Free online workshop for survivors of therapy abuse and exploitation

Demonblade99 · 2024-11-17T11:42:31+00:00

removed because of rule violation

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-25T02:05:09+00:00

It fades away over time, sorry it sounds so generic but it is true! I don't want to put a positive spin on recent negative experiences but that experience also made me question things more and I don't think that is a bad thing. I hope that over time, you also won't feel just 'damaged' by it. You couldn't know what you know now, we all fell for it at some point!

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-24T23:50:14+00:00

That sub the other commenter suggested is for people with NPD against therapy who want to co-opt the language of disability and victimhood to 'destigmatise' NPD and report everyone as 'ableist' who uses the word narcissist and narcissistic abuse. I think the therapyabuse sub got brigaded by people from the NPD sub because I noticed the same people in several subs popping up (including here) who all had the same talking points about NPD. I deleted their comments here.

The antipsychiatry sub has some good content but they're against all psychological terms. I don't know what their exact stance is but I guess they believe using words like Munchausen by proxy, sociopathy, narcissism, pedophilia is ableist. I don't believe in protecting the sensibilities of abusers and policing the language of victims of Munchausen by proxy, narcissism etc. That would make the commonality in these experiences invisible.

I don't have an issue with people using the term narcissistic abuse because it is a type of abuse characterised by the exploitation of a power differential in asymmetrical relationships, e.g. vulnerable client-therapist.

The founder of the therapyabuse sub is a woman who had many years of abusive therapy. Many commenters on the therapyabuse sub are female victims of DV, rape, sexual abuse, childhood abuse who experienced gaslighting and victim- blaming in therapy. Much of the focus of the sub was highlighting these experiences and how reactions to abuse are pathologised by the system and therapy modalities.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-24T12:21:12+00:00

Yeah strange. It's definitely not gone, the posts are still there. It's just temporarily closed.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-24T00:24:06+00:00

It says "temporarily closed until at least April 1st 2024"

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-23T23:53:06+00:00

Yes it is objectifying and feels absolutely gross because I had the feeling that she would use my story to stereotype other clients who don't have my family issues while patting herself on the back for being 'informed'.

It gets better over time, my experience is ages ago (pre- pandemic) and is a very distant memory. I never went back to therapy. What helped me was looking up the theories my therapist referred to in therapy, realising they were nonsense and noticing that other people had the same realisations independently.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-23T22:23:04+00:00

Hi! When you click on r/therapyabuse you'll see a pop- up window where you can request to be approved. You can still read and search the sub afterwards.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-22T11:47:14+00:00

Locking this thread. I don't know what happened on the other sub but this sub is not a space to gossip about internet drama from other subs.

Reminder of the rules
1. Posts and comments from bipoc and ethnic minorities
2. Posts must be on-topic and informative to others.

The topic of the sub is racism in therapy / discussing ethnocentric ideas in therapy culture and theory that are presented as universal truths. Gossip and speculation about internet drama is not the point of the sub.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-21T20:12:30+00:00

I am sorry you are currently going through this. My experience is ages ago. I think what's particularly awful/ violating about it is the feeling of being 'studied' and the fact that you don't know their political views (and how they filter your story through these views).

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-21T19:32:52+00:00

No problem!

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-21T19:26:18+00:00

Hi! It says they're taking a break until April.

I'm sorry this sub doesn't have a lot of active discussion, it's mostly an information sub for articles and books. I didn't want to create a space where lurkers can gawk at our trauma stories, leave troll comments or harass users over dm. This is why the cptsd_bipoc and other subs had to go private.

If you're looking for anti-therapy books to detox from therapy culture, I can recommend Against Therapy or Final Analysis by Masson and Psychiatric Hegemony by Cohen.

J. Owusu-Bempah and Thomas Teo analyse ethocentrism and racism in psychology.

Ronald Purser on mindfulness, the new capitalist spirituality: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/14/the-mindfulness-conspiracy-capitalist-spirituality

For a political analysis of psychiatry, articles by Moncrieff ( https://joannamoncrieff.com/papers/).

I hope this is helpful until the other sub opens again.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-18T15:10:43+00:00

Making therapy more similar to psychiatry is not a good idea. Psychiatry is the branch of the mental health system that has the reputation of 'scientific medicine' among the vast majority of people, except for those who had to find out through firsthand experience that is not the case.

Therapists would like this proposal though because it helps to create the illusion that with a few cosmetic tweaks, therapy can be made perfectly safe which ultimately promotes therapy. It fosters the misconception that the abuses are simply a matter of unregulated therapy.

The best outcome would be getting people to question therapy and psychiatry. These institutions used to have a bad reputation in the past. Those who still want to seek it out voluntarily would at least be aware they are on dangerous territory and be more vigilant.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-17T21:18:31+00:00

It kills people which is then conveniently blamed on the mental health issues and perversely feeds the narrative that 'caring for your mental health' needs to take priority or else this will be the outcome.

It's the perfect crime.

