[blackwhitered]

Has this ever happened to you?

I was in the hospital for my eating disorder, and one of the MTs came in to watch us and whatever. She was still in school and had worked on some of the other floors (each floor corresponds to a different mental illness) so she had learned a bit about and had a bit of experience with psychotic patients.

So she started talking to the ED patients about how much she was filled with awe about schizophrenia and whatnot. Basically saying that the human brain is incredible, and could you imagine experiencing the world like that? What if that was your reality? It had an undertone of "we need to try to understand these people" and seemed generally positive.

So because the atmosphere was friendly and I was feeling more open about sharing what I've been through, I started talking about my experience with the illness (hallucinations and delusions because the other stuff is harder to explain).

And she (the MT) and the other patients just gave me a look like I was utterly insane.

Like, WTF? Don't fake compassion and then act all freaked out and disturbed when you meet an ACTUAL PERSON WITH ACTUAL PROBLEMS.

[blackwhitered]

And this is not the only time this has happened. I see posts from people claiming to be mental health nurses and techs online who show little compassion for the mentally ill.

One (alleged) nurse told me that people "like me" were violent and dangerous and shouldn't talk to each other. She basically said her years of work made her opinion the truth and said a bunch of other offensive things about mentally ill people.

When I told her how rude and judgmental she was being, she responded that she didn't hate people with mental illness, she found them "interesting". Gee, thanks?

It makes it hard to confide in doctors, social workers, etc. when I know that behind their masks of understanding, they really just think I'm disturbed and crazy.

[newtus]

they make you out to think ur "interesting" and fake compassion. i dont trust doctors and neither do i trust these people that come out of schooling.

[Sometimes psychotic]

The nurses are the worst. The only time they spoke to me was to yell at me...the docs and T's I haven't had a problem with...

[newtus]

ive had problems with all of them. Therapists seem better though but some are scared of my diagnosis. they get all big eyed if i tell them.

[Victoria'smom]

My current T is the only one I have been comfortable saying some of the things to. When I say something that worries her she makes a face. then I usually yell at her "What?" I know I scare her at times but I refuse to not be completely honest. She still has me as a client and tells me it'll always be there no matter how disturbed she finds.

[likewater]

I had a T that misdiagnosed me as schizophrenic and as soon as she came to that conclusion, . She trear really weird and said it would be very difficult for the clinic to find someone to work with me and she always doubted everything I told her. I told her I.was really sensitive and empathetic and I could.guess what my professors were going to.write on the chalkboard or.what a.student of mine
would.say, and my T took it to mean I had delusions of being psychic. I.was.reading a book about. Christian martyrs and she asked me, "do you think you're a martyr? " I said, "um no, the martyrs are dead that's how they became martyrs." Then she asks, "do you THINK YOU'LL BECOME. A martyr?"
I felt like saying absolutely, because it's so common to be burned at the stake or boiled in a vat of oil.these days for.being Christian not to mention I probably live in the.safest place to practice freedom
of religion.
.

[faerie_moon_x]

I know mental health workers are not compassionate. I know they think just like the rest of the population that it's more like taking care of monkies in a zoo rather than people. Also there are a lot of healthcare people in general who are not compassionate. I always wonder "how in the hell did you decide to go into this career if you hate people so much???"

But, I think there are those that when you find them are awesome.

My experience with mental health workers is limited. All the Ts I've had were "happy puppy rainbow" type. I needed serious help and they didn't do anything about it. My psychologist when I got diagnosed was really good. She's the one that retired. But shew as an older, no nonsense lady. I hope to find someone else like her someday....

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

I know mental health workers are not compassionate. I know they think just like the rest of the population that it's more like taking care of monkies in a zoo rather than people. Also there are a lot of healthcare people in general who are not compassionate. I always wonder "how in the hell did you decide to go into this career if you hate people so much???"

But, I think there are those that when you find them are awesome.

My experience with mental health workers is limited. All the Ts I've had were "happy puppy rainbow" type. I needed serious help and they didn't do anything about it. My psychologist when I got diagnosed was really good. She's the one that retired. But shew as an older, no nonsense lady. I hope to find someone else like her someday....

