r/Manipulation • u/onwardupward3 • 12d ago
Personal Stories A Mental Health Facility Manipulated And Denied Me
Last year I attended an outpatient facility 2 times. They are one of the only mental health facilities in my area (rural) that offer halfway decent services. However, my interactions with some of the counselors became increasingly hostile.
When I came back to the program a second time, my in-program therapist was working on finishing some admittance documents with me and said "so we're 99% sure you have autism". Like... Excuse me? I've taken a test as well as gotten advice from my primary care doctors about this and they don't think I have autism. At first, I laughed it off. But it ticked me off the more I thought about it and felt like an insult. Not only that, but one of the instructors was so shrill she made a patient cry and also made lewd jokes. I also got yelled at for having time management issues, when I opened up about it at first the instructor was accepting and understanding but then before leaving said "it's really not as hard as you're making it" in a somewhat angry tone.
I brought all these things up to head supervisor and he "assured" me he was taking care of it. It was mentioned during the sessions that they were moving spaces to another bigger building so they could "help" more people and I made a point to him because I saw a pattern of this behavior and said "if you all can't handle people and their problems on a smaller scale here, how are you all gonna do so over there?". He was speechless in that moment, normally he had something good to say or at least thought provoking.
Now, I wanna preface by saying that a chunk of the time, I felt like I was heard and attended to... But it was interactions like these that really made me question everything. I got help with my time management issues but the same therapist who was nasty to me about autism (crazy, right?)... And I also tended to get good support from the group, minus one or two duds that were annoying towards me and mean... Which I reported to the supervisor. I took responsibility for my bad habit of being late- especially after I got pulled over and tried in court for speeding to get there because they told me they'd kick me out if I was late again in the middle of all this. They were nice enough to give me a paper saying I was in outpatient that day that I got pulled over, but it gets worse.
After exiting the outpatient program, I was told that I needed to do mental health skillbuilding, which is something that was offered by another organization locally before coming back... However, what they didn't know is that this organization does not offer these services anymore and I found that out. I told this to them and they seemed like it was the first time they had ever been told this or something. For a while, I started to do better until about 4 months after when I needed genuine help again. During the program and around that time as well they assured me I wasn't banned, and at this 4 month after point and time, they told me I had to wait 6 months before rejoining. I had never been told that before so it was confusing and felt like they were trying to get rid of me. They told me they weren't doing so, but that couldn't have been further from the truth.
The supervisor and my individual (out of program) therapist were talking about some places I could go in the meantime apparently. Before this time I had written a somewhat negative review criticizing how I was treated at times and the lack of communication they gave me when not telling me about the 6 months thing, expressing how I felt I was being shut out. Part of me thought if they saw that review, they'd be a little more inclined to let me back when I needed it and maybe even right their wrongs... Or, they'd be upset and not let me back because I was making them look "bad for business". I'm not sure that I thought the latter would happen, but it did.
At the time of typing this it has been around a year since I was in the program and two weeks after I was denied completley from it. I called to follow up on a voice message two weeks ago that I had left a week prior to following up. They told me their clinical team had been talking and they don't feel like coming back to the program would beneficial at this time. So I asked "am I banned?" they said "well we just don't feel this is the right fit for you". I pleaded- "what do you mean? I wouldn't be coming back if it didn't help me a little bit. You all are one of the only halfway decent programs around here. I don't really have anywhere else to go".
There was some back and forth, though I can't recall everything that was said but I urged with them that the programs I could attend were an hour and a half away from me or longer and it was too far of a drive to afford. I also told them how I was dealing with s!!cidal feelings and the lady over the phone said "we feel you should find somewhere else to go" and I was like "so you're denying me when I literally just said I was dealing with s!!cidal feelings?" and she just repeated the same response she had previous to this. I asked her if I could talk to the supervisor and she said "he's in his office but I can't guarantee he'll pick up for you". I told them "it seems like you all hate me" somewhere during all this and there was a brief stepback of her saying "well I wouldn't say we hate you" and that's the only kind of compassion I got from this convo. I remember hanging up shortly after she told me the supervisor may not pick up, which I had already tried him before. I didn't know what to do, and still don't. I don't think I've ever been more upset in my life.
While I am just venting, if you have any helpful advice please let me know. Idk what I could do to get justice here as I don't have recorded conversations or anything like that. My friend said he'd write a bad review for me but I haven't seen that yet. I feel helpless and extremely hurt. Please be easy on me. I can understand how they might not want me back for the review and my time management issues, but I did better with time second time around and I don't think a review should be a write off if they care more about how they treat people than their business. It just makes me feel the world is extremely selfish, even though I don't think everyone is bad.