Seeking therapy

[heavymind]

Better Help = Bad Idea

The OP is wise to give it a pass. It's not enough that nearly every facet of our daily lives is now a trade off for surveillance and invasions of privacy. They want more, and came up with a convenient system where a person can just sit in the comfort of their own home and reveal their deepest, and maybe darkest, secrets and feelings straight into a server farm to be catalogued for future reference - because you know it's all being retained. And people have signed up for this by the millions? It's disturbing and reads like the story line of a dystopian Black Mirror episode or the movie THX-1138, where people get their daily "necessary" medications after checking in with the telescreen in their bathroom.

What could possibly go wrong? As shown in the link from Sonic Spork. Not trying to go off on a rant here, but it goes back to my first post commenting about finding a trusted friend to talk to instead. At least you don't have to worry about your private information being shared and sold to the highest bidder, and it probably won't cost anything.

[Hankrigby]

Originally Posted by heavymind

Better Help = Bad Idea

The OP is wise to give it a pass. It's not enough that nearly every facet of our daily lives is now a trade off for surveillance and invasions of privacy. They want more, and came up with a convenient system where a person can just sit in the comfort of their own home and reveal their deepest, and maybe darkest, secrets and feelings straight into a server farm to be catalogued for future reference - because you know it's all being retained. And people have signed up for this by the millions? It's disturbing and reads like the story line of a dystopian Black Mirror episode or the movie THX-1138, where people get their daily "necessary" medications after checking in with the telescreen in their bathroom.

What could possibly go wrong? As shown in the link from Sonic Spork. Not trying to go off on a rant here, but it goes back to my first post commenting about finding a trusted friend to talk to instead. At least you don't have to worry about your private information being shared and sold to the highest bidder, and it probably won't cost anything.

Interesting point I was talking to some therapists and the ones that do teletherapy use a program that is HIPPA compliant.

But I have a similar distrust of so called secure things in this realm.

[Sonic_Spork]

Originally Posted by Hankrigby

Interesting point I was talking to some therapists and the ones that do teletherapy use a program that is HIPPA compliant.

But I have a similar distrust of so called secure things in this realm.

So I've got a story about some recent experiences...

I relocated to a new city and had to find all new healthcare providers. Regular doc, imaging center, gyno doc, vision, dental. Each and every one insisted that I had to log into a portal and fill in my medical info online. All of the portal providers are third party software companies. All claim to be HIPAA compliant and all claim to be super secure. Office staff insists that all protect privacy to the utmost.

Uh huh.

So my GYNO doc of all things...only the one where the questionnaire asks ~the. most. personal. questions.~ imaginable... had one page with several links to pdfs of fine print, with a big button at the bottom that said, "AGREE AND SUBMIT" and a grey (but clickable) link underlined below that said "Continue without agreeing."

I clicked the links and read them. I'm probably one of very few who did so.

One of them is the third party software provider (under a name not otherwise listed anywhere on the main pages of the site) asking if I would consent to all of my profile data being sold for marketing purposes.

And if that's not bad enough, every time I get a text to confirm an appointment, if I click the link to confirm, I am directed to zip through the entire process to confirm if any of my info has changed, and that page comes up AGAIN. Where on any occasion I might be zooming through because nothing has changed and accidentally agree to let them sell off my personal information.

Apparently it's still "HIPAA compliant" if you give them consent. Even if there is a very good chance you won't realize what you are consenting to because you didn't read the link and it isn't obvious.

I was furious. I complained to the front desk staff, the doctor, the nurses, on the survey they sent me... But of course nothing has changed.

Also, there have been cases in Europe where hackers obtained medical data, and therapy notes, and used them for blackmail attacks demanding large sums of money and threatening to make people's private information publicly available, or to send it to their loved ones.

The fact is, no matter what these companies CLAIM, there is an arms race between hackers and software providers, and the software providers don't always win. Also, there is no known way to absolutely prevent video from being recorded and retained. And if all that didn't suck enough, good luck finding any legit provider who doesn't keep electronic records these days.

The only thing gained from choosing a professional over a friend in this specific regard (privacy) is that the professional does have some legal obligation, and you could sue someone if your data is compromised. Your friends have no legal obligation whatsoever to keep anything you tell them confidential, at all. I don't know that there is a fully risk free option...but some are worse than others.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Determining if wallowing in grief is manipulation is not always easy. If the individual already has a tendency to manipulate it can be intentional manipulation, a type of defense mechanism, unconscious, etc.. It actually is easier to figure out in forums because all of the interactions are public.

Reflecting on what I wrote, I recognized that the main part of what I was objecting to with ring theory could be simplified into a single sentence. When utilized, ring theory encourages cattiness.

Queen Victoria was an interesting individual all around. The grief was used as a shield and a way of holding and gaining power. I think she did consider one suitor briefly, but didn't go there. I'd have to do some re-reading as it has been awhile since I read about her.

Laughter - morbid humor is part of the process. There is nothing wrong with it (with a few obscure caveats). On a larger scale, one Jewish manager I employed, who escaped France as a child, could not get his head around "Hogan's Heroes" and the playing of NAZIs and POW camps for humor. I pointed out to him that the humor of it de-potentiated the strength of that group in a way that always handling them with fear never could. The actors knew that. From Wikipedia:

The actors who played the four major German roles—Werner Klemperer (Klink),[16] John Banner (Schultz), Leon Askin (General Burkhalter), and Howard Caine (Major Hochstetter)—were all Jewish. In fact, Klemperer, Banner, and Askin had all fled the Nazis during World War II (Caine, whose birth name was Cohen, was an American). Robert Clary, a French Jew who played LeBeau, spent three years in a concentration camp (with an identity tattoo from the camp on his arm, "A-5714"); his parents and other family members were killed there. Likewise, Banner had been held in a (pre-war) concentration camp and his family was killed during the war. Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka. Other Jewish actors, including Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone, made multiple appearances playing German generals.

^Interesting! I never knew that.

[Hankrigby]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

^Interesting! I never knew that.

I'm a huge fan of Hogan's heroes even though I was born in the 80s but I didn't know all of that.

[rokuremote]

Originally Posted by Hankrigby

Interesting point I was talking to some therapists and the ones that do teletherapy use a program that is HIPPA compliant.

But I have a similar distrust of so called secure things in this realm.

Did you ever find what you were looking for?