Therapy is a scam.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Therapy saved my child's life. She was suicidal and therapy gave her the tools to overcome those feelings and thrive. She took medication for awhile which was also essential but it was therapy that helped her learn how to face and surmount the challenges of living.

Do you mind sharing your therapist's name?

Unfortunately her therapist now works for a university health system and isn't taking private patients. But for anyone considering hospitalization, I can tell you that Dominion Hospital worked wonders for my child.

But all along the way there were no guarantees that she would become the grounded person she is today. It wasn't like she saw a therapist for six months and then everything was fine. It took years of therapy, a hospitalization, some years of medication, and also facing up to the fact that she had inherited the family disease - addiction - and needed to go to a 12-step program. I can't believe how lucky we were that she found her way to where she is today. She will still face challenges but I know now that she's got a supportive network of friends to lean on in hard times - especially if I'm gone and can't be there for her anymore.

Look, I know this isn't going to be much comfort for anyone - but I was a suicidal teenager myself and fortunately scared my parents into sending me to a therapist, who helped me see that I didn't have to live in the darkness and I had healthy choices that I hadn't understood existed. It took years for me to transcend a horrible adolescence but I eventually succeeded. And one thing I learned was that getting really screwed up young can sometimes be a good thing later in life. It made me more likely to seek help when I needed it because I had learned things could get better. If I hadn't been so screwed up as a teen, I might have just gone on through my 20s and 30s trying to get by and limp along emotionally without knowing that I could have a much better life.

But having learned all these things, I should have known better how to prevent my own kid's descent into darkness, right? Nope! I just ended up being another worried and scared parent wanting to will her towards a healthy life. My heart goes out to everyone on this thread who is watching their kids struggle. I hope and pray they work their way through it and come out the other side!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Huh? What is vile in PP's post? Feel I missed something....

Trolls. Don't feed them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents believe that if they plop their suicidal-anxious-depressed-substance abusing child in front of a therapist then the therapist can just magically make it all better in one hour per week while the parents do nothing in the family system to change the way they deal with the child or the other children in the home.

Therapy for an adolescent has to involve the PARENTS making major changes and the ones that I have seen are basically unwilling to do that. They just want their child fixed in an hour while they do nothing except pay the bill.

I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR GROSSLY PRESUMPTIVE AND BOORISH "INSIGHT" INTO OUR FAMILY'S SITUATION.
If you want to ASS/U/ME with your keen judgement that's what kind of parents we all are then you can F&*K OFF and go troll somewhere else.

NP, but your extremely aggressive and defensive responses tell us everything. Your poor children.

Plus 1. NP and NOT a troll. Having witnessed a family member go through drug addiction and then rehab, the parents involvement is a critical piece of the puzzle. Parents also are required to go through therapy b/c experts recognize that they are also part of the problem. Defensiveness, such as what you are displaying, is an example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Therapy IS expensive and time-consuming. Few providers take any form of insurance, and insurance companies are miserly at best in dealing with families facing mental health crises.

Here's the thing: recovery from serious mental illness is a life-long project, one that does not follow a straight line of upward progress, but involves a lot of setbacks and regression.

Have two years of therapy fixed my kid? I'd never make that claim. She's alive, despite two suicidal episodes, so there's that. We know more about what her emotional challenges are, so there's that. We communicate better as a family, so there's that.

I am really happy for you and you DD. Glad that she is alive and improving. I have studied Psychology and I am sorry to say that I think it is a Pseudo Science. I now think that good therapists are actually people with great patience and good understanding and listening skills, but that the majority are self inflated quacks. I am glad you found the person who was able to help.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents believe that if they plop their suicidal-anxious-depressed-substance abusing child in front of a therapist then the therapist can just magically make it all better in one hour per week while the parents do nothing in the family system to change the way they deal with the child or the other children in the home.

Therapy for an adolescent has to involve the PARENTS making major changes and the ones that I have seen are basically unwilling to do that. They just want their child fixed in an hour while they do nothing except pay the bill.

I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR GROSSLY PRESUMPTIVE AND BOORISH "INSIGHT" INTO OUR FAMILY'S SITUATION.
If you want to ASS/U/ME with your keen judgement that's what kind of parents we all are then you can F&*K OFF and go troll somewhere else.

NP, but your extremely aggressive and defensive responses tell us everything. Your poor children.

Wow, Agree.

OP here. I find these judgmental statements^^^ to be way out of line. Sometimes people -- such as MYSELF -- feel very frustrated and tapped out and are looking for support and answers, not to be judged, not to be blamed, and not to have vague insults thrown at them. That adds nothing productive to this discussion. This is MY thread, that I started, so I could have a conversation; how dare you bully and shame the posters here with that kind of post. And if someone is feeling attacked, especially regarding their parenting, OF COURSE they are going to become defensive and respond accordingly!

Most likely, that defensiveness is reason for so little progress.

