Dumb things Mental Health Professionals say

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My brain hurts.

"Let's try Cognitive Behaviour Therapy!"

"Let's try mindfulness!"

"Try guided imagery!"

"You can't have depression. Depression is an adult thing" - said to me at 13, after a suicide attempt.

"Anorexia would be good for you."

"You can't have anxiety because of your star sign."

"You can't be autistic because you can make eye contact."

“You can’t have autism—you have a great sense of humor!”

“I know it’s really popular to want to have autism right now because of the internet...”

Having a female psychiatrist tell me I could always go back to living in another group home if my mom passes away.

That is probably a very crummy place to be in but at least it's an option as opposed to being homeless. My parents(especially my mom) HATED me being forced to live with them after I became an adult. She used to regurally threaten to kick me out since I became a teen. I didn't like living there either but I had no choice after I became an adult because I have various disabilities & we didn't know how to navigate disability & welfare asistence programs other than me getting on SSI & Medicaid which no docs or psychs in my area would accept due to it not paying them enough. Over half of my full SSI check went towards my medical expenses & private health insurance every month. Voc rehab didn't do jank to help me find emoyment & when I was working the best jobs I could get were federal minimum wage type stuff & then my SSI got reduced. We looked into getting me into a group home or other housing assistence but I either didn't have the rite diaognoses, wasn't disabled enough in specific areas or I would of had to have already been living on my own or homeless. It was kinda a catch 22. Thankfully i met my current girlfriend online & she's also disabled but has a few benifits including housing & we moved in together when I turned 30. I also got on Social Security Disability & Medicare & Medicaid extra help shortly before that & I never had a problem with a doc or psych in Vermont accepting my health insurance. Vermont seems to be a lot better with that than Louisiana was.

"I don't think you'll ever be able to cope in the outside world, so you should consider joining a commune or a cult."

I'm glad things are now working out for you with having a supportive girlfriend. I doubt I will ever meet somebody like that so my best hope is that my family will help support me should something happen to my mom.

while "mindfulness" makes a certain amount of sense, I guess, I was stuck with this therapist who was a cheerleader for it. He started to tell me how being mindful generous balanced etc. could lead to stunning successes in sports, of all things.

Think about the personalities that tend to succeed in sport: Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong, Bill Belichick, Mike Tyson...OJ Simpson...Kobe Bryant

They seem 'mindful' to you? To me they're this side of criminality

A few years ago, I went to a therapist, not one saying I thought I could be autistic... But one of the therapists specialties was autism and she brought it up... And after giving me the RAADS and AQ screenings, diagnosed me.... So I told my psychiatrist who promptly said "she can't diagnosis my patients!"

Anyway when I moved to a different county earlier this year, autism was picked up right away thankfully.

Angnix has a lot to live for.

Good grief, I thought I had it bad with a therapist who tried to politically indoctrinate me, but this is definitely worse

I haven't seen many mental health professionals, and I've mentioned this here before, but something that consistently baffles me is when I got assessed the second time the woman told me that I essentially qualified for a diagnosis, but implied she didn't think I had it because my "ADHD had prevented me from picking up social cues" and I had probably "copied autistic behaviours from my brother".

Now, I'm not a therapist, but the latter especially seems like a bull excuse to me, especially because I've never had a close relationship with almost any of my siblings and didn't do any "copying" of behaviour, besides for the usual interest sharing younger siblings do. I don't even recognize any stimming behaviour in him because of how not close we are, despite for rocking because we used to sit in together/take turns sitting in a rocking chair when I was a toddler, so I definitely didn't pick any of that up from him.

The psychologist who was assessing why my son was struggling with school assignments:

"No, we don't need to test for autism because he makes eye contact"

followed by, after days of IQ testing:
"Oh, I see, yes. There does seem to be some kind of problem."

followed by, in the report:
"He's gifted. Put him in the advanced maths class."

So my son missed out on 5 years of assistance for his AS because the psychologist (a) knew FA about Aspergers/autism, and (b) didn't want to apply any kind of negative label.

My doctor gave me 'The Secret' when I was feeling really socially anxious to the point of it being brave to muster the courage to get out of bed.

I read it.

It suggests that your life is caused by negative thinking or positive thinking. So if you think positive stuff, you become rich and good looking and successful and if you think negative things you become poor and ugly and a failure.

Not the best book for when someone already feels like a failure...