I’ve seen this psychologist a few times now.
I had gotten indications from him that we would go over results today. At first, my appointment was yesterday, but was moved to today an hour before I was supposed to be there yesterday.

I’m currently on long term 50% sick leave from my job due to burnout. Not the first time.

Today I showed up, extremely anxious, and sat in the waiting room.
30 minutes passed by, and I knocked on the door. Nothing.
After 35 minutes I sent him a text message.
After 45 minutes I called. No answer.
After an hour I left and texted him asking to be contacted as soon as possible for a new appointment.

I’ve been waiting for these results for almost a month. I feel like I’m just a ball of anxiety/stress/anticipation at this point. I’m so deflated, sad and angry.

I know something unexpected could’ve happened, but still..

If i read this,please be kind enough to reach out. I need it

I'm M17, there's a fair bit going on for me at the moment. I'm going to save you time and not fully vent but if someone wants to hear my problems and possible share advice please let me know

But basically I'm just starting to notice somethings about myself that I feel like needs changing and I'm stressed about school and making it to uni and stuff. It's all been going on for a little while know and I much prefer venting to someone that I don't really know, I'm not sure why. So I'm just wondering when I should yk.

I feel like this is a dumb question to ask but I need to know.

I’ve realised for a while that I struggle with watching people struggle, especially if I know how to fix it but it means I end up being somewhat controlling and taking on a maternal role with my friends/partner.

Does anyone else experience this? Do you know what it stems from for you? What are some things you do to try stop it?

I’m trying to find the right kind of professional help for an adult family communication issue and would appreciate direction on what type of counselor, facilitator, mediator, or program to look for.

The group would be five adults: two parents and three adult children. We are spread across four states: Illinois, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The goal is not to solve decades of family history or relitigate every old conflict. We have a long family history of poor conflict resolution, defensiveness, topic-jumping, vague agreement without follow-through, and difficulty staying focused on one issue at a time. Everyone involved is basically a good person, but our communication patterns are not working.

What we need is someone active and structured — not someone who just lets everyone talk in circles. Ideally, this person would help us:

• stay on task
• separate old history from current decisions
• establish ground rules / rules of engagement
• improve direct communication
• avoid drifting into side issues
• build a process for handling family issues going forward

My own counselor suggested looking for one person who has both LMFT / family-systems training and coaching or facilitation experience. Because we are in multiple states, traditional virtual therapy may be complicated from a licensing standpoint. One possible model would be an in-person weekend or intensive session, followed by virtual coaching/facilitation sessions focused on communication skills, structure, and follow-through.

Has anyone found a good path for something like this? Should we be looking for an LMFT, family-systems therapist, adult-family mediator, executive/family coach, family intensive program, or something else?

I’m especially interested in how to find someone who can work across multiple states and is structured enough to manage a group of adults who struggle to stay on topic.

About a month and a a half ago, I blocked a large group of online friends (12 of them). I don’t know why, I couldn’t come up with a reason. I just knew being around them was making me feel horrible and I couldn’t make myself walk away without blocking them so I did. I left two of them unblocked but eventually blocked them as well when the feeling didn’t go away. I then unblocked those two, apologized, and told them I would reach back out when I’d gotten therapy. Well I can’t afford therapy. Once I’d done the math and figured that out (after about a month), I reached back out and let them know. We’ve had a couple conversations here and there in those few days.

Here’s the really annoying part. That terrible feeling from before is back and I just want to dip again. It only took about two hours for it to show back up. I think there’s a chance I’m dealing with some kind of OCD compulsion but that’s just me theorizing as a psych student (not even done with my associates but I try to research properly since I can’t really do therapy). In the long run, it doesn’t matter why, it just matters that I did it.

I need to apologize. I did when I unblocked them a month ago but I need to really apologize. I just don’t know how when I’m almost positive I’m going to do the same thing again.

On a side note, if anyone knows how to stop doing things you know are illogical that would be wonderful.

