There is a girl who study psychology. She is surrounded by peers students of psychology, and bu many teachers who are psychologist themselves. That girl almost suicides herself and none of those psychologists were able or maybe ever wanted to lift a finger.

But then... Some troper was just avised (The girl made a farewell call) the troper managed to escape from his office, drove a few miles, entered by the window, crying out loud "Hey you!!! Grit those teeth!!!", snapped her and "Punched" some sense into her. A few hours later of talkings, many callings and a little call to the problem-solving-crowd, the outcome was: Kamina's teachings: 1. Therapists: ''MINUS'' Over nine thousands.

Actually a pretty common problem. See the trope TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes. Therapists and other counselors often develop problems themselves.

Or make them in the first place. Some people know they are screwed up, Psychology has some interest because it might hint to why and then maybe they can fix themselves? This troper started going down a similar route but the teacher noticed and the trope ultimately averted.

This Troper's girlfriend has had a cheating, alcoholic, absentee father who steals and has been in and out of jail. He and her mother divorced when she was 12 and she then married a {{Jerkass}} who doesn't care for her or her sister at all and charges her rent. Her mother is a meek {{Broken Bird}} who doesn't know how to connect to her emotionally. She hasn't really had a home that's fully accepted her presence since about age 14. She has NEVER been to a therapist, ever. She's surprisingly well-adjusted given her past, but has a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder, and is also a little too ambitious for her own good.

Foster children are required to be in therapy, so This Troper saw a lot of therapists. Every time I moved to a different place I got a different therapist, and I saw around 25-30. Most of them sucked and spent the session in almost silence, very few were helpful. Before then there were a few I tried to tell about things going on with my parents-it took me years to get one to actually listen.

This troper has Aspergers, albeit a weak variation that doesn't impair my social life, so this trope is justified for me... I think.

This Troper got sent to three school counsellours, a psychologist and two psychiatrists. She has issues dominating conversations and speaking up, so the professionals tended to do all the talking and occasionally ask her a question, even when she made it obvious that she wanted to talk. And had something to say. In all that time, they addressed the issue of her dead father (briefly, and moved on in, like, two sessions, not even bothering with the obvious emotional repression and the fact that since his death she's been unable to cry at all) and figured out she had Aspergas (which she didn't care about and has gotten really pissed off with all the people going "aww, I'm sorry") yet, no matter how often she brought up her brother and how she felt about him, the squicky mild attraction, the occasional dreaming about killing him and the even more common sex dreams involving him, the time he threatened her with a knife, the time he kicked her for crying after falling over the railing of the stairs, and all the times she told them how worried she was about him because his therapists didn't seem to be helping either (case in point: three years of therapy resulted in him refusing to go and inflicting self-harm) and every-time they steered the conversation back to her having a severely MILD case of Aspergas that was so clearly NOT THE ISSUE. She eventually refused to go back to any of them because she didn't like the way they spoke to her like she was five and didn't let her talk and never really listened when she spoke. This was when she was 13. She'd been bullied repeatedly, had one suicide attempt and once tried to kiss her brother. (Not to mention the mild depression HE sank into after being STRANGLED at school when he was 7, and no one seemed to notice or care) She's amazed no-one ever realized something was up.

How are you now? Did you find a good therapist, because they are out there, and these are the kinds of things that need to be talked about.

Unfortunately, a case of TruthInTelevision, for this troper. After 6 years of purely psychological bullying, living purely on spite as a form of pseudo-revenge against said bullies long after the bullying stopped, locking up any anger felt as a defence mechanism to prevent lashing out at loved ones, and with parents either working, trying to get a degree, or actually in counselling themselves after being screwed over by the previous job, you would think that ''someone'' would have the bright idea to send this troper to a good counsellor. Even after dropping out of university temporarily, no alarms were raised. What, then, in the end lead to this troper seeing a counsellor? The habit of burying this troper's head in the sand as a response to OTHER problems...

Are you me?

Truth in television for this troper as well, at least through middle school. "Take an already aggressive and slightly unstable person and then let her be bullied constantly? Why, she'll be just fine! What? She finally snapped and attacked her tormentors? It's obviously ALL HER FAULT and she'll be taking the heaviest punishment!" ...What no I'm not bitter the bitterness is a ''lie.''

Same thing happened to me, only worse. there ''were'' guidance counselors (Basically, in-school therapists), but they sided with the teachers in making me think it was entirely his fault. one particular example. I'm walking through the hallway, bugging a kid because a teacher told him to bring him to the office. Suddenly, 6 guys, presumable friends of the guy I was bugging, come over and start punching and kicking me. After a few moments, some kid yells "Teacher!" and the kids beating me up scatter. The teacher brings me to the office, and I get suspended because the kid who got the teacher claimed that ''I'' was beating the kid up. My attempts to plead otherwise amounted to: #QUOTE# Principal: Is it true that you were bugging this kid #QUOTE# Me: Yes but- #QUOTE# Principal: Than it was obviously your fault. 3-day suspension!

This troper's mom has called guidance counselors "useless up until high school if you're lucky". This doesn't surprise her.

This troper's story is remarkably similar to the above troper. With the addition of some parental abuse, including telling a woman in school that he had to go home fast cause his dad would hit him and yell again if he was late. This woman turned out to be a psychologist. This woman did absolutely nothing. Including when this troper told her about the bullying from the other students too. When this troper snapped and attacked his tormentors, it was obviously ALL HIS FAULT and he'll be taking the heaviest punishment. Why, I do believe that this story and the above troper's share some slight similarities.

Thank you for sharing that with us. I think we can all relate to having frustrating experiences. That was very brave. Would anyone else like to share with the group?

This troper did go to a psychologist during his second grade. The psychologist must've been very incompetent because he was declared perfectly normal. His weirdness went unchecked for years, untill it eventually resulted in massive amount of bullying. He did eventually get sent to the school therapist, but the therapist didn't really do anything to alleviate his problem. All the bullying eventually caused him to become a cynical misanthrope who was unable to trust other people. He eventually got better, largely thanks to a very nice girl and some other people he met in highschool that caused him to regain his trust on people. Nowdays he's just a shy, somewhat cynical person, who doesn't hold the human race in very high regard (but doesn't have anything in particular againt individual people).

People say "are you me" with these things but with this... it's just so exact that I was just standing here openmouthed and in shock wondering - seriously - if I was worse off than I thought, to have written something like this and forgotten. I wish I could meet you. And someone should really show parents, school staff, and moreover, those responsible for putting school staff in place this page and pages like it. People are being damaged for life and those most in a place to stop it are clearly seeing it and making the choice to do nothing or blame the victim. Also, in trying to get help later (I don't want to go into details, but... some things that went unnoticed then still cause me serious problems now) I also ran into what someone pointed out far below: "What, we didn't catch this when you were a child? Sucks to be you, dude." It's just amazing that the means to help people with these things is ''actually out there'' and the people in a position to get it to those who need it aren't do so.

