i will keep getting better

[iamnotlanuk]

[hedwig-dordt]

It’s not quite a transcript, but here’s the main points:

BetterHelp is selling your mental health information to pinterest, snapchat and facebook.

BetterHelp is paying its therapists very little - including getting paid per word WITH A CAP. At some point they stop paying for another word. Which puts a therapist in a bind: should they keep doing their work for free or should they withdraw support from someone that needs it?

BetterHelp is creating the expectation that help is available at all time. Which sounds great, but one of the points of therapy is to create self-reliance. Also: therapists need boundaries too!

BetterHelp is funded by billionaires and millionaires who care primarily about turning a profit for their investors. Not about the therapists. Or the patients/clients.

So: do not use Better Help, but look for another source.

[star-anise]

For people who are wondering: If someone needs 24-hour access to help, the traditional answers have ranged from making sure they're comfortable using a crisis help line that's staffed 24/7, to having a round-the-clock therapeutic team, or intensive programs that include therapy multiple times in a week, combined with psychoeducation, group therapy, and therapeutic programming on most days. When therapists do offer services like availability by text, they're generally working in a strong team environment where they have lots of support.

We've learned as a profession that promising that one person will be constantly available is a recipe for disaster. I think the ramifications of therapists being on call all the time are pretty obvious, but the other problem is its effects on clients.

If you're in crisis and reach out to someone who's promised to always be there, and they're sick in bed and can't answer the phone, you're now dealing with whatever your first crisis was, AND the terms of your therapeutic relationship suddenly changing! You shouldn't have to ride the roller coaster of "They're not available; will they change their mind if they know I really need them? Maybe I'm just not important enough... maybe I'm being too much of a burden and asking for something that really inconveniences them. Wait, god dammit, this is important! How could they not be there for me when I need help? They promised!"

BetterHelp thinks they're offering an improvement in service compared to traditional therapy by offering 24-hour support, but they're actually just taking us back to a standard of practice from the 1980s, which we recognized was a problem and changed. Because it's a practice that's harmful to everyone involved. They need to listen to the therapists who work for them and adjust their business model, because it has a real effect on the people they serve.

[free-my-mindd]

[schizopositivity]

Every person that I know, that I have opened up about my schizophrenia to, has shared that they have had at least one psychotic experience in their life.

Whether that was that they have psychotic features as a part of their bipolar disorder, depression or PTSD. Or that they have seen a shadow of a person out of the corner of their eye, or a delusion that some entity is after them. Even if it was just a single instance of hearing a voice that wasn't real that stuck with them.

It seems like when I break the barrier of stigma and silence, people feel comfortable enough to share their own experiences and I love that.

Psychotic experiences are extremely common. Anecdotally, it seems that everyone has had at least one hallucination, delusion or instance of paranoia in their life. And I wish everyone was able to talk about these experiences, and how they've affected them without fear of shame or panic from the people around them. This is a normal thing that brains do for whatever reason. It shouldn't be seen as bad unless it negatively affects someone, and then you should listen with care and see if the person needs help in any way.

That's why acceptance for those of us with disorders like schizophrenia is so important. If you can hear a schizophrenic person out, and not treat us like we are dangerous or scary. See as equal human beings that happen to have these experiences. Only then will the pathway for everyone to share their experiences with psychosis be open and normalized.

I think it's fascinating that human brains can create experiences out of thin air. I think it's so cool that everyone can relate to me in even a small way. Imagine how many interesting conversations and connections we could all be having about this if we destigmatized psychosis and schizophrenia.

[stark-tony]

me, as a child lining up stuff in rows: now this is how you have fun

[prettypinkpansy]

rare vent art from a few months ago

[queer-and-longing]

I feel this!!! Also love how you muted the color along the way, I think it makes it that much more impactful!

[saint-yaint]

This is the thing!

[cal-is-a-cuddlefish]

[meepmoopmaap]

[haydenthewitch]

babe are you okay you rb'ed “you’re too loud” 15 times today

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

how it feels to message a friend who's having Problems that you can't do anything to help with.

