Therapists Are Sharing Their “I Know I’m Not Supposed To Judge, But Holy Sh—” Moments

11.

“There’s enough horror in here already, so here’s more of an ‘uhhh what?’ situation. I was sitting in on a psychoeducational evaluation interview during the later years of my training. The client was a high school-aged male who was already known to the practice. Before getting rolling, the client asks for a tissue. Sure, normal stuff; between spring allergies and all the standard reasons you’d need tissues in the course of therapy, we were plenty stocked. Trying to build some rapport as the outsider in the room, I did the, ‘how’s the weather’ equivalent here: ‘Oh, bad allergies?'”

“‘Nah, just need a parachute.’

Kiddo lays out the tissue on a side table, takes out his XR version of his (prescribed) ADHD medication, and proceeds to pop open the capsule, empty the medication onto the center of the tissue, wrap it up like a tiny old-timey bindle bag, and swallows it. My highly seasoned supervisor doesn’t bat an eyelash, but I’m clearly perplexed, so the client explains to me that when he doesn’t want to deal with the ‘extended release’ part of his meds. He simply removes the extension mechanism (the capsule shell) and swallows the med in a ’tissue parachute,’ which apparently was pretty standard practice among his peers. I had never heard of it before and have never seen it referenced since. Still, it stood out over the copious bizarre stories about illicit drug use I heard working with the juvenile court for assessments because it was so.. normal seeming!”

–u/Rezornat