I have a horrible fear of being sent to a mental institution. I’ve heard that if you tell a therapist (licensed), that you’re feeling suicidal, that you could get sent there. I lie about how I’m feeling because I’m scared: I haven’t heard one good thing about them. I want to talk about a different thing but I told an in-school therapist something that happened to me as a young kid and she threatened to get the cops involved. I lost my shit and broke down crying because then everyone in my family would know what happened and I would probably kill myself if my dad and brother found out. Why do therapists insist on taking something traumatizing that happened to someone underage and try and twist into something for other people to spectate on?
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I’m no expert on all the how’s and why’s of the mental health system in terms of how they react to info you provide, but I do know they are bound by municipal or state laws to report certain issues to authorities, and when they do, suddenly it’s a parade of noses up your butt. What you say can be misinterpreted and made into a much more complicated issue than you intended it to become.
My experience (and I don’t necessarily condone this for everyone) with “the system” has taught me to just avoid saying too much – to stay in business and receive funding, they need clients (you) and if you tell them you’re sad, they can turn that fact into whatever they wish to “help” you heal. Just be careful and exercise prudence in sharing details of past events. If you really must, just be aware that it could lead you to a place you don’t wish to be. There’s not really a concrete set of guidelines as to how “the system” will react.
That’s so fucked up man, I get they need to make money and they do make money when people get therapy, and a lot of people get therapy these days. Why isn’t the first priority to help people who need help? I really don’t get it anymore. The point of therapy is to help so why do they make it more stressful? Fucked up tbh
There are undoubtedly many professional therapists whose intention is to help you. They are genuinely interested in helping you (us) work through issues. It’s like in any profession – people choose it as their lifes work because they feel called to it. The problem lies in merging the desire to help with a corporate mentality. In the corporate world, the bottom line is money, nothing else. Then you throw in the fact that our society today is lawsuit happy, we run to lawyers and sue each other for the most ridiculous reasons. So, in order to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits and excessive liability awarded by corporation hating juries, anything that can be construed as being inappropriate or illegal is treated very seriously by the corporate slime who oversee the therapists working at the grass roots level. It’s the same thing in the medical field. Read any corporations mission statement and you’d think they’re genuinely altruistic and sincere. Observe them in action and study their policies and procedures and you find they’re only interested in devising methods to cover their asses in the event of a lawsuit. From that perspective, solving your problems takes a backseat to protecting their multi million dollar salaries. After all, someone has to finance their luxurious lifestyles, and who better than us, the hurting desperate ones, with insurance policies.
Irrational? Yes and no.
First of all I’m Canadian so idk if it’s stricter where you are or Not but here….
My therapist knows I’m suicidal.
My therapist knows I have a plan.
But I haven’t been commited. In fact she can not commit me unless i show signs of hurting myself or others.
So is it irrational to have a fear of going to a mental hospital in general? No. Honestly I’m scared shitless because I know it will only make things a million times worse for me and I know they won’t listen to the “mentally insane” person.
Is it irrational because you think if they know how you truly feel they will send you there? Again depending on where you are….maybe a bit. You have to keep in mind that they can’t help you if they don’t know what is going on. So assuming you are paying for the sessions you’re just wasting money and time.
Please trust me. They can help you but only if you let them. And depending on the therapist. Like if they are just trying to give you a bunch of drugs it’s time to find a new one.
They just want money, that is why they twist. Don’t ever tell anyone that you’re going to kill your self. Don’t even go near a ‘therapist’ 10/10 times it’s just stupid wh*res that are too stupid to do anything that’s actually meaningful in their life. I was r*ped as a nine year old, but I don’t tell any therapists. I wouldn’t tell anyone that you wish, pray, hope, Dream and that your dearest and nearest only goal is to commit suicide. Other people are just massively bred, they can’t help you.
You’re better off out of the system. You’re just a sausage in a sausage factory to them.
The reason the mental health system gets away with its ridiculous incompetence/outright destruction of its patients is that its victims are weak and the general public is ignorant of what’s going on.
For years I went to therapy while fearing I would be institutionalized. I was very careful with what I said. Then one day I texted the therapist and said I would not be coming in because if said something about suicide she would betray me to the authorities. She texted back and said that only happens if she thinks suicide is imminent as in: (a) WILL do, (b) can do, and (c) have a plan. I went to the next appointment. No problem. That was a year ago.
school therapists will generally send you to a crisis center if you talk about suicide…. The crisis center things aren’t that bad…. Mostly you just wait there for like an hour then talk to a person and they tell you to find a counselor and give you the resources for you to do so. At least they do if you tell them that you have no immediate plans to kill yourself…. Really it was mostly a waste of time in my experience, may as well just cut to finding a counselor and my counselor never threatened to institutionalize me, he did often ask if I felt I was going to kill myself before the next time I saw him though. He’d also sometimes ask if I had a plan, or if I was buying supplies. I imagine if he felt like I was going to kill myself or harm another person he probably would have though.
Of course I would still be cautious especially as a minor and with school counselors. With actual counselors outside of a school who you pay, you can be a bit less careful and probably won’t be institutionalized…. After all if they do institutionalize you then you won’t exactly be seeing them anymore and they won’t exactly have you as a patient which means they are now making less money.
I’ve told a therapist and psychiatrist I’m suicidal, neither forced me to do anything (this is in South Africa, however). I dropped out of therapy though, realized it wasn’t for me.