By Joshua Atkinson
As an intern at Southeast Psych, I have many responsibilities. One of the main ones is collaborating with the social media team to generate new and exciting content. I originally thought of a “Fact or Fiction Friday” concept; however, most of the preliminary ones I wrote were mostly fiction. I thought instead of focusing on the misconceptions of therapy and thus the myth-busting series was born.
The concept: There are many notions and misconceptions about therapy, and deciphering between fact and fiction may be difficult. Clinicians have heard every excuse for why someone won’t go to therapy or didn’t start going sooner. Bringing these phrases or myths to light with a clinician directly responding to them could help dispel that line of thinking and encourage people to get the help they desire.
The result: With the clinician’s buy-in, we could take this idea and create a video series to share with readers. At Southeast Psych, the clinical staff serve the lifespan, so I was able to gather clinicians who see a wide range of people, from children all the way to geriatric adults. This made it so the myths could be engaging for all walks of life and applicable to everyone.
The full list of myths can be found below:
- Therapy is only for serious problems
- Once you start therapy, you have to go forever
- All therapy/therapist is the same
- Someone who doesn’t know me can’t help me
- If I’m honest, I may overwhelm my therapist
- Psychiatric problems result from personal weakness
- There is little benefit to group therapy with children
- Psychological testing is only useful because it gives you a diagnosis
- Therapy for children is a waste of time
- Therapy will “cure” our children’s problem
- Therapy for older adults is time-wasting because they have little time left to enjoy the gains they would make
- Therapists are mind readers, and “they analyze everyone they talk to”
- Mental health problems don’t exist in childhood
- If I go to therapy, people will think something is wrong with me