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1. 1 On April 17th, 2008, visiting reader said:

   Though I never sought counseling for any eating-related issues, I did call my college’s counseling services for a bout of depression on two occasions. The first time I set up a meeting with a counselor and had the lovely experience of meeting with an idiot whose main suggestion was that I exercize at night, which might make me sleep better (I was having trouble sleeping), which might make me feel better. She then had me meet with the campus psychiatrist who sent me on my way with a clean bill of health. The second time I called, no one called me back for over a week and by then I was too fed up.

   Since graduating I have found good doctors/therapists to help me out, but they all cringe as soon as I mention “college health services.” Apparently, the incomptence is pretty rampant.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

2. 2 On April 17th, 2008, thordora said:

   I had one run in that kept me away from their ilk for a number of years.

   I wanted to deal with some stuff from my childhood-namely molestation, and she totally blew me off, wanting only to talk about my husband. cause the panic attacks I was having when he touched me in certain ways had NOTHING to do with the flashbacks I was having.

   between that and the doctor who told me there was no way my BCP could be causing my depression, I stayed away for years. Too bad really. I would have like for my bipolar to have been caught at 20 instead of 27.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

3. 3 On April 17th, 2008, fatgirlonadate said:

   The therapist I’m seeing now is an interesting guy. He’s great - I spent a long time bouncing between other providers before setting down with him - but, oddly, most of his practice is actually with patients who are preparing for (and being evaluated for) weight loss surgery.

   When I first started seeing him, before I learned about the FA movement, I kept waiting for the “fat issue” to come up. But it never did. He’s never mentioned it.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

4. 4 On April 17th, 2008, FormerlyObeseNowOverweight said:

   I know for me, it was my thyroid..

   120 pounds lost in 2 years after the birth of my Son, I can only PRAY my thyroid regulated itself, I need to get 2 the Doc, but still trying 2 manage my 4 year old Daughter’s Type1 Diabetes..

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

5. 5 On April 17th, 2008, maura said:

   I haven’t been to any therapist or psychiatrist for a very long time, based on my own personal diagnostic of my situations. I am lucky that nothing has been too major in my life where I need professional help (or at least I don’t think I do). However, the couple of appointments I had with a therapist for depression (nearly 6 years ago), she was not very comforting, not very informative, and wanted to blame the issues on a bad family life–which can absolutely not be true, since my parents and I get along pretty well, and they get along with each other equally as well. She totally missed the fact that depression runs in my family and I was transitioning into becoming a woman, so I was having a very hard time with still acting like a girl, but trying to act like a teenager, and with social adjustments.

   As for ever talking to anyone about my eating habits or weight, I’ve only spoken to my mother, who is not very good advice, as she seems to think you must be on a diet to lose weight. She herself is always struggling with her weight, always complaining about it. I tend to just try and trust my body–if I feel like crap, I’ll eat something healthier and maybe ride my bike a little longer. I hate trying to count calories because I don’t want to become obsessed with that aspect of my life. So, I’m not sure how well psychiatric help would be in this area for me, as I don’t really want to put my weight higher in my priorities, just because of my fear of developing an eating disorder.

   (This probably made no sense, but I tried, haha)

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

6. 6 On April 17th, 2008, Meowser said:

   I often wonder how it is that psychiatrists can know so very, very little about neurologic and endocrine issues, when those things feed directly into mental function, not to mention weight. (And any DOCTOR who believes blindly in calories in-calories out needs to be whapped upside the head with a clue-by-4. Of all people, they should fucking KNOW better.)

   I cannot TELL you how many psychiatrists I saw, I lost count after the first 10, and it took a psychologist who I saw at the age of 44 to FINALLY tell me that I had Asperger syndrome. No psychiatrist I had had before had even so much as MENTIONED it as a possibility. Why? Because there are no drugs to prescribe for it, and therefore it’s not their “nail.” I’m glad alternative treatment modalities actually worked for me and I no longer have to go see some jerkington who doesn’t get it and doesn’t want to, just to obtain my monthly handful of controlled substance. Bah.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

7. 7 On April 17th, 2008, Brigid Keely said:

   When I went to my college’s psychiatry services, after falling from an all A and B student to flunking out, and told the (newly graduated!!!) Psychiatrist that I was obsessed with killing myself, having difficulty leaving my room (extremely agoraphobic), self harming myself, and failing all my classes and that I was very concerned I was going to kill myself or otherwise come to a bad end, he told me that I was “very self actualized” and that there was nothing he could do for me. Nothing. It was pretty awesome.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

8. 8 On April 17th, 2008, Nicole said:

   My undergraduate institution had a good counseling service, even including a counselor who specialized in eating disorders. I saw her and a group that she did for a semester or so and felt that it did actually help. Grad school was a different story. I finally got up the courage to call the Mental Hygiene department (that was seriously what it was called) to seek help for depression and was told that they were all full but *might* be able to fit me in the following semester.