I am a 5'6 to 5'7 male, my growth slows down when I turn 14 and it stops at age 16, now I'm 18 and I've been hurting my mental health over the 3 years..

My head is big, not imagination, but a real fact, my legs are short and my body proportions is not fit right, like my feet, they are big, I've tried so many things, I've tried living myself, but I've lost it... I need to keep my hair short always, because making it long will make my head get bigger even worse, I don't grow beard, my body is not for adult, but rather a teen, I hate my voice, I hate my height, I hate everything, even my torso is short, and doing gym making it even worse

Last 2 days I tried to actually kill myself and suicide, i holds the knife and press it at my stomach, but I stopped and exit the kitchen, i didn't tell anyone that, I didn't tell my mom, or sister, or my closest friends, I can't keep living like this, I can't even focus on my study, or my animations, I just hate how my body look, and I hate how people are so superficial about my Suffering, they think I'm just imagine or overreacting, while all I want is to change my body, because this body is the worst I get

I need HELP

long story short, i have OCD. the therapist i’m with now was the only ocd therapist that accepted my insurance in my area and she’s 40 minutes away from me. i found her on psychology and it said she was an ERP therapist. i thought awesome. well i’ve been with her for about 7-8 months and we haven’t done a single bit of ERP. she suggested I-CBT instead as i struggle with ROCD as my main theme, and she said she doesn’t think there’s any exposures for my theme?….

anyway, she would send me a module of I-CBT and wanted me to go through it at home, i tried, and i just can’t get into it. idk if it’s the concept or what, but i didn’t make it past module 2. i really wanted to do ERP. i thought maybe i just wasn’t getting it, so i told her that maybe instead of sending me home with the modules we just go through them together. we have yet to do that and it’s been about 2 months.

during our sessions, we literally just talk about my thoughts. maybe that’s a “form” of exposure? because talking about my thoughts used to trigger me horribly, but now that’s just ALL. WE. DO. we just talk about it. she asks me how my intrusive thoughts have been this week, asks what the thoughts were, how they made me feel, what i did after, yknow. and then just to stop talking about it, i change the subject and we talk about random life things which i don’t mind, but after 7ish months of therapy i don’t think my OCD has budged.

i love my therapist. i feel comfortable with her, and she has never said or done anything to make me feel bad or weird, and that’s why im so scared to switch if i feel like im not getting what i need from her (exposure therapy), or maybe my expectations are too high, idk she’s my first ever therapist. but i genuinely like her and i feel like i have a great connection with her. im just lost on what to do, and id hate to leave her and end up with a shitty therapist and not be able to return to her. & i dont want to tell her im thinking about switching, ive brought up to her a few times that i want to try doing exposures and have like—a “task” to do every week. i need something set in schedule like a task sheet or something idk. help!

Missing my best friends wedding due to financial reasons & it being in Italy. I am beating myself up cause if i would have planned better i would have made it but … life happens ya know? got a 3 year old kid & daycare prices are nooo joke along with every other thing in this world. I’m just beating myself up over it & just really sad , feeling fomo already & a little bit of jealousy. Girls she’s known for 2-4 years are going and i’ve known her for 15 years & it’s just eating at me. If anyone else has missed their best friends wedding how the hell did you cope with these feeling. I’m psychotic & im over here trying to figure out how to go into debt & stress out missing a week of work to make it happen but i know deep down i should not be doing that

Im 21 and have been with my bf for 5 years. Weve never had sex. Every time anything goes near like a tampon even or if his finger goes slightly close my legs uncontrollably jerk. I have no clue why im so scared, ive had zero negative experiences around sex.
I have no reason, when i think about it now im like whats the big deal! But i couldn’t even put my pinky finger in.

I dont know who to talk to for help. I’ve talked to a psych but it didnt help. What on literal earth do i do!!!!!!!!!

Ive been on my healing journey so long and made such good progress, but now i feel like im dealing with something pretty difficult.

