Audio Transcript – Pilot Program

Prompt Question #1: Write down a tv show or movie that portrayed therapy. What did the portrayal look like? Do you think it’s accurate to what therapy really is?

I don’t have a particular movie or TV show in mind. However, I do remember one particular scene from the Law and Order series, where detective Benson, well, actually, more like Captain Benson now the last time I’ve watched the show, had some extremely terrible nightmares that haunted her and affected her ability to solve cases. That’s when she eventually went to a therapist for counseling sessions. I don’t quite remember the details of the show, but I do remember that those counseling sessions did last a couple of seasons, I believe she was still seeing the psychiatrist the last time I watched this series. Although, of course, we do have to take whatever is portrayed on TV with a grain of salt, probably a massive truckload of salt. But regardless, I do believe those psychiatrist scenes portrayed, and the fact that even some of the best police officers can experience mental illnesses, are, for the most part, an accurate depiction of reality.

Prompt Question #2: Would you ever go to therapy if you wanted to work on a problem? Why or why not?

It depends. There are just too many factors that are in play here. A very straightforward example is my financial situation. I mean, therapists are not cheap, especially psychiatrists. If I don’t have good health insurance, I might refrain from going to a psychiatrist just because it might break the bank and cause more unnecessary anxiety and stress on me. As I have mentioned in the previous discussion, one of the best ways to alleviate or prevent the progression of psychological disorders is to strategically manage your stress levels and your stress tolerances. So by not going to the psychiatrists and causing more financial burden, that’s a way, although not the best way, to achieve a balance. Likewise, let’s say if I was married with kids and there were some relationship issues between me and my wife. If that’s the case, for the sake of a stable marriage, happy family, and happy childhood for my kids, I might have no choice but to attend counseling sessions with a psychiatrist, it would be all be for the better good.

Prompt Question #3: If you did go to therapy, would you feel comfortable telling other people that you were “in therapy”? Why or why not?

Most likely not, but this is also a dependent variable. There’s a Chinese saying that says “家丑不可外扬,” essentially what it means is that family misfortune is not meant to be told [to other people]. It would also depend on my social circle. If my circle of friends is really close to me to the point that they are considered some of my best friends. If that’s the case, depending on my trust levels with them, I might tell some of them, but definitely not all. Likewise, I might tell some of my family members, but definitely not all of them. For example, if there’s a relationship problem, I will most likely keep it to myself and discuss it only with my psychiatrists or my immediate brothers and sisters. I most certainly will not be telling my mom and dad because they might worry too much, thereby causing anxiety and stress to them. That’s the last thing that I want to happen, that is to cause inconveniences to others and ruin their days.

Prompt Question #4: If you were on a first date, and your date casually mentioned he/she was in therapy, what would be your first thoughts?

I have to be quite honest, it might bother me just a tiny bit. Not out of the discriminatory perspective of course, but more out of shock. I can’t speak from experience on this topic, because as a person that has been single all of my life, I never actually dated anyone. But speaking from an objective point of view, If I have a mental illness, I would actually be a bit hesitant to share my diagnosis with anyone under our current societal atmosphere. And especially a potential romantic partner, in this case, the date. But does that mean it’s a bad thing that the date shared this diagnosis? In my honest opinion, not at all. Because the fact that the date is willing to share this diagnosis with you shows a high degree of trust he/she has in you. Of course, if he/she is willing to share this diagnosis, that means he/she doesn’t see you as a potentially racist or xenophobic person. So with all of that said, it’s not a bad thing, but it will give an impression that this person might be overly trusting of strangers, and that might make me feel a bit uneasy. And of course, this will vastly differ from person to person. I, for one, certainly won’t feel safe or have this level of openness with just a date, it will have to be someone that I solemnly trust, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a romantic partner. 

Prompt Question #5: I was recently watching Family Feud (don’t make fun of me), and the question was “On a scale of 1-10, how much do you need therapy?” And the most common answer was 1! Why do you think that is?