Same with this troper, minus the weirdness and the psychologist. She was bullied and teased for various reasons in early grade school, and she quickly became distrustful of the culprits and anyone else, including her close friends. Telling teachers of the problem didn't get her anywhere; she got teased for being a tattle-tale and a teacher's pet. While the smoldering hate towards the perpetrators has dimmed throughout the years, she still can't stand anyone that acts like those people ("popular" people). Now, she's shy, jaded and cynical, and while somewhat friendly to most people, most people could see it as just a way to keep people away.

This troper would like to state this as evidence for his theory that human psychology and behaviour can frequently be described using fractals...

This troper. Oh god. My life sucks, and I know that it's at least partly my fault... doesn't mean I don't need some sort of therapy for my fuckups.

Stage one: knew a girl four years my senior since I was nine. Fell in love with her slowly, but realized it when I was... eleven. Moved to Houston at twelve. In spite of there being absolutely no chance of it working out, desperately clung to hope that she'd still be there for me in six years or so. She wasn't. She got pregnant with a Marine and shacked up with him last year. He promptly cut off all means of her communicating with me. She may or may not even still be alive; there is literally no trace of her that I can find.

Stage two: went through a long process of BreakTheCutie during the latter part of the above at my school. The absolute nadir of my life so far has been when the above ended and I was elected to Homecoming Court as a twisted joke just so people could take advantage of my apparent social phobia and try to force me into a nervous breakdown.

All of the above has combined to make me a miserable, cynical bastard with {{Yangire}} tendencies and nearly no friends to rely on. Good thing I have TVTropes, huh?

This troper went through an inverted form of this trope. He was followed by psychologist for nearly ten years before the diagnostics (Asperger's) was ever even suspected. The catch is that traditional psychotherapy notoriously unhelpful for Asperger's Syndrome. The therapist at the time refused to ever give a diagnostic (which two other psyc we knew informally noted: "Dude, Asperger's") because she "did not want to give a label", even though the label was NECESSARY to obtain assistance. The troper is still also bitter.

This troper is an inversion or a subversion or both; she spent her childhood and preteen years getting ineffectively poked at by counsellors, social workers, and psychologists because of behavioural difficulties that went away on their own at puberty (although she still has an explosive temper under certain conditions, it's just ''very'' well-controlled and difficult to trigger now). There's also the fact that a mix of psychological traumas, personality factors, and other mental stuff (such as the effects of AttentionDeficitOohShiny) caused numerous outward similarities to Asperger's syndrome, which were and continue to be ultimately superficial but still got me a diagnosis thereof, which I've spent years unsuccessfully trying to get rid of. And then there's the fact that every authority figure I've shared private information with in confidence turned around and gave it to someone else whom I didn't want having it (my teachers if I talked to my parents and my parents if I talked to anyone else). This has created a situation where, despite being well aware that I'm a ''mess'' for these and other reasons, that therapy would no doubt help, and that not all of them are similarly untrustworthy, I would rather swallow razor wire than talk to a mental health professional about it.

This Troper dealed during half of her childhood with emotional complications derived of her diagnosed ADHD and the questionable approach her parents took to bear with that, developing depression by the time she arrived to puberty. Despite the several signals, my family took my good grades and lack of "obvious" suicidal signals as proof that I was "well", and dismissed the rest of my inadequacies as "immaturity". I didn't got treatment until college, after an incident where I finally snapped and realized that I had to do ''something'' to maintain me alive. Although the different psychologist I saw were helpful, they weren't enough; and the treatment the psychiatrist gave to me was too expensive and I had to stop it. During all the process I only received financial support, and even that was reluctantly. One of my relatives said to me that "oneself has to be its own shrink, so you should get over without it". The only one who was supportive later tried to use the fact I was in Psych treatment against me. I suspect that the depression and a bit of ADD still lurk there; but I really don't know how to "get over it" by myself, I don't have money to go back to treatment, and my family is so convinced that my problem is attention whoreism that I won't ask them for any help. And the relative who told me that I had to get over by myself, when it should have been obvious that I couldn't? Well, she is now studying to be a teacher for kids with special learning needs. And she may be as messed as me, only less obvious.

This troper's life has, to be perfectly blunt, gone to hell in the past few years-everything from his mother having several strokes and seizures and being regularly hospitalized (she's now pretty much a shell of her former self), verbal abuse heaped on both he and his sister from their father (who is rapidly becoming an alcoholic), a tendency to wall up most of his negative reactions to the above, an overactive imagination that shows how much worse things could all to easily become, and, to top it all off, his mother recently confiding in him that she might have a massive tumor on her neck (though it might be a benign growh), and it was only a month or so ago that anyone whatsoever though he might need a little help dealing with it, despite the fact that his sisters been in therapy for nearly six months.

This troper has Asperger's and dyspraxia. The former of which was actually spotted by psychiatrists at an early age, but never noted, and the latter which was noted and that nobody actually notices until it's explained. Early diagnosis led to a dislike and distrust of therapists in general, and this troper going slowly off the rails, before being kicked headlong off them by a bad breakup. Said sanity is now returning, helped by finding a trade in which the disorders are actually helpful more often than not, such as being able to pick up heat-shrinking after only a few hours of training from the point of never having heard of it before.

For this troper, this was inverted. In her school year of 2007- early 2008, she was constantly send to therapy, forced to talk with teachers, school therapists and more. The reason? They thought that she was depressed. Why? Because she didn't talk to the others in her class. Which was untrue. She talked with them often, but simply liked paying attention in class, instead of talking about stupid stuff like boys and fashion, which she's not interested in. Also, she's simply better friends with students in other classes. Geez, people! Focus on the people who actually need therapy!

Same here, but I think I got "therapy" because my teacher likes picking on me and screwing with my life with this very trope in mind.

This troper has Aspergers', but was undiagnosed until around age 14, when her mother put two and two together. Despite her lack of interest in any "typical" things her peers talked about (reality shows, music, etc.), SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, SpockSpeak, and difficulty relating to others, nobody else realized she had Aspergers.

This troper was 23 and it took the son of a friend of my mother's killing himself before Aspergers was even discovered as an option. When you're diagnosed as an adult ThereAreNoTherapists. Aw, we failed to see this in you before you came of age? Sorry we can't help you. No no, it doesn't matter that ''you've'' been suicidal since elementary school, it doesn't matter that you partake in self harm in multiple ways, it doesn't matter you can't get a job or keep a friendship, we're giving you SSI checks. Isn't that enough? Bitter? No, I am not.

ThisTroper. He can get along fine (even though he doesn't want to), he just needs help with his damn procrastination and mother problems! And yet, he was a hyperactive ''shit'' when he was little. It got better or worse, depending on who you ask.

Are you me?

