Is Therapy Tearing Us Apart?

A patient recently came to see me, saying she was furious with a friend. What began as an ordinary disappointment—a canceled dinner and a text returned too late—had become something far larger and far more charged. The friend was now “toxic.” The exchange had become a “violation of boundaries.” The hurt itself had been elevated into “trauma.” She had screenshots and a polished story about what the episode revealed about her friend’s pathology.

What she didn’t have was introspection. She was no longer asking the most psychologically useful questions: Could this have been carelessness rather than ill intent? Was the reaction intensified by other things that may have been going on? Had she contributed in any way to the conflict? The language she brought into the room gave her something powerful: certainty. But certainty is often the enemy of insight.

This scene has become one of the defining features of my work as a psychotherapist, and it sits at the center of the argument in my forthcoming book, Therapy Nation: Too much of modern therapy culture keeps people stuck, reinforcing grievance, externalizing blame, and turning everyone else into the reason their lives are so miserable.

The problem begins with my own field. For years, my profession has trained clinicians to elevate validation over challenge, affirmation over interpretation, and emotional fluency over the harder work of behavioral change. What has followed is the rise of grievance culture dressed up as psychological sophistication. Too many therapists now function less as clinicians than as reinforcers of the most self-protective interpretation available, teaching patients to locate the problem everywhere but themselves. Of course it is your boss’s fault. Of course your colleague is toxic. Of course your ex is a narcissist. Of course the world keeps wounding you. In this softened therapeutic frame, frustration is rarely something to examine; it’s something to assign.

The patient doesn’t gain greater agency, but instead, a more polished story about why someone else is to blame. If you feel injured, the injury must be real. If you feel unsafe, the threat must be there. If a relationship creates discomfort, the relationship itself becomes the problem.

I recently saw the aftermath of this in a new patient who came to me after months with another therapist. Every difficult interaction at work had been interpreted through the same frame: the boss was toxic, the co-workers invalidating, and the environment unsafe. By the time we met, the patient could describe every slight in flawless therapeutic language but had never once been pushed to consider whether avoidance, defensiveness, or fear of criticism might be part of the pattern. And she was never given constructive advice on how to bring about changes. The therapy had made the story clearer without making her stronger.

This is how therapy can quietly become an engine that keeps people stuck. Patients leave not more capable of tolerating frustration, ambiguity, or ordinary disappointment, but less. They become more fluent in explaining why they feel the way they do while becoming less practiced at changing what they do next. And therapists are largely responsible for this phenomenon.

While it may feel like growth, it functions as avoidance. And that is corrosive. The patient becomes good at explanation, more sophisticated in the language of harm, and more certain about who is to blame, but no closer to actual change. Grievance becomes part of identity.

That same emotional habit doesn’t stay confined to the therapy office. People carry it into marriages, friendships, workplaces, and, eventually, politics. Ordinary frustration becomes proof of mistreatment. Ambivalence becomes danger. Disagreement becomes evidence of harm. Once enough people are trained to interpret discomfort this way, coexisting with others starts to feel impossible.

The political consequences follow naturally. A citizen trained to experience ordinary conflict as evidence of harm will eventually bring that same mindset into public life. We’ve seen this dynamic play out vividly in the Donald Trump era, when members of my profession moved from helping people navigate political differences to legitimizing family estrangement as a sign of psychological health. On national television, prominent therapists and psychiatrists suggested it might be essential for mental health to avoid Trump-voting relatives during the holidays.

The same therapeutic scripts that encourage patients to pathologize difficult bosses and disappointing partners now teach citizens to reinterpret ordinary democratic differences as evidence of danger. The result is a society less capable of living with differences, less able to tolerate friction, and more likely to retreat into emotionally curated silos and echo chambers.

This is where therapy culture ceases to strengthen people and starts quietly weakening them. The person becomes increasingly protected from scrutiny, and increasingly fragile as a result.

Social media has been uniquely fertile ground for this corruption. The algorithm doesn’t elevate the most psychologically accurate interpretation. It elevates the most emotionally satisfying one. Hence the ecosystem of so-called mental-health influencers: Endless posts diagnose narcissists, decode toxic bosses, and turn ordinary disappointment into proof of pathology. Social media rewards certainty, speed, and self-protection—precisely the instincts real therapy is supposed to challenge before turning them into conclusions. The result isn’t a more psychologically sophisticated society. In many cases, it’s quite the opposite.

My own field should be willing to say this plainly: We helped create this culture. The original promise of therapy was never that life would stop hurting. It was to help people become stronger in the face of pain, clearer in the face of conflict, and more honest about the role they themselves play in the conflicts they keep re-creating.

To inclusive apparently so I’ll revise.

Therapy “may” help some folks.. PTSD etc and some major abuse and child traumas I get but today, most therapy is the result of people that can’t handle life which is pathetic. Things don’t go your way and you’re in therapy. ADHD is being a kid but better to drug them so you don’t have to deal with them.

