A Licensed Clinical Social Worker Hung Up On Me Once

Hey everyone. One time I was feeling suicidal a couple of years ago and I called the number my psychiatrist gave me to talk to someone. I ended up talking with a woman named Connie. I had spoken to her several times before. I never really did like her. Well, this time, I did absolutely nothing to provoke this and she just started yelling at me and telling me I was only seeking attention. Then she hung up on me. This made me feel angry and even worse than I had felt before I called. I had no idea how to report this to the appropriate authorities and so I never did. I guess it's too late to do it now. Unfortunately, she is still on the job at this hospital. Is there anything I can do now?

I don't trust social workers, period. Maybe I am stereotyping, but they all seem to be in it for their money - it's nothing more than their job and they aren't really out to help people. If Connie feels like her time is "wasted" she won't talk to you. The social workers that work with the people in the assisted living (where I work) end up stealing the patients' money! Find a trustworthy friend you can talk to instead.

Greetings, Cloud People. I find it funny that two people with "cloud" in their names posted back-to-back.

For starters, you can tell your psychiatrist not to recommend this Connie persion to anyone else, so fewer people will be hurt by her in the future.

Maybe Connie is a burnout case. Having a bad day, a stressful personal life, or too big a caseload is no excuse. She's holding fragile people in her hands and she should never take that privilege lightly. Sheesh, for all she knows she could trigger someone into a real suicide attempt.

Perhaps you can ask your psychiatrist to recommend a depression support group in your area. That way over time you could have a network of people you could call if you're in crisis. Kindly people who understand what you're going through instead of some so-called "professional" yelling at you from on high.

Sounds like an unfortunate side effect of ego motivated "helping"

It's ridiculous. And Ironic. For example most telemarketers would act better than this - you know why? Because telemarketers are often considered annoying at best. They aren't elevated to the position of 'helper' and therefore less ego comes into play. The telemarketer will have less tendency to be snarky because they are the ones looking for a break, they aren't the ones providing something to another person.

Some people just get their head inflated whether they know it or not. It's kind of sad, really.

IvoryBill wrote:Greetings, Cloud People. I find it funny that two people with "cloud" in their names posted back-to-back.

Power to the clouds!!!

Here's the scoop at my place...

I work in assisted living. The social worker that takes care of Bob (I won't use his real name) is a creep to out it lightly. Bob has no family and his dementia does not allow him to understand the concept of having a social worker. He is in love with a woman at the facility. The social worker found out about the relationship (which has been proven to do no harm to either) and immediately he wanted to do something about it. He tried and tried to convince us to keep them from having a relationship. When the social worker walks in, Bob starts to cry because he can't stand the guy. So the social worker uses this as as excuse and says that Bob is crying because he feels that his woman is going to break up with him. I have never seen Bob cry unless it is around his social worker. I don't know what his problem is with the relationship. The only thing I can think of is 1. He is just hungry for control or 2. He is homosexual and has feelings toward Bob.

But anyway, they are not people you can trust. Pardon me for saying this but I saw this on a bumper sticker and I can't help but agree with it's message "Consider this: Ametures built the ark, professionals built the Titanic".

Many times, professionals aren't the answer.

Kelly Thundercloud wrote:1. He is just hungry for control or 2. He is homosexual and has feelings toward Bob.

I had an encounter with a licensed therapist like this. I was talking about conflicted feelings I had about relating to women. He kept asking probing questions about my male friends and acquaintances and my feelings for them. I could see where this was leading, so I politely tried to steer the conversation back to my feelings about relating to women, and I even mentioned some of my female friends and acquaintances. Still, he persisted in that line of questioning, and he became a little flirty and stuck out his tongue playfully. When I could see that talking with him wasn't going anywhere, (i.e. I wanted to talk about my conflicted feelings relating to women, and he kept trying to convince me I was gay,) I finally told him, "Look. We'd better not talk anymore."

His response was to snarl, "You and your boyfriend's sister!" (in reference to one female acquaintance I had mentioned.) I filed a complaint about him, but this doofus is above reproach at the agency where he works. He can't possibly be gay, because he's married with kids. (Even though my complaint was really more about his inappropriate and persistent attempts to convince me that I was gay while refusing to talk about any other issues, rather than his actual hitting on me, which in itself probably wasn't enough to cross any boundaries.)

As far as option 1 goes, interfering with a target's relationships in general is part of an organized technique of psychological torture called Zersetzung. Unfortunately, the little pertinent information available online seems to be in German and dates from the era of the East German DDR.