Procrastination? Mother Problems? Are you... me?

If you're a massive procrastinator who is determined to do things until he's confronted with them, a massive {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, avoid people, a mass cynic, is Filipino, and has a bad temper when crossed, '''the theories were true!!'''

I'm all those things! Except, I'm not Filipino... I think...

I'm only half-Filipino and not a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, but everything else fits.

This troper: while he is quite messed up due to constant bullying, low self-esteem and not being able to adapt to changes, he is quite distrustful from psychologists due to a lot of reasons and refuses to go to therapy. He has recently been reconsidering his point of view about it and deciding to go to therapy, though, at least to try...

You should, honestly. ThisTroper can tell, from various anecdotes (including his own), that the first therapist won't be the best. You really have to look around for one that best fits you.

This troper's anxiety disorder has been VERY active since perhaps the age of six. What did she get sent to counselling for? Objecting to a sexist comment made by a classmate, because 'little girls shouldn't care about that'. (She was also sexually harassed quite a bit.) What has this taught her? Keep it all inside, because if you don't, you'll be sent to a room by yourself like a quarantine victim to talk about your feelings. (And when I decided the counselor didn't really want to HEAR about my feelings, I made some up. Works quite well. The anonymity of the internet seems to have helped a great deal, considering how much I've been venting especially in this wiki-style format... so perhaps this is my therapy. Finding those in similar mindsets has really helped... rather than those who would prefer outward normalcy over decent mental health and safety.)

This troper suffers an inversion, from age eight to his current 1st year in university not a single year has gone by without a visit to the school therapist student councillor or other such, each time he has been told he suffers from depression has an avoidance type personality or some other such ridiculously unsuited diagnosis. Holding realistic expectations and being well informed as to global poverty is not depression.

I spent my elementary years being bullied, with major stage fright, general awkwardness and a single friend. While I DID meet a therapist at some point, it was already by high school, when I didn't need it. (Parental support does wonders... as does maturity)

Holy shit! The gummint is cloning us all! thats why i never pay mah damn incum taxes!

This Troper had some horrible teachers growing up and was picked on by classmates until middle school. Some of it was because there were a few kids who honestly matured and developed into nice, caring people, but I also suspect some of the school shootings that were on the news at the time played some part. Me= Very quiet, very smart, unshakeable stoic face, and no actual friends. My mother, a real ({{MamaBear}}), would have done something about the teasing and horrible teachers if she had known, but until the end of third grade, my answer to her questions about my day was alway a variation of, 'It was fine,' in a neutral tone. That only changed after, at the end of third grade, several of my classmates told her about my designation as the teacher's main punching bag (thankfully not literally). There were counselors at my school, but they didn't have licenses in psychology. Until high school, none of them cared much about me. Every year, one of them would talk to me long enough to be reassured I wasn't planning on going on a killing spree and move on. In high school, I found a counselor who actually liked me, checked up on me, and laughed in disbelief when I told her that some male classmates were probably going to tell her I threatened them with a gun. I had, but there was no gun, and it was more like someone angrily declaring they'd kill someone than something I had put planning into. Then, she died in my senior year from cancer that I didn't even know she had. So, bitter that I was coded high-risk (my mother found out from school files that I had been declared a medium-level high risk)? Yeah, as a vegetarian who strongly believes in pacifism, it's a little insulting. Disgusted by the knowledge those counselors, who didn't do much of anything to help, wouldn't have done a thing at all if they hadn't thought I was possibly a sociopath/psychopath? Oh, definitely. It doesn't matter whether a child is capable of harm or not; the humane thing to do, not to mention a main requirement of the bloody job, is to try to help them when they're having problems.

Also? When several boys sexually harassed me (thankfully just verbally), no one did a freaking thing until my mother forced them to. And they couldn't even blame it on me being quiet and stoic that time, because, I told the teacher. Turned out he was a bit of a misogynist. I told the counselors; their response was along the lines of, 'boys will be boys'. Honestly, I'm a little scared of how bad I could have ended up were it not for my mother.

No therapists for this troper, who was bullied by everyone including a very Christian mother of four, minister, and next door neighbor (same person). This troper is surprised no one noticed how depressed she was, and how enjoyable it was to fantisize about taking my dad's gun to school and murdering every single student while they begged for mercy. She's gotten a bit better, although she's taken up the habit of self harm and takes way too many pills for simple things like headaches, but she really feels like a therapist, or just someone to talk to would have helped her a lot when she was younger. Ah well.

I have no idea who you are, but out of concern for your well-being, I can not support the self-harm or the pill-popping. Even if ThereAreNoTherapists, please just bug someone until they listen to you.

My, my, my so many stories similar to my own. This troper's parents decided when she was three years old that she was gifted like her father. Since her father had been handed everything he wanted on a silver platter and knew what it was like to be gifted they decided not to give said troper an inch. She went to school at four and was reviled by her classmates for being 'weird'. By the age of about ten she was considering suicide given the frequent bullying at school, her placement in special-ed classes, and her parents unrelenting expectations. The only thing that kept her from going through with it was books. Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Young Wizards, the collective works of Tamora Pierce. The freak shall inherit the earth. All the weird kids that no one liked or understood saved the bloody world! The young troper persevered. By high school she had sort of figured out that the Hogwarts letter wasn't going to show up. Boarding school, however, placed her in AG classes and allowed her to make friends for the first time. Friends who graduated leaving her to be molested by a suitemate the next year. Can you say 'abandonment issues' boys and girls? Good job! Oi, it only got worse from there. According to the free counselor at uni she is probably schizophrenic and the therapist suggests that the troper see a proper shrink. Troper frequently self-medicates with marijuana or alcohol or both. It’s cheaper than therapy and her parents do not disapprove of it, seriously. They do disapprove of their ‘shining golden hope’ (honestly what her father calls her) being crazy.

This Troper was bullied, teased, mocked and shunned all through elementary school while the teacher looked on. The troper's mother, realising there was a problem, tried to get the troper switched into another class, but the freakin' school said "hell, no." As a result, the troper grew up with serious problems in interacting with people, often going from excessively clingy to abnormally removed and remote. Couple this with serious uprooting (from Italy to France to America and back to Italy) throughout her teenage years, which meant having to start the long and painful socialization process over and over, and then fast forward to her senior year in high school: she completely got derailed, lost her good standing grade-wise, started spiralling into self-disruption, depression, bulimia, apathy. Fast-forward again to college, from which she dropped out not once, but twice, and cue the mother: "You have some issues. Maybe we should get you help." The troper, by the way, has come to understand that the extent to which a person can hurt herself without actively committing suicide is vast, indeed.