It’s big business, it’s profitable so they sell it daily on TV, radio, social media etc. Everyone telling you you have a problem and they have something that will fix it.

Look at your typical leftist. They can’t handle anything, don’t have a clue what gender they are (somewhere around 72 different ones last count I knew), expect everything free, TDS is insane, everyone not them is a NAZI all of which has been brought on by the educational system. If they can’t have or get anything they want they freak out and need therapy. A 2020 Pew Research Center study found that 62% of White liberals had been diagnosed with a mental health condition. They should be euthanized. It would be better for society. Here’s a brief list what they want or seek treatment for when things don’t go their way:

• Safe spaces
• Trigger warnings / content warnings Labels
• Bias-response reporting systems for reporting incidents of discrimination, harassment, or bias within institutions.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs
• Affirmative action / targeted recruitment
• Culturally responsive pedagogy
• Trauma-informed practices that recognize the prevalence and impact of trauma and adapt interactions to avoid re-traumatization.
• Campus counseling and mental-health services expansion for counseling, crisis intervention, and teletherapy options for students and community members.
• Microaggression awareness training that define and discuss subtle, often unintentional slights toward marginalized groups and teach how to respond.
• Gender-inclusive facilities
• Restorative justice programs
• Climate justice and environmental r
• Living-wage / minimum-wage advocacy
• Universal or expanded social supports free access to healthcare, paid family leave, affordable housing, and childcare.
• Community safety alternatives that reallocate some funding from traditional policing to social services, mental-health crisis response, and violence-prevention programs.
• Public-health harm-reduction strategies like syringe-exchange programs, supervised-consumption sites, or medication-assisted treatment aimed at reducing harm from substance use.
• Media-literacy and fact-checking efforts
• Arts and community programming for wellness programs that use creative activities (e.g., coloring, workshops) to support mental health and social connection.

These types of freaks should be bitched slapped into reality.

There’s a huge list of drugs needed for every symptom issue listed above and if you’re not sure what your symptoms are they’ll make up a disease and a drug to fix it....

Antidepressants

SSRIs: fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), paroxetine (Paxil) — depression, anxiety disorders, OCD, PTSD, panic disorder.
SNRIs: venlafaxine (Effexor), duloxetine (Cymbalta), desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) — depression, generalized anxiety, neuropathic pain (duloxetine).
Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs): amitriptyline, nortriptyline, imipramine — depression, chronic pain, migraine prophylaxis; more anticholinergic/overdose risk.
MAOIs: phenelzine, tranylcypromine, selegiline (patch) — atypical or treatment‑resistant depression; dietary/interaction precautions.
Atypical antidepressants: bupropion (Wellbutrin) — depression, smoking cessation; mirtazapine (Remeron) — depression with insomnia/weight loss; trazodone — depression, insomnia (lower doses).

Anxiolytics and Sedative‑Hypnotics

Benzodiazepines: lorazepam (Ativan), alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), clonazepam (Klonopin) — acute anxiety, panic, insomnia, seizure adjunct; risk of dependence.
Non‑benzodiazepine hypnotics: zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), zaleplon — short‑term insomnia.
Buspirone — generalized anxiety disorder (non‑sedating, low dependency risk).

Mood stabilizers / Anticonvulsants

Lithium — bipolar disorder (mania and maintenance), suicide risk reduction.
Valproate (valproic acid/divalproex) — acute mania, maintenance.
Carbamazepine — bipolar mania, trigeminal neuralgia.
Lamotrigine — bipolar depression prevention/maintenance (less effective for acute mania).
Other antiepileptics sometimes used adjunctively: oxcarbazepine.

Antipsychotics (neuroleptics)

First‑generation (typical): haloperidol, chlorpromazine, fluphenazine — psychosis, acute agitation; higher EPS risk.
Second‑generation (atypical): risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole, ziprasidone, clozapine — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, adjunct for depression/anxiety/agitation; metabolic side effects vary (clozapine for treatment‑resistant schizophrenia, requires monitoring).
Long‑acting injectable formulations exist for many (e.g., risperidone LAI, paliperidone palmitate).

Stimulants and ADHD medications

Amphetamine salts: lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse), mixed amphetamine salts (Adderall) — ADHD, narcolepsy.
Methylphenidate: Ritalin, Concerta — ADHD.
Non‑stimulant: atomoxetine (Strattera), guanfacine ER, clonidine ER — ADHD, often when stimulants are unsuitable.

Medications for Substance‑Use Disorders (psychiatric overlap)

Opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone.
Alcohol use disorder: naltrexone, acamprosate, disulfiram.
Nicotine replacement, varenicline, bupropion for smoking cessation.

Adjunctive / Others

Beta‑blockers (propranolol) — performance anxiety, akathisia adjunct.
Pregabalin — anxiety (in some countries), neuropathic pain.
Anticholinergics (benztropine, trihexyphenidyl) — treat antipsychotic‑induced extrapyramidal symptoms.

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