I actually read this book I think it was called what doctors feel...it was like they all start out compassionate and their training actually causes them to lose that---they actually said the ones that retain the most compassion tend to go into psych etc----for me in regular medical care its always the nurses that are stellar and the docs give you five minutes---they may not care but they will try to fix your problem---that's why I'm confused with the pnurses being so bad while I pretty much expect minimal care from the pdocs.

[nicoleflynn]

"interesting" sounds like she/they see you as a lab exeriement; peering at you thru a microscope. sheesh

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by Sometimes psychotic

I actually read this book I think it was called what doctors feel...it was like they all start out compassionate and their training actually causes them to lose that---they actually said the ones that retain the most compassion tend to go into psych etc----for me in regular medical care its always the nurses that are stellar and the docs give you five minutes---they may not care but they will try to fix your problem---that's why I'm confused with the pnurses being so bad while I pretty much expect minimal care from the pdocs.

The med docs where I work I say a lot of them are compassionate. They are all family practice and internal medicine doctors. My GP is good, I like him a lot. I think he actually cares about his patients.

I had a nurse in the hospital who was a nightmare. She was an older lady and tried to send me to ICU because she didn't want to deal with me. I had pancreatitus and I had actually known someone when I was 18 who spent a month in ICU with pancreatitus and he almost died, so you can imagine how bad that freaked me out. Luckily my surgeon was a really good doctor and told her I didn't need that type of care. I had a CNA who worked the same shift as that horrible nurse. She's the one who cared and who got me through that stay in good spirits.

I do think a lot of docs get burned out. You do kind of see the same people over and over, just with different faces. I think when they hear th same thing over and over why someone can't afford their meds, or why they can't change their diet, or why they can't start exercising... you just get burned out. But, you have to remember that you may hear the same thing 1000 times but this person is the only person experiencing their problem in their life. I think that's a hard concept for a lot of people.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

The med docs where I work I say a lot of them are compassionate. They are all family practice and internal medicine doctors. My GP is good, I like him a lot. I think he actually cares about his patients.

I had a nurse in the hospital who was a nightmare. She was an older lady and tried to send me to ICU because she didn't want to deal with me. I had pancreatitus and I had actually known someone when I was 18 who spent a month in ICU with pancreatitus and he almost died, so you can imagine how bad that freaked me out. Luckily my surgeon was a really good doctor and told her I didn't need that type of care. I had a CNA who worked the same shift as that horrible nurse. She's the one who cared and who got me through that stay in good spirits.

I do think a lot of docs get burned out. You do kind of see the same people over and over, just with different faces. I think when they hear th same thing over and over why someone can't afford their meds, or why they can't change their diet, or why they can't start exercising... you just get burned out. But, you have to remember that you may hear the same thing 1000 times but this person is the only person experiencing their problem in their life. I think that's a hard concept for a lot of people.

Well according to the book it wasn't about seeing the same thing exactly so much as not having enough time to interact---basically they have a checklist and that doesn't format well with a human being---some people make it harder to check off boxes on that list---the specifics were drug users, mentally ill and certain races(apparently some races/cultures will rate even minor pain a 10 on the pain scale due to language usage in their native country)----if someone isn't sure what's real or not the boxes start getting complicated for example while I was in the hospital I had to fill out a form for an MRI---several days later pdoc asked why I hadn't had an MRI---I had no idea---well the form asked if you were pregnant check one box apparently I had just crossed it out and put maybe---I had a pretty intense hallucination/delusion of being raped and threw away my second plan B so I had no idea if I as pregnant or not. So yeah maybe it is variable but there is still a bias against the mentally ill because we aren't seen as cooperative when it comes to filling standardized forms.