You know, this reminds me of a pretty cruel joke, but despite being a funny joke, there’s also some truth to it if you think about it. The joke takes place at a heavily guarded psychiatric ward. One of the patients there was just recently admitted because his family determined that he has a severe mental illness. But the patient himself disagrees with that diagnosis. So he challenged the workers there and asked them to set him free because he’s fine and that he does not have an illness, but the workers there just simply ignored him. Out of desperation, he asked one of his fellow patients there and asked how could he possibly get out of there by convincing those workers that he is free of mental illness. After hearing that question, the other guy just stared at him and said, you know that’s what they all say when they’re first admitted here right? No one will ever admit that they have a mental illness, the fact that they do or they don’t is completely irrelevant. So with that said, if you want to prove that you are in fact a sane person, you’ll need to go grab a knife and stab one of those workers, you might even have to go to the extremes. By doing that, they’ll have no choice but to desperately prove that you are sane and mentally sound in an effort to hold you accountable for your actions. At that point, people won’t be able to ignore you and will actively try to get you to talk. Although, at the end of the day, you’ll just be transferred from one ward to another ward. So this joke is definitely very cruel and gruesome, but does it relate to this question? I sure believe so. Because in the end, no one will admit to having a mental illness, because mental illness is often associated with insanity. But realistically speaking, it really is not.

Prompt Question #6: What can we (society) do to reduce the stigma associated with going to therapy?

Just as I’ve mentioned in my fifth response, we, as a society need to educate people on the importance of good mental health. The first thing that we need to do is to stop alienating and discriminating against people with mental illness by first encouraging people to speak out about their hardships in life. Secondly, we need to eliminate the stereotypical association of mental health to insanity. This is the most important part because that is ultimately what hinders people from speaking out about their conditions. Early treatment is the key. Similar to COVID-19, if you have a healthy lifestyle, a good exercising routine, and stay away from obesity, the likeliness of you catching COVID and having a serious outcome is very minuscule, that is, regardless of vaccination. So basically, we have to tackle the deeper problem and not just scratch the surfaces of the issues. The third thing that we need to do is to stop passing laws that restrict people with mental illness from participating in certain events. For example, gun control, of course, we want to discourage people with severe mental illnesses from owning guns, that is by all means correct. But if we actively restrict people from owning guns, the likeliness of early treatment for those people with mental illnesses would be completely out of the window. Because of those harsh restrictions, people are less likely to come forward, accept early treatments for their mental issues, and conceal their conditions. It could have been prevented from the get-go, but with those harsh restrictions, we will miss the opportunity to implement early treatment for those groups of people. And eventually, as it progresses and worsens, they are of course able to obtain guns from “unofficial” and illegal sources to commit heinous acts. So repeat it with me, early treatment is the key! 😂 This is true wherever we go, down from politics, upwards to declaring wars.

Responses to the professor or other students

Response #1: I really enjoy reading your responses, but more specifically number two. Supportive family members are super important, they can really help solve a lot of things that therapists are unable to solve. For example, if you’re going into financial trouble, no therapists are going to help you alleviate that stress other than your supportive family members. It is just a pure fact at this point because what I believe is more important is to actually learn how to cope with the stresses and deal with them on your own. That’s the only way for someone to get better stress tolerances. In my own example, when I landed my first job over 7 years ago, I could hardly multitask. I had to rely on placing sticky notes on my screen to keep me aware of the things that I still needed to complete. Now, fast forwards to 7 years later, I can do so much more things at all at once without even writing it down. This has also tremendously helped me in my academics because I didn’t have to write anything down or keep any calendar. All assignments are virtually stored in my brains with their due dates, so I have a list of what I needed to complete on which day deep inside of my subconscious mind. I am also less stressed because of it, so that increases my stress tolerance. I wouldn’t be able to achieve all of these if it wasn’t for those years of on-the-job training. So my point is that, yes, psychiatrists are good, but they will only do so much. Psychiatrists, in my opinion, are for more dire and serious situations that need immediate attention, similar to that of emergency services. If it’s something that you are able to resolve on your own without any adverse events, by all means, the person should learn how to self-cure. It’s super important in my opinion. Also, I feel the same way as you. When I am feeling depressed, I would also often put on some worships songs to cheer me up. Although I am quite sure I am not as good as you in terms of being a model Christian. But regardless, I do believe that prayers, worship songs, and attending church are also a way to self-heal and a form of meditation.