This troper has had his share of mental issues (mostly related to ADD, anxiety and depression), but the ''ne plus ultra'' of it was between about 1996 and 2007 (yes, ''11 whole years''), with a short respite in 1998-1999 and a recovery that started in earnest in 2005. When I went to college, I had this silly idea that I didn't need therapists or a support structure because they called themselves "Disabled Student Services", and I was deathly afraid people would think I was a retard. It was a bad idea. I ended up dropping out in 1996 after spending the better part of a semester holed up in my dorm room, reading [=FreeBSD=] source code, eating, sleeping and not much else—and once I got home, I didn't work for ''two years''. When I did finally get a job, I didn't take it as seriously as I should have at first, and on at least two occasions (one of which had to do with a {{Jerkass}} coworker) I quit and then came back about a month later. To make matters worse, I was still very much in love with a girl I knew in high school, but never actually dated; not only was she attractive, she was a huge inspiration to me (and the main reason I not only passed, but got high marks in grades 11 and 12), and I was confused as to whether I wanted her as a girlfriend, or LikeBrotherAndSister. If I liked someone, it was because I saw them as a ReplacementGoldfish for her, not because I genuinely ''liked'' them. This cost me several friendships (as much due to the {{Wangst}} as the clinginess) and resulted in a GetAHoldOfYourselfMan moment in 2002, not to mention a few days in the psych ward in 2001, stemming from a failed suicide attempt after trying to reconcile with one of said goldfish. As much as I wanted to get over it, it was difficult without actual therapists; I was seeing a psychiatrist at the time, but he only did (and still does) medication management. After 2005 (upon finding that my old crush had since finished school, married and gotten on with her life) I started to come out of my shell some, but it wasn't until 2007 (when I left the town I went to high school in) that my life finally improved significantly. It's only now, in 2008, as a grown man of 31, that I've started talking to an actual therapist again, and as of mid-2009 I've come to the conclusion that not only was my attraction to the girl from high school not all that sexual (in fact, she was rather plain looking, though I admittedly think she was cute); it was borne out of a desire for comfort and support during an incredibly stressful time in my life, and I was not self-aware enough then to say that out loud, making my overtures creepier than they should have been.

It turns out that it's both more complicated and more simple than the theory I had up here before (which was really just a spur-of-the-moment wild guess at best). I'm pretty certain after thinking about it some more that I was attracted to her because she vaguely resembled my mom. (You can insert the ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' quips wherever you like.) There were just too many weird internal memes attached to that particular crush that led back not to high school, but to somewhere around 1980-1982 -- when I was still a toddler and would have been closer to my mom than I was in high school. As for why I sought validation from this girl so badly? I think I can answer that. I was more depressed than I let on, scared about being in a new environment after 10 years of special ADHD schools, and wanted someone to anchor myself emotionally to help me cope. The fact that she kind of resembled my mom just seemed...comforting.

Inverted in the fact that this Troper was sent to a counseller/therapist for breaking down and crying during a high school class. After a session or two, the therapist decided to give me the ''Full Medical Workup'' that they give as a precaution (She obviously thought the troper was being bullied etc). Turns out, as he believed, the Troper's outbursts were due to extremely painful migraine headaches caused by short-sightedness; He now wears glasses!

this troper has actively hidden problems to avoid counsellors. I'm not opening my mind up for a stranger, thank you.

This Troper did not find out I was bipolar until I was in my thirties. Of course it was about that time when I discovered that I had a nasty abandonment complex, issues with self-medication and a death-wish, too. Have you ever noticed that finding a shrink when you actually need one is like getting put on hold on the suicide hotline?

This troper has never lived in the same place for more than 4 years. Went to three different elementary schools, each time losing almost all contact with anyone at the old school. And a father who thought it was okay because they were moving to somewhere better. Had parents that constantly fought, and believes that her father was in the wrong. Her father swore constantly and even at a young age would insult one of her or her siblings with names, mostly her brother if she remembers correctly. Friendless for basically all of elementary school. As she got older, she fought with her father constantly and had honestly wondered if she should run away. There views differed greatly and her father will not accept the fact that she hates Church, and it's hypocritical nature, believes we evolved from apes and things like that. Spend most of 6th grade a complete silent loser who lost herself in daydreams to deal with it. Spent 7th grade constantly having to try to talk to people and walking on what she thinks was a tightrope to try to keep them. Finally found a place in 8th grade. And is terrified of high school because most of her friends are going to the opposite one she is and her parents are pressuring her to accept going to a private high school if she get in. Still has what she thinks is bad complex about having to start over. And they honestly think she should be more kind to her family when her sister is a little whining girl who tries to get away with almost everything and her brother constantly tries to prove he's stronger than her and will never stop talking.

This troper is learning Film, and he made his movie last year all alone, leading to people thinking he's a sociophobe. He did a very good job making a movie about a girl murdering her father. The teachers still won't stop asking my mom if everything is ok around the house. Also, my friends are all convinced I have severe emotional issues, due to me being CloudCuckooLanderish on a terrifying level, combined with the fact that when I'm depressed, I'm more depressed than unpressable buttons.

It seems that this trope is nonexistent in my world, as everybody seems to have a therapist. I have meet far too many therapists, and I steadfastly refuse to tell them what is really going on in my head.

This troper has insomnia, depression, and anxiety that, while not extreme, were severe enough when left completely untreated (to the extent of being told that it was all in her head and she should stop talking about it) that she was contemplating suicide at age 10. The horrible irony is that this bad advice came from her own father, who has struggled with the ''exact same issues'' throughout his life. He abused alcohol for decades to self-medicate, until getting a psychiatrist and finally having to face up to his problems at ''age 52''. After seeing ''just how much'' friendlier and happier that made him , she finally got a therapist at age 22. (Seriously, it was like "Who is this calm, supportive man and what has he done with my father??")

This troper, was taking a course that he hated, in a college that he hated, with a teacher-well, you get the picture. He was so depressed about it that he started having suicidal thoughts. Upon visiting a therapist, he was informed that he was a)frustrated, and b)using sarcasm because he was angry. He stopped going. Since you're no doubt wondering, he managed to pull himself away from the brink due to a combination of the aforementioned "professional assistance, natural optimism, and a strong desire not to die a cliche." No, really. Incidentally, he's no longer attending that college.

This troper was physically, mentally and emotionally abused by her father from birth until the ripe old age of 23, when she left home. She walked out of therapy when she was told she is a textbook case of Antisocial Personality Disorder by the therapist, and although she cannot be helped, he found her "fascinating" and wanted to study her. Her response was a "Blow me".

This Troper could've used some counseling in 5th grade. He was the Chew Toy of the entire class and was reduced to tears at least 3 times a month. This overlaps with Truth, because as it turns out, the school was trying to get my parents to put me on drugs to calm me down. Drugs are a great substitute for Therapists! Did I mention my class had 26 kids, all of whom I'd already put up for the past 4 years?

This troper finds therapists completely ineffective in helping with his various problems. "Friends" and family are equally useless. get over it!" "Do it for her sake, please."