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by Sometimes psychotic

Well according to the book it wasn't about seeing the same thing exactly so much as not having enough time to interact---basically they have a checklist and that doesn't format well with a human being---some people make it harder to check off boxes on that list---the specifics were drug users, mentally ill and certain races(apparently some races/cultures will rate even minor pain a 10 on the pain scale due to language usage in their native country)----if someone isn't sure what's real or not the boxes start getting complicated for example while I was in the hospital I had to fill out a form for an MRI---several days later pdoc asked why I hadn't had an MRI---I had no idea---well the form asked if you were pregnant check one box apparently I had just crossed it out and put maybe---I had a pretty intense hallucination/delusion of being raped and threw away my second plan B so I had no idea if I as pregnant or not. So yeah maybe it is variable but there is still a bias against the mentally ill because we aren't seen as cooperative when it comes to filling standardized forms.

yes, and you know why there isn't enough time to see patients? Because health insurance doesn't pay for your visits very well. So doctors over book themselves so that they get more payments per day. Our system is based on fee for service, which lowers the quality of healthcare over all.

But, our educators see people for an hour at at time, which is more similar to seeing a T. And, their biggest complaint is that they hear the same thing over and over and they see it all as excuses and get sick of hearing it.

[Zaria]

Originally Posted by blackwhitered

And this is not the only time this has happened. I see posts from people claiming to be mental health nurses and techs online who show little compassion for the mentally ill.

One (alleged) nurse told me that people "like me" were violent and dangerous and shouldn't talk to each other. She basically said her years of work made her opinion the truth and said a bunch of other offensive things about mentally ill people.

When I told her how rude and judgmental she was being, she responded that she didn't hate people with mental illness, she found them "interesting". Gee, thanks?

It makes it hard to confide in doctors, social workers, etc. when I know that behind their masks of understanding, they really just think I'm disturbed and crazy.

Originally Posted by blackwhitered

Has this ever happened to you?

I was in the hospital for my eating disorder, and one of the MTs came in to watch us and whatever. She was still in school and had worked on some of the other floors (each floor corresponds to a different mental illness) so she had learned a bit about and had a bit of experience with psychotic patients.

So she started talking to the ED patients about how much she was filled with awe about schizophrenia and whatnot. Basically saying that the human brain is incredible, and could you imagine experiencing the world like that? What if that was your reality? It had an undertone of "we need to try to understand these people" and seemed generally positive.

So because the atmosphere was friendly and I was feeling more open about sharing what I've been through, I started talking about my experience with the illness (hallucinations and delusions because the other stuff is harder to explain).

And she (the MT) and the other patients just gave me a look like I was utterly insane.

Like, WTF? Don't fake compassion and then act all freaked out and disturbed when you meet an ACTUAL PERSON WITH ACTUAL PROBLEMS.

blackwithered,
Just wanted to say I am SO sorry this happened to you!
Like any other profession, there are some folks in the field of mental health that simply are not particularly good, or talented (or really qualified!) at what they do. (I have seen a lot of that). Unfortunately, this affects those that are being "treated".
I think that those experiences can have a really detrimental effect too.
I hope you will try not to dwell on those bad experiences (making yourself continue to feel bad in the process). You certainly did not deserve that!!!

[FireBird]

I've had good and bad experiences with mental health professionals. My current psychiatrist is terrible and says things that are very damaging. She doesn't believe a word that's coming out of my mouth. She keeps saying I am bipolar 1 and all the time manic, but its a big misinterpretation. Also at the same time, when i went in there last time, she actually said, "You make things up as you go along, don't ya." This implies in my mind factitious disorder or malingering. My mom goes to all my appointments and she kept on reassuring me and that's not what she meant. How in the hell would my mom know? I want to hear that from my stupid doctor. When I told her I believed I was cursed because of all the things happening, my doctor says, "oh its curses now?" I am getting more and more afraid to step foot into her office. As it is my blood pressure spikes when I'm there for good reason. The only thing she is basing the mania on is just fast talking and some flight of ideas. My mood itself was actually DOWN, negative, hopeless, pointless, not engaging in my interests and very rare pleasure, just nothingness. She is a jerk. I will admit she knows her meds and how they interact with each other. But she makes stupid decisions with that as well. She was about to prescribe ZYPREXA. Now for people of normal weight and a last resort med along with Clozaril, yes that is what people do. But there are still other meds to try out and compared to what I was a year ago, I am much better. And also, I'm around 100 pounds overweight from past pills. I just told her I refuse and that's the end of that. No normal psychiatrist would go right to zyprexa for someone who is already dangerously overweight. She hated me from the beginning because I was scared to death of being completely open on the very first appointment. I just felt scared. My trust is very low or even non existent for others. I hallucinate every day now, but luckily its more in the background and not acting on other things. Its a trigger month anyways. But still nothing compared to last year which I did some seriously bad things (not breaking the law, don't worry). Others would call it a suicide attempt but it wasn't in my mind, it was to calm me down and the voices.