   Real helpful.

   It still floors me that the first, good counseling department was located at a public university and Mental Hygiene was at an Ivy League school.

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

9. 9 On April 17th, 2008, Jenny Hyatt said:

   College students face a dizzying array of stressful situations - often living away from home, pressure to get good grades, isolation, competition, relationship issues, financial struggles - which can lead to anxiety and depression. Moreover, it is often difficult for them to feel comfortable airing these issues from fear of judgment or being misunderstood. There are huge benefits to simply being able to vent what’s on their minds and find support from others in similar situations. Medicalising their lives is often unhelpful when what is needed is listening, care and space in which to let go. Jenny Hyatt, Founder, bigwhitewall.com

   posted on April 17th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

10. 10 On April 17th, 2008, Rachel said:

    My branch campus had a really good and competent therapist I saw for a while. She was the first therapist I ever saw and the one by whom I measured all others. She went on maternity leave shortly after I began seeing her and decided not to come back. The college never replaced her. She was the ONLY therapist there, too. That’s how important mental health is, I guess.

    What disturbs me about my current shrink is that she doesn’t seem to listen, really. Or, she selectively listens. I have told her repeatedly how I am anti-dieting and how I am trying to practice intuitive eating. I even explained HAES to her. I have also repeatedly told her how my husband is super awesome in that he never mentions my weight or food or such.

    One of the things I’ve addressed with her is that whenever I need to concentrate on a book or write a big paper, I feel the need to much on something. It helps me concentrate. The way I explain it to her and my husband is that it keeps one part of my brain busy, so the other can focus. I also tap my foot, bite my nails, move around, fidget and so on. Sometimes it helps if I read while walking, except it’s hard to highlight passages that way. I see it all as symptoms of ADD, which is why I mentioned it to her. I do not feel this urge to munch at any other time ever.

    Despite this, she has still recommended I go to Overeaters Anonymous, keep a food journal and now try Weight Watchers. She has also asked time and again if my husband pressures me about food or weight. It doesn’t seem as if she listens - the need to munch is an isolated incident caused by my ADD. It’s not a psychological or emotional problem - it’s a physiological disorder rooted in the brain. She doesn’t recommend I go to Nail Biters Anonymous or Fidgeters Anonymous. I often wonder if I were not fat, would she recommend the same course of action? I’m fat, so of course I’m an overeater. Gah… I probably eat less calories a day than she does, and she wears a size 6 or so.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

11. 11 On April 17th, 2008, Chantal Madigan said:

    I am bipolar, and also am recovering from an eating disorder that put me 30 lbs underweight for most of my adolescence, and finally was thwarted by me coming to college and eating THE WORLD for a while. When I went to see the psychiatrist at college after crashing from a severe mania that lasted the first two months of my first term, he not only threatened me with hospitalization if I spoke out about being sick, but also expressed astonishment and alarm that I’d gained 20 lbs in 2 months.

    …I was not particularly thrilled.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

12. 12 On April 17th, 2008, Fat Girl said:

    For the most part my experiences with my college medical services have been pretty stellar. There have been a few hiccups here and there, but not too many. My therapist is really wonderful and I’m going to miss her when I leave, because it’s so hard to find a good therapist!

    But.. I think I am lucky. I’m not sure, but I hear bad things from other people all the time. I think that since I ended up getting sort of branded as the “obese girl with weight and food issues” I ended up actually getting BETTER care out of it. I’m not sure, but I suspect.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

13. 13 On April 17th, 2008, queendom said:

    The university where I got my undergraduate degree had (well, has) a wonderful psychological counselor - she really helped me through a lot. I am a binge eater but I cycle between bingeing and dieting. She never made an issue out of my weight - actually, while she knew that I had some problems with binge eating she did not press the issue until I asked for help with it. She also was the first person EVER in my life that told me that in her opinion I was eating too little at one point (I kept a food diary then) and that made me promise I would not exercise more than one hour per day. She also remembered things I told her (without writing them down).

