Psychiatric math:
I went through the phone book and found over a hundred listings for psychologists and psychotherapists, most of them right here in Brattleboro, the rest of them close by.
If I take no more than one hundred of these listings, and assume that like the rest of us, these “professionals” put in a work week of forty hours or greater, that amounts to 4,000 appointments in any given week. Each appointment would represent one area resident, making that a total of 4,000 people a week who are seeking mental health care.
I am not counting in-patient care at all. I am also not going to try and guess how many therapists might be represented by the same phone number , in that HCRS, for example, may have several therapists who do not have their own individual phone listing.
Fees of 120.00 per hour are not uncommon; but let’s make this easy math; let’s say it averages a hundred dollars per hour; so, for 40 hours times one hundred therapists, that’s 400,000.00 per week.
Even if I assume that many therapists might not see forty patients a week, but thirty instead - and add in some low-estimates of the number of therapists who do not have individual listings - and take a wild guess as to the dollar amount that is billed monthly be the Retreat and the Windham Center - I have got to be talking about at least a half million each and every week.
So far, out of this mental health menagerie, I’ve gotten 21 years of sheer misery; several missed opportunities to help my youngest son, who has endured many years of suffering, in large part because of incompetence (or indifference) on a professional level, severe erosion of my own personal sense of empowerment, and a long list of days where I wasn’t at work for at least a couple of hours each week in order to accommodate the “professional” schedule. That only scratches the surface.
Don’t tell me I’ve been alone in all of this; That out of a guesstimate of a half million dollars a week, my 120.00 has been the only 120.00 donated to waste and false hope.
I’m left to think about some of the parting comments I’ve heard as I went from one to another, hoping to find a little help in figuring out and solving some of the problems in my family … I love the therapist who in a kind and caring tone, will say….. “are you sure, really sure, you want to quit right NOW?” or the one who gives a “no-confidence glance” and offers with a discouraged tone… “well; just remember, I’m here if you find you need me in the next few weeks - I’ll find a way to SQUEEZE you in” And the best one of all… “let’s talk about that NEXT week” -
What a great business to be in; and it’s a real catch-22 in trying to leave on a cordial note. For anyone who disagrees with the diagnostic errors many of them routinely make, they’ve all got a perfect answer when questioned - “I can help with issues surrounding “denial”, too” (this is delivered in an all-knowing sing-song)
I’d say the “denial” that many of these therapists seem to know so much about, is really something suffered by only them.
I’m thankful though, for the last psychologist I crossed paths with; she is the person I will thank for a lifetime, as life slowly improves, finally, for my youngest son. She is the one person who dared question a bucket full of misdiagnoses and she did it all in six short weeks. (she isn’t in the phone book, though!)
Yeah, yeah, yeah - but there are a few good ones and I ought to give some additional credit where credit is due. But, Sorry; I’m not in the mood right now.
Wait a minute! All this anger, all this rant, feeling powerless, feeling demoralized……..hmmmmmm.. Maybe I should see someone……… Oh, woops, I have no job, am busy cleaning up the past twenty years of "psychiatric denial", and one more diagnosis could easily make me SNAP!