Have you ever had a really sh***y psychologist?

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I had this state sponsored guy, as my first psychiatrist...
Was about 30 y/o I'd guess and really suave.

He was specialized in Personality Disorders, of which I was supposed to have three!
After a year of not caring in general (always shows up 5 minutes late in the waiting room to get me, boots me out 5 minutes early -thus cutting a 30 minute state paid appointment down to 20 every time!), and just pushing the exact opposite tips (for when dealing with autism), I got worse every single week...

After a year I was super depressed and stressed to the point of a suicide attempt (that he didn't notice I guess, even though I'd SAID it a few times), which landed me in the hospital.
The first thing he said when I saw him - I got out of the hospital and then sent to his institution by ambulance after two days of being in the mental ward- was: "We've been talking, and we'd like you to leave tomorrow morning.".
I flabbergasted and thinking like "Whaaaaaaat? I'm still suicidal and you want me back home alone?! !!".
Instead I asked if I could stay, and he said "Oh fine, two days from now then!".

But I knew he was useless after two months already... He'd pretend to be interested by smiling and nodding, but he did nothing to help.
Just blurt out things everyone knows or always a remark like "Ow wow, that sucks!". Instead of, you know, saying "Hmm, let's think of a way to make it not suck, or suck less!".
I actually wrote a letter stating that I wanted to see my file after six months of getting nowhere (a right here in NL), and he then took nearly everything he'd written out of the file (against the law!! !) and made me read it whilst he was present (also forbidden).

After the suicide attempt he arranged that my parents looked out for me more, because an actual suicide after an attempt might look bad on the ol' resume.
Plus he gave me anti-psychotics next to the anti-depressants (He prescribed anti-depressants on day one, when depression wasn't even a complaint! He said "Well, it takes 6 weeks to work, and if we do decide to start later, this way we'll have a headstart! ) to do his job of helping with my anxiousness.
The best thing he did was send me to an autism specialist for a new diagnosis. Then I had to wait 18 months till I could get transferred to the autism center...
Our bi-weekly talks then basically was him smiling and nodding, saying "Good news!" or the old "Aw, shucks! Too bad!". He didn't give a single usefull tip or information on autism or anything.

Bottom line:
I learned after about 6 visits he was a jerk who was in it for the money, not the patients AT ALL.

I'm not sure if this counts, but the person who diagnosed me with AS was completely ignorant in regards to knowing anything about me. He made extensive comments about the way I dressed (black shirt with a band logo and camo pants), my manual dexterity (hello, I have RA ) that I appeared to squint (no thanks to my ancestry) and made claims that I would never be able to attend university (did that-with honors) or find employment (did this as well). I guess I proved his a- wrong .


I'm still trying to figure why it was so important to dedicate a whole page to my sense (or evident lack thereof) of fashion .

I've certainly had my share of sh***y psychologists...the main one was when I was from the ages of 5 - 7...her name was Claudia and she was morbidly obese, plastered on the eyeshadow, and was really sweet...until you said something she didn't like. At first, I only saw her by myself, but eventually I found myself in "group therapy" where we were allowed to and even encouraged to rip on the other members for their misguided choices/choices made out of desperation...for example, one boy stole one measly Jolly Rancher from a store once, and Claudia asked questions like, " Would you want to be friends with someone who steals?" To which we were encouraged to answer, "Nooooooo."

Seriously, if you remember the descriptions of the "group therapy" in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, that's how it was with this therapist; I swear to God - she would turn us all against one another to distract us from the fact that she and our parents were our enemies. If I can remember right, I really wasn't all that "tuned in" or involved in the discussions...oftentimes, I would succeed in being so "bad" during the sessions that she would banish me to a spinny chair at her desk, where I could still hear all the discussion taking place, but not contribute. I stopped seeing her by the time I was 8 years old, thank God.

Whenever I drive past where her office is, I die a little more inside when I discover that she's STILL in practice. That woman seriously had a problem.

I've had at least two other sh***y psychologists (actually three) but Claudia was the worst one.

The most recent one was at my University...she was actually pretty nice, and really not all that sh***y, and I would have continued for her if not for the fact that after hearing about my collection of die cast Cars, she asked me, "Do you think the Cars are getting in the way of your becoming more social?"

The VERY SECOND someone says something bad about my Cars, it's GAME OVER for them.

I haven't had a bad psychologist for AS, but the first one I had for my gender dysphoria was terrible.

His advice?

"Try being a boy harder. Oh, and get a girlfriend."

/facepalm

worst psychologist ever.

I'm starting to feel like my current therapist isn't the best. I was afraid to bring up the possibility of having AS with her a few days ago because I thought she would get mad at me...I was right. She lectured me for a good 5 minutes or more on the dangers of "self diagnosis". I immediately withdrew into my shell and could barely speak for the rest of the session. She told me that I didn't seem like myself, and I just told her that I was tired. She did eventually ask me to explain why I thought I could have AS, and I reluctantly read my traits...all she said was "I'll test you next week". I couldn't help but feel like she knew that I was obviously on to something, and that she was upset with herself for being so oblivious to it for 3 months, and telling me a million times that I'm completely normal when I kept insisting that "there's something wrong with me". I felt like such an idiot, and the whole thing was so confusing. Some times, I feel like therapists could use some therapy themselves.

