#fuck you betterhelp

[wooshofficial]

I’m so viscerally upset about how youtube sponsorships these days are coming from actively malicious and harmful companies. Just this week I saw a sponsorship from betterhelp (which has a history of selling patient information) and Opera GX (unsure about GX, but Opera has a history of selling info). Last month I saw a sponsor from Temu (don’t fucking get me started on them) from a YouTuber with a audience of mostly teenagers. I understand YouTubers need to make money and part of that is sponsorship based but just maybe there should be some consideration and research put into the company before accepting the wad of cash and telling people to use malicious software or services. Especially betterhelp. Being sponsored by betterhelp is downright cruel.

#woosh quotes themself #rant #idk why this makes me so angry but it does #well actually I know why with betterhelp. it’s because they KNOW their audience is a vulnerable group and they take advantage of that #Anthony Padilla is a big offender of this considering his interviews are sponsored by betterhelp #when he’s talking to marginalized people. and then tells the audience who are most likely similar to the interviewee #to give their info up to a company that is known for selling it to malicious buyers #and not actually helping #its just. if you have any respect for your audience just fucking say no #you make enough money as is. you don’t need more

[gorepill]

still pissed at youtuber Jamiedodger for accepting a fucking BetterHelp sponsorship when we all literally found out BH are pieces of shit YEARS ago. Like I don't care, if a youtuber accepts that sponsor I'm straight up just never fucking watching them again. Just say "I hate the mentally ill" and that's a lot more respectable I promise.

#saw his fucking name on my dash and I got so fucking pissed #i was like a year ago too. like we all knew BH was shit for MULTIPLE years and despite that ''nahhhhh i want moneey XD'' #''i also want to pretend to give a shit'' fuck you and anybody else who takes a betterhelp sponsorship #you're all worth a single particle of feraal dog shit

[tinkkles]

One of my least favorite things about the current state of the Internet is how ppl have become conditioned to the idea that entertainment should always be free and that it is somehow malicious and greedy for an independent creator to directly ask their audience to pay for a product that they work full time to create instead of relying on unpredictable and unstable income from a nebulous advertiser market that is actively dying

#like i get being bummed or sad if you can not afford it. but trying to do something sustainable does not mean greedy/evil. #like people calling watchr villains/sellouts is like. my dudes we have all been freeloading. off of fucking GOOGLE are you kidding? #how is cutting out 16 middle men that ultimately fund shit like betterhelp worse than just saying hey can yall pay us for this actually #like i hope they can figure out regional models and a path for some content to remain free but like. please chill out #i am just sick of people jumping to the absolute most alarmist and worst-faith interpretation of every announcement ever #idk how anyone can create shit on the internet these days. like mentally

[scarletanpan]

It's not my place to be saying this which is why I'm hiding it on tumblr.com but it's been kind of bothering me how multiple big commentary ytbers I used to follow haven't said anything abt Gaza in the past months. Like from what I've seen not even a community post of support or anything(except Chad Chad). Like I know I'm just a viewer and I shouldn't expect things but all I can think about is how they get millions of views every video, just a couple of hours worth of streaming or adding a fundraiser to a video could probably generate thousands to donate, and they definitely have fanbases who would willingly participate. Idk if they talk abt it on twitter but I wouldn't go all the way there to see a ytbers opinion I just wished it felt like more people cared. Especially because these are the same people who tend to have strong moral opinions abt situations like this

#text #i say 'used to follow' bc most of these ppl have sponsorships i dont like and ive since stopped watching them #also betterhelp is literally working with israel to give free therapy to ppl. if i see you promoting that shit dont look in my direction #its just a little disappointing. ik theyre their own ppl but damn not a peep from any of them? it just feels weird #i wanna give grace but if i had the pull of millions of ppl i would be fundraising like fucking crazy and donating a bunch myself #i donated a little but literally cant afford anything else rn bc im out of a job. i wish i could do more and idk why they arent doing more #it feels mean to be critical but theres a genocide i just couldnt keep making funny lil videos in good faith w/o doing something

[tubbytarchia]

Sigh. I love Kendall Rae's true crime content, but, lmao. She said in 2020 that she knows what an awful service "betterhelp" is and not at all suitable for someone in need of therapy etc, and she sold out just a week ago. Promoted them, and for what? Girl has millions of subscribers and gets very good views. Girl you HAVE money?? I'm so fucking disappointed, this is unbelievable. Every youtuber ever just ends up shilling out or being some god awful person

