How people respond when you say professional help didn't actually help you or made things worse?

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

I'm not even depressed, PTSD is my main issue, yet people throw the same things at me too. The exact same treatments and therapies for an issue that is fundamentally different. Ironically, this makes me depressed.

People like to pretend as if ptsd and many other issues labeled as mental are purely psychological products stemming from a lack of willpower, when that simply isn't true. My ptsd is involuntary and cannot be managed using some breathing techniques or meditation videos on Youtube.

Peopke act like I am crazy when I tell them that I think ptsd is neurological. Any studies and books worth their salt on ptsd confirm that there are structural changes in the brain from trauma, that do not respond to SSRIs and CBT. Yet, this is all you will be offered alongside EDMR, which once again, I find does not help at all.

I don't need talk therapy, I need a real honest to god treatment, and that's what they are blind to. They think we just feel a little sad or scared. They cannot fathom how horrible it feels to have flashbacks and be tormented by memories, or unconscious physical responses like fight or flight, arousal, nausea, etc. They think it is solely 100% in your head and you can control it.

After spending a year on my own practicing mindfulness it's quite clear that I just needed to be more mindful of my body and surroundings to put a stop to my body creating stress hormones that have kept me in a perpetual state of numbness for 30 years! These people that have the expectation that I have control over involuntary biological processes are clearly fucking insane.

 

[quakociaptockh2]

I can relate. In my case, the most annoying reaction is when people don't seem to listen. As if they don't understand what I'm saying.

Me: - I'm suicidal.
Someone: - Maybe try therapy?
Me: - I've been to 20 therapies for the past 20 year.
Someone: - I dunno. Maybe try therapy?

A similar phenomenon is when someone is running in circles. First they recommend therapy, then meds, then excercise or whatever, and then... therapy again. As if they forgot what they said 5 minutes ago, or probably they didn't care.

From my observations, people rarely think and rarely are honest. Most of the time they repeat cliches. They don't operate by the rule "what is the truth", but rather "what should I say". In case of suicide, simply no one told them what to say. They ran out of the script.

By the way, if I sometimes make someone to actually reflect what I'm going through, they seem as if they admit I'm right, or if they were in the same situation, they would be suicidal too.

 

[lostundead]

People seem to think therapists, psychiatrists, and other doctors are shamans who can perform a magic spell and fix everything

It's funny how people only do this with doctors. Imagine telling a friend or family member about an electrician, who came to fix a broken light but instead of fixing the broken light he broke another, tellls you its your fault and charges you full price; would they side with the electrician? No of course not. But doctors are somehow better than the rest of us peasants and they are completely infallable because TV says so.

As for me, doctors made me worse too because I now suffer from horrible anxiety everytime I think of them, since they kindly told me to fuck off by telling me its all in my head on multiple occasions; but people blame me for it ofc...cognitive dissonance in action.

 

[myopybyproxy]

It's funny how people only do this with doctors. Imagine telling a friend or family member about an electrician, who came to fix a broken light but instead of fixing the broken light he broke another, tellls you its your fault and charges you full price; would they side with the electrician? No of course not. But doctors are somehow better than the rest of us peasants and they are completely infallable because TV says so.

As for me, doctors made me worse too because I now suffer from horrible anxiety everytime I think of them, since they kindly told me to fuck off by telling me its all in my head on multiple occasions; but people blame me for it ofc...cognitive dissonance in action.

this is a fantastic comparison and truly elucidates the depravity of the industry. thank you for your insightful post. i'm sorry you had that (unfortunately all-too-common) experience.