15. The last song I heard was Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas
19. I hate unlicensed therapists who aren’t certified but take clients anyway, religion-based therapists, and experiential therapy techniques. Therapy is meant to help, and it does for many many many people, but a likely small minority of therapists are pretty harmful to the people they treat and they can make the patients’ problems worse or help create new problems.
When I was a young teen, my first therapist was still going to college to get certified. Idk if she was even qualified to take clients, but she did. She was a Christian-based therapist, and I guess cheaper than a lot of other options, which is why my parents chose her for me. Most of what I wanted to talk about or needed help with was off-limits because “god wouldn't like that” or “god wouldn’t want me to talk about that”. I also had to go through anger management treatment because I had to learn how to get along better with people for society and for my future. The people I wasn't getting along with were my bullies in school and my family who weren't treating me well. I used to stand up for myself back then much more often, but that's not traditional good “girl” behavior.
So, I learned how to see things from many points of view, talk things out, and accept things I probably shouldn't. It made me much more insightful about why people do the things they do, but I feel like it’s made it harder for me to actually stand up for myself against horrible treatment from others. Besides, not everyone wants to “talk things out” or gives a shit about how their treatment towards you is making you feel. It’s also insane how much more is expected from someone who allegedly has anger problems than is expected from the hypothetical normal/healthy people. Why is someone with issues being held to a higher standard of behavior than what is expected from those in general society? Idk, but it added to my frustration.
I brought up the experience to a therapist I had many years later as an adult, and she agreed that the first therapist likely made at least a few of my problems much worse. I wasn't getting the help I needed, I was being silenced and left to deal with very complex things on my own, and she gave me additional trauma to deal with.