Both my mother and me discovered at the same time that I was developing stress induced depression due to my need of maintaining my grades among the top of a class with a B average. (With A being the best grade.) I was taking an introductory course in psychology at the time and read about both my symptoms and ways of dealing with them. That was how I discovered that I had those symptoms. When I finally got an appointment with a councellor I had alredy started treating myself and doing all the things the councellor talked about doing. So while I needed some advice I didn't actually need the therapist.

A definite subverted inversion for this troper; she's been seeing the same psychologist since mid-elementary school, has gone through a gaunlet of meds, and been diagnosed with ADHD, then clinical depression, then Asperger's (which was the first to actually FIT) by trained professionals. The result? Being dragged out of *the only class I enjoyed at all* during a horrid school year and forced into a special ed class where I *met*the b*tches who tormented me for the rest of my middle school days; further attempts to force me into even more special-special ed courses during high school (where I could learn how to write a sentence, oh boy! I sure wasn't doing that in 1st grade, no sir!) until I forcibly extracted myself by boycotting the damn class; finding out that 'school counselors' aren't there to console you, they're ACTUALLY there just to make your schedule for the next semester; gaining every single neurosis I have over the course of my public school education; and finally nearly failing to graduate, not that I could tell as I wandered through life in a vapid haze of uncaring and comforting escapism. It took over a year of college to regain my love of learning, and even that's been derailed by a recent massive depressive episode that this troper is currently in the midst of. So yeah.

This troper has an interesting case. I've always had a good home life (my parents are awesome), but due to my shy nature as a child I made few friends. This caused me to get bullied a lot (my speech impediment and habit to ignore big issues but blow up over small things didn't help) slowly turning me into an EmotionlessGirl who occasionally thought about suicide. After fifth grade my mom had me switch schools for this reason (I think the only reason she didn't send me to a therapist was money). I got a {{Nakama}} there and started to warm up. However, my friends were/are even more screwed up than me (one's dad died shortly after we met, one has an emotionaly abusive father, one was anorexic, one's parents were close to divorcing, one's is divorced and his dad pretends he doesn't exist, one suffers an even worse case of ParentalAbandonment, and one (who we are no longer friends with) was AxCrazy). I basically became the therapist and backbone of the group. I probably need therapy now because of it.

Ever-so-painfully-''slowly'' suberted for this troper. She's always had a stable home life, and dependable parents, but always kept her parents very separate from her school life - so she didn't tell them how bad it got during her three years waste-- spent at state-school. B the end of said time-period, she was beginning to seriously consider multiple kinds of -cide (including but not limited to sui- and homo-), often one after the other. Her friends depended on her for their own support more often than not (leaving school was difficult due to a very destructive process of trying to distance herself from said friends so they didn't depend on her when she inevitably left the school) and her teachers didn't know what to do any better than she did. Nobody suggested counselling even ''once'', and she was far too hurt to ask. At her new school everybody simply assumed she was shy, or extremely introverted - until she began randomly attacking other members of her class for seemingly small offenses. It was at that point her new teachers introduced her to the school counsellor, and that point at which the subversion occured. This was relatively recently (a matter of a few months). Irrevocable damage has been done to her love of learning and her trust of people, especially people who seem unduly interested in her- she now has about three people in total whom she calls friends. This troper thanks God that her younger sister is leaving her old school at the end of this academic year.

This troper saw ''plenty'' of therapists, having been been physically and emotionally abused in school up until tenth grade, where he finally snapped completely and discovered that he had a destroyer aspect after several 'fellow students' attempted to rape him in the locker room. The school shrinks couldn't help; they were too busy telling this troper that he needed to do more to fit in. The private-sector shrinks he saw outside of school through college weren't much better; one shrink's first question was, "How often do you masturbate". Another thought I needed for find God (been there, done that, still haven't gotten the blood out of my favorite boots). The best of them noticed that I had developed schizoid personality disorder and suggested that I use the internet to obtain social interaction in a manner that keeps me in control.

My life had a few therapists (well, councellors, but they tried to be therapists) that didn't really help me at all. I was being beaten up every day by someone who used to be my best friend, I hated my teachers and most of the people around me (with the exception of my Nakama) and was seriously considering suicide, in 4th grade. I finally made the decision to do it the year after, aforementioned councellors being totally useless, and decided to tell my friends. Two of them thought I was kidding, but one took me aside and talked to me for two hours. He did a better job than those councellors ever did, let me tell you. No longer considering suicide, and I dealt with my tormentor the next time he assaulted me by kicking him in the face. He left me alone. Unfortunately, I moved across the country, and now I'm randomly struck by huge bolts of depression again... but have no confidence in professionals.

I have been bullied and ignored by around 95% of the people I've known for 12 years (I'm 15) -- I'll talk about that 5% now. When I was 3, my parents decided to get me an IQ test. I scored around 150-160, and they were awfully happy, put me straight into the best (read: most expensive) preschool they could find and went telling every. single. person. they met about how I was a little genius or some crap. Which, of course, they couldn't imagine would result in, at the age of 6, right after they divorced, having had absolutely no friends ever and refusing to talk to anyone my age. Oh, wait, I ''did'' have a couple of friends. Or should I call them tools? But, sadly, at 7 years old I wasn't that versed in mind manipulation, so by the time we were in fourth grade they turned on me and left me completely alone, after having unknowingly served me for grades 1st through 4th. At that time the class was basically a huge {{Nakama}} except for me and a couple of other loners, which I made into my personal mini-Nakama. Two years later I came down with anorexia and bulimia, which my mother (who had had anorexia in her teens) wistfully ignored for over a year, then got me to a therapist FOR ONE DAY and decided herself that I didn't need it. The eating disorders have been on-and-off for the last three years, and I have spent the last two perfecting the art of manipulating the human mind, getting myself a pair of faithful ''friends'' and writing pseudo-novels in class.

This troper's father was an alcoholic who went back and forth between abusive and neglectful depending on how much he'd had to drink. The only way avoid the fallout from his moodswings was to stay out his way, so she spent most of grade school terrified to set foot outside her bedroom. When her mother wised up and divorced the jerk, they moved to a new town where she had no friends and quickly became the target of the school bullies. The teachers and counselors cheerfully ignored her repeated attempts to report the bullying. Puberty came and the sexual harassment started, by which time she had given up on reporting anything. By the time high school started, she had become so introverted she couldn't string two words together and freaked out if anyone touched her, but because she didn't get in trouble at school or at home no one saw any problem with this. She spent most of high school and college trying to put herself back together and relearn how to talk to people when not defending herself. Her much-younger siblings get regular therapy for simply having ADHD. She's more than a little bitter about this.

