By JefferyT - 03/06/2011 05:16 - United States

Today, I was taken to my first session with my psychiatrist. The entirety of the facility, from the waiting room to the doc's office was decorated with dead butterflies in glass. I was there for my crippling mottephobia, the irrational fear of moths and butterflies. FML
I agree, your life sucks 44 843
You deserved it 4 562

Same thing different taste

Top comments

That is kind of a creepy idea; decorating the place with dead animals

Comments

Decorating the place with dead insects? That's weird.

fgwrxfiend 11

hmm..I think I know why this girl got so many thumbs up lol

At least your doctor was being proactive.

rawritsgreta7 0

that person is crazy, who the hell collects butterflies ?! you should have smashed the jars.

I collect fur. Are you now going to burn my house down?

Everyone knows that the only rational way to react to a hobby you don't like is to commit arson.

Am I the only one that finds it odd that OP's name is "Jeffery T" but the gender is female? Either way FYL OP.

Strange that a psychiatrist's office would be decorated in such a way. Normally they're neutral places with nothing to spark a negative reaction. Perhaps the insects were put up specially for you. Testing the depth of your phobia and how you handle situations where butterflies and moths come up unexpectedly. At least, that would be an amusing explanation.

Exposures are necessary in relieving anxiety about things/ situations, so the exposure to the bugs would be good for OP's therapy.

The exposure would be best begun after the psych has examined her/ at least met her ONCE to see how she is. Putting up such a decoration on purpose would run the risk of a full-on panic attack, which no one would know the consequences of.

Flutist 3

The Facility might have been used by other people, as a sort of science building. It might have been an exibit for other purposes. I have been to high end psychiatrists who had bright decorations. One of my psychiatrists decorated with animal heads. I asked to switch--my phobia is dead things.

Redecorating an entire office for one potential patient? That's one committed shrink. A shitty one, probably, but a committed one nonetheless.

Does no one recognize facetiousness? I even indicated that "at least" the scenario I proposed would be an amusing explanation, because it's obviously far-fetched and very likely untrue.

don't worry 183, i thought it was funny :)

alexsmokesdro91 0

Looks like the psychiatrist is already getting inside your head, he must be good.

Riddles66 0

1: Butterflys are beautiful, 2: you should face your fears. it the only way to get over them

that's not really how it works. if people with psychological problems could just "get over them" themselves, psychiatrists woukd be out of a job.

Yep I'm with 49 on this one. Wanna be blue buddies? :D

I agree. WTF are all these new phobias? I call bullshit. it's just attention whoring. listen, I'm afraid of spiders, but it's not a ******* disorder. I just squash them. get over your fake phobia

I think it's time to find another psychiatrist...

they did it on purpose that's how you get rid of phobias!!!

I hope that was supposed to be a joke.. Flooding is only one possible way to cure phobias and is generally considered less effective and overly traumatic. It has a greater chance of spontaneous recovery than other methods. Also if this was their first session they wouldn't have decided on a course of treatment yet.

35 here I am agreeing with you again! Flooding form of exposure therapy isn't for the faint hearted and there should be an explicit agreement that this will happen. Systematic desensitization is a much more effective method, which involves gradually ramping up the stimulus of the feared object.

TheDrifter 23

But for those of us with a warped sense of humor, flooding is a much more amusing form of therapy. Perhaps op has seen other therapists before and they recommended it after failures with systematic desensitization? The major drawback to desensitization is that it often isn't enough to break the phobia and simply induces panic over and over.