When we think of potentially dangerous job sites, we often imagine military duty, unsecured construction sites, truck drivers, or other jobs that require physically risky work. But there are many cases when psychologically charged jobs present the highest danger.
For example, there are a lot of potential risks that come with working as a clinical psychologist with high needs clients, or people with violent pasts looking to rehabilitate. The work itself can be incredibly rewarding, and the more experienced you are, the easier it is to pinpoint the root causes of different people's behaviors. However, that doesn't mean there aren't moments of silent panic.
In a recent Reddit thread, psychologists shared their most anxiety inducing stories from the job, and it's a good reminder to respect the therapists in your life.
1. overocea had a client with a history of attacking therapists.
"Saw a new client for our first session at my home practice. We seemed to click and work together fine. He said he wanted to work through some trauma he’d experienced when he was physically attacked by a previous psychologist. Hearing about terrible psychologists always riles me up so I was immediately on his side."
"When I talked with my supervisor about the case a week later she asked me his full name (which never happens so I was weirded out immediately). She googled the name then and there and wordlessly handed me her iPad. It was full of news articles about this client and his attacks on psychologists in my local area."
"I obviously did not see him again but I was nervous for ages because he knew where I lived."
2. djtravels worked with a client who had massive gang power.
"Clinical psychologist here. I used to work in a prison and did a parole evaluation for a inmate that was a high ranking gang member in a national gang. By his account he was the highest ranking in the state. In fact he was placed in that prison to hold his “people” accountable and keep the peace. He had a long violent record and was, in my opinion, a genuine psychopath."
"Part of the eval is discussing the crime and assessing remorse and whatnot. He was so clinical in his description of how he tortured and left this guy to die over an unpaid debt. “Live by the sword, die by the sword” was his phraseology for the act. Like it was nothing."
"He was also very nonchalant about his ability to “take care of his business” while inside. I believed him. He had only spend 18 months of his last 15 years outside of prison. My recommendation was not to parole him. There were various factors that I gave and in the end the parole board went with my recommendation."
"So the part that actually scared me (this was my first parole eval) was this guys ability to affect the world outside. He could have sent someone to my house if he wanted to. I had no doubt about that. More experienced psychologists told me not to worry about it. That he knew the score and wouldn’t take it personally. I had a hard to buying it."
"I was running a long term offender group a few months later and he was part of it. After the first group I pulled him aside and asked if we were good. He smiled at me and told me not to worry. I did my job and he didn’t blame me for writing what I did because it was true. He went on to be a really insightful and active group member."
3. dirtyberti almost got whacked with a curtain rod.
"I’m a therapist, but not a psychologist if that matters. I used to work in a facility for kids and adolescents with pretty intense behavioral issues. Even when a client was aggressive, I was usually able to de-escalate them and I generally didn’t feel unsafe. In fact, most of the time I was concerned about their safety during outbursts."
"With one exception...I had a client that was pretty strong and prone to intense tantruming. This client was acting in a way that was unsafe (had a plan to seriously hurt another resident I think?) so I had to put them on restriction (within staff eyesight at all times). Their response was to run up to me and attempt to choke me. Luckily the staff got there in time and prevented this kid from seriously hurting me."
"On another occasion, this same client also took apart their curtain rod in their bedroom and swung it at my head (I dodged in time). Oddly enough, this client and I had a pretty good relationship the other 99% of the time and I generally enjoyed working with them."
4. Mike5966 interacted with a man who said he was sent by satan to murder them.
"Once when I was a medical student I was asked to see a patient in the psychiatric unit of the emergency room. I walked in with my short white coat and clipboard and asked the guy what brought him in today and what was wrong. He looked me dead in the eyes with foamy saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth and a strange smell in the air and said “the devil told me to kill you and kill myself.” He was sweaty and his eyes were bloodshot and his wife beater had dark red/brown stains on it."
"The door was behind him and I wasn’t sure I could make it there before something bad happened. No idea if he had a weapon on him. Was afraid of calling loudly for help, I was in a quiet corner of the ER and I felt like I would have had to yell to get attention and I didn’t want to startle him. I stayed there for a half hour and asked him more questions. Slipped out when he started to look sleepy."
5. NadiaLee81 had to deescalate an abuser.
"A few people had unpredictable anger and outbursts that could be scary at times, and once a husband brought a gun to a couples therapy session and threatened to kill himself/wife."