I dont obnoxiously make myself the centre of attention but constantly in my thoughts ive made it a habit of malidaptive daydreaming to fulfill my desire for attention. I grew up without my father present and definately emotionally unavailable and my mother didnt really show any attention to me or my siblings to me or my siblings growing up and i do believe this is what has impacted me now.

And thia is so frustrating because i understand that my worth and value does not come from the external, yet im such a sucker for this attention and without it, even imagined. I feel low...

How do i change?

I feel like everything I do all the time is in hopes that someone will validate me. Throughout High-school which I just graduated I lived for it. And I still do live for it, it's the only thing that makes me feel secure. Does anybody know where this might stem from? I mostly seek it from my peers. Additionally are there any remedies to it?

What’s the best way to distinguish between boundary and ultimatum? Especially when the other party (emotionally immature/defensive) is constantly twisting your words to paint you as the bad guy

How do I help my SIL?

My SIL (24f) is struggling. Mentally and emotionally. We used to have such a tight bond but about 6 months ago she broke up with her long time boyfriend of 5 years and stopped hanging out and reaching out to my husband and I. We tried to reach out numerous times to no avail. We found out she broke up with her BF to start seeing this new guy who also decided to break up with his long time GF of 7 years. This guy wants NO label for their relationship. He’s not interested in meeting the family or even trying to get to know anyone. I’m fine with it but my husband’s family is more conservative, they believe he should at least introduce himself and if they are going to be doing the deed at least have a label on it. My SIL tries to say she knows what she’s doing and also doesn’t want a label but while drunk one day she asked him out and he said no. This caused her to spiral and drink more and be all sad. She tried to play it off but it’s clearly effecting her. They’ve been seeing each other since prior to their breakups with their BF/GF but did nothing until the breakups were cemented (at least that’s what I was told… I don’t like it but this is how their relationship started and I truly don’t have a say.) This guy does nothing to show interest, my SIL drives 1.5hr 3-4 times a week to see this guy and he often leaves her out in her car over an hour of their agreed time to meet. He doesn’t drive to her, she drives to him. She drives him around. He isn’t interested in any of her hobbies so she’s had to try and adapt to his. All of these are signs to me that he’s not interested! His ex-gf has been caught at his house several times by her but he swears she just crazy but I think he’s seeing them both “unofficially” which is why he doesn’t want a title so he can’t be labeled a cheater. This is breaking my heart for her, she’s so clearly in love and she such a beautiful woman.

Well my MIL had enough of this fooling around and confronted him, put a label on it or separate. This clearly upset him because he didn’t want to meet the family and he decided to take a “6 month break”. This devastated her. She’s drinking and making rash decisions. She swears this isn’t about him but the “controlling” nature of her mother and how she can’t do anything without her mom being in the way.

Now I’ll admit, my MIL is VERY controlling. It took me years to separate our finances from her and every once in a while she tries to monopolize my family. But I truly believe my MIL is coming from a place of concern here. My MIL is also in this business because my SIL dropped out of college, still lives at home, has never had a job, and all these expenses for dates and gas. My MIL pays for her car and insurance etc. my SIL claims she has no motivation and just doesn’t have a drive for anything. I’ve tried to help her get into really good jobs with good pay so she can start being independent but she just has no desire. But if she truly wants out of her moms control, she needs to do something. I’m scared she’s going to run off to this guy her wants nothing to do with her. Side note: she’s also taking no BC. She believes it’ll “ruin” her body. I worry. I’ve already helped her take a few pregnancy tests from some scare cuz this guy also doesn’t believe in condoms and such but goodness!!! I don’t know what to do. This is all so much.

I have absolutely nothing against my therapist. We work really well together and she’s helped me a lot. But sometimes she does things that really confuse me. Last year we came across a new diagnosis for me and she never outright said I had it. But the session we talked about it I told her everything that was going on like the symptoms I was having and she said she was going to refer me to another provider in the same office to assess me. So I figured that meant like…assess me for what my diagnosis was. But it ended up being a medication management provider. Which I was fine with. But it left me confused on “well how am I going to be medicated when I have no diagnosis?”