Besides my psychiatrist, when I go to the hospital which is nearly every year now because even with pills I get worse, there are 2 docs that hate my guts and also don't believe anything that comes out of my worthless face. There is a new doc there last year and he's great though. In fact one of the docs (the first one when I went there) said he didn't even believe I had autism! It took him several times to see that I did! For the mental illness side, he acted nice and sweet, even appearing to care and go out of his way to help me but in reality it was all a show. When I picked up the report after I left, he actually said, "I copy the symptoms from the Internet, that's why I have the symptoms." or "she is trying to get called delusional on purpose." WTF is that about? He's a bleep hole. None of that is even true. With my new psychiatrist outside of the hospital, she got angry for not saying all my thoughts including so called "delusions." So which one do I do? I am getting mixed messages from the doctors I have been to throughout my medical history. Another idiot doc from the same hospital said I am a liar because I know medical terms. Did he think even for a second I researched the conditions AFTER I got diagnosed? I've had many of these symptoms well before knowing anything about psychology. God are the brain dead morons. One doctor at the hospital believes me and told me there is no way that I am a liar or faker. He sees it in my eyes.

Also at the mental health group I go to my case worker can see a physical difference in the way i present when I am doing well or not doing well. When I'm psychotic my eyes are glazed over, just staring at random hallucinations or reacting to voices. Other people besides mental health professionals have said the same thing. Also that I have a dead look on my face, with little movement. Not much color in my face.

I've actually had a psychologist awhile back last year that moved so I don't see her anymore but toward the end, she said to me, "you are becoming too psychotic for me, most of the time you are incoherent and reacting to delusions and hallucinations. This is not my area of expertise so I would recommend a different doctor that deals in this area."

[RRex]

I don't have the serious issues with my docs that some of you are having, but my therapist makes no secret of his boredom with my case. He yawns big, fidgets, plays with his teabag, wipes stuff off his shoe. You know the type.

I'm sorry my misery bores you to tears but my insurance company is paying you $275 an hour to listen to me. For $275, you'd think he'd be a little more professional.

[likewater]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

I know mental health workers are not compassionate. I know they think just like the rest of the population that it's more like taking care of monkies in a zoo rather than people. Also there are a lot of healthcare people in general who are not compassionate. I always wonder "how in the hell did you decide to go into this career if you hate people so much???"

But, I think there are those that when you find them are awesome.

My experience with mental health workers is limited. All the Ts I've had were "happy puppy rainbow" type. I needed serious help and they didn't do anything about it. My psychologist when I got diagnosed was really good. She's the one that retired. But shew as an older, no nonsense lady. I hope to find someone else like her someday....

ja

hahahahaha "happy puppy rainbow type" that is so awesome. You made me laugh out loud.

[RunningEagleRuns]

I've always found nurses and therapists pretty cool..

Some were jerks but so are there are always some jerks in any group of people.

Fortunately, I haven't directly had the experience of a mental health professional being disrespectful. The problem I have had is when my therapist and my p-doc's nurse misunderstand symptoms I explain and by the time my symptoms reach my p-doc...well, it's like playing "Operator". My p-doc gets info that had passed through 2 others it's often misunderstood. Very frustrating, and potentially dangerous, for me.

[pink&grey]

Years ago I had just come out of outpatient and had been on and off a ton of drugs when I found out I was pregnant. When I told my psychiatrist he told me the baby would be all messed up and I should get an abortion right away. You know, not only would the baby be damaged from drugs, but I was also in no situation to take care of it. Not the best thing to say to someone in the throws of depression. I started considering killing myself rather than aborting.

I ended up firing him and just let my ob/gyn treat my depression. She was so great. 8 years later my daughter is fine. She may actually be the only normal one around here