Psychologist Reacts to Therapist in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

[@PrivatePracticeSkills]

Hi folks! It looks like there's some interest in more reaction videos from this series. Let me know if there are certain seasons/episodes/songs that you'd most enjoy seeing a reaction video for, thanks!

[@BlueGeen]

I’m a non-traditional/non-familiar viewer of this channel (have literally discovered you through this video, because I really love people analyzing Crazy Ex Girlfriend especially re: mental health); if nothing else, I can say that I completely and absolutely recommend this series. I’ve actually mentioned it and pulled up specific music videos for my own therapists in the past. I’d wholesale fully recommend watching the actual series (a very thought-out story told over 4 seasons), but if nothing else, reacting to some of the notable music videos is probably a great idea in that vein of covering the series more without necessarily making the full dive. Every song is basically a representation of Rebecca’s inner machinations, but a large number of them basically blatantly address mental health, though some more explicitly than others.

[@bethanyreilly2809]

Season by season seems a good way to go. Would love to see your thoughts on season 2 next!!

[@angiep2229]

I'd love to see a reaction to the songs, "A Diagnosis," and, "Antidepressants are so not a big deal."

[@Acebender]

You should react to the song "A Diagnosis"

[@hopelesslyhopeful4396]

I second that, a diagnosis is amazing, and also antidepressants are not such a big deal I watched those episodes when I was finally being formally diagnosed with bpd, after suspecting I had it for 8 years, so diagnosis hit so close to home and made me feel so validated and empowered in how i saw the diagnosis as finding my "tribe", a community of people who would validate me and support me and give me hope by sharing their recovery stories and tips. Which I found and it has helped me a ton.

[@jackiejosten150]

I feel like it’s also important to remember that Rebecca is NOT a reliable narrator. She might not be literally narrating the show, but it is told with her as the (admittedly very imperfect) protagonist, and the audience is meant to see things from her perspective. As the show progresses, Rebecca’s sense of reality shifts in interesting ways, and our understandings of what’s going on do as well.

[@tobi936]

Mrs. Hernandez is a good example of this. At first she is kind and wise, but doesn't say a word. Later be see that the real Mrs. Hernandez is really rude and she does talk Rebecca just never listened

[@tobi601]

​@tobi936 same for Greg's appearance. I think it's really cool how it calls into question Rebecca's point of view and if what we see is even real. If Greg didn't look like that who else doesn't actually look like how we see them? Paula especially is someone I'd wonder about

[@juanjoseagramon8348]

one thing i also love is how in the last season a lot of songs doesn't even include rebecca, meaning we are actually seeing the other characters as themselves and not just how rebecca see them

[@nyxai4695]

So I think it's important that the whole premise of the show is to introduce heavy handed trope-isms and then throughout the run of the series deconstructing and flipping these tropes on their head. Dr. Akopian starts the series as such a stereotype of therapy in media because that's what a viewer expects. And that's in part how Rebecca sees the world. and as time passes she becomes more rooted in reality so the way she experiences everything (including the other characters) shifts to a more realistic view.

[@test-kf2zv]

Absolutely. Everything starts out very cliche, including the therapist, until it's slowly broken apart. Which brings me to the drugs - Rebecca was very much living the stereotypical "throw drugs at a problem" life. I was listening to a podcast and apparently if you look at the meds she's on in season one, they're for seizures, not depression. Once she has a proper diagnosis, she IS prescribed the right meds, which I love.

[@Jellybeansatdusk]

@@test-kf2zv idk man, the meds I’m on are technically listed as treatment for seizures, but they use them for bipolar (hello 👋), so it’s not terribly uncommon for off-label usage in psychology at least.

[@test-kf2zv]

@@Jellybeansatdusk Oh, wow. I didn't know that. I take it back, then.

[@Jellybeansatdusk]

@@test-kf2zv yeah! It’s actually pretty cool. One of the downsides though is that insurance often doesn’t cover anything prescribed “off-label” even if it’s very commonly used that way and there’s pertinent medical literature and studies backing it up. But if you’re curious, there are actually a whole little category of anticonvulsants they use as mood stabilizers. I wonder about the biology behind it and how conditions that cause seizures like epilepsy (which I’m pretty sure involves more physical issues than chemical but not 100% sure) are related to mental illnesses more centered around chemical imbalances like mood disorders. But that also leads into the point that a lot of people with BPD are misdiagnosed as bipolar first, and vice versa. They’re often confused but they’re different in key ways. Also bipolar mood changes and BPD mood swings are totally completely different lol. Bipolar depression too imo is more bouts of complete hopelessness that last a while but end at some point. BPD is more feeling consistently empty and it’s not really ever better OR worse, but it’s also more manageable. Also, according to a lot of reading I’ve done suicidality in BP is usually associated with depression and feelings of lowness whereas suicidality in BPD is more often a result of heightened anxiety and impulsiveness.