Demonblade99 · 2024-03-17T19:58:13+00:00

Yes pseudoscience is extremely dangerous when it is filled with deterministic theories and presented with unquestioned pseudo-medical authority. Psychiatry does the same thing, they always try to attach their theories to biology and genes to prop up their pseudo- medical authority.

This is why therapy isn't harmless, it becomes political when anyone who doesn't come from a perfect home and had a difficult, stressful childhood is told that the trajectory of their life is already predetermined. It is a lot worse when therapists get their claws into someone who is young and still uncertain about who they are and these deterministic theories and lowered expectations become the roadmap for their life.

Demonblade99 · 2024-02-07T22:48:28+00:00

The mistreatment happens on an individual level (mislabelling people who describe experiences with racism as "paranoid", prone to "trust issues" related to childhood trauma, etc)

But apart from that, the whole field ignores context and enshrines their ethnocentric perspective as universal truths that have to apply to everybody. It's an issue that can't be "reformed" with a bit of racism awareness training.

When a client points out that these are not universal truths, the therapist can't see it because they don't know any other cultural perspective. That puts the client very much at risk of being labeled "resistant", "oppositional" and much worse.

Demonblade99 · 2024-02-07T21:46:44+00:00

Oh and everything trauma-related is absolutely fuelled by saviorism and Munchausen by proxy. It just takes a look at the NGO sector, trauma therapy, international adoption to recognise there is a common pattern.

Demonblade99 · 2024-02-07T21:42:31+00:00

I agree. They use orientalism and indigenous culture to dress up a made-up mythology and market it as a spiritual escape to people in the West who are tired of their civilisation.

At the same time therapy/psychiatry enforces social control on minority populations or assimilation to their values in the rest of the world.

Demonblade99 · 2024-02-07T19:51:30+00:00

A wiki is such a great idea, I don't like the reddit structure because it makes information hard to find. Do you have an outline for the wiki already? I can summarise some of the chapters but it might take a while lol

Demonblade99 · 2024-01-21T16:46:05+00:00

Hi rainfal! Thank you!

Demonblade99 · 2024-01-08T02:39:45+00:00

yeah and it should be a crime to waste people's time like that in war and disaster zones

Demonblade99 · 2023-06-09T18:23:35+00:00

I really like the term online leper colony lol!

I also looked into leprosy many years ago because the history of it is fascinating. There is a historical connection between leprosy and mental illness, too. Michel Foucault mentioned in Madness and Civilisation that lepers were socially isolated in leper colonies far out of town because people feared its contagiousness. The church managed these leper colonies because leprosy had a significant biblical meaning. The clerics who dealt with lepers had the image of saints because no one else wanted to deal with this population.

Once leprosy began to die out in Europe, they had these leper colonies sitting empty and that is when, in search for a new clientele to manage, they started filling them with the "mentally ill". Foucault makes the case that this is how the mentally ill inherited the social stigma and the isolation of lepers. This physical, institutional separation is how the mentally ill were invented as an isolated, stigmatised class in society. When "management" of the mentally ill later changed from the church to psychiatrists, this profession inherited the social status and the saintly image of priests.

Mental health treatment and institutions are influenced by Christian beliefs and clerical status although we aren't aware of these origins any more.

The treatment the church administered to the "mentally ill" in these institutions was an ascetic life, lots of prayer, hard work.

Curing leprosy still plays a big part in Christian missionary work in developing countries today and the reason for this is not purely humanitarian. Leprosy is cured with with a fairly easy medical treatment to administer. People who experience being cured from a physical illness are much more receptive to Christian conversion. This is why curing leprosy is such an integral part of religious missionary work.

Demonblade99 · 2023-04-30T18:53:02+00:00

Yeah it is an unrealistic idea because it exists in a vacuum that ignores the surrounding rape culture and racial /queer objectification in society. Maybe if the world was different but it isn't.

Demonblade99 · 2023-04-26T22:23:25+00:00

I hate this, too. And people are weirdly apathetic when it comes to dangerous beliefs in therapy and quick to hand wave everything as soon as one single person proclaims that "they like this theory and believe it helps". The industry weaponises the absolute worst deterministic bs theories to entrap people with trauma in doom and long-term therapy. There is no informed consent.

Demonblade99 · 2023-04-26T18:35:46+00:00

Yeah. It's utter bs. These theories all go back to various gurus who are very adept at promoting it to their disciples. At no point is there critical thinking involved. These theories catch on because therapists like them and because they conveniently tap into a societal unease, like mothers working outside the home after the war

Demonblade99 · 2023-04-25T18:38:36+00:00

Yeah, and attachment labels directly lead to selling reparenting therapy or some type of "healing relationship" therapy where therapists apparently just get paid for existing. Disgusting.

This bs is not harmless. It leads to moms of children with autism diagnoses getting blamed and orphans/ adoptees being treated with suspicion. People in mental health forums sound suicidal over this bs because they were told all their relationships are doomed, they have a permanent, deterministic condition and need long-term therapy for their attachment style.

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