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Worth Knowing's avatar

Just finished reading "Bad Therapy" by Abigain Shrier. She addresses many of your concerns through an exploration of the role therapists (also school counselors and teachers who believe themselves to be mental health practioners doling out false diagnoses and medication recommendations) play in driving a wedge between parents and their children. It's a must read. Bottom line: don't hand over your parental authority to an "expert" who does not know, love, or understand your child like you do.

These experts and the pathological culture promoting them are profiteering from the vulnerabilities of children who CANNOT give informed consent (even to therapy, which comes with risks) and therefore should not be stuck in a room with an unknown adult who asks invasive questions about sex, gender, trauma, and suicide--in many cases planting seeds--under the presumption that all children have trauma and need psychological intervention. As Shrier so rightly points out children are RESILIENT, resilience is built in; doesn't need to be built as mental health industry claims. If I had a dime for everytime I heard the phrase "we need to build children's resilience" I'd be on a white-sandy beach right now. Resilience, not trauma, is the norm. And parents have an absolute right to set boundaries for their children. "Jennifer, you're not a boy. Now get off social media. " I know it's not that simple.

Parenting is so hard. I am one myself raising 17 year old boys. I'm also a clinical social worker. I've been in therapy, and during COVID, when one of my sons just-stopped-eating we sought the professional expertise of physicians and mental health professionals. It was eye-opening to me that instinctually I did not trust the experts. I did not trust the diagnosis to pharmaceutical dependency pipeline. I walked out on a psychologist--TOP rated behavioral health professional after she informed me and my son that exercise was out of the question (because he was over-exercising). During COVID, stuck at home, he was no longer permitted to exercise on the "expert" advice of a woman 20 years younger with no children but a degree from the local degree mill hanging on the wall. There were other indicators she had the title and identified as an expert, but didn't do all the homework.

So, we turned to Better Help the online tele mental health platform and was assigned a woman 65 years old at least, gray hair, title of Dr. (because she got a PhD in Counseling) who without even talking to my son diagnosed him with gender dysphoria based solely on some research indicating disordered eating strongly correlates with gender dysphoria. She diagnosed him during a brief conversation I had with her explaining the symptoms and treatment so far. When I questioned her choice to offer up a diagnosis without even speaking to him, she made a general reference to the research and advised me I may be part of the problem because she sensed I was controlling. She also offered up that he might be gay (which would be absolutely NO issue in our home and my boys have known that since they were little). I kinda chuckled at the suggestion, though, and she did not appreciate that. I remarked that I know my son. He's not gay. That's when she suggested I'm the problem. She also dismissed the role of COVID in his mental health struggle. Her exact words "Forget COVID." Again, I laughed. That's when I told her I'm also a mental health professional with a doctorate, and I would be asking for my money back. FYI--Better Help bills your credit card for services you haven't yet received. That started a long exhausting battle with Better Help to retrieve my money that ended with the threat that if they didn't return it, I would write damaging letters about their platform and send it to every professional association in the US i.e. the APA, NASW, ASWB, American Academy of Pediatricians, AMA, and Bari Weiss who was promoting Better Help on her podcast. Eventually I got my money back with what I deemed a sincere apology from some executive at Better Help.

I realize I just vented for 500 words only because as a parent I feel the pressure and as a professional I have some regrets about my contributions to current dogma and ideology. But, all I can do is offer support to people looking out for their kids' best interests by being informed and offering what I know as back up. Oh, the outcome for my son--he went to Grandma's for two weeks during COVID, ate home cooked meals, performed tasks and odd jobs for her, and hung out with family who love him like no therapist ever could. He's not on medication. He has no labels attached to him. He's growing, learning, changing--and he trusts me because he knows I'd fight like hell for him.

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Jennifer Bond Baker's avatar

I also stayed at home with my children, homeschooled, and thought we were doing well to protect our children from the pervasive progressivism in the local school system yet also talk with them/inform them about the issues of the day so that they did not live in a bubble. I believe now that the internet was our downfall. We had strict guards around it, but I believe our son found whatever it was he was looking for: opinions that differed from his Christian parents, undermining all our efforts. Now at age 26, having been trans for 3 years, he still will not speak to us because we refuse to use his new name and to make other language changes to suit him. The great sacrifices we made for him (financial, personal, etc.) over the period of 23 years matter not at all. Somehow, we are unworthy to speak to because we do not show 100% support for what he is doing. Our entire family has been cut off. He is our only son, our daughter's only brother, my father's only grandson, my sister's only nephew. None of this matters. I am trying desperately to not let my broken heart ruin my life. It is a daily struggle. I also pray daily that this ideology would be eradicated from our society, that we will someday be reunited with our lost child.

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