Why do shrinks think crying = depressed????

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I'm so sick of looking on a report and seeing myself described as depressed just because I cried at a session. Holy hell, sometimes I've been so frustrated or pissed off that I started crying.

Does anyone else get this? Their emotions are misinterpreted and they keep getting told they're depressed when really they're not?

Yet another "helper" I'm going to have to fire.

Not all do make that assumption, actually.

But these of which I am thinking are sharp critical thinkers.

Of course....they often have also sharp corners.
And an intolerance for untruth and nonsense.

Sharp critical thinking would be able to cut out logical fallacies. Correlation does not equal causation. A person can be crying because of something other than depression. An EVENT can make them sad, not biochemistry. I could be crying because of something that just happened, not something that's been happening for months.

No but my shrink always misread me and stuff when I was 16-18.
My mom told me I took him too literal and he said I took his words out of context.
Doctors will try and read your mind and jump to assumptions and not believe you when you correct them.

Thank god not all of them are like that.

Precisely Correct.

- But few there be in the discipline who are sharp critical thinkers.



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Last edited by Jamin on 18 Apr 2009, 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

whats it like to cry infront of someone you pay? i'd be uncomfortable doing that

because they need an excuse to throw pills at you. it makes their lives easier.

I have that same problem. Actually I live in a group home and if I have any normal reaction to a bad situation, like crying if I am sad or getting upset at being bullied by clients, the assume I am irrational and need medications,control, and/or psychiatric help. That is because they need an excuse to control me and/or get more money if it is written on a piece of paper saying I am 'crazy". I do not even over-react and or go overboard with it.
Same with the shrinks and especially medication doctors, so they can put down a diagnosis on a piece of paper so when they show your insurance company that you have a diagnosis and/or problem, they can get paid. Otherwise if they put down that you were venting, the insurance company will not pay them. This was explained to me by a former therapist I had because my insurance company would not pay her for a session because she put down that I was crying as a venting thing. Damn insurance companies. Also, with the medication psychiatrist, they need an excuse to give medications. In the U.S. some doctors get incentives by the pharmaceutical companies(money gifts, etc.) to prescribe medications to their patients. That is how it is with me.
Sick isn't.

I feel like I'm paying some kind of really weird sex worker some of the time, actually. Hahaha.

I've been doing this for years, hiring and firing people. I eventually figured out that you shouldn't ever go to anyone who can prescribe medication because they always will. So now I just go to psychologists/neuropsychologists.

....I really don't think it's working. I'm just getting pissed off.

Agree there. Also, crying = depression = perscription = big pharm kickbacks = money in doc's pockets. It's not universal, but I've noticed it far too often.

I still have to wonder why people who don't even have the authority to prescribe anything are so quick to say "DEPRESSION!"

The guy I'm dealing with now isn't a medical doctor so I don't get it. Is it because he's been brainwashed too?

It makes me want to go to med school and become a neurologist, but my neurologist is a total c**t, so it's not like they're better.

The doctor is saying you're depressed because you're crying?

Pardon me, but I find that so false to my own experience that I
can hardly help laughing at the doctor in question.

Depression is when you want to cry, when it wouldn't be inappropriate
to cry, when you have no real reason not to cry, and yet you can't cry.
The grief feels just too overwhelming. You're too ashamed that others
might think of you as being weak.

Trust me on this, I've lived through bouts of depression.

I would be a great deal more worried about depression if someone was unable to cry. Frequent crying can be a sign of depression, or just a sign of stress. It can happen when you discuss something upsetting, even if your life is otherwise OK.

I am usually unable to conceal my emotions. As a result, I appear to be feeling them a lot more intensely than I am. I have, for example, been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder even though the anxiety I feel is normal and does not interfere with my life. Of course I can't compare it to what someone else feels; but the criterion of impairment is not met, and therefore the anxiety does not qualify me for a diagnosis.

If your therapist is assuming you show emotions in an average-NT style, s/he may be assuming that your feelings are more intense than your actions, as they would be for a neurotypical attempting to conceal his emotions. If, however, you are not concealing your emotions at all--either because you feel comfortable enough not to, because you have decided not to, or because you are unable to--then the therapist may be misinterpreting your actions.

I really wish I could NOT cry. I can't hide my emotions at all. I cry at basically every session because anything will make me cry. Anger, frustration, sadness (and not biochemical sadness, but something like a recent death in the family).

But I bet if I went to a session and DIDN'T cry... he'd write down "flattened affect".

It's gotten to the point where I want to start taking valium or something before I go just so I can be a stone.

You're very lucky to be able to show your emotions so freely with others even though it seems horrible to you. I've had various forms of depression for many years and I find it very difficult to cry. Wanting to cry and not being able to have that release is the worst feeling in the world I think. It is unbearable. I've started to be able to cry alone but I still can't reach out and share my feelings with others. I am, like you say, a stone.

Therapists and the like tend to see frequent crying as depression but really it is more of a problem if you CAN'T cry. Crying is healing as the grief is passing through your body and finding an outlet. Depression weighs you down so that the emotion has no outlet and normally the depressed person has no energy for tears. I don't know why therapists see crying as unhealthy.

I really think they give me placebos in place of the drugs that actually do something.

I wish I could cry more; it feels good. I can't get anything out of the unreadable appearance.