A big thing I see is people talking about therapists sometimes abusing their position or therapists sometimes being mentally unwell people. I won’t deny that this happens, but what’s interesting to me is that the people that talk about therapists this way usually say “sometimes,” which to me implies that they know it doesn’t happen most of the time. However, despite them knowing that it doesn’t happen most of the time, they still talk about these few problematic ones as though they’re representative of the whole. Of course there are problematic therapists. There are problematic physicians and surgeons, too. They’re all people. That doesn’t mean that it’s logical to assume the professional we see is going to be one of the problematic ones. Plus, just like anything, you can get multiple opinions and choose the one you think you’ll get the most out of. That’s always the process when you’re trying to treat something serious, whether it’s mental or physical. Another thing I hear is that people don’t want to be defined by their diagnosis. Do you think that people who get diagnosed with a physical issue are defined by their diagnosis? I think more often than not, their condition becomes something they have to manage, but it’s just one part of their lives among many parts. Mental conditions are the same. A diagnosis or treatment plan gives you something to go off of, and obviously your therapist is going to view you through the lens of having whatever you’re treating, but what’s wrong with that? If you have cancer and you have a weird pain somewhere in your body, then of course your oncologist is going to study the pain through the lens of you having cancer. They could be related. The other thing I’ve heard that’s weird is that a lot of people think that therapy leaves a lot of people worse off than they were when they were not treating or self treating their conditions. This is by far the most baffling. Treatment isn’t a one time thing. It can take months, or years. If you’re worse off than you were when you started, then you just aren’t done. If you’re trying to take your mental health seriously, then that requires getting seriously mentally uncomfortable so that you can really dig into why you’re so uncomfortable. Anyway. I’m at a loss. I feel like a lot of this concern is just straight up misinformation and misunderstanding about how it’s supposed to work, largely spurned by the classic stigma and distrust surrounding therapy overall. I thought we’d gotten past a lot of this, especially in communities where science is more supported overall. submitted by /u/Sudden_Doughnut_8741
Originally posted by u/Sudden_Doughnut_8741 on r/AskMen
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