"Luckily we were able to calm the situation down, but things like that can end badly, and you always have to be aware of that possibility when emotions run high."
6. Aesynil worked with a sweet teen who was stronger than they realized.
"A very sweet, mostly blind teenager who was going through his first psychotic break and had a love of martial arts (Taekwondo, if I remember correctly) Like...Was really, really, really good at it. He couldn't see and would practice kicks, and at one point, accidentally kicked one of the reinforced shatter-proof windows in the quiet room (think padded room without the padding). Turns out they were shatter-resistant - He destroyed it with that kick."
"Why those particular details? Because he would practice his kicks EVERYWHERE, was mostly blind, and the one time he flipped up to practice one and I was walking around the corner, it came literal centimeters from my face, and I FELT the impact of it against the air, like a physical force bashing into my face."
"Sweetest kid in the world, he would have been horrified if it had connected, because things would have broken. A lot of things. He also grabbed my arm once in a suddenly firm grasp and asked if I wanted to do taekwondo with him. No. No I did not."
7. FakeBeigeNails met a deeply triggering criminal.
"When i was studying psychology my final year, I had the opportunity to meet with convicted felons. Essentially, I sat down and spoke to a man (in his 30’s-ish?) who was a sexual offender. He told me he used to marry women and then r*pe their young daughters; each was in the range of 6-7 years old. I listened to him explain it, it was literally my instructions not to judge them. I had to sign a waver to not get emotional."
"So I asked him about the home life of those he abused. He'd say that some of the women he married had other children and in one case there was an older sister who was 13, but he would never ever touch her. He'd drop her off at school (where he told me he was never into any of the children he saw) and take her to practice and friends’ house, and while she was gone, he'd go back and r*pe her 6 year old sister."
"He told me that it really isn't always about being attracted to prepubescent girls, it’s about the dominance and power that come with “having s*x” with them. Hes being rehabilitated now though. Weird part was that I wasn't sure if he was acting remorseful, bc if he was...he is amazing at it. He was just very open to my questions and expressed regret and i almost believed him."
"However when i met a man who was convicted of child porn, his “i feel terrible”’s were transparent and so full of shit it was disgusting. My professors warned me about manipulation, so that was easy to catch onto, but with the previous guy? He was either an impeccable liar and manipulator, or he genuinely wanted to get better...crazy.
Edit: grammar mistake/clarity."
8. Eeiwund's student was just looking out for them.
"An 9 year old I used to teach in lock down Special Education mistook my assistants' move towards me as aggressive and attempted to kill her with a desk. I wasn't scared for myself, definitely scared for both the boy (a real sweetheart who just got triggered) and the assistant (total bitch to me and the kids)."
"Everything turned out ok. I hurried the boy off to his therapist and the assistant quit immediately and we went back to a normalish classroom."
9. iamnotsaturn's colleague needed to switch clients.
"Clinical psychologist in training here. I've never been afraid, but my friend had a client once who made her extremely uncomfortable. Without revealing any information that could break confidentiality, I will say that he had issues with masturbating too much (and not doing much else), and at one point asked my friend if they could watch porn together in the next session so he could show her what he does."
"At another time, he talked about his masturbation habits while touching his dick through his pants a bit - totally inappropriate behavior, obviously. This client had lots of other issues, but when these things came up, her supervisor took her off the case because it wasn't suitable for training and my friend didn't feel safe."
10. exclamation11's dad has a litany of stories.
"Not a psych but my dad is a retired forensic one. He's got far too many stories but his first ever murder case decades ago as a noob was a rough one."
"It involved a guy who kept asking this girl out, she made it clear numerous times that she wasn't interested, but the guy wasn't having it and just kept harassing her. Finally, one day he followed her home where he stabbed her parents and the family dog to death. I don't really want to hear about any of his other cases."
"Not a psychologist, but saw a breakdown in my ex that scared me senseless. He had just started meds and the meds reacted HORRIBLY with him for whatever reason. He mostly had hallucinations, but sometimes he’d black out and do activities and not remember them. He would call me screaming at 3 AM and he didn’t remember a SECOND of it. Any of it. He had hallucinations before, but they got increasingly dangerous with these meds."
In particular, I think of one instance. While on the phone during an episode, he said, “I boiled some water.” I asked why, as it was 3 AM, and he replied eerily calmly “they told me I have to stick my hand in here.”
