* dramatic crack of lightning* So, after finding a psychologist and deciding that lovey though she was I'd rather work with someone who took my health insurance, came the time for my first ever psychiatrist appointment. The woman absolutely made no distinction between sexual orientation and gender. I had to explain a thousand times that being nonbinary is not the same as being asexual (she understood "being neither a man nor a woman" as "wanting to fuck neither men nor women") and she kept altering between asking about people I've fucked and making invasive questions about my genitalia (I think at one point she also thought "trans" meant "intersex" because she went on about how I wasn't trans because I have a vagina?????). She insisted on calling me by my birth name at all times, and ignored that I was referring to myself with male pronouns. BUT THEN, and this is the best part, I commented on my mild dystimia and she went "ANTIDEPRESSANTS THEN" and refused to talk about anything else and downright said she wouldn't talk about or treat anything else until I'd treated that, and then we could talk about my (her words) "sexual gender". I said "but my goal in therapy is to deal with gender!" And she said that because I'm depressed I don't know what I'm feeling or thinking. I said "of course I do, I am a person!" She asked if I didn't trust her, I said no, she asked me why. I said "I don't know if you're asking ignorant questions because you want to establish what my criteria are in regards to gender or because you simply have no criteria of your own". She said each person is unique and she has no criteria, I went WTF TRANSGENDERISM IS A DIAGNOSIS THERE ARE CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH A DIAGNOSIS WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK (in my head; in actuality I was just stunned to speechlessness) The cherry on top? She gave me antidepressants that "have been working wonders on the women that come to her office".
I really hope theres someone else there who takes your insurance, because that is criminal levels of incompetent.
@Lissiel lots of people do, fortunately! I have top notch covering. @Valerie wow that is absurd. This one too took my distressed crying as meaning I "obviously had depression", never mind that people with really bad depression are actually too numb to cry? And she too was like "I refuse a life-saving diagnosis and treatment until you are acceptable levels of cheerful. An insane experience. @Missfortunate She clearly had criteria for depression, but even for that it was weird? Like, she kept going "do you feel really bad and sad and like you're worthless?" and got frustrated when I said it was more like constantly feeling a bit tired. But the moment I told her that because of the gender thing I've had fleeting thoughts of "it's never gonna get better", she went AHA DEPRESSION and didnt ask anything more.
I... what?... Wow that is an impressive level of incompetence and I am sorry you had to deal with that.
Did I mention she answered her phone while in session with me and also that on the phone when I set up the appointment she sounded high as a kite?
0.o She's not very professional, is she? I hope you find someone that'll listen to you soon. It seems like incompetent psychs are everywhere...
holy crap, high -.- good lord and reLly?? Amswered her phone? I mean if it wasnt an urgent emergency call then wtf >. <
how is this person still... what? i was thankfully lucky with my second psychologist (have never seen a spychiatrist) my first however tried to tell me that my lesbianism was just because i was attending an all girl's school at the time. and how is this person still treating people that person is a dongle.
Holy shit. I am so sorry you had to deal with that. Ugh drop this one like a hot potato. hugs if you'd like them
I guess to me, though it seems horrible, it doesn't seem that much "WTF"ish because my own narcissistic and abusive mother is a psychologist and she doesn't understand that gender and sexual orientation are not the same thing. Also, @seebs , I am wondering if I have the spoons to report her. I might, because wow, that was some serious bullshit.
I'm not sure how far you'd get with an ethics board, honestly, but I would at least look into it. If there's some kind of trans mental health forum/facebook group/etc you should definitely post about your experience there, though, and definitely leave a scathing review on Yelp or the like. But yeah, this is just not okay.