    Now I understand that not everyone has my former counselors memory, but one of the things that really bug me about my current psychologist is that she does not always remember what I have told her in the past. I made a (half-hearted) suicide attempt last summer, and she actually wanted me to talk about that at some point. About two months later I mention my suicide attempt and she actually ask if I ever tried to commit suicide.

    Also, she does not fully get my problem with weight loss dieting. For example, at some point I mentioned that I need about 2,500 kcal per day to feel truly satisfied. That number is on the higher end of normal in my opinion particularly since I am physically active relatively tall. However, she commented that that was “a lot”. The next time I told her that comments like that make me not want to eat for several days and therefore were the perfect triggers for either bingeing or dieting. She agreed that this was problematic, yet when I expressed my problems with my body weight some time later she mentioned something in the direction of trying slow weight loss (like a pound/week). I don’t think she is a bad therapist (I have seen a few really bad ones) yet I don’t think she is really able to help me - neither with my depression (which is for what I am seeing her) nor with my ED. (Actually, I am on a three-months therapy break right now and I don’t think I will be going back.)

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

14. 14 On April 17th, 2008, Marste said:

    I had the “good” fortune to have a friend with both an eating disorder in her past, and a medical background. Although she wasn’t a therapist per se, she said the one and only thing that ever turned out to be 100% accurate (at least for me and my disorder). First off, by starving myself, I had slowed my metabolism WAY down. Second, that we retain cell memory for 7 years. That’s how long it takes for every cell in your body to die and be replaced, apparently. So basically her take on it was, “Your metabolism is going to be screwed for at least 7 years - even longer if you keep relapsing into starvation.”

    I thought she was delusional, but damned if it didn’t turn out to be true: although I’m still not “skinny,” once I hit that 7-year mark with no relapses, I suddenly lost about 20 pounds in 6 months, with no changes to my diet or exercise. (She had gone through the same experience at her 7-year mark as well, although she did not end up “skinny” either.)

    So if you’re eating 1500-1700 calories and getting an hour of exercise every day, maybe there’s something to the theory that your metabolism is still screwed. (I know that’s more like anecdata than science, but what the hell. I’ve seen stranger things.)

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

15. 15 On April 17th, 2008, Jen said:

    I don’t think my university HAS a therapist/counsellor available. I wish they did though as myself and another friend have need of one.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

16. 16 On April 17th, 2008, Piffle said:

    Meowser, I wonder if the difficulty diagnosing your Apergers was also because it’s supposed to be a male disease?

    Rachel, my nephew has ADD too, and his mother told me it makes all the difference to have one of these:

    http://www.amazon.com/Fitball-FitBall-Seating-Disc/dp/B0007TYO88/ref=pd_sim_hpc_title_1

    He’s ten, so not your age; but apparently the necessary constant rebalancing to sit on the cushion helps him focus on his homework. It went from taking two hours to ten minutes.

    My experience with college health services< either for depression or a broken collarbone< were dismal. It’s not limited to mental health.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

17. 17 On April 17th, 2008, Nemohee said:

    I am a Virginia Tech student (Master’s, 2nd year), and I am just now getting to start the PAPERWORK to see the school’s psychiatrist. I go tomorrow. About four weeks ago, I started suffering from vivid nightmares, which I couldn’t figure out whether they were related to April 16th (I wasn’t on campus that day, thank the heavens, but I did know one of the 32), or if it’s just from stress. I can’t wait to see what they say about my eating disorder, because I’m sure that will come up.

    I have been to school counselors before, but I’ve never been to one single counselor for long. At my first school, the counselor didn’t know how to handle me (I was suffering from severe anxiety caused by stress. I was having to check my financial aid every single week to make sure that they hadn’t found another “reason” to drop my scholarships and make me pay the money back), so he dropped me into group therapy after one sitting.