OMG!! ! I feel so bad for all of you who had these terrible experiences!! ! I have absolutely no faith in psychiatrists in general. I'm sure there are exceptions but geeze what you'd have to go through to find that one out of ??? to find the exception. I think the next person who asks why someone chooses to self-diagnose and not go for the official diagnosis, I'll refer them to this thread!

I've posted before about a psychiatrist who prescribed drugs like they were candy. He would only see people for a few minutes which was basically enough time to fill out a prescription pad, and he didn't care about side effects. I learned the hard way that sometimes it's not always good to mention family history of things like bipolar disorder, as when I was going there, I only had depression, and ended up getting some antipsychotic that made me so drowsy, I missed almost a week of classes at college. Fortunately, that psychiatrist was fine with me stopping that particular medication. I later met someone else in a support group whose son was originally this person's patient, but he decided that she needed to be on something as well, when she was just the parent taking her child to the appointments. Eventually, I was able to wean myself off of the antidepressant around the time I got the correct diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome and it's been years since I took anything like that.

That experience has turned me off to the entire profession, and the only time I will see any counselor is when my fiancee and I go to premarital counseling after we decide on a wedding date.

As for that awful high school guidance counselor someone else mentioned, I think what they did is wrong, and if school employees such as counselors are considered mandated reporters for suspected abuse, then they broke the law in that case.

Actually, I'm now with a psychologist who really seems to understand me...she does her practice with kids, teens, and young adults like me, and she has a collection of stuffed animals and Calico Critters to use in play therapy and role - playing. As a matter of fact, she's the one who gave me my little Calico Critters cat friend, Miss Important (Claudia used to give me and her other clients Beanie Babies, but that was more of a bribe to "act normal" than an actual coping tool), whose presence reminds me to assert my needs and wants, and that I'm an important person.

My current psychologist also likes Cars, too, since she has a little boy at home who loves Buzz Lightyear, spiders, and "Lining Keen," as he refers to the Cars movies. So, I guess not all psychologists are sh***y; you just have to do some hunting for one that really understands and helps you and won't judge.

....Unfortunately, there do seem to be more sh***y ones than ones like the one I currently see.

I could write books about bad psychiatrists. I've had one or two good ones but they are either dead/retired or not accepting new patients, took me awhile to get that last one.... I was a patient, I saw this person.... ten years ago... I thought I could talk to those people, just life and circumstance got in the way.

This new one, I don't know what to think yet, my gut tells me to get out and not go back, I didn't have to worry about making eye contact, he was too busy responding to emails and instant messaging on his laptop, yet he got upset with me for standing up and turning my back to him and pacing his office, "you are not interested in connecting or communicating?" he asked me.... I told him I could hear him and I would respond to his question and that I was getting stressed and pacing, rocking/bouncing on my toes while staring out a window was my way of coping. I refrained from commenting on his inability to "connect or communicate" it just didn't seem prudent at the time.

My boyfriend reacted odd after my last meeting because I was upset/confused afterwards so I feel compelled to return and keep trying with this guy. My boyfriend said that even though this new guy might not be that smart with understanding someone like myself, that I should continue to go because this new guy might be able to help with the PTSD. I don't understand this new guys approach, I don't understand why he is fixated on the PTSD and says that nothing that happened from conception till I turned seven is worth troubling myself over over as I can't go back and change it..... I mean, for me, even though it was rough, everything that happened before I was seven I consider the best years of my life, everything that came after has been a total unforgiving nightmare... I'd just like to know WHAT happened specifically from the time I was conceived till I turned seven so I can research and learn more, move forward with wisdom instead of just spinning my wheels and going no where. I'm thinking maybe if I know I can learn and maybe mitigate some of the crap I go through needlessly almost daily.

The new guy is giving me canned answers for everything. He will ask me a question, I take some time to process the answer (relive the memory) and I will get about 1/3 of the way through my response and he is hitting me with two more questions, one of them being "and how does that make you feel?" At which point I start to get flummoxed, frustrated. I'm thinking to myself "Uh, I'm here because I don't know how it makes me feel, I feel EVERYTHING!! ! It takes me to long to process what I'm feeling and I respond strange/react odd/inappropriately, I have no idea what other people are thinking/feeling or how they will respond to XYZ thing I say or do, kind of the whole point of meeting you" Of course I'm thinking this and I can't get my brain/mouth transmission into gear fast enough and here he comes with three more questions, of course one of them being "and how does that make you/them feel?".....

