"Mental health care"

I am on a bit of a weight loss journey. I was on a plateau for 7 weeks and mentally, I was not coping with exhausting myself with no results. I went to the doctor to try and kickstart it but they seemed to be concerned about mental health rather than my physical health. The doctor said we have a psychologist and I want you to go see them. My doctor booked me in for an appointment.

As I walked in to see the psychologist on the following Monday, they asked how old I was and I told him my age, my name, nothing else personally about me. The psychologist didn’t ask anything else about stressors. I told them I am non-binary but they didn't seem to be listening. They went on to say they are going to tell me all about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and we are going to go with CBT.

So, they explained that 'here is you and here is everyone else in your environment'. They asked what my highest form of education was and I explained that I've had two attempted Master’s degrees.

The psychologist said they weren't going to get me anywhere. They then told me about their friend who works for a major mining and metals organisation, and who thinks people from TAFE will be the ones getting jobs in future. The psychologist said that this will be while I stay home with the babies and that this will be my life until my child gets to school age.

My reaction was I didn’t come to you for career advice – don’t want anecdotal force from your friend.

The psychologist kept talking about CBT and said we can talk about the things that are stressing you out and talking about issues but I've got to work on myself. They said I have to do this, and I have to do that.

They said that I fixate on the negative and how my life is, that I'm really having a good time so now I think something bad is going to happen so now I am making bad things happen.

One of my stressors is individuals sexually harassing me. I said they weren't even considering that it could be an outside force but that it’s all my fault.

The psychologist then went on to explain, that if they told me to sit there for 3 hours the way I was, my arm would hurt or my leg would hurt and I'll be focusing on the negative but if I move, they'll punch me in the face.

I said “I am hearing that I am broken and I’m an issue and I have to fix myself.” The psychologist said that wasn't what they were saying but then told me exactly the same thing. After 45 minutes I said I'm going to stop you there and I have to leave. I believe my body language was saying I am uncomfortable, this is making me uncomfortable, leave me alone.

The psychologist said they've been practising for decades and I just want an hour now. I said that's not what I’m here for and that they were just not listening and I left.