#The only youtubers I can trust are jacksepticeye and markiplier I swear to god #I cannot begin to express how disappointed I am #kendall why you were such a genuine and nice youtuber #fucking damn it #if she's so supportive of victims and their families then she might as well suggest betterhelp to them lmao #see how that goes

[harrowharkwife]

mm nothing quite like notes app journaling some shit that makes you feel like the worst most embarrassing most pathetic stupidest saddest little wretch of a person to have ever walked this earth, deleting it, and going to bed at 7:30pm

#personal don't rb #in other news I've reached out to like fifteen therapists and the only one that replied #turned out to be some sort of super shady Christian missionary betterhelp type shit posing as a regular therapist on psychologytoday #so. no fucking thank you #but im gonna need an actual therapist to get back to me stat bc. #I'm starting to get that feeling again that i get sometimes where it feels like I'm on the precipice of losing or fucking up #every single meaningful relationship in my life #and uh. it sucks and i feel like shit. so. goodnight everyone today was a fucking wash we'll try again tomorrow ig

[rainbowtvz]

lol. lmao even.

#betterhelp #pride counseling #when my therapist on the second one told me it was owned by betterhelp i felt lead in my gut lol #anyway dont use their services they are scamming you and selling ur info and now lying about it #a lot of their therapists arent even licensed and the legit ones are severely underpaid #mine told me that she works with multiple of their sites to make a living wage its fucking bozo #btw the reason i signed up for pride counseling is legit because they hid their 'operated by betterhelp' disclaimer VERY WELL #i had NO IDEA

[fafnirvt]

something that breaks my heart online is that it feels like people treat mental illness in general like a quirky personality trait and sometimes an excuse for being an asshole instead of treating it as what it is... an illness. that can be grueling and near debilitating a lot of the time.

i know treatment is inaccessible to a lot of people/hard to find, but group therapy can be an option. or if that doesn't sound like something you wanna try literally just look up "free mental healthcare in my area" and you might be able to find some options to at least get started.

bottom line: i'm kinda tired of my mental illness being sensationalized, and i feel like more people should be advocating for healing than showing off. i know it's at least nice to feel like you're not alone, but we should all be trying to get better together.

#it makes me feel like i'm wrong for wanting to get better or not being able to make jokes about it. #because it's hard to live with and it fucking sucks. #i'm afraid it turns a lot of people off from looking for treatment because that's how i was feeling about it for a while. #i know some illnesses are literally incurable but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make it easier to live with. #not advocating for betterhelp or other online services because i don't really have any personal experience. #and i heard betterhelp is fucking awful.

[inkskinned]

so while i was writing the book, i became violently suicidal.

this was mostly due to the fact that i had a very bad reaction to some meds and my brain stopped producing any serotonin. also i was in the last semester of grad school where it's actually illegal to feel anything but dread. so it wasn't going well.

somewhere in the fog of it i became aware i needed help. nobody was taking clients or my insurance. i didn't want to do inpatient care - it wasn't right for my needs. there's not really an "in between" stage between "inpatient" and "no care," but i was trying to do the right thing. i was trying to activate the chain of command that was my emergency plan. i knew i needed help now.

i used betterhelp.

i know, i know. i'm a straight-A student and so smart and so clever, how could i ever use something so blatantly bad. to be honest with you, i didn't feel particularly keen on it from the getgo - things that seem too good to be true usually are. also, if something online is free, the price is usually your privacy.

the thing is that there was kind of a global pandemic happening at the time and i worked 5 jobs alongside of being a fulltime student and also like writing a book on the side. it is a miracle that i even thought about getting help. i would love to tell you i had the mental wherewithal to like, process whether this was the right choice for me. mostly i was desperate. i was so suicidal that i was trying to find a reason to stay inside of fortune cookies. i was the kind of suicidal that looks like splatterpaint. i hadn't been that bad in an entire decade.

they took my data. i gave them it freely. somewhere out there, they have a dossier on me. on everything i survived. my story in little datapoints, scattergraphed beautifully.

the first woman told me that really i should be grateful, because (and this is a direct quote): "at least you're not anne frank." i said that i felt that statement was antisemitic, as anne frank's life and experience shouldn't be compared to like, a nonbinary lesbian in western massachusetts. the therapist said that i should try to use lucid dreaming to try to picture myself in an actually scary situation, like running from nazis.

i applied for another therapist. i was willing to accept the possibility that there was a bad apple in the bunch. the next therapist and i even laughed about how inappropriate that statement was. and then, in our next session: the new therapist said if i was struggling with body image issues, i should just work harder on my appearance. she spent 3 sessions in a row talking about how she was grieving, and made me memorize facts about her grandmother so "she can live on through my clients."

