You might consider looking online for therapists who live in your area and find out which ones specialize in treating the kind of issues you have. I think maybe PC even has a list of therapists somewhere on this Web site.

Once you've found two or three that look like possibilities, contact them via phone or email and briefly tell them what you've said here...that you would like to get help with "such and such" (whatever your specific issues are), but that you had a bad experience in the past with a primary care doctor who overreacted when you mentioned that you occasionally had suicidal thoughts. Because of this, you are very hesitant to try therapy. You need to be able to talk about your feelings without fear that a therapist will freak out and hospitalize you at any moment.

Based on how they respond to your message, you can decide if you feel comfortable trying out therapy with them. Many therapists will offer this type of free consultation first to let you determine whether they might be a good fit for you.

As long as you make it clear that you are not in any immediate danger of harming yourself -- that these are just occasional thoughts -- I doubt a good therapist would freak out and hospital you. I've talked about suicidal thoughts more than once with my therapist, and she has never threatened to do that.