this might be more vent-ish and long winded than i intended it to be so i might eventually delete but i desperately need to get it off my chest somewhere and to people who might Get It ? 
general cw for topics of mental health and suicide (i’m not sure what else to tag specifically!)
i previously saw the same therapist for 2 years straight and i’ve been bouncing around different ones ever since. i’m on my fourth one since then and it’s probably been the worst experience i’ve had with a therapist yet.
i’m bipolar 2 with adhd, and our latest appointment was the last straw. i was hypomanic this time, but very low and suicidal in the last appointment, which prompted her to oh-so-kindly tell me “thank god you’re feeling better, if you were still suicidal i’m not sure i would be able to keep you as a client because its not something i can deal with.” this was a therapist who advertised herself as specializing in bipolar.
i absolutely should not have done this in hindsight but i couldn’t keep my mouth shut at the time because, well, hypomania and impulsivity and whatnot, but later on in the session i mentioned that i was worried about immigrants in the US and mass deportations and Evil and Doom and that a lot of my friends were scared too. my therapist replied with, word for word, “well, if you and your friends aren’t illegals there’s nothing to worry about right?” i was so dumbfounded i just did not answer for a good 10 seconds and then changed the subject. there was nothing to say. i felt genuinely sick afterwards. i guess it was on me for bringing it up to someone whose opinions i wasn’t familiar with, but when would anyone be familiar with their therapist’s political opinions ??? isn’t that an ethical boundary or something
TLDR needless to say i am once again looking for a new provider. i’ve tried pretty much every website for finding people in my area. i dont like online stuff/zoom meetings so that severely narrows my options. i guess i’d like to know what sort of questions i should be asking people? to narrow out the Weird and Offputting providers if there’s even a way to do that? i don’t know. im just tired bros. any input on how to make things not suck would be appreciated because im just so disillusioned with the whole Mental Health System at this point. thanks for reading this far. 
i guess it was on me for bringing it up to someone whose opinions i wasn’t familiar with, but when would anyone be familiar with their therapist’s political opinions ??? isn’t that an ethical boundary or something
No fuck this. It was not on you and you should absolutely be familiar with your therapist’s political opinions. You don’t need to go into the weeds on everything but having a ballpark estimation that they’re at least not a burgerland style fascist is a must. You’re a leftist. It’s for your own protection to have a therapist who knows when the omit certain things from your notes in that regard. Regardless, a good therapist is able to identify when their personal feelings stop them from being able to provide care and that includes feelings about political topics that affect you.
I’ve had good luck with ZocDoc filtering for bipolar II and queer issues. Maybe you would too
from the general vibes/light conversations about events i’ve had with them, all the therapists ive had in the past generally skewed liberal at worst with social/political issues. definitely not on the hard left, but not “wahh-illegals-in-my-country” xenophobic fascist aligned either, so hearing something like this was a first for me. it shocked me that someone in that line of work could have such a lack of empathy for other human beings. i’m just glad i know about it now so i can see someone else and not waste my time.