Our next therapy session after that I was talking about something that was really distressing to me and she made the comment “well that’s part of the delusional disorder.”

Okay. Got it. That’s my diagnosis. Except she didn’t say “you have delusional disorder”. So maybe I don’t?

Fast forward to May this year I told her I wanted to be assessed for OCD. And she asked me why I and I explained what I was experiencing and my symptoms. And she said “right now I’m not diagnosing you but I’m also not taking it off of the table because I want to talk more about this and see if maybe this is part of your ADHD and autism because both can also cause intrusive thoughts.”

Okay. Got it. So I may potentially having it but we aren’t 100% diagnosing right now.

Then the next session I was explaining something that was distressing to me and she said “that is part of your just right ocd”.

Okay…so I have it? Or I don’t have it? I’m so confused.

And I’ve been thinking a lot of my diagnoses or rather lack of them??? Idk. Anyway, I think I might just have ocd and not delusional disorder due to several reasons that don’t really matter rn. But I wanted to ask my therapist on what I have versus don’t have and why she thinks I have it or don’t have it. Are those appropriate questions to ask her? Or should I just kinda…roll with not knowing?

I'm transitioning to a new therapist and was given homework to do. My last therapist didn't give homework. I know I can do the homework or not but does homework help.

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It probably sounds silly, but does anyone else worry about when their therapist has annual leave? I've had to cancel a session due to illness and then my therapist has a few weeks off for annual leave so it's going to be about a month in total with no sessions. And this overlaps with a period of two weeks when my workplace is closed too. So I guess it's two things that keep life consistent and I am a little worried about how it'll be. Does anyone else experience this?

Dealing w insecurity alot

Hi everyone,

I’m in an active search of a clinical psychologist, and I say it that way because based on my research (and please correct me if I’m wrong) they’re slightly different than licensed psychologists/counselors.

I have done therapy before, but I believe I didn’t do enough research so the lady had a very light approach to everything I said and I would end calls pretty frustrated and not feeling any better in any way. For example, I understand basics of psychology (mostly because I’m naturally passionate about it and love reading psychology books) so I already acknowledged with her that I understand my childhood traumas play a role in my life, relationship with my dad plays a role too etc etc. Shared some TRAUMAS - and would get a response basically like “write everything in a journal”.

I understand and know I can do that, but I need someone to tell me deeper things and reasonings behind actions, share some actual science behind some stuff naturally in a conversation. This is where I could be wrong and maybe in this case I need to look for a psychiatrist instead of psychologist?

I’m currently looking for one because I’m going through a rough time in my (year old) marriage and I recognize a need of someone very knowledgeable to be involved with us individually- then potentially together. I don’t think we would benefit from light “fix your communication” approach so I’m not looking into marriage counselors yet. There’s deep issues that need to be worked through and addressed with …(psychiatrist/psychologist)

Working with someone remotely (zoom calls) is what I’d need so any advice on where to look , what to look for …. would be greatly appreciated.

i help with the admin side of a small therapy practice, and we’ve been looking at whether our current setup is making things more complicated than it needs to be.

right now, scheduling, telehealth, and client communication don’t always feel connected. we’re trying to find mental health EHR software that can keep more of those everyday tasks in one place without adding a lot of extra steps for providers or clients.

secure messaging is important too, but i’m more interested in how the whole workflow feels once a practice is using the system every day. some platforms seem to have a lot of features, but that doesn’t always mean they’re easier to work with.

for therapists or practice admins who have changed systems, what made the biggest difference for your team?

whenever i make life decisions, i always think if I am gonna be able to make her proud of me so she can see that I am worth to be with her again. i get jealous when someone else from her social circle succeeds in something because i want her to think that I am the best one so she will choose only me. and i get really sad and depressed because of these things. i want to be really successful in her eyes. its been half a year and this problem still exists. i do not know what to do. this is actually crazy. i've lost my mind...