This troper is a step away from being on the cast of NGE. My entire life I had been picked on by my classmate and the teachers ignore it (even when they saw it happening)and came up with the stupidest excuses for why it was okay for them to pick on me. I soon became reclusive from most of my classmates,those i didn't become reclusive towards used me then made fun of me, (one brat used me to beat FFVII) because I bottled up my issues when I realized no teacher was listening and my mom only pretended to listen I would snap and sit in the corner of my classroom having mental break downs....the solution! It's my fault I'm of course a whiney spoiled brat make fun of me some more! Later I was told I had a mental illness and given lots of different meds which all made me worst (spoiler, later they told me they where wrong) then I was thrown into special classes for kids way worse off then me who loved to pick on me and of course the teachers did nothing because now these students had an excuse (God forbid the first set of teachers have to try)....my mom started treating me like an idiot and I was forced to stay in the same class all day! For me this is more of There are no good therapists as I did go to some and they all found ways to blame my "mental illness"! Apparently later I did have a mental illness of some kind, but I don't know what it is because they never told me, they told my mom who works with people with serious mental problem and she's so jaded she treats anyone with a mental issue just like she treats them. Anyway my anger issues had to do with the barrage of insults and threats that went ignored that where never dealt with...I now still live with my mother and my step father (who is a whole other level of issues) and I take care of my younger brother whose 5. The true funny thing is that my mother claimed I can't learn to drive because of my "mental issue" that she can't remember the name of and whenever we argue she calls me delusional (and now she says she'll teach me to drive proving that the former was a lie! Yet she claims she has never lied in her life). I'm sorry if that's a little hard to follow, I typed it as it popped into my head (I really don't like strolling down memory lane for reasons you might has guessed)

Played straight and then inverted with this troper. When I was young, I was deeply disturbed. This increased every year as I got more estranged from my friends and class. In 8th grade this reached a peak when my dog died, followed by my brother going into the army, and my country heading into war. After a few incredibly miserable months in which I considered suicide many times (and NOONE was interested. According to my mother, they had given up on me), I had begun to cheer up and just feel good about myself. These days, I am perfectly healthy emotionally, but I'm still a bit of a CloudCuckooLander, and due to missing social life since 3-8th grade, I'm somewhat detached. This has caused my homeroom teacher to panic over me more than once, and almost every day she asks me if everything is okay. As a sick form of ShipTease, my Film class final movie last year was about a girl who murdered her father, because I was getting sick of people asking me if I were sane.

This troper has found therapists largely useless in his life. School counselors went looking for problems that were never there when his parents divorced, ignoring the real problems that ultimately left him ostracized without much of anyone he could honestly call a real, close friend (the closest being "people who liked to play the same games") until he finally moved to another town for high school. Rage issues and being a weird loner right around the time that Columbine happened -- not a good mix. When he finally went off on his closest "friend" in the last class of the day, well, it was lucky that the school year was almost up and he was independent enough to study and work from home for the last few weeks. Add in a psych evaluation he literally went kicking and screaming to, plus "anger management" counseling for most of his first year of high school, and he was not a happy person for a long time. Actual friends and an amazing lack of utter assholes amongst the faculty and student body of his new school did more for him than any counseling ever could. He ended up retreating into his shell again for a couple years after college, but friends have once again pulled him out. There are therapists, but they're a damn waste of time.

When this Troper finally had a psychological breakdown after years of bullying, untreated ADHD, and puberty setting in, what did my mother do? She took me shopping. Strangely enough, after several "Consumer therapy" sessions, I got better!

This troper was once prescribed an antipsychotic that my mother was told was a sleep aid. I'm pretty sure my actual problem was a combination of depression and social anxiety; though that's self-diagnosed, I know I've never been psychotic. I think that my mom finding out about the antipsychotic is what led to my no longer seeing the psychiatrist, although that would have eventually happened anyway, since he'd been changing my diagnosis and giving me a new prescription every time the last one didn't work or (more often) just made things much, ''much'' worse. I also stopped seeing an equally useless (but at least not harmful) psychologist. Understandably fairly cynical after all that, I was dragged (literally, until we were in public and I decided to preserve some dignity) to see a completely unaffiliated-with-the-useless-people family therapist, who turned out to be a brilliant, wonderful woman who helped me become as normal as anyone who reads the dictionary for fun can be.

Oh, and by the way: first prescription - 2nd grade; going off meds, meeting good therapist, and beginning slow struggle toward happiness - 5th grade; intervening time period - hell. I'm sure that for people with more serious disorders than mine prescription drugs are a lifesaver. I'm also sure that most child psychiatrists just throw pills at any issue, of any magnitude, that they encounter, and in cases like mine talking to someone who knows what they're doing is more important than anything.

This troper has yet to get any form of help despite nearly killing someone in the third grade on purpose, haunting suicidal thoughts since the age of eight, distorted urges leading to things too bizarre to speak of. Only one acquaintance as a child, who moved away, after that I was left with no friends, a cheap private school with no compassion (and the worst bullies were the children of teachers and principals.) Crushing loneliness as an only child (3 siblings- all miscarries) and {{it got worse}} when adolescence hit, adding gasoline to the fire. By the time I got in middle school at a different private school, I was pretty much feral... Today I'm not AS bad, I somehow gained sanity, with only a few issues left to deal with (a sense of guilt for no reason whatsoever, and a general inability to make close friends.) Still have to wait another couple of years for therapy, though.

(Update on the above entry) I have finally started gettign professional help as of last october. It got worse before having therapy, however. Agoraphobia started to set in and I was completely unable to talk to people I didn't know. Come october, I saw my first therapy session, and was diagnosed with PTSD, a host of anxiety disorders, and possibly OCD and major depressive order. But hey, I had those anyway BEFORE the therapy, so now I have a name and an ability to recover from it.

This troper is Russian, and grew up during the 90s. She's an Aspie (and was a particularly explosive Tsundere to boot), and there were no therapists who knew what is this (but there were some who tried to idiotize her with medications). Her life sucked.

This troper... well. I started off somewhat autistic, which no-one picked up on, leading to social ostracism and eventual depression. I have always envied my brother [who I love very, very much] for his greater intellect and better social skills [and arguably being our parents' favourite]. When I was seven, a boy in my class took me behind the sports shed and got me to touch him and kiss him [and I'm not talking in the publicly visible areas, here] [something I have never quite been able to forget, possibly leading to years of outright REFUSING to touch boys who weren't directly related to me unless forced by teachers]. I had no friends until I changed schools at the start of year 6, where I was subjected to so sharp a learning curve [people wanted to be my friends, and I honestly didn't understand why] I was sent to the school therapist once a week, regular. The next few years had their ups and downs [and downs, and downs...]; though one, ah, 'highlight' was when I started on self-mutilation when I was 16 [and couldn't figure out "why" it was a bad thing for me to do - I used a very clean blade, and I always applied antiseptic and bandages when I was done]. When, after a few months, my parents found out, they sent me to the school psychologist, figuring it would be easier for me to speak to someone I was used to. The 'councelling' pretty much consisted of: she asked if I had cut myself. I said yes [well, DUH]. She asked if I had stopped. Again, I said yes, explaining I had no desire to hurt my parents [with the pretty clear implication that that was the only reason I stopped]. She said 'Great!', and that was that. I was left with a vaguely startled expression, and the question of how she got accredited. I forgave her though, somewhat, given it was kind of a moot point - I stopped, and my parents were happy [or, at least, no more unhappy then they usually are]. A few years later, however, she managed to display her posession of the Idiot Ball once more, when she told me in out very last meeting that I have mild Aspergers and ADD, and that she hadn't told me because she didn't think it was relevant to my issues. Sorry, but how is having ASPERGERS and ADD not relevant to DEPRESSION? At the very least, had I known, I would have felt like less of a total failure as a daughter and a human being every time I got a mark under B.

