The first footnote seems like it's in the wrong place—I think it's supposed to be attached to the sentence "even a crappy therapy can work if the client and therapist are a good fit" but seems like it's supposed to be attached to the sentence "Therapists have seen more diversity of humanity, and thus are less likely to freak out about your horrible childhood or weird sex thing".
this has been such an entertaining and informative series! consistently impressed by how much nuance you put into these pieces and how much you're able to balance examining the genuine flaws (evils, even!) of psychiatry with cogent responses to the absolute dumbass shit shrier is saying. (the "anesthetized to the vicissitudes" one made me burst out laughing, as someone whose going on SSRIs as a teen restored their ability to feel emotions other than fear.)
It's remarkable how this could have been a good book if it wasn't written by someone who believes mental illness isn't real. It's like if someone wrote a book about medical malpractice while arguing that COVID isn't real and cholera builds character.
I tend to think the 50's dad vs caring therapist models of parent dispute is perpetual exactly because it is being universally slathered onto kids that need different versions of it.
Like everything else, its gendered, sigh, but privilege also comes in, shockingly.
Boys will grow up to be dudes, to whom the world relates in a basically 50's dad kind of way. That is, it considers us wastes of space who might potentially have money, but are otherwise unimportant. A buddy of mine got fat, and thus entered this zone, and she was astounded by the world's basic hostile indifference. I was, of course, astounded that she might ever have imagined the reverse to be true.
Girls will grow up to be chicks, Ozempic willing, and rich kids can grow up to be zillionaires, etc. Kids who are gonna end up being Real People should be raised in the caring therapist model, because it models the world they are destined for. Might as well get used to being asked how they are feeling now, you know?
But anyone advocating for either of these approaches without this targeting data will put them all in the same bucket, and half of them will grow up and be betrayed by our wonderful world. Those adults will buy the opposite team's books, and the cycle will turn round again.
I dunno. I do think about therapy, because I am gripped constantly by a gut-wrenching, throat-constricting level of anxiety for no apparent reason - no fearful thoughts, not consciously. I do notice that work and being among people makes it worse. Maybe subconscious thoughts. But I don't think it is thoughts. Why not just something biological? It feels like a body illness, over-active nerves, and body reasons are more likely than mind reasons. Add to it the fact that I am absolutely terrible about speaking, I am extremely silent, and I don't like having friends, it all makes therapy an unlikely tool.
So I am now trying everything else. Magnesium, ashwagandha, zinc, Vit D, St Johns wort, GABA, so far nothing helped.
Worst case I might need to start exercising again... or stop drinking. Alcohol calms people by releasing GABA but it also leads to less GABA.
Feel free to ignore me if you've already tried this, but if I were in your shoes I'd read a book for therapists about CBT for panic disorder-- there are a lot of CBT techniques that deal with the more physical side of things, and maybe one will work.
Every time an article about this book has come up in my inbox, my brain has automatically parsed "Bad Therapy" with the cadence and delivery of Bon Jovi singing "Bad Medicine".
The first footnote seems like it's in the wrong place—I think it's supposed to be attached to the sentence "even a crappy therapy can work if the client and therapist are a good fit" but seems like it's supposed to be attached to the sentence "Therapists have seen more diversity of humanity, and thus are less likely to freak out about your horrible childhood or weird sex thing".
this has been such an entertaining and informative series! consistently impressed by how much nuance you put into these pieces and how much you're able to balance examining the genuine flaws (evils, even!) of psychiatry with cogent responses to the absolute dumbass shit shrier is saying. (the "anesthetized to the vicissitudes" one made me burst out laughing, as someone whose going on SSRIs as a teen restored their ability to feel emotions other than fear.)
It's remarkable how this could have been a good book if it wasn't written by someone who believes mental illness isn't real. It's like if someone wrote a book about medical malpractice while arguing that COVID isn't real and cholera builds character.
I tend to think the 50's dad vs caring therapist models of parent dispute is perpetual exactly because it is being universally slathered onto kids that need different versions of it.
Like everything else, its gendered, sigh, but privilege also comes in, shockingly.
Boys will grow up to be dudes, to whom the world relates in a basically 50's dad kind of way. That is, it considers us wastes of space who might potentially have money, but are otherwise unimportant. A buddy of mine got fat, and thus entered this zone, and she was astounded by the world's basic hostile indifference. I was, of course, astounded that she might ever have imagined the reverse to be true.
Girls will grow up to be chicks, Ozempic willing, and rich kids can grow up to be zillionaires, etc. Kids who are gonna end up being Real People should be raised in the caring therapist model, because it models the world they are destined for. Might as well get used to being asked how they are feeling now, you know?
But anyone advocating for either of these approaches without this targeting data will put them all in the same bucket, and half of them will grow up and be betrayed by our wonderful world. Those adults will buy the opposite team's books, and the cycle will turn round again.
I dunno. I do think about therapy, because I am gripped constantly by a gut-wrenching, throat-constricting level of anxiety for no apparent reason - no fearful thoughts, not consciously. I do notice that work and being among people makes it worse. Maybe subconscious thoughts. But I don't think it is thoughts. Why not just something biological? It feels like a body illness, over-active nerves, and body reasons are more likely than mind reasons. Add to it the fact that I am absolutely terrible about speaking, I am extremely silent, and I don't like having friends, it all makes therapy an unlikely tool.
So I am now trying everything else. Magnesium, ashwagandha, zinc, Vit D, St Johns wort, GABA, so far nothing helped.
Worst case I might need to start exercising again... or stop drinking. Alcohol calms people by releasing GABA but it also leads to less GABA.
Feel free to ignore me if you've already tried this, but if I were in your shoes I'd read a book for therapists about CBT for panic disorder-- there are a lot of CBT techniques that deal with the more physical side of things, and maybe one will work.
Every time an article about this book has come up in my inbox, my brain has automatically parsed "Bad Therapy" with the cadence and delivery of Bon Jovi singing "Bad Medicine".