[@music-uq3tl]

the Season Three episode "Josh is Irrelevant" has her getting diagnosed and its wonderful. She ends up on medication and in a support group.

[@juanjoseagramon8348]

what i really love about that first therapy scene is how relatable rebecca's twisted POV is for me. rebecca has seen a LOT of therapists before the show so i feel that feeling of thinking you're reviving that first session again and again and AGAIN for so many years it just feel almost robotic (FROM THE PATIENCE' PERSPECTIVE)

[@TomiShaped]

I'd love for you to react to three of the songs from this show! "A diagnosis", "antidepressants are so not a big deal", and 'the darkness".

[@PrivatePracticeSkills]

Love that idea!

[@Kassandra_Karma]

I totally agree on the order of songs but I feel that before " a diagnosis ", should come "sexy French depression" which would complete her mental heath journey... 😁

[@efolinsky]

I’m a licensed therapist in private practice and I actually use videos from this show in session!

[@5fingerjack]

Haha, me too!

[@AshtonishingJelly]

Really?? Can you tell more? ☺️ What do you use it for? I think this is really surprising.. I mean great! But surprising to me ☺️🤩

[@skallywalla502]

As a therapist myself, I so appreciate and celebrate this show for how it depicts the journey of someone with a highly stigmatized mental illness. In the first half of the 4 season run, you cringe at the things Rebecca does, but by seasons 3- 4, you're cheering her on. The series finale is probably the best I've ever seen and makes me cry every time. I also put votes in for reactions to "A Diagnosis" and "The Darkness."

[@danicleckley5404]

Dr. Akopian starts off as a magical black character lol

[@loriegabidel]

I know Dr. Akopian is fictional but I love her and will hear nothing bad about her! 😂

[@maayanona]

I pretty much agreed with everything you said in this video. On the first season they really didn't portray therapy very well😅 They did give much more accurate representation on the 3rd season when they gave her a proper diagnosis, they really did learn a lot in order to portray a very specific mental illness with the nuance it deserves. I would love to see you react to later seasons of this show. Season 3 was defiantly my favorite.🥰

[@MariaJoseRangelUwU]

You should keep reacting to it, Dr Akopian is great actually

[@MrsBasia99]

I’m so glad you’re going to watch more of the show! It’s actually all about mental health!

[@MidnightVentures]

I mean it's all so blatantly unrealistic anyhow. But if I were a Psychiatrist (an actual MD) and a patient came at me like that, even if it were in a joking fashion, towards the end I would have reacted the same way the Dr did. As in saying, "No, I'm not prescribing." And at that point I'd seriously try to evaluate if the patient were serious about his or her mental health or just trying to get some quick fixes with scripts.

[@explodingmangos3416]

yeah like with the context we have in the show Dr. A was completely right that Rebecca was showing drug seeking behaviors and to refuse to prescribe meds when they weren't really improving her quality of life

[@guerrazun]

One of the things about the show is that is really from Rebecca perspective, like, is her narrative, it comes from inside her mind, but that just becomes clear as the show progress, but when you understand that it becomes clearer why the characters act like they do

[@oliviaweissman30]

I feel like In TV shows psychiatrists always play a therapist type role which can be so unrealistic!! I love these videos so much

[@MidnightVentures]

Exactly.

[@BlueGeen]

Love it, never seen your channel before but I am always on the lookout for Crazy Ex Girlfriend content as it seems that not enough people are aware of this show despite the rich theme it explores. Mental health professionals in particular, I am always interested in seeing them exposed to this show (I’ve literally extolled it to my therapists lol) and responding to it. Wonderful stuff!

[@MrsBasia99]

Yesssss!!

[@wendi2819]

Correction: Dr. Akopian is a psychologist and Dr. Shin is the psychiatrist who Dr. A. consults with later on. He prescribed the meds. I think this is correct.

[@LezbiNerdy]

If you don't mind going in for older shows to react to -- Being Erica would be a good one! It's a Canadian show about Time Travel Therapy. Not sure where you could find it to watch, but it would be fun, I think.

