Are The Majority Of Therapists Crazy?

[Bafof]

The first time I started seeing a therapist someone warned me that they're all crazy, but I thought he was being flip. Years later--not so sure.

What's the deal with this?

What percentage are nuts and how do they get that way? Are they crazy before they become therapists or does the job make them crazy?

Is there a particular type of crazy that is more common among them -- narcissism, psychosis, delusions, etc?

Who are these people, and why do they become therapists?

 

[Dafewi]

The going joke in the Psychology Department of any college, is the kids take that course of study to try to figure out their own problems. Yes, the role of therapist can draw some really sick individuals in need of the doting devotion of hurting people. There are some good ones out there, but the really good ones have been through their own hell and found a way out, so they want to help others do the same. Personally, I do best with a therapist who can truly relate to and understand what I'm going through, but they have to have found a way to cope with it in their personal life. I've met some therapists who were ok at the job, but their lives were totally batsh*t crazy.

I wanted to be a therapist, but realized that was what my parents TRAINED me to do at a very early age, without the chance to experience life or form any normal human bonds. I'm too effed up to help anyone on a professional basis, but the few friends I hang out with still say I'd make a great one. When I'm through my own therapy, have found ways to thrive and cope with my life, and "counseling" no longer triggers me, I may go back to school and be certified to counsel, but on a part-time basis because I know what this life does to the therapist who doesn't have coping mechanisms. Being a therapist is grueling work if you aren't really cut out for it, or have the proper training and experience to be able to cope with the extreme situations and emotions you'll face. Right now, don't wanna touch therapy as a therapist with a ten-foot pole! That may change as I get further in my own therapy, but who knows what the future may hold.

Therapists are people too, and life isn't easy for anyone, no matter how they try to hide it.

 

[Dusiz]

The first time I started seeing a therapist someone warned me that they're all crazy, but I thought he was being flip. Y...

I don't think it's good to throw around the word "crazy". Words are really powerful. Many therapists are drawn to help others after they have experienced the ups and downs of their own lives. I have really benefited from therapy but it's important to interview THEM and make sure you feel comfortable with their practices. I highly recommend doing research on goodtherapy (dottt) org. We all have a story and we are all human. Most people who become therapists have done so because they are empathetic and compassionate people.

 

[Ecaw]

I tried about 5 or 6 counselors before I found one I wanted to stay with when I first began looking. The one I stayed with said that he would not go to about 60% of the counselors that he graduated with. Compassion is a good trait, but without professionalism it doesn't mean much.

One counselor used up my whole hour appointment that I booked to talk about sexual abuse by lecturing me on the exciting new field of biological psychology which explains why men are attracted to younger girls. Apparently it's because their lips are fuller and softer, and this makes it make sense.

Another woman told me, after I booked an appointment with her because she specialized in trauma, that she had no professional opinion for me, but her personal opinion was that my grade seven teacher could have put a pop in my hand and placed me in the hallway with my friends. I was wondering about dissociation. I remember my teacher screaming at me in his office, pushing me against the wall, and pressing me back by grabbing my throat. I blacked out, and when I came to I was talking with my friends and drinking an orange pop in the hallway. I thought I dissociated because I somehow walked out of his office, bought my pop, and was engaged in a conversation, without my conscious awareness. She says he might have knocked me out and carried me there because he was afraid. ??? Really?

Another kept talking about her breast cancer and her heart problems. I liked her, so I went a few times, but then she started talking about her husband's cancer. After I stopped seeing her, I called her a couple times to see how SHE was doing! I was concerned for her.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

There's a lot of people practicing who should be on a leave of absence, or who should be fired. But if we are willing to persevere, there are good ones too. I have found them. But w need patience and perseverance.

 

[Rifoso]

I just posted the last post here, but it says I'm anonymous, ecaw. I'm Gaining Clarity. I'm not Ecaw.

 

[Uke]

Sort of like how a lot of cops were crime victims, and a lot of doctors were sick kids, a lot of psychologists had their own problems, first.

None of that ^^^ is all first person. My friend was shot, my mom was sick, I didn't know how to help, is probably just as common.