He asked me what I was hoping to gain from him, I told him that put simply, I need to understand what I've been through, what's wrong with me. He says he can't give me a "class A diagnosis" as my case is too complex, okay, I can give him that, I've only seen him twice and yes, my past is very complex, but how can he glean anything out of the meeting with his head in the screen, not taking notes and giving canned questions/answers?

By the end of the hour I am so overwhelmed by the rapid fire questions and mind bending emotional roller coaster I am losing it. He tells me "we are five minutes over, unless you would like to stay another two hours you can make an appointment" which makes no sense to me.... I say "okay" grab my things and truck out of the office. I hit the sidewalk and everything is too bright, too loud, moving too much etc. I get to the van, get in and my boyfriend is smiling at me and cheery "so how did it go?" Off I went. Completely unintelligible, upset nonsense flew out of me for about five minutes. He got angry (after the fact he said he was thinking that I was giving up, losing his shot at me getting all fixed up so we can have a somewhat normal relationship, which wasn't the case, I was just overloaded and confused). The ride home was very very quiet. I spent the rest of the day, and better part of the next, in the dark, in silence, alone.

So now I am pondering a third visit. I know I have to deal with my past in order to move forward, it's caused/is causing me problems in all facets of my life. I just don't know if this new guy is the right guy. The boyfriend seems to think I should keep going.... I'm on the fence. I probably will go, partly to satiate my boyfriends desire for me to work myself out and find some peace, partly so I can be sure this new shrink is/isn't the right guy.

Did I mention it takes an hour to get to his office from my house, through a major city, in non-stop rush hour traffic.......

Please forgive my rambling reply, it's late.

I had enough bad experiences during my childhood that I now have a phobia of all medical professionals. :/

The most recent one I went to (and gave me my AS diagnosis) was nice, but kept using figures of speech that I didn't understand. She was supposedly and AS expert, so it seemed off that she talked to me with language an AS person wouldn't understand.

While my two psychologists (that I saw at two different points in my life) were generally very nice to me and really seemed to like me, I don't think that they were ideal for me.

When I came out as a lesbian to my first psychologist, she kept insisting that she didn't believe that I was actually gay. Like my parents and teachers at the time, she thought it was "just a phase". She also kept trying to get me to watch the "Mean Girls" movie as part of helping me deal with bullies at school, but I really didn't want to because I was so obsessed with anime at the time that I refused to watch anything live-action.

My 2nd psychologist was at first very supportive when I told her that I had imaginary friends, calling it a "creative coping mechanism for loneliness". But after she told her superiors about my case (with my permission of course), she changed her tune and started telling me that I needed to get out and make real friends. I was devastated.

Something else that I thought was weird about this therapist was that when I told her about my fetish, she said, "Oh, so you get turned on when..." and she proceeded to go into a graphic description of my fetish which caused me to become very embarrassed and red-faced (and turned on). To this day, I can't figure out why she did that.

My worst was the psychologist or psychiatrist or whatever at the place where I would spend weeks at a time as a child. It wasn't a hospital exactly, more like a treatment center for physically and neurologically disabled kids. I saw this lady for a couple of weeks a year from the time I was about 4-5 to the time I was about 15. We did some sort of play therapy where I was supposed to play with little dolls in a dollhouse, explaining the relationship between the different dolls (mother, father etc). She was always very formal and cold with me and didn't give me any clues about what she wanted me to do. I didn't like her as a kid, although I usually loved going to the treatment center, but the worst part was when I needed some papers from the treatment center to the place I go to now. In the papers, she wrote that I have an unstable personality, because I changed the way I acted towards her the whole time (controlling, seeking for help, complying etc) I was f***ing 9 years old and didn't have a clue what the lady wanted me to do. I just tried different tactics because I wanted to do the right thing, but didn't know what the right thing was. There was a lot of other psychoanalytic BS in my papers too, even though I had a neurological dx as a kid.

I had a really bad child psychiatrist when we first moved to Melbourne he didn't even see me half the time he just talked to my Mum and Dad I was left in the waiting room
Trouble was he was the only one around at the time and then he said there was nothing he could do for me and I was taken off my medication.
I swear that psychiatrist couldn't even run a bath
I didn't get the help I needed thankfully I have a good Gp and I'm on medication again.

Really don't like those, they sit there pretending to be interested asking you all sorts of weird quests. Last time I was at one she asked me a question something like "would you rather have 1 bird in you're hand than 3,on the roof." I still don't get it why would I want a poor bird in my hand. I asked about if it was because I should eat the bird in the hand.

I just don't like people like that and their strange questions

Yes, I've got really sh***y psychologist one time.

What is starnge for me, it was person with very good references, a lot of people likes her - but her methods (what I learned over time) was more "new-age-mojo" than a real psychology or science of any kind

Maybe she can help NT's, maybe... I don't know...

But me - this therapy costs me a lot.

I never ever got so severe autistic symptoms... which led to big problems with studies... which led to deep depression...


It took me three years (with a lot of help from real specialists) to return to pre-this-damn-"therapy"-state