Being a therapist would be an interesting job, don’t you think?

You get to hear the deepest, darkest secrets of all kinds of people and you have your mind blown on a daily basis.

And sometimes they hear things that really surprise them.

Check out what therapists said about this on AskReddit.

Taken aback.

“Once had a patient whose wife shook their baby to d**th. He wanted help reconnecting with his wife.

At the time I was a young father of a newborn myself, and he triggered a lot of fear in me for my own child, a deep loathing of his spouse, and pity (the “how pathetic” kind) for the patient.

I tried for 3 sessions, met his spouse and everything before handing the case over to my supervisor (who knew about my initial reactions, and tried to help me through it).

Unfortunately, it ended up being more about my feelings than his, and I was new to the profession at the time. These things are expected to crop up from time to time, but I was still taken aback by my own reactions.”

OMG.

“It’s not often I get to talk about my profession, but here goes: I was working at a d**g and al**hol rehabilitation center and had a client come in who was a self proclaimed “d**g lord”.

As we worked together, he told me about his history. Included in this history was how he got to where he was currently at.

During the conversation, this man admitted to selling his sister into s** slavery, forcibly injecting her with several sedatives and narcotics, and having several people “teach her a lesson” (what this meant, he never shared).

He told this story with a blank face, smiling only when he recalled the “good times”, which he referred to as times when he had enough heroin to get through the day.

I’m not sure where he is at now, but this man inspired me to work with victims of s** trafficking, because not only do they deal with the stigma of “selling their bodies”, they often manage d**g addictions.

People would honestly be floored of they realized how many people were addicted to chemicals that they were forcibly given.”

Good lord.

“As the pandemic worsened here in the US and more lock downs are on their way, one of my most extroverted clients and I brainstormed ways to meet her social needs while remaining safe.

The following week she canceled her session and told me that she’s positive for COVID after attending an orgy, which definitely wasn’t one of our ideas. I let out the deepest most defeated sigh after I hung up the phone.”

Sabotage.

“I will admit though, something that does get me feeling a little salty is when I have a client’s parent that attempts to sabotage the therapeutic relationship I have with their child, or pulling them out of therapy entirely when some of the things we talk about challenges some potentially unhealthy family dynamics.

I don’t feel anger toward the parents, mostly I feel bad for the kid.”

Sad.

“Had a patient apologise for crying during a consultation, saying ‘I know I shouldn’t be sad, I’ve got so many great things going for me’

Dude.

Three months ago you had to move back to your parents after an unexpected breakup.

Back to the environment which contributed to your official diagnosis.

The same place where your sister was living- before she died, one month after your return to that house, of the same diagnosis you have.

And because she d**d during a pandemic, not only could you not visit her in hospital before she d**d, you had difficulty organising her funeral.

In addition to all that he felt financially responsible for both his parents as they’d both lost their benefits- a loss which they couldn’t appeal as their mental health was so poor the concept of fighting that decision was making them s**cidal.

I want to hug a lot of my patients, but this one made my heart ache.”

Sucks.

“I currently have a young female client that is struggling with homelessness, a history of trauma, se**al ab**e, etc.

She’s not handling these things well, as can be expected. Grandmother, who is her only support, keeps kicking the ten year old out of her house (making her homeless at ten) for acting out, and told me she can’t understand why client won’t just “act right.”

Lady. Are you serious?

Terrible.

“I’m a psychotherapist on an adult inpatient unit, so things rarely phase me. I purposely do inpatient because the thought of seeing people for years at a time bores me.

I’ve been kicked, spit on, seen a lot of nude people, but I help pull people back from their darkest points. It’s pretty awesome. My theory is everyone has a story of how they got there. Even a pedophile.

That being said, I had a patient that was having consensual s** with her uncle. Very wealthy, society type people. She went very in-depth about the relationship. That one weirded me out.”

Well, that was a wild ride!