But then you've also got 'Family Business' people; My dads a cop, my mom's a doctor, my favorite uncle is a psychologist... People they admired as kids/adults, and have been around that world because of them, their whole lives. And that's the world they want to belong to as adults.

(But wait, there's more!) Other people just sort of fall into a career with no background, personal or professional. Usually? They take a class in college and OMFG! This is amazing! Or they volunteer somewhere, and wow. Just wow. If I were going to do anything? It would be this / what they do. Or they work in a related field, and that field exposed them to the other one, and dayum. Cop <> Lawyer, secretary > cop/doctor/psychologist.

As far as any particular brand of crazy? LOL. Purely anecdotally, whatever field someone works in, in psych, there tends to be a bit of a history, there. Not always. Not even most of the time. Not every child psychologist who works with kids in divorce comes from a divorced home. Some people just really love kids, and that specialty (kids & families in transition) allows them to work with all kinds of kids. Other people specialize in certain types of kids (learning disabilities, abuse, giftedness, poverty, prolonged illness/injury, etc.). Just like not all rape counselors have been raped, and not all eating disorder therapists have an eating disorder. Shrug. But there is a bit of a tendency.

 

[Wagoj]

Seen a lot of T's over the years. Like any profession, there's good eggs and bad apples but my experience? They all did a pretty good job for their profession. As long as I wasn't expecting healing miracles from, say, a support worker? Most of the time, they've done a good job of their job description for me.

"Crazy"?? What does that even mean!?!

 

[Bafof]

don't think it's good to throw around the word "crazy". Words are really powerful. Many therapists are drawn to help others after they have experienced the ups and downs of their own lives.

Maybe I should clarify what I mean by "crazy." I don't mean someone with emotional issues due to a troubled history, who nonetheless is competent and professional and seriously tries to help patients.

I mean "crazy" as in: ill intent towards patients who've done nothing wrong; sits through sessions with any and every objective except to serve the patient; emotional and/or mental clusterf*cks to the point where they are out of touch with reality; shamelessly lying or manipulating the patient for...entertainment, laughs, to feel powerful? Who knows?

If you take pleasure in hurting innocent people seeking your help, I could care less about the "ups and downs" that allegedly made you that way, and I have no problem calling you "crazy."

 

[Kuvawil]

Never met a shrink who is crazy by that definition.

 

[Novu]

The first time I started seeing a therapist someone warned me that they're all crazy, but I thought he was being flip. Y...

I have a very unusual amount of experience as I've been completely in a breakdown before, desperate for help at times and also known a wide variety of therapists socially.

Yes, they're just regular people. Im only speaking from personal experience but it is balanced with friendships ( wasnt always the patient ). Psychiatrists tend to be the most suspiciously dysfunctional in their own lives.
As in all things,when you find something good against the odds its usually excellent. They're very good when they're good.

Most PTA members at the school are bored and dysfunctional parents trying to find a purpose in their lives that looks meaningful.

Not all, but most are a shade of Desperate Housewives.
It's about the same odds, and just as obvious if you pay attention.


The good ones are great, I bet you'd instinctively know who to avoid and who to sit next to in a PTA meeting.

I have seriously, and recently, regretted not using my own common sense.

 

[Bafof]

It's about the same odds, and just as obvious if you pay attention.

I have seriously, and recently, regretted not using my own common sense.

So how do you tell the crazies from the good ones? The last crazy I dealt with, I couldn't tell she was nuts until several months into "therapy." I felt she was perhaps a little incompetent, but I didn't suspect crazy.

 

[Erut]

So how do you tell the crazies from the good ones? The last crazy I dealt with, I couldn't tell she was nuts until sever...

Honestly, as soon as you wondered " I wonder if she's a little incompetent"
to yourself you should have moved on.

Remember, its like dating. These are serious and intimate relationships.
Someone can appear to hit all the right ideas that you're looking for, but something is just " off ".

Trust yourself, tell them what you think too. Ive noticed that the ones that are condescending or belittling, even if it's very subtle when you question them, are usually in it for their own issues and I should have left earlier.

JMHO