    After I transfered from that school (got failed for classes I never even took. Imagine that), I saw the counselor there. My fiance had just been shipped overseas to Iraq, so understandably, I was suffering from severe anxiety again. She told me she had this “method” of helping students who had anxiety problems. When my situation didn’t exactly fit into her method, she tried to mold it to fit, trying to cover what she thought I “needed” to cover, instead of actually listening to me. Whenever my eating disorder was brought up (I had actually started starving myself again as a way of dealing with the stress of the deployment), it was dismissed, because she didn’t know how to handle it.

    Luckily, none of them ever suggested that I go on a diet.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

18. 18 On April 17th, 2008, Robotitron said:

    Let’s see. In college, I first went to a nutritionist, who told me she couldn’t help me unless I went to a therapist. So off I toddled to the campus health center. I went to a psychiatrist who prescribed Zoloft after ten minutes. I don’t remember ever seeing him again, actually. Then I went on a revolving door of therapists who tended to keep quitting. One helpfully told me that I had minor — vs. major — depression and that I really wasn’t that bad off. This after coming off almost a year of the Atkins diet which left me so depressed and anxious that I would regularly stay awake for two days at a time.

    After the third therapist quit, I stopped going back.

    In my last semester of my senior year I had a terrible depressive episode that basically kept me from graduating. When I tried to get back into school the next semester I was no longer eligible for loans, so that was it for me.

    I just finished my application to go back to school halfway across the country. It has taken almost six years for me to get to a place where I can even consider going back. I had a couple of good therapists along the way, but I believe that my depression and anxiety issues are part and parcel of my PCOS. If I had been properly diagnosed when I first brought it up to my doctor, instead of being told that I was just fat, I might be a lot better off now.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

19. 19 On April 17th, 2008, Meowser said:

    Meowser, I wonder if the difficulty diagnosing your Apergers was also because it’s supposed to be a male disease?

    Oh, I don’t doubt that’s an issue. Kids are being brought up differently these days, but when I was in school, there was definitely a lot more pressure on girls who were Aspie to learn to “be more social” than boys exhibiting the same traits (and nobody even called them “Aspie traits” then, you were just “nerdy” or “different” or “socially awkward”), and when you are forced to try over and over and over again you do pick up a few socialization techniques. And this was probably true of almost all Aspie girls until very recently. So Aspie females, by and large, tend to “present” a lot more atypically than males. That’s my theory, anyway.

    posted on April 17th, 2008 at 11:49 pm

20. 20 On April 18th, 2008, lindeseig said:

    College mental health, eh? While non ED related, I did have a college shrink completely miss a bipolar diagnosis. Mind you, this was after I came for my appointment and said, “I haven’t slept in two months, my entire personality has been turned inside out, and all of my friends hate me.” Absolutely missed it. Instead, she upped my antidepressant and turned annoying rapid cycling bipolar into annoying ultra rapid cycling bipolar. Plenty of fun there…

    As for food/body issues, my various therapists have been hit or miss. I dropped a significant amount of weight while seeing one doctor and started engaging in some seriously disordered eating behavior to maintain it (compulsive dieting, restricting, et al). She encouraged the whole mess and it never occurred to her that what I was doing wasn’t particularly healthy.

    Current doctor, however, has actually been pretty great in this regard, and is quite a big reason why I finally started accepting - and loving - my body for what it is and where it wants to be.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 12:13 am

21. 21 On April 18th, 2008, Anna said:

    Not for myself, but my husband lucked out this time - he found an on-campus counsellor that specialised in disability issues (or, at least, had done a lot of work on the issues of mental health around disability) and that made a huge difference. Someone who actually knew how chronic pain plays into mental health issues!

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 12:28 am

22. 22 On April 18th, 2008, SN said:

    I have seen 10 therapists/social workers in the last 12 years or so for depression and OCD. Not one was a bit of good and it is frustrating. I have lost all faith in psychiatry. These losers ran the gamut from one therapist who would tell me personal details of his other patients to one who cried during my sessions because she was too “sensitive” to one who told me exercise would fix all my problems. And to top it off, none of them even offered me good drugs.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 12:32 am

23. 23 On April 18th, 2008, sara a. said:

    My college’s counseling center is over run. I tried to seek help from them two years ago when I was reeling from a friend’s sudden violent death and drama in my life that was out of control. I got to talk to a woman seeking her master’s or doctoral work in psychology and she was less than helpful. I was grief-stricken and needed someone to talk to until school ended who wouldn’t be bored with my grief or invalidate it. She referred me to an outside doctor because of their overuse. I never called them because it was all I could do to function on a day-to-day basis and get my shit done. Also it feels like two very different things to go a room on the second level of the student center and talk with a thirty-ish woman about my dead best friend vs. get on the bus in to town and then walk a mile to wait for a half hour reading a magazine when I could be doing work.