[@hopelesslyhopeful4396]

The exchanges with the therapist are of course not realistic, cause what they point to is that rebecca is not ready for recovery yet: she is in that unstable period, where se does sometimes realize she needs professional help, but she also was failed by the system before (in fact, her previous medications made her numb, which is not whats meds should do) so she doesnt want to really try again. I have been there, asking for meds because i wanted a quick fix and therapy didn't help before so i didnt think it could help me. That is the point of that scene, comedically underlined in the one where she leave the session because josh texted: josh is still the priority for rebecca, not herself. She does kinda see her behaviour is problematic, but doesn't see the codependency, the bigger issue behind it. Been there too. As a person with bpd this shows hits so many things so right.

[@alev5036]

I have been wanting someone to do a reaction video to Dr.Akopian!

[@AshtonishingJelly]

Okay, I just thought about this.. Don't know if it's true.. But Rebecca usually kind of works through her feelings in her fantasy-scenes. As song or dream ghost 😆 I was just thinking, maybe the first clip was Rebecca not engaging in the therapy, and Dr. Akopian, and kind of just heard what she expected to hear, and/or her interpretation of what Dr. Akopian actually said. And this dream vision, is her begginning to work through the things Dr. akopian ACTUALLY have said to her, in therapy!? Like her finally begging to "listening" to Dr. A. Just not in real time. I do also think that for some parts of the show, she probably is in therapy, all though we don't hear about it. So this could have been things the Dr. said on accessions, we didn't get to experience..? Just a thought ☺️

[@Trashcan27]

I think y’all professionals need to remember there has to be some fakeness for tv to work. Yes obviously that deal isn’t legal but it’s a sit com

[@mariaah3073]

Also, a character can't just ask another about things we (the audience) have already spent time on. Dr. Akopian doesn't ask very basic and important questions because we already know those answers and including that side of therapy would just mean wasting some precious TV time when we could be introducing new things about the characters and their dynamics.

[@CindersSpot]

I once had a therapist, during my intake session, point out all the ways (or well, some of the ways) in which my previous process with therapy had been an absolute mess. She had read my entire dossier thoroughly, remembered details about the therapy that I had in early childhood that I myself had completely forgotten, said that she hoped she could provide a more integrated plan than I had previously gotten (I had had bits and pieces from many different therapists and groups addressing single issues but never the whole picture), and when I was describing a frankly traumatic experience with a group therapy that made me want one-on-one therapy instead said that that therapy sounded like a bad idea and her approach was very different. I left that session elated because, for the first time, I felt understood, taken seriously and my concerns were heard by a therapist who went above and beyond with putting in the effort to get to know both me as a person and my medical history. So I think Dr Akopian saying her New York doctor was a quack could've worked, but not in this way haha. (And she is right: Rebecca's doctor WAS a quack and prescribed her way too much medication. Rebecca does need medication but not THAT). Only tangentially related to the video haha, I mostly wanted to rave about the amazing therapist who had read my dossier! The whole thing! That's, frankly, insane! Unfortunately I could only stay with her for a year because I moved, but in that year, she made a massive change in my life and I will always be grateful. I've had many good therapists but only one like her.

[@BathroomJams]

OMG I WAS GOING TO REQUEST THIS AFTER WATCHING "NEVER HAVE I EVER" BUT YOU ALREADY DID IT I'M SOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!

[@tpeeoj]

You NEED watch more, PLEASE!!!

[@Serenadion]

What I find interesting about it is, from a Person-Centered Therapy model, it's illustrating to me the concept that so many clients have the answers within them. She attributed that to ghost doctor but since it's her subconscious at play, she has those answers already. She just needs to get out of her own way.

[@lizdestefano4905]

Love the videos! Love your reaction to these videos! I've never heard of this show and Now I definitely want to watch it! Thanks 👍 💚💚

[@suzysobrinho2921]

Hello does anyone nor know that Rebecca's character was written to have Borderline personality disorder? I have Bpd I think she definitely has some of the symptoms. Supposedly she gets a diagnosis in season 3 which I haven't watched yet. So far have not seen signs of self harm or suicidal thoughts. Of course the Doctor is going to be not appropriate at all because it's TV show!

[@evapadilla8342]

She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and does eventually show suicidality.

[@agwarddd]

It’s actually not quite how it was written. Rachel Bloom (who also plays Rebecca, for those unaware) and Aline Brosch Mckenna wrote the character without the intent of an actual condition, then consulted psychologists about a possible diagnosis for the character prior to season 3. This led to the viewpoint of BPD, which gave them a much more proper direction in how to portray the character. This is actually what led to the much more cohesive and clear writing of it moving forward, since before it was much more rooted in Rebecca’s imagination and fantasy.

