That's why we're engaged.

Seriously, though, it sounds like you had a very traumatizing experience, and I am very sorry for that, especially because it seems you are not getting relief in telling your story, as well as failing to get your (ex) therapist to act in an accountable fashion for what transpired. Well, all of that on top of ...instead of healing, there was more harm done. We naturally want to trust our healers. At the very least, if they do not help us we expect they will "do no harm." I came on here to PC and got some very good information about why it is wrong for a primary care physician to prescribe an anti-depressant when anxiety is the main presenting problem. It can court mania. I really wonder if that's why so many people are now being diagnosed with bipolar. Since then I have found a lot more information on this. I was lucky I stopped the medication (I call it that loosely) in a short period of time. But I really couldn't figure out what happened until I came on this site and got a lot of feedback.

So I think that advocate sites like PC (well, I know of no other, I have only been on this site) serve a very important function.

Would it help, I wonder, if you started a thread with more specifics about what happened to you in your therapeutic setting? Or maybe...a thread about what people do after such a trauma happens in therapy? This thread started to address that.

In my case, I am done with therapy. I do enjoy peer advice such as is offered on this site. I read a lot, and I know you do, too. Right now I am working on two workbooks...one on CBT, the other DBT.

I think, for me, therapy promotes too much dependency, and I can ill-afford to give over that power to someone I barely know. In the case of taking the anti-depressant, the doctor kept saying "Trust me," and you know, I really wonder why I didn't say, "Why? I have met with you twice for a total of less than 30 minutes, and you are wanting me to take this anti-depressant which has over 20 potential side effects, some severe and dangerous, without question." I trusted her because she asked me to. And you know, BudFox, that was just stupid of me.

PS I confronted my doctor on the phone and in emails but she has that teflon skin that must be learned in medical school. I also saw (in my online medical records) that she put me down as "allergic" to the anti-depressant she gave me. (I don't think that was the problem. I think she treated depression instead of anxiety, although I was adamant that anxiety was my presenting problem.) I have since emailed her outlining my holistic health healing model, and told her I have become active on PC. She emailed back that she's "happy" for me. I hope I will never ever again go into any medical office as a dis-empowered patient. It's gambling with one's life...