I had a psychotic break in 2020 resulting from eight days of no sleep after back-to-back traumatic flashbacks. My therapist had administered EMDR without properly assessing my trauma and dissociation risk factors, which caused year-long flashbacks that profoundly damaged my health. During my crisis, she coerced me into contacting SVU to recount this trauma while I was actively in psychosis. It was humiliating and demeaning. The cops did nothing but listen to me retraumatize myself.
My therapist told me, “I’m sorry, but what happened to you was too long ago for them to do anything,” and then suggested I look into changing my name. All of this exacerbated my crisis. That was the last time I saw or spoke to her. She ghosted completely while the crisis was ongoing, despite multiple attempts to contact her. Eventually, I went inpatient when I could no longer be safe on my own.
While in the psych ward, I was deadnamed and misgendered repeatedly, with staff insisting my chosen name and pronouns were part of my ‘delusions’ (which were all related to real trauma). A staff member assaulted me after I was left unattended for hours in the waiting room and had to urinate on the floor with no bathroom access. They injected me with sedatives and labeled me as combative for simply asking what medications I was being given.
After getting out, my therapist remained unreachable, and it took years for me to physically recover from the crisis, let alone emotionally.
– E