[@nilderinoz8952]

To bring a new approach, parts that looks like sci-fi maybe just things she already knew yet ignored and now she seen in a way she thought about it sub-consciously

[@missinglegs]

The introduction is really bad at setting up the writing of the therapy later on, the "we're always ourselves Rebecca" is just really aggressive and for a first statement made to a patient to be one of straight up denial is just really alienating and then "Let's dig into your childhood" is clearly just a joke in a form of a hylerboly, but it does come off as really weak therapy writing anyway... It does get A LOT better in the later seasons tho

[@liliaeth]

This made me wonder if you ever watched the therapist Dr Linda Martin in the show Lucifer, she's a regular on the show, and helps Lucifer (and his families) through his issues

[@yoenvidioelviento]

Is not about a magical view but always a Rebbecas point of view or fantasy of people and situations, so Dr.Akopian may be a good Dr. but the truth is Rebecca never pay attention to what Dr. A really says, tje show shows you this later, and its the same for all the characters, like Ms.Hernandez who never speaks in the show, just to show you later she does speaks in "real life" but Rebecca doesnt listen to her at all.

[@AshtonishingJelly]

Exactly! All of this is Rebecca's view! We don't exactly know what is real, and what is her "fantasy". So to speak. Just like "settle for me". Rebecca hears Greg say: you should settle for me, in stead of pining over Josh. In real life that is NOT what Greg thinks he said or even hinted to! It's just what Rebecca heard. Greg doesn't actually want her to settle for him, he wants her to actually love him!

[@AshtonishingJelly]

I want Dr. akopian as a therapist! 😍😁

[@AshtonishingJelly]

Okay maybe not from this one episode. And I don't now if she would actually work in real life.. I just like the character 😆😁😂

[@efolinsky]

Btw…. She’s beyond clinically depressed…

[@cayhttennican6453]

Psychologist commentator: yo do realize this is a SHOW, not reality, right?

[@julierose2398]

I love that you don’t know what her name means. It’s a reference to “acopia”, which appears to be a derogatory term for some clients.

[@jzmays20]

I love these react videos!! Thank you!

[@moulim9193]

You can do some episodes from mom as well!

[@speshuul2]

I loooove this show! It’s so good and Rebecca’s journey to being healthy mentally and emotionally is so fantastic and relatable! It’s inspiring and uplifting to see someone reallllly struggle and make decisions to get better (eventually)… it makes me feel better about my own struggles. BUT Dr. Akopian shits me to no end! Literally the best part they played was the ‘Antidepressants are so not a big deal’ song because it’s true. But the rest of the show they are not a real therapist, nothing compared to actual good psychologists or psychiatrist… I feel like it defs is a negative representation because real therapy is waaaaay more helpful … and they don’t celebrate their patients coming back regularly because they charge $250 an hour 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

[@TouchTheStars]

I haven't watched this show, but from the clips, it seems to me like the clips could be her imagination? Like, not necessarily that they did happen and dream-dr-Akopian is showing her things she couldn't possibly know, but that it really is all a fantasy and the scenes didn't necessarily happen, but now in her imagination they *could* happen. She's coming to the realization that it's possible her mother had other motives for taking her, it's possible that people might be missing her back home. What especially tipped me off was how the dialogue in the scene with the people standing around the room looking for her just didn't sound very natural to me, something seemed fishy about it, it seemed more like the kind of dialogue people imagine rather than what people actually say out loud. That's all just my take on it though

[@CatsBreadBikes]

You should check out the show my mad fat diary and give your opinion on Kester! The clip im thinking of in particular is on youtube and is called "My mad fat diary s2e7 clip"

[@myleslong92]

The thing you have to remember about Dr Akopian when she's on that plane is that it'll NEVER be clear if she's hallucinated or actually magic. Let's keep it vague; it's more interesting that way.

[@Constantin9va]

But every new psychiatrist says that the one before was a “quack” 🙄

[@KCanbutwont]

Typed out a rant and deleted it. NVM

[@sharonramirez8014]

Hahaha yeah this is pretty dead on in my experience. When u know what u need they'll subscribe ANYTHING BUT that. Really HATE being told there's nothing wrong with me. I just have fleas from being the only same member of a crazy family.

[@LeonDeLlama]

Do the rest!!! She shows up more 😂

[@brianbuch1]

Yeah. It's like me, an attorney, watching "Better Call Saul".