Don't Give Up on Therapy, No Matter the Reason You Stopped
After therapy with my last therapist was sabotaged by an unethical member of the law enforcement community who wanted her to violate her patient-therapist confidence, I was devastated. It had taken me a literal lifetime to find someone who was so effective, so willing to challenge me, and so ready to communicate with me in the manner that best suited for a person with my unique needs. After the experience I had with the therapist he forced me to go to -with a therapist willing to share my secrets and my traumas as though they were jokes- I was close to returning to heroin and to a life of violent crime. Someone I know and who I regularly confided in saw what was happening to me and suggested I try BetterHelp. I didn't want to, but she asked me to and demonstrated her concern for the safety of her friend (me) and others as well over the erosion of my mental state and outlook, so I did. I know that people resort to hyperbole so readily these days, but I don't. I consider myself a measured person and a realistic assessor of situations that affect me personally and I write professionally, so when I offer that BetterHelp saved my life, those are honest words I write with a firm conviction and while acknowledging the absolutely vital importance of sharing only the truth that lies within them with others who might find themselves in such a similarly desperate place because such words might be what saves their life. Betterhelp found a therapist for me whose background in engineering and competitive nature when training and training others for uniquely challenging physical recreational pastimes were more perfect fits for a veteran of the armed forces placed firmly on the autism spectrum and with a background in industrial design and highly technical careers than I could have hoped for had I spent another lifetime searching for a therapist as perfectly tailored for me as was the therapist whose services were denied me. Because of BetterHelp, I have a therapist who challenges me, who calls me out on my obfuscations, who lets me vent when I need to vent, who listens when I need someone to listen, who informs me in the manner that is best for a person with my unique needs, and who is undoing the damage that a lifetime of trauma, one lying law enforcement officer, and one unethical therapist managed to do over 47 years. It is still early in our patient-therapist relationship and both Miss Shannon and I know there are still many things we each need to understand about the other for me to gain the most from the sessions and for her to be able to offer the best from both her time as a professional and from her vast well of knowledge as a committed student of field of therapy. There are fewer victims in the world today because of BetterHelp. There is one less name on the long and sad list of veterans who died by their own hands because of BetterHelp. There is hope in my life because of BetterHelp. There is a long journey ahead that I once again feel confident of one day completing because of BetterHelp. My faith in therapy and the professionalism of therapists has returned because of BetterHelp. What more is there to say than to repeat what I said before? BetterHelp and Miss Shannon saved my life.