Response #2: First of all, I have to say, I actually laughed reading your response to question one, particularly that minus the cigarette part. That was really funny, I mean, after all, cigarettes ruin everything and all credibility. Haha. Anyway, circling back to your entire response, it was a fun reading indeed. For your response to question six, I can’t agree with more. I also mentioned this in my own response post to question six, that the problem lies with the stereotypical association of mental illness, or more broadly, seeing a psychiatrist, or attending a therapy session to insanity. That’s really false parallelism in my opinion. Unfortunately, it seems like this stereotypical idea that mental illness is for psychotic people has been carved in stone in most people’s minds. It is genuinely sad, but to change it though, I believe is going to require a couple of generations of effort.

Response #3: It was pretty interesting in reading your responses. Although, I do have a question for you in response to number one. You mentioned that this girl suffered a lot of trauma from her cousin in her childhood years. But then, immediately on the next sentence, it said that two of them started to fall in love?! Who are “they?” Her assailant? The cousin? Please tell me that’s not true. This movie plot so far sounds a bit like a horror story to me, it’s going to give me nightmares tonight knowing that the victim fell in love with her assailant. Please no.😫

Response #4 (to Professor): That cancer analogy was really spot-on. I have a similar personal experience similar to your analogy. I remember almost a decade ago, one of our churchmate was diagnosed with stage two cancer. Her doctor told her that this cancer is really treatable, you should enroll in cancer treatment immediately, probably starting with radiation, a bit of chemotherapy, and eventually performing surgery to remove it once in for all. However, what she said to us though, was really jaw-dropping. She said that she doesn’t need to go to hospitals or the need to perform checkups or surgeries. Our faith in God will provide and he will heal me. So because of her faith, she refused the early treatment. And of course, the story didn’t end quite well, because the “prayers” didn’t work, the cancer cells eventually spread to her lungs and to her bone tissues to the point of no returns. With that, she eventually passed away. That event was really shocking to me quite honestly because I could never imagine that someone would’ve chosen this path. Although religion is good, if you let that lead everything in your life, some bad things are bound to happen right? We can have our beliefs, opinions, and goals that we strive to fight for. But, if we only let one belief guide us, everything else will essentially collapse. Like in this case, the bible clearly said “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good.” In that context, the doctors are the authorities, they are there for our own good, but she refused it. She didn’t have to die, her doctor clearly said to her that her chances of survival is near 90 percent. But because of blindless faith, she died. This event still haunts me, even to this date.

Also, to be quite honest, as I was writing my disorders paper this week, I’ve noticed near all of the empirical research studies focus on the imprisoned population. I was literally talking to myself while I was reading those research articles because I genuinely wondered why are the researchers not targeting early treatment. One of the articles concluded that antisocial personality disorders are not treatable. Psychologists still, to this date, haven’t found an effective way to “cure” this disorder. But what is truly shocking to me is why are they not researching preventative measures. A lot of the psychological disorders originate from family, and not family genes, but improper nurture. The best way to shape and teach a child to be a person of a good heart, while also infusing them with the correct moral values is from parental examples from a very early age. But despite that, I just don’t see any credible prominent mention of how to properly raise a kid. Quite frankly, if we, the parents can set good examples from the start, they are very likely not to develop these psychological disorders. But unfortunately, we have none of those, and we, as a society are incapable of doing any of that.