    I had a great therapist growing up… he mainly helped me deal with my ADD and isolation from the other children. I didn’t like them and they didn’t like me. My mother and I also had issues because of several things but I would like to thank Dr. Klein for making my weight and my body officially off-limits to her. He never talked about dieting and weight except as a social construct.He also helped me deal with a lot of negative feelings.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 1:02 am

24. 24 On April 18th, 2008, Jenny Hyatt said:

    We have a lot of college students on the site who describe many of the similar issues as those of you here. I was just exchanging messages with a student who is so afraid of failing that she has got stuck in a depressive state that makes dropping grades almost a self fulfilling prophecy. Appropriate support for those experiencing the stresses of college life is simply not sufficient or often even what is needed. Jenny Hyatt, Founder, bigwhitewall.com

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 1:34 am

25. 25 On April 18th, 2008, Reas Kroicowl said:

    Man, I almost didn’t want to read these posts, as I’m on the “mental health provider” side of this one.

    I’m not a therapist because I don’t think it’s something I would do well, and, as with all professions, there are good and bad ones out there. Every therapist has a different way of going about things to, so it could be if you have a bad experience, it just wasn’t a good fit. As for the psychiatrist who was concerned about the 20 pound weight gain, that’s valid. Weight gain or loss many times goes hand-in-hand with mood disorders, namely depression. It’s a red flag when taken into account with other symptoms.

    My advice in general: Stay away from psychiatrists if you’re wanting to talk about your issues and wanting some insight in return. They are there to push meds and that’s all. The profession is so weird in that none of them work full time anywhere (in my state at least) and the way insurance plans are set up, they can’t see anyone for more than 15 minute increments. I think they serve a great service when it comes to knowing and prescribing psych meds, but for real empathy, I would go with a therapist.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 2:13 am

26. 26 On April 18th, 2008, vesta44 said:

    Mine isn’t a college-related experience with mental health, but back when my son was 5 or so (I was a single mother on welfare, coping with a mother who just knew I could never do anything right, had never done anything right, and would never do anything right), I went to our county’s mental health looking for help. I was majorly depressed and not coping with life well at all. The first therapist I saw was a man (don’t know if that has anything to do with his advice) and the only thing he could tell me was that there was nothing wrong with me that having more money wouldn’t cure. Yeah, having more money is going to get my mother off my ass (after 25 years [at the time] of her riding my ass, I don’t think so, she would still be after me if I had anything to do with her, which I haven’t for the last 12 years). Needless to say, I never went back to him, and put off getting the help I needed for another 11 years. I finally found a good therapist, and got the antidepressants I needed, but I wonder how different my life (and my son’s) would have been if I had gotten the help sooner.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 8:29 am

27. 27 On April 18th, 2008, thoughtracer said:

    I’m in graduate school to become a therapist, and I also have bipolar disorder and bulimia-NOS. So I am straddling both sides of the fence. I also have been working in an adjunctive field of mental health for a few years now and have facilitated several admissions into mental health institutions, and have sat in on countless therapy sessions, psych sessions, etc for my clients, as well as attended my own. I also had experience with them in college.

    Let me tell you: the field is bleak.

    It’s a problem with funding. No one is interested in getting to know actual people. Some therapists are. There are some good ones. But there are a lot of therapists who truly lack insight. Insight takes work and dedication, and a lot of people don’t have it. A lot of therapists haven’t gone to therapy themselves. Think about it: People are going to see someone to talk about deep, dark shit with someone who has consistently refused to analyze their own deep, dark shit. I personally find that to be a problem. It is not a requirement to be in therapy for many graduate programs that train therapists. (because coercerion is an ethical issue regarding treatment). Why would you even become a therapist if you weren’t interested in learning about yourself, healing yourself? It makes no sense to me. And I find it to be selfish to demand that your clients own up to their shit if you aren’t willing to do it yourself. It’s a real problem, and I guarantee you, the crap therapists out there are the ones who haven’t been on the couch themselves.

