, etc.

I'm 17 years old and I can't stop thinking about my partners past. The thought of this eats me alive man. My stomach turns at the thought of it, I've had days ruined because the thought consumed me so much. She is an amazing person and treats me so well, which is why I feel so horrible for the thoughts that run through my head. I brought it up to her today after bottling it up for so long, and she didn't judge me. She apologized, and she told me she'd be there for me for whatever I need. I feel bad because I understand my thoughts aren't her responsibility, and I want help. I want to combat these thoughts. I want them gone, man I hate them with a passion. I thought I could handle this struggle on my own, but it started to weigh on me too much. I'm in a household where I can't go to therapy, and I've looked at online programs but I can't afford it. If anyone can help me with this I'd forever be grateful. I love this girl with all that I have in me, and I don't want my own negative thoughts to ever get in between us.

I was wondering do I have bpd I have very extreme mood swings where I think about ending my life and other times I feel perfectly fine

I spend so much time in my head playing out entire conversations with people I know or might run into. Like I'll be in the shower or walking somewhere and suddenly I'm having this full dialogue with my boss about something that hasn't even come up yet, or I'm explaining myself to a friend about a situation that doesn't exist.

The weird part is these conversations feel so real in the moment. I get worked up or relieved depending on how the imaginary talk goes. Then the actual interaction happens and it's completely different, or sometimes it just never happens at all. But I've already spent all this energy on the fake version.

I brought it up once to someone and they looked at me like I was describing something totally bizarre. But it feels like such a constant thing for me that I assumed everyone did it. Now I'm wondering if this is something I should actually talk about in therapy or if it's just a normal brain thing that I'm overthinking. It doesn't exactly ruin my day but it does take up a lot of mental space and sometimes leaves me drained before anything real even occurs.

Anyone else experience this or have thoughts on what it might mean?

My employer will pay for me to do my masters degree but there is a *very* limited number of approved majors.

One of the approved majors is Psychology but it has to be non-clinical.

I love learning and you can’t beat a free master’s degree, so this really isn’t me pursuing career advancement.

BUT, I am curious to know if there is ANY sort of licensure out there which an MA in psych would qualify me for? Even telehealth to see patients in states like WV that I read have Masters level psychological associates or some other term like that to do therapy.

OR if anyone else did a psychology MA and then subsequently did like a “bridge program” for clinical licensure.

I have been anxious all my life, I’m 18 now, just graduated high school but even when I was 10 or younger I remember always needing to be placed early, always being stressed out about everything. School, sports, everything worried me. Now that I’m going to college I decided to take the summer off. All the stress went away, it was great. No job, no school, started picking up a couple hobbies. Everything was going great, then I was just hit with a wave of just dullness, sleeping 10-12 hours a night hit me. For the last couple months, I have no energy or drive to anything. I’ve begun yelling at my family and getting mad at everything. Things I once enjoyed I no longer look forward to or want to do, even when I do enjoy something, it’s short lived. I hate doing stuff and all I want to do it lay in bed all day. If I lived alone I would just do nothing all day. I’m scared once I get to college, I’m just going to be going to class coming back laying down sleeping repeat. I’m either stressed out to the point I can’t enjoy anything until I get over or do whatever is worrying me or I’m mentally exhausted and just lay in bed all day. I’ve reached out to my doctors but it’s taking a while and I don’t even have the energy or will to really get help. I know I want it and need it because there’s something wrong, but I’m just so tired and annoyed and mad at my self and everyone else it’s wearing me out mentally. Any help would be nice. I want to start therapy but I don’t know where to start.

I've been in therapy for a few months now and something my therapist said last week keeps bouncing around in my head. She asked if I ever feel like I'm watching myself from the outside, and I realized that's basically how I operate most of the time.

Like I'll be having a conversation with someone and there's this weird split where part of me is talking and another part is analyzing how I sound, whether I'm being too much or not enough, if my face is doing the right thing. It's exhausting. Even when I'm alone sometimes I catch myself narrating what I'm doing as if someone's watching, which sounds unhinged when I type it out but it's true.

My therapist suggested it might be a defense mechanism from growing up in a house where I had to constantly monitor everyone's mood to stay safe. That makes sense I guess, but knowing why doesn't make it stop. I don't even know what it would feel like to just exist without the commentary track running.

Anyone else deal with this? I'm trying to figure out if this is something that can actually change or if it's just how my brain works now. Some days it feels like I'm so far removed from my own experience that I'm not sure there's a real me underneath all the performance.

Hey all, first time in this sub, and I wanted a place to vent, maybe get some insight.

Long story short, Mother did something bad... Real bad, so much so that my sisters are calling her out, insulting her; one of them even threatened to cut her from her recently born grandson.

Then theres me. The only male in the group, the son, the mama's boy, sometimes feels like I'm the golden child, and I hate it... My mother is a complicated person with a messy, muddy past, and it's led her to do some less-than-noble things while she was growing up. Even so, our small family circle made it work.

...But recently, today it came out that she was doing something I'd rather not get into, and it, of course, led to it being them against her: sisters, grandmother, etc. I may be a mama's boy, but I can recognize what she did was wrong... The problem is the crash-out that came from her was intense, even to the point where she threatened real physical violence towards one of my sisters who was the most affected, like SHE was the victim in all this somehow.