DickRichardson - I've been diagnosed with ADD/Asperger's/whatever. Depressed? Yes. But it was typical teenage mood swings. Depression =/= ADD or Asperger's. Yeah, I'm one of those people who can function ''despite it''.

Anyway, as above, DickRichardson has it. Despite a good therapist, his only problem is his sociability, which, y'know, ''affects all Assburger (tee-hee) victims''. I have so far yet to become a manchild or exhibit withdrawal. I don't care what my parents or therapist eggs me to do - I'm too much of a jackass to get any pussy or not get people to dislike me. I was an utter prick when I was little, but I'm past tantrums and whatnot - gee, people, why don't you also blame your bullies instead of labeling psychologists/therapists as the bane of the world?

Yes, because having Asperger's is a ''great'' way to justify being a deliberate asshole to everyone!

Bullied for 7 years at school and psychologically abused by his parents for 2. Bullied online for Christianity and Susquepedian Locaiousness as well as being a "noob". So horrified by what humans do to each other I keep a whole blog about that alone. The worst part? I've seen therapists but they're no bloody use.

This editor was not diagnosed with--or even heard of--Asperger's Syndrome until his 20's.

This troper saw several therapists between his childhood and highschool. Most of them were entirely useless, though a great deal of that actually came from this troper refusing to cooperate for fear of being branded with a disorder. Eventually he found a useful one who he still didn't let in on most of his 'problems', since... well, admitting to periodically hearing voices is never good. But, then again, all but one of those voices never talks to him, and the one that does once spouted off a psychological phenomena he'd never heard of that was apparently real, name included, according to a Grad Student TA. That last one also does impressions of TV characters surprisingly well.

Inverted with this troper. For the longest time I came off as the most mentally sound person you'd ever meet, until my mother was diagnosed as schizophrenic and I began experiencing symptoms myself. I went to see a psychiatrist through my school, though I made them promise ''multiple'' times that they would ''not'' tell my father about the sessions (as he's a couple sandwiches short of a picnic himself). But, once I stopped seeing my therapist (due to the therapist in question being completely USELESS and doing nothing more than gawk and "Oh my God" over my somewhat-dysfunctional early childhood), the clinic decided it was a-okay to go ahead and tell my dad about it. Now I'm stuck between the school, who are constantly hounding me to get back into treatment, my dad, who's trying to get us to sign up for 'family counselling', and my friends, who deny I ever needed therapy in the first place. As for the schizophrenia, I don't even ''care'' anymore.

This troper knows she needs to go to a therapist, because her anxiety and paranoia are, quite simply, ruining her life. But she can't, because she's so anxious and paranoid that she's scared of going to a therapist.

This troper hasn't ever needed psychiatric help as far as she can tell, but she has two friends involved in this trope one way or another. One has ADHD and has apparently run through about six therapists/psychologists/whatever over her life. She apparently drove them crazy, and one of them gave her unnecessary pills that ''may'' have stunted her growth. She's been avoiding them ever since, and she's only sixteen. The other, a seventeen-year-old self-discribed schizophrenic, pyromanic, and a host of other things, has never once seen any form of psychiatric help, ever. This troper is apparently the only normal one. She's starting to think she is related to ArthurDent somehow.

This troper would like to inform everyone that it's never too late to get help, or go crazy. He is wheelchair-ridden and extremely limited in terms of physical activity, but was a great student and fine until middle school when he started to slack off. He got frustrated and put a knife to his eye one day and was subsequently sent to a school counselor, but ignored advice because he's a teenager, and all teenagers go through one of these phases, right? In High School, he tried to justify missing out on social activities like Prom or group outings by saying he was "too cool for it", when he was really afraid of being a social outcast. But he didn't seek help because by the time he'd talk to someone, he was over the feeling and wasn't sure it would help. Three years into college, and after being screwed over by the college in regards to a necessary class one time too many, he finally broke down enough for people to seriously consider him going to therapy, and he still didn't go. What finally got him was missing a deadline for a segment on an online wrestling sim-federation, which he helped run. He now sees someone weekly, and it helps.

This Troper wonders whether she is crazy or something, and has seen therapists at 8 and 12, who didnt think anything was wrong with me and didnt do anything to help. She is very shy around other people, paranoid about people touching her stuff, and doesnt have any interest in getting a boyfriend or having sex. My friend is worse, he is 20 but acts about 12 most of the time, being disinterested in people and not even thinking of himself as human. He is pretty naive, but has a very big imagination and lives in his own world. He doesnt like talking to people (but loves all animals), and acts pretty crazy in public, making animal noises and saying innapropriate things about poo and stuff. He can be bad tempered when someone winds him up but is getting better at controlling his anger.

Oddly inverted with this Troper, in that I ''am'' the therapist... apparently the only one my friends can find. Seriously, all my closest friends need real therapy, and so do half their families. Half the time I feel like I can't be a good friend AND be their therapist at the same time, mainly because what your therapist tells you isn't always what you want to hear, especially from your friends. However, after many years of practice, therapy is what I want to do for a living. Hopefully all my experience, plus all the above troper tales, will allow me to be more effective at it than most...

This troper has had anxiety problems since she was little. Which led to her doing incredibly reckless things like running across 4 lanes of traffic in rush hour, in the hopes maybe she would die. After that incident her mom said "Hey, maybe you do need therapy." She had a therapist for six months, when her mom decided she was better, and canceled it. She is not better however and can feel herself coming close to another breakdown. Luckily she has supportive friends.

Subverted with this troper who has mood disorders and Asperger's syndrome. She went through a lifetime of misdiagnoses (Minimal Brain Damage, for example) and no help or insane ideas of help that caused nothing but harm. When she was anorexic, she was abused by nurses in an institution. It was no wonder she became bitter toward those in the mental health profession. This changed recently, although there is no ready help for a person diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 44. Then perimenopause hit. Oh, what joy. However, her husband is a big sweetheart and he unofficially fills the role of therapist for her. She is thinking about seeing a female therapist whom she became friends with through happenstance to gain more trust in her own gender.