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

tbh the first step of recovery is to stop feeling kind of proud about how fucked up you are. your martyr complex is not an endearing quirk it’s the fatal flaw that makes your friends feel like garbage and will sabotage your whole life.

[caspercryptid]

I would actually go as far as to say that MOST abuse is unintentional. I think most people will go through their lives without ever experiencing intentional abuse. People are abusive because they're selfish, because they're stressed, because they care more about what society thinks they should do than the impacts of their actions on their children and partners, because they think what they're doing is correct, because they've made it make sense in their own heads, because they think they can fix their victims, they think they can fix their relationships, they think they can stop you from leaving, they think they can make you a better partner to them, they think that means you need to do what they want. We've sort of constructed mental illness in a way that doing this shit to other people counts as a form of mental illness because it is anti social behavior in the literal sense— it is behavior that causes social harm.

I don't say any of this to excuse it. I think everyone needs to be more aware of this because if you think abuse has to be intentional you will never realize you are capable of abusive behavior. You will never realize you are being shitty to the people you love, because YOU know what you mean, YOU know you don't mean any harm. But you're doing harm. You need to pay attention to the impact you have on other people, and you need to do it all the time, Especially when you feel least capable of doing so. Sorry! You live in a society. Get your head out of your ass.

[caspercryptid]

The really unfortunate thing about mental health progress is that sometimes you realize you've made it in the form of "wow, I haven't felt this bad in a fucking while"

[caspercryptid]

On the one hand it's a bit of a pick me up in a dark place to know that this will pass because it has passed before on the other hand sometimes it isn't entirely a pleasant thought to go "wow, I used to feel like this all the time. That was pretty fucking bad. It's pretty bad right now too also."

[caspercryptid]

Someday your current baseline will be the sort of thing you consider A Really Bad Day. It does get better.

[eptck]

you have to be kinder to people with memory issues.

you have to be kinder to people who are slow processors.

you have to be kinder to people who don't understand your jokes.

you have to be kinder to people who forget important dates.

you have to be kinder to people with cognitive decline.

you have to be kinder to people who were always this way, too.

you have to be kind. you have to be kind.

[smoqueen-deactivated20251108]

sorry for the nervous breakdown everyone im actuallt fine because i have to be

[ot3]

its awesome that neither mind reading nor god are real and all of the thoughts inside of your head are completely private and consequenceless forever #myprivacy

[donteventry-itdude]

saying God ain’t real is so unnecessary 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[ot3]

its actually pretty necessary for people who grew up being told "all of your thoughts are constantly monitored by an omniscient and omnipotent authority who may doom you to an eternity of torment if you think wrong" to occasionally be reminded that none of it is true at all.

[crazysodomite]

[caspercryptid]

I feel like not enough people realize that people under enormous strain act really really fucking Weird

[madamefeu]

Any person: *Talks about how Christianity ruined their life, and how Christian institutions gave their abusers access to them, and how the bible is used to justify abuse, slavery, misogyny, rape, and bigotry against homosexuals, with explicit verses condoning all of those things*

Christians: But they’re not real Christians! I’m Christian and I don’t do that! Jesus wouldn’t approve of that! Jesus loves you! God is good! God loves you! Christianity is good! We don’t care what actually happened to you, we just don’t like you viewing our religion in a negative light and we’re using it to silence you! We’re good people and we deserve Heaven! 😇

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[03josten]

stop fucking using the word psychotic to describe bad behaviour and violence already god fucking damn it

[03josten]

oh my god i'm so tired psychotic does not mean violent it does not mean angry or erratic. it refers to a person suffering from psychosis, a loss of touch with reality that includes hallucinations and/or delusions. psychotic people are not inherently violent and y'all need to understand how much stigma you create when you again and again incorrectly use the word psychotic without even thinking about it

[03josten]

would appreciate if non-psychotic people could reblog this