    Secondly, in school, professors may preach person-first language, cultural competency, etc etc, but I am telling you, they have bias. Person first language is the phenomenon where we refer to individuals first, illness second. Therefore, you don’t say: she’s bipolar, you’d say: she is a person with bipolar disorder. You don’t pathologize people. Seems like a small issue, but over months and years, you can dehumanize people with language, so that you are eventually saying things like: “We need to get those schizos off the streets.” Um, they are not schizos, they are people with schizophrenia, which is a legitimate illness, just like cancer, or MS or anything else, and we wouldn’t say “We need to get those breast cancers off the street,” would we? No. Because it’s dehumanizing and sounds idiotic to boot.

    Thirdly, psychiatrists are totally regulated by the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. I have met very. very few good shrinks, and the ones I have met are literally just getting out of school, fresh faced and ready to do good work. They seem to have embraced a newer model of psychiatry, where the patient has more insight into their illnesses and has a basic right to ask questions about their meds and say: “Um, I’m not so sure about this, can we try this?” Many of the older shrinks have the attitude of “Father knows best,” and won’t even tolerate questions, won’t look at you in session, and aren’t interested in your feelings, side effects, med reactions, etc. 15 minutes, and you’re out. The end. Say the wrong thing, and you might end up in the hospital. I know, it almost happened to me, after saying: “I’ve never been doing better.” She heard me wrong and said “Well, we may have to put you in the hospital then.”

    The entire system needs overhaul. I am a tireless advocate for this.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 9:09 am

28. 28 On April 18th, 2008, Rachel said:

    A family friend of ours is a psychiatrist. He mostly prescribes Welbutrin, because its drug manufacturer gives him the best perks. He also doesn’t even take the time to really listen to people. He prescribe medication within 15 minutes. And he readily admits to this, too.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 9:17 am

29. 29 On April 18th, 2008, Nina said:

    My therapist doesn’t want me to be less than 120lbs, even though my goal weight has been 110-115. He’s the nicest, most encouraging therapist I’ve ever met, who tells me every day that I’m beautiful and perfect. Unfortunately, everyone says that, so I’m not inclined to believe him. That’s my problem with my eating disorder. I don’t believe anyone but the mirror.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 10:12 am

30. 30 On April 18th, 2008, jane said:

    I actually had very positive experiences with my undergrad institution’s counseling services. We were entitled to free sessions equivalent to once a week pretty much throughout our undergrad career, which was in itself extraordinary. I did two bouts of short term counseling with two different social workers, both of whom were technically trainees but whom I found very helpful. However, what I went to them with was pretty simple in the grand scheme of things–textbook major depressive episode–and based on the experience of friends who saw other therapists in the same system, I think the system’s usefulness was inversely proportional to the complexity/severity of your issues. I was having significant food issues at the time but chose not to even bring that up and they never got at it. Which was fine with me, actually, and everything worked out okay in the end (treating my depression was a huge step in enabling me to fix my food issues on my own). But it was one of two subjects I very carefully avoided, or even outright lied about, because although I trusted my individual therapists, I didn’t particularly trust the university not to overreact to certain issues (e.g. by threatening my academic standing or ability to live on campus).

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

31. 31 On April 18th, 2008, glt said:

    My college’s counseling center was dissatisfying, although I forget the precise details. They certainly didn’t have time for me and didn’t follow up. I saw a therapist unrelated to the school for a while, and although she made about two actually helpful comments over the months, the best thing she did was give me a referral to a psychiatrist who gave me some pills that (initially at least) made me too fuzzy to be depressed. Then I moved and tried a different therapist who wanted me to tell her what to do with the therapy sessions and then at some point they had me get a $1200 evaluation of my psyche as a whole, which a monumentally huge waste of money and put me off psychotherapy for good. I also can’t get pills here, because the mental health clinics reserve weekend appointments for existing clients, so I discovered I can live without the pills (and failed completely to follow the instruction booklet in the process, because going off them unsupervised is very, very bad). The only mental health person I still feel favorable toward is my psychiatrist because his job was to prescribe me pills and he did it.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

32. 32 On April 18th, 2008, Colin said:

    This shrink was like “Our goal for these sessions will be to get you to looove yourself.”