"It was absolutely terrifying. I finally begged him to go to the hospital that following morning to ask for a medication change and he begrudgingly obliged. While he was there, he started throwing up blood and had to get his stomach pumped. Turns out, in one of his black outs, he swallowed his entire bottle of medication."
12. RaysAreBaes's tutor was almost murdered.
"Therapist in training and my tutor, who is a childhood abuse and trauma specialist, tells some horror stories. The one that stood out for this question was a guy in his mid 40s who had lived most of his life with extreme paranoia that his parents were sending people to get information from him to blackmail him with. This guy was extremely unstable and was legally obligated to go to therapy after committing some petty theft because he believed his parents were tracking his money."
"Anyway, he’d been going for about 6 weeks and he began to talk about a plan for the future, he was kind of vague but said he had worked out a way to break free from his childhood and move forward. My tutor was apprehensive but hopeful, he had been making good progress in the previous sessions. Fast forward a week and this guy is back again. He’s noticeably agitated and carrying a large sports bag."
"My tutor remarks that she’s pleased to see him and likes his new bag. He breaks down. He confesses that he has a machete in the bag and had planned to kill everyone from his old life, starting with his therapist, so he could be free from his past but she was very nice and would be hard to kill. My tutor politely excused herself and called the police. The guy was very compliant, he’d pretty much given up at that point but the police confirmed he did indeed have a large machete in his bag and his car was full of bin bags. She said that was the only time she felt she was close to dying and says the moral of the story is to treat all your clients well because you never know who’s plotting your murder."
13. atum_temu got fired for telling the truth.
"I'm not a psychologist, but I have two psych degrees and have been in and out of psychiatric wards since my late teens. For fourteen years I worked with adults with developmental disabilities. So, as you can imagine, I've seen my fair share of frightening behavior. But nothing scared me more than nannying for a five year old boy with autism and a mood disorder."
"He had just been released from the hospital where he had stayed for a month to get acclimated to behavioral meds. But in the short two weeks I nannied for him, I feared for my life. He would kick, bite, scratch, hit, spit, come after me with knives, punch cars, scream loud enough for neighbors to think he was being abused, and destroyed his mother's picture perfect apartment."
"And when I tried to tell his mom that he needed more help than a babysitter could give him, she fired me saying I was wrong and that he just needs someone more attentive. Complete denial."
14. travelingbandits's friend works with experienced murderers.
"Good friend of mine's wife is a psychologist at a well-known prison and sees some seriously fucked up people for a living. Let's just say, Hannibal inspired her to do what she does for a living and she's as close to Clarice as a person can probably get in real life. She is usually briefed on relevant details before she is assigned to a case, this includes court proceedings, testimonies, etc. She's heard recordings of murders and other such disturbing shit. She's tough as nails and I guess she loves psychoanalyzing scary psychos."
"She had to be taken off a case because she was so uneasy, disturbed, and threatened by one of her clients. Apparently this guy was either a serial rapist or murderer (She couldn't give lots of details), but he has a victim profile and she fit it. He started to behave strangely towards her, trying to converse with her and 'get to know her'. He would write her letters and draw her pictures, and attempt to give her tokens and things. All the things he would do to his victims (well, everything possible under the circumstances)."
"She was so upset and disturbed by his special attention that she was even afraid at the grocery store and started to feel uneasy in her home at night. Despite the fact that this guy was locked up in a maximum security prison. She described it like a hunter/prey vibe on a really weird animalistic level."
"She was taken off his case and received counseling. When she told me about it, she was very honest and matter-of-fact; this is a hazard of the job she works. While she may talk about her patients as if they are lab rats, this was one case you could tell really got under her skin and spooked her."
"EDIT
obviously giving tokens and letters is not only creepy but violates the doctor-patient relationship. She would decline very firmly and clearly, and I guess maybe some stuff was intercepted before he had the chance to try and actually give it to her? It's been about 10 years since I heard the story but it stuck with me."
15. collegedropout saw a woman reach inside her own open wound.
"Not a psych but I briefly worked at an inpatient psych hospital and during my training a support code was called because a woman who'd had abdominal surgery had ripped open the wound and stitches and was saying over and over "I can die now, I can die now" as she reached inside of her wound. I lasted only a month, but never felt fear like I did there."
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