I love my mother, my sisters, my whole family... But fights and arguments are common; they happen, but this time it feels more intense than ever, so much so I'm worried something is going to happen. But my real issue is that I care too much. I care too much about what might happen, what this means for her relationships in the bigger picture, and what she might do if this boils over.

I'm very empathetic to a fault; you could be a complete stranger to me, yet the moment you tell me you're having a very bad day, my day becomes worse as a result. And because of this, I stress a lot about friends, family, and minor things to the point it causes me mental and, recently, after the news got out, physical pain. My chest felt like it was being squeezed, my eyes started hurting from crying, and my movement was wonky (Felt like I was going to collapse from walking)

I don't think theres a real solution to this, other than her finally owning up to her faults and at least attempting to apologize on her own terms... But this constant worrying of mine, the stress, the anxieties, how it hurts me on such a level... It's messing with my life. I want to care and be there for everyone, but it's starting to cost me, and I can't stop it. Is there any way for me to just... Care less? Focus more on my own troubles while still looking out for everyone? Even with their massive flaws?

Hi all,

I’m looking to go back to therapy but am starting from scratch and as we all know, finding a provider that works for you, your schedule, and your insurance is a difficult hat trick to score.

Lately, I’ve been extremely critical of my husband and in reflection, I’m perpetually irritated at him for what I fear might be…everything. I know why but I don’t know how to stop/correct it long term.

We do have things to work on together and they are in progress, and we’re in a better place currently than where we’ve been recently. My hypercritical issue at hand is very much a me-issue that I need to nip in the bud if I want to keep my husband from hating me (and I really do).

I’m looking for book recommendations I can start on my own while I begin the hunt for a new therapist. The only book on my radar is the Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, probably because of its popularity. While of course this is a google-able search, I’d really appreciate any personal recommendations that help me narrow it down.

From one in-progress redditor to another… thank you in advance

I’ve been struggling with the abuse I had from a person with BPD. I’ve had trouble finding providers that are knowledgeable and experienced with the specifics of Cluster B abuse and how to deal with them. The trauma impacts me a lot and it’s exacerbated my other illnesses that I have, sometimes it’s really hard to function because of it.

What kinds of providers should I be looking for? How can I tell if someone is experienced in these issues and helping me deal with them?

Hi everyone,

I'm 23F and I honestly feel like I've lost who I used to be. A couple of years ago I felt like a normal person. Now I feel like I'm just existing instead of living.

Some of the things I've been struggling with are:

Constant emotional numbness. I don't feel much anymore, even towards things I used to love.

Dissociation/derealization. Sometimes my room doesn't even feel like mine, like I'm in someone else's house. I can look around and everything feels unfamiliar.

I struggle to know what I actually like. I'll stare at things I own for ages trying to work out if I genuinely want to keep them or if I'm just attached to them.

I constantly seek certainty. I question purchases, decorations, hobbies and even things I've owned for years.

I overthink almost everything, especially objects. I can spend hours wondering if something belongs in my room or if I actually like it.

I feel guilty getting rid of things but I also crave a minimalist room. I want fewer possessions but making decisions feels impossible.

I don't really get excited about hobbies anymore because I worry I'll run into problems or lose interest.

I compare myself to other people a lot and feel like I'm behind in life.

I feel lonely even when I'm around people.

My memory feels worse than it used to be and the last few years almost feel like a blur.

Sometimes I don't feel connected to myself or my surroundings.

I miss the person I used to be and I just want to feel human again.

I've been to my GP. They found vitamin deficiencies which I'm treating, and because some symptoms seem linked to my menstrual cycle they suggested seeing a gynecologist. But I still feel like there's something more going on.

The hardest part is that I can't trust my own feelings anymore. Instead of thinking "I like this," I think, "Do I actually like this?" over and over until I'm anxious.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Did therapy help you reconnect with yourself or understand why you felt so emotionally numb? If so, what type of therapy helped?

I tend to dissociate (de realization) due to childhood trauma. My therapist thinks I should keep facing it until it gets better but I’m starting to wonder if it’s just making it worse. When I dissociated during a session he just got awkward and fumbled through trying to keep talking about my initial trauma even when I asked for something more comforting. Is this normal? Could he just be a bad therapist and I’m not seeing the red flags?

As far as I understand, there are people with specialized therapeutic needs, for instance those with strong homicidal ideation, or CPTSD, or pedophiles, whom a standard therapist will not be able to help much due to a lack of training or experience. Obviously, reaching out to a specialized therapist is not affordable for many people.

In circumstances such as these, is it better for the person to get whatever therapy they can afford, or for them to go without? I want to know if inadequate therapy can be worse than no therapy at all.

So I have a lot of trauma with therapy thanks to my parents and I was also misdiagnosed when I was younger. I tried telehealth therapy a few months ago and got diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, and depression. I’m no longer seeing that therapist as she had terrible connection issues and I didn’t feel very comfortable around her. Unfortunately my mental health just keeps getting worse and even though I really don’t want to, I think I need to find a therapist. The problem is there are very few therapist in my area that take my insurance and offer in person therapy. I found a therapist I think would be a good match but it turns out she only does telehealth. Idk does anyone have any opinions on telehealth vs physical therapy? I just feel like I’ll have a hard time connecting with the therapist if it’s over the phone and I feel like I would have more motivation to attend the appointment if it’s in person. I just don’t have a lot of options and am unsure what to do.