    I told her, I’d settle for not trying to starve myself to death. Let’s work on vaguely tolerating myself, and then we can get to love.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

33. 33 On April 18th, 2008, PatboyX said:

    I have to say, I actually know a college shrink and I do not envy the students sent to her. She will, on occasion, attempt to use her training as some sort of Jedi-style parlor trick. At social events she will begin probing off-hand comments like “Oh god, tomorrow is Sunday. I hate Sunday.” with object-oriented questions. It’s not so much the lack of dignity but the lack of understanding that wanting to help people through therapy isn’t a party game.

    Anyway, these schools need to offer some incentives to get qualified, well-educated and intelligent people in there. I am shocked that at the high school and college level more focus does not go to mental health considering just how volatile those years are for many students.

    posted on April 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

34. 34 On April 19th, 2008, thoughtracer said:

    Reading all of your experiences with therapy/counseling, well. … all I can say is there are over 300 styles/theories of counseling out there, which I did not know until this year. Seriously, I never got anything out of therapy until I was in therapy school. Now that I know what the therapist is supposed to be doing, I am getting a lot more out of it. I don’t know which one of us is failing in the process: the therapist, or me.

    posted on April 19th, 2008 at 1:21 am

35. 35 On April 19th, 2008, Mary Sue said:

    The campus mental health center was staffed by interns from the grad psych department.

    I was kind of depressed, so I signed up for an appointment. The wee intern started asking general questions, and I had to answer ‘yes’ to the one “Have you ever been in a violent relationship”.

    Apparently, the fact that a 12 year old girl could be beaten up by her 12 year old boyfriend blew my intern’s tiny pea brain, and she kept interrupting me and asking for ‘details’, and she had this look of horror on her face that was just spectacular. After 45 minutes, she told me very seriously that she was concerned about me and thought I should go to a DV shelter.

    “Uh,” I said. “I know I look young, but I broke up with him 6 years ago and his family moved to Hawai’i.”

    posted on April 19th, 2008 at 10:25 pm

36. 36 On April 21st, 2008, Stephanie said:

    My school (incidentally, Baldwin-Wallace College — doing the research on EDs mentioned here before) has (I guess) a decent counseling center. The psychiatrist gave me Zoloft for panic attacks, but what actually stopped them was me being away from college for a year. (Going cold turkey off Zoloft? Not recommended.)

    So I’m not sure if that counts. They were always nice to me when I came in, throwing up from stress, though, and gave me more free Gatorade.

    posted on April 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am

37. 37 On April 23rd, 2008, Kyla said:

    Oh my goodness, where to start. ED treatment on campuses makes me so sad, because they are so needed and so inept. My first therapist told me I didn’t have bulimia because I didn’t binge eat, then recommended the book “overcoming binge eating” to me. My psychiatrist told me to try harder and discouraged IP because the medications weren’t working so apparently I wasn’t trying enough. he didn’t consider the fact that prozac typically doesn’t work at low weights. My school doctor, dietician, and psychiatrist never told me my weight was too low despite being in the anorexia range.

    My school has an intensive outpatient program which is another story. They claim to be all science based and state of the art, but they don’t make ustake off our shoes and jackets during weight, let usgo to the bathroom after meals, process meals DURING the meal, let uswear baggy sweatshirts when it’s 100 degrees, fed us nothing but salads and wraps, and let us play food games like crazy. the staff was inconsistent with each other. They labeled me defiant when I gave them feedback. I dropped that program after a month, I couldn’t stand it.

    posted on April 23rd, 2008 at 7:25 pm

38. 38 On April 28th, 2008, overheard: in my therapist’s waiting room « Fat Girl on a Date said:

    [...] 28, 2008 · No Comments In a comment on Rachel’s post about experiences with mental health providers, I mentioned my therapist’s main practice is in evaluating candidates for weight loss [...]

    posted on April 28th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

39. 39 On June 19th, 2008, Nina said:

    I never went to a therapist for my eating disorder I always thought my mental health, i.e the way I thought about certain circumstances directly made me hungry or even made me loose my appetite. I lately had too many personal issues that I decided to take the help of a psychiatrist. After two or three sessions she concluded that I am diagonosed of ADHD which was a disorder or rather wrong wiring of the brain which caused a lot of tempers problems, eating disoder, learning disability etc. I am on medication now and have drastically improved. If any one out there is suffering from this disorder please do contact a doctor immediately to be treated.
    —————————————

    Nina

    posted on June 19th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

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