[Anonymous]

You might get tarred and feathered by the mommies for having this thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet 90% of a kid's problems stems from home.

parents too scared to discipline
too tired to talk
too selfish to sacrifice their time

shitty parenting

Now, on the flip side, the therapists with whom we deal in our job have been wackadoo quacks enabling poor parenting.

lose-lose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet 90% of a kid's problems stems from home.

parents too scared to discipline
too tired to talk
too selfish to sacrifice their time

shitty parenting

Now, on the flip side, the therapists with whom we deal in our job have been wackadoo quacks enabling poor parenting.

lose-lose

Actually, the greatest factor is genetics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents believe that if they plop their suicidal-anxious-depressed-substance abusing child in front of a therapist then the therapist can just magically make it all better in one hour per week while the parents do nothing in the family system to change the way they deal with the child or the other children in the home.

Therapy for an adolescent has to involve the PARENTS making major changes and the ones that I have seen are basically unwilling to do that. They just want their child fixed in an hour while they do nothing except pay the bill.

I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR GROSSLY PRESUMPTIVE AND BOORISH "INSIGHT" INTO OUR FAMILY'S SITUATION.
If you want to ASS/U/ME with your keen judgement that's what kind of parents we all are then you can F&*K OFF and go troll somewhere else.

NP, but your extremely aggressive and defensive responses tell us everything. Your poor children.

Wow, Agree.

OP here. I find these judgmental statements^^^ to be way out of line. Sometimes people -- such as MYSELF -- feel very frustrated and tapped out and are looking for support and answers, not to be judged, not to be blamed, and not to have vague insults thrown at them. That adds nothing productive to this discussion. This is MY thread, that I started, so I could have a conversation; how dare you bully and shame the posters here with that kind of post. And if someone is feeling attacked, especially regarding their parenting, OF COURSE they are going to become defensive and respond accordingly!

Most likely, that defensiveness is reason for so little progress.

Where did you get your PhD in psychology from?

[Anonymous]

My mother had to go to a therapist to get her drugs. 30 minutes to drive there, 30 minute wait, 30 minutes of talking about nothing then 30 minutes back home. We would go to the craft store before home. It was like a mother daughter day every other month. Pocket full of valium or whatever it was she took. Happy all around. Scam it am.

My stepsister was a screaming mess when she didn't get her way. She went to a therapist for behavioral problems. This was before it was cool to drug your kids. She would, at 11 years old, pretend she was crazy. She actually told the therapist she was raped when she was two by her grandfather. And the therapist believed her. Too bad her grandfather DIED before she was born. Took two years for THAT to come out. This therapist had one on one sessions with the stepsister so she would open up. Bitch nearly made the whole family live in poverty because of her lies.

In my next life, I want to be a therapist.

[Anonymous]

Only medical doctors (or now, some nurse practitioners and/or physiician's assistants, I guess, but that's pretty recent) can prescribe.

In mental health, that's psychiatrists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother had to go to a therapist to get her drugs. 30 minutes to drive there, 30 minute wait, 30 minutes of talking about nothing then 30 minutes back home. We would go to the craft store before home. It was like a mother daughter day every other month. Pocket full of valium or whatever it was she took. Happy all around. Scam it am.

My stepsister was a screaming mess when she didn't get her way. She went to a therapist for behavioral problems. This was before it was cool to drug your kids. She would, at 11 years old, pretend she was crazy. She actually told the therapist she was raped when she was two by her grandfather. And the therapist believed her. Too bad her grandfather DIED before she was born. Took two years for THAT to come out. This therapist had one on one sessions with the stepsister so she would open up. Bitch nearly made the whole family live in poverty because of her lies.

In my next life, I want to be a therapist.

Proves the point about scam. Your mom saw a psychiatrist, psychologist can't prescribe drugs, sister saw therapist/psychologist.

[Anonymous]

From my experience with a lot of therapists -- both for myself and for my kids -- here is what I have observed:

They are all VERY different.

90% was a waste of time and money.

Talk therapy was a waste of time. I would leave the session feeling worse.

I agree with the poster who said a lot of therapists said they do cognitive-behavioral, but few really do. Most really do talk therapy or what they like to call "eclectic"

Because there is no oversight, they basically do what they want and call it therapy.

The therapists that are good are very rare.

The profession needs a major overhaul. Too many quacks out there give it a bad name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From my experience with a lot of therapists -- both for myself and for my kids -- here is what I have observed:

They are all VERY different.

90% was a waste of time and money.

Talk therapy was a waste of time. I would leave the session feeling worse.

I agree with the poster who said a lot of therapists said they do cognitive-behavioral, but few really do. Most really do talk therapy or what they like to call "eclectic"

Because there is no oversight, they basically do what they want and call it therapy.

The therapists that are good are very rare.

The profession needs a major overhaul. Too many quacks out there give it a bad name.

+1.