Therapists talk about patients who have had crazy stories

Being a therapist would be an interesting job, don’t you think?

You can hear the deepest and darkest secrets of all kinds of people and your mind is blown every day.

And sometimes they hear things that really surprise them.

Find out what therapists have said about it on AskReddit.

“I once had a patient whose wife shook their baby to death. He wanted help reconnecting with his wife.

I was a young father of a newborn myself at the time, and he sparked in me a lot of fear for my son, a deep hatred for his wife, and pity (the “how pathetic” kind) for the patient.

I rehearsed for 3 sessions, met his wife and all before handing the case over to my supervisor (who knew about my initial reactions and tried to help me through it).

Unfortunately, it ended up being more about my feelings than his, and I was new to the profession at the time. These things are expected to crop up from time to time, but I was still surprised by my own reactions.

“It’s not often I get to talk about my profession, but here it is: I was working at an ad**g and al**hol rehab center and I had a client who proclaimed himself a ‘d**g lord’.

As we worked together, he told me his story. Included in this story was how he got to where he currently is.

During the conversation, this man admitted that he had sold his sister into sex slavery, forcibly injecting her with various sedatives and narcotics and having several people “teach her a lesson” (what that meant, he never shared).

She told this story with a blank face, only smiling when she recalled the “good times,” which she called times when she had enough heroin to get through the day.

I’m not sure where he is now, but this man has inspired me to work with victims of shit trafficking, because they not only face the stigma of “selling their bodies,” but often deal with addictions.

People would honestly be amazed if they realized how many people were addicted to chemicals that were forcibly administered.

“As the pandemic has worsened here in the US and more lockdowns are on the way, one of my more outgoing clients and I have been brainstorming ways to meet her social needs while staying safe.

The following week she canceled her session and told me she tested positive for COVID after attending an orgy, which was definitely not one of our ideas. I let out my deepest, most defeated sigh after I hung up the phone.

“I have to admit, though, that something that does make me feel a little salty is when I have a client’s parent attempt to sabotage the therapeutic relationship I have with their child, or pull them out of therapy entirely when some of the things we talk about challenge some potentially unhealthy family dynamic.

I don’t feel anger towards the parents, most of all I feel bad for the child.

“A patient apologized for crying during a consultation, saying ‘I know I shouldn’t be sad, I have so many nice things for me to do’

Dude.

Three months ago you had to go back to your parents after an unexpected breakup.

Let’s go back to the environment that contributed to your official diagnosis.

The same place where your sister lived before she died, a month after you returned to that house, of the same diagnosis you have.

And because she died during a pandemic, not only could you not visit her in the hospital before she passed, you had a hard time organizing her funeral.

On top of all of that, she felt financially responsible to both of her parents as they both lost their benefits, a loss they couldn’t appeal as their mental health was so poor that the idea of ​​fighting that decision was making them s**cidal.

I want to hug many of my patients, but this one hurt my heart.

“I currently have a young female client who is struggling with homelessness, a history of trauma, se**al**e, etc.

He’s not handling these things as well as you might expect. The grandmother, who is her only support, keeps kicking the ten-year-old out of the house (making her homeless at ten) for acting out, and she told me she can’t understand why the customer isn’t behaving.

Lady. Are you serious?

“I’m a psychotherapist in an adult inpatient unit, so things rarely upset me. I purposely do the hospice because the thought of seeing people for years at a time bores me.

I’ve been kicked, spat on, seen loads of people naked, but I help pull people back from their darkest spots. It’s really cool. My theory is that everyone has a story about how they got there. Also a pedophile.

That said, I had a patient who was having consensual sex with her uncle. Very wealthy, social type people. She went into great depth about the relationship. That drove me crazy.

Well, it’s been a wild ride!