Help in dealing with job (counseling mental health patients)?!
Question: Help in dealing with job (counseling mental health patients).?
HELP!!! I can't take my job anymore. I counsel mental health clients and it seems like they're getting crazier and crazier each day, and so am I. Today I was talking to this lady who says she's a sex addict among other things. She said she was abused as a child, and has had a sexual relationship with her sister for years. What can I do to remain sane while trying to help these people.?Health Question & Answer
Answers:
First of all, you have got to see this as illness, just like cancer or diabetes. Second, you have to realize most of these folks have had some kind of abuse and most have had bad childhoods. If you can't adjust and accept that fact that there are going to be horrible, horrible days and then ok days, then start looking in the help wanted adsHealth Question & Answer
Well you know what you wanted to do when you took the job.So I can tell you 2 things:
1.Try to see their point of view,like you have to keep an opened mind and with your mind opened you can only see where the mental health clients are coming from.
2.Seek a new job before you become a client yourself.Health Question & Answer
1.Try to see their point of view,like you have to keep an opened mind and with your mind opened you can only see where the mental health clients are coming from.
2.Seek a new job before you become a client yourself.Health Question & Answer
Get into a new line of work. You're not fit for the one you are in.
You just condescendingly referred to a person with a rough life in a way that is totally unprofessional. You say oooh gross. I say try wearing her shoes.
Perhaps I'm more empathetic because I'm one of those "crazy and getting crazier" ppl with bipolar.
You really are in the wrong field.
EDIT: A fairly sizable percentage of ppl with mental health problems live very productive lives and do not present as "crazy." Those of us who manage our illness use the mental health system. When you throw around that word or popular terms like it, it is offensive. More so, when it is coming from you as the representative of the mental health system, it scares more ppl off who should be getting help.
As said above, a lot of ppl with mental illnesses had tough childhoods. Those with personality disorders more so to the best of my recollection. Others it's predominently genetics. also, if you do some research you'll find that incest is not so uncommon. Most likely you do not know the circumstances these two women grew up in. I'd bet that if you did, instead of complaining, you'd be crying.
Sorry you had a bad day, but seriously, if you can't do your job with compassion, empathy, understanding, and respect, you are in the wrong field.
>Go spend some volunteer time in battered women and children centers. You will not be the focus as the provider and it would give you up front exposure to what bad situations are like.Health Question & Answer
You just condescendingly referred to a person with a rough life in a way that is totally unprofessional. You say oooh gross. I say try wearing her shoes.
Perhaps I'm more empathetic because I'm one of those "crazy and getting crazier" ppl with bipolar.
You really are in the wrong field.
EDIT: A fairly sizable percentage of ppl with mental health problems live very productive lives and do not present as "crazy." Those of us who manage our illness use the mental health system. When you throw around that word or popular terms like it, it is offensive. More so, when it is coming from you as the representative of the mental health system, it scares more ppl off who should be getting help.
As said above, a lot of ppl with mental illnesses had tough childhoods. Those with personality disorders more so to the best of my recollection. Others it's predominently genetics. also, if you do some research you'll find that incest is not so uncommon. Most likely you do not know the circumstances these two women grew up in. I'd bet that if you did, instead of complaining, you'd be crying.
Sorry you had a bad day, but seriously, if you can't do your job with compassion, empathy, understanding, and respect, you are in the wrong field.
>Go spend some volunteer time in battered women and children centers. You will not be the focus as the provider and it would give you up front exposure to what bad situations are like.Health Question & Answer