In hindsight it's weird how my experiences with therapy got started. I was in the army (conscription in use in my country) and I had what I could describe as two-day long mild anxiety attacks. I felt like there was a pressure in my chest, like my heart was pounding and I couldn't breathe properly. I never even thought there might be a psychological cause until the doctor suggested that. I've been having regular therapy and medication for depression for years since. Undoubtedly one underlying cause is years of experience in the receiving end of school bullying. I only recently realized how much that has impaired my ability to get close to people for about half of my entire life so far. To top it off, you couldn't really tell anything about this from casual daily interactions with me. I can handle public appearances and socializing in groups and stuff like that, but getting close to people in personal one-on-one relations where I stall. Like many of the people above, my teachers and school counselors couldn't do much about that back in the day, but I hold no resentment against them. They were all good people, and the more likely culprit are the current laws and policies that make it difficult for teachers to interfere.

this semi-smart Troper has had a few problems in the decade and a half of her life. Being the middle sibling of a divorced family, having countless academic opportunities turned down because of an foolishly foolish parent, being teased and bullied about being a decent student since she was in kindergarten, ''actually coming close to murdering her step-sister'', and acting as her own therapist have turned her into a cynical, jaded little girl who seems to talk to herself. With the years of avoiding anything, and I mean, ''anything'' with the phrase "social" in it or pertaining to it, and the anxiety disorder caused by said divorce, you'd think she'd need therapy for this kind of thing. ''Nope''! Only until she managed to ''whack another student over the head with a chair'' did anyone think, "hmm, maybe this child ''does'' need a little help. After that single therapy session, everyone then expects you to act as if everything is all hunky-dory. The worst part of it? '' The stress wasn't even the problem. She did it because the other child was'' instigating,'' and saying her'' friends ''were freaks, not her.''

Junior high school counselors were absolutely ''useless''. Which is why I regard my high school one as an absolute ''saint''. I don't know what I'd do if he wasn't there for me.

this troper is dirt poor with no health insurance and can't afford a therapist. It's okay now, since the past few months I've been more emotionally stable/normal than I have been in years. Still, I always end up relapsing and I'm not sure what I'm going to do when, inevitability, it gets worse and I completely lose it again.

This troper had gone through a lot in his childhood, including being left by his mother with his neglectful grandmother when she had to work, being beaten and abused by one of her drunken boyfriends, mentally and psychologically abused by a ''babysitter'', being verbally and mentally abused by children on the playground(While the teachers watched), being raped at a fucking ''church camp'', and being made to feel that everything bad that had happened up until that point was his point. This all happened before he was even ''eight years old''. He actually tried to go to a school counsellor once, broke down in her office crying, and was asked how his ''grades'' were doing. In a subversion of this trope, however, his mother did finally see a therapist...When he was fourteen, ''five whole years'' after all of that had happened. That only lasted as long as it was paid for by his mother's insurance, however. So you can understand that he might be just a little unstable.

Therapy works, but you have to really want it to work and try your hardest to make it work. Just going and expecting them to fix your problems won't change anything. As the obvious thing is that if you need to go to therapy, it's because there is a problem with you., therfore you need to want to change yourself to make a different. Sadly, i see way too many people with emotional problems, addictions, terrible social skills, depression, etc and i wish they could get help. But most people just don't have the time, money or will to change anything. It's a sad thing.

Played straight in secondary school - I have mild Aspergers and was bullied mercilessly for being a different nationality and was never helped for it back then. But averted now - there are enough therapists for everybody in my college and during hard times for me, counselling and help was offered. And despite this, I twist this trope around somehow because it's me who refuses to seek help despite there being plenty of it around. It's not a case of me hating sympathy or pity nor a case that my parents and friends don't support me going to a counsellor. I suspect that a cultural difference is a factor - I come from a culture where telling people about my problems is considered highly bothersome and discouraged. If I'm bullied, it's somehow my fault. I live in England now, but I've been brought up so rigorously that I can't break it even for myself. And God, do I need to break it. My (extremely abusive) mother abandoned me in England and my father's away back in my home country, with all my other relatives. I have nobody to tell my problems to if not to a counsellor, because I'm not exactly a social person. And I don't tell them anything. I hate speaking and potentially losing it in front of one of them, I was taught to not show such emotions like that because it's 'disgusting'. I'd be fine with typing or writing as a form of communication, which is why I can type an entry here, but I can't do the same face to face with someone. I'm forced to live alone, in a foreign country halfway across the world from where I was born and brought up, and I've done so since Sep 2009. As of Apr 2011 I am seventeen. Maybe I should forget about therapy altogether and just be happy that I've turned out to be functional.

There actually are no therapists where this troper lives. Closest one takes an hour to get to, has a very busy schedule, and isn't a good therapist to begin with. Good to know there's such a good support here!

My family's attitude to this is a little outdated. A bit of ValuesDissonance comes into it. Apparently needing a therapist is sign of weakness. #QUOTE# '''Me:''' ...you realise I'm studying to be a psychologist, right?

This troper was once a cheery innocent little kid. Who happened to be in a bookworm phase when I moved to one of the most ghetto places in America. They mocked me, and shunned me, and made an 11-year-old kid go from Genki Girl to emo within one school-year. I HATED it there, and I almost broke. The only reason why nobody in my family noticed was because they don't know the difference between dramatic and actual sadness. My parents didn't notice the emotional damage and they had convinced me 'Therapy is for crazy people'. I got better after we moved away, but now I don't trust anyone I can look in the eye. ALL BECAUSE NOBODY BOTHERED TO GIVE ME A FUCKING SHOULDER TO CRY ON.

This troper asked for therapy twice in his life both in the same year, both during his depressive almost suicidal cutting/anorexic discovering sexuality teenage thing all happening at once. The first time his mother responded "You don't need a therapist, you just need to listen to me and everything will be alright", the second time both the parents laughed. Now a year later he still lapses into depression and still has not gotten help.

Partly because of PsychologicalHorror anime and partly because of this trope being played painfully straight in his family, this troper has decided to become a psychiatrist. Though I have some issues myself, my obsession over anime and my Christianity keep me sane enough to handle the job. Hopefully.

This troper experienced this. Got bullied in the first school. Left during the summer break and after break started on another school. No, there were no therapists. Also never ever a teacher bothered to wonder why a student would change schools in such an unlikely fashion and at such a highly unlikely time (between 6th and 7th grade is unusal, especially from a regular school to grammar school - I wont explain German school system here, takes too long) without her parents having moved or something like that. They also never wondered why I would refuse talking about my old school. Or why I was wary and soon even hostile towards my new classmates. Long story short, I survived 12 years without ever seeing a therapist. Now I'm fine without ever having seen one (slow resocialisation during college) but I so often wish teachers and consultants would just TAKE A DAMN LOOK.

But I can't find any therapists! Where are they?!

Simple: They're all on the battlefield.