i am a three's-a-charm kind of person. okay, so what if the last person made me uncomfortable. i figured it was just a misunderstanding of priorities - she had felt she was sharing with me, i had felt like i had to take care of her. i applied for another therapist.

the last woman asked me to help her pray. she bowed her head. i stared at her, frozen, while she said: lord, i beg you: cure her. take the pain of being gay away from her.

i spent somewhere between 2.5 and 3 months on betterhelp. in that whole time, i was not getting the professional help i so desperately needed, even though i was fucking trying.

in the end, i survived this because i finally could get off the meds that were literally killing me. a request for a real therapist finally went through. i survived because my friends saved my life. because nick let me sob myself dry in his arms. because maddie took the razors out of my room when i asked them to. because grace slept over in my bed for like 3 weeks in a row since nobody trusted me not to hurt myself when i was alone. i survived because i got fucking lucky. because even when i was desperately suicidal, i was too old and too self-aware to take "you need to be prettier" as good advice.

the thing is that there's a 19 year old me who isn't like that. who would have heard "just think about how grateful you should be" and said - oh, i see. i would have assumed that is what it means to be in therapy: the same thing my abusers used to tell me. that i am just pretending and lazy. that i am ugly and unworthy.

betterhelp positioned itself to take advantage of an incredibly vulnerable community. it preys on desperation. it knows it is serving people who are not doing well mentally. it saw that there is a huge need for real, immediate, compassionate mental health care: and then it fucking takes your money and privacy.

i still get their ads on instagram. last night i watched as a woman in a pool pretends to talk to a different woman. they discuss her anxiety.

there's a 19 year old version of me, and she didn't survive this. she was too tired, and drowning. i almost fucking died. this thing almost fucking killed me.

in the ad, the woman playing the therapist takes a note on a clipboard and then nods once, sagely.

i have to admit it's a pretty scene. the steam and light coming off the pool water lands on the actresses. like this, it almost looks baptismal, holy.

#writeblr #the book.... #coming soon #hey so if ur someone who has ever said “you need to write a book” #i wrote the book #it's ... probably the best thing ive ever written #this is maybe too honest lol #okay to reblog thank you for asking i love u i am in love with u our wedding will be in may

[wooshofficial]

Everyone say FUCK YOU BETTERHELP

#woosh quotes themself #angy angy mad angy #betterhelp #GODDAMN PREDATORY ASS COMPANY. ILLEGAL MOTHERFUCKERS WITH DISGUSTING METHODOLOGY #FUCK YOU BETTERHELP STOP SPONSORING NEURODIVERGENT YOUTUBERS WHO DESPERATELY NEED HELP

[eggcats]

"people are mad that that artists wanted to be paid" no, people are mad that they HAD places of revenue they could have invested in and instead decided to fuck everyone over and piss off their fans who have been there since the buzzfeed days

(+ the only reason they're now saying they're not pulling content is BECAUSE of the backlash, and this isn't even going into how any growth is now impossible if it's their own platform, they are NOT big enough or produce enough content for this)

like, apparently they have a patreon? have never heard of it. absolutely no advertisement on it, when PLENTY of people would subscribe if they plugged it at ALL (like, fans love bts content, early episodes, extra/uncut stuff, having their names be credited at the end, a discord, etc) but I've never heard of it, and according to people who have subscribed, they didn't find it worth their money (not an ideal baseline for their own service)

they have merch? make more and better quality/nicer designs (or just fun quotes! so much of my stuff from their buzzfeed days is just shane quotes, but the only stuff I've bought from them now is their jackets and the professor doll, nothing else. I've looked at their catalog, it's ugly. put a funny quote on a shirt and I'll buy it guys, it's not that hard)

a youtube membership for similar stuff to the patreon, yt livestreams, USE THE PLATFORM YOURE ON MAYBE???

explicitly asking fans to turn off adblock for them on their videos

but, like, I am absolutely not paying $60 just for like 1-2 shows that only get like 4 episodes a year. they do NOT have the content for this on their own (and why tf do they have 25+ employees???? bro what) - not to mention, the inaccessibility the new platform and ability for non US based fans to even subscribe

people watch bc of the dynamic between Shane and Ryan, some of my favorite episodes are ones where we get the random text on screen- nothing fancy

tbh I get what they want but it's been my opinion that too much of their stuff that I watch has become a) formuliac and b) overproduced without much to show (imo mystery files comes to mind, it's Fine but I only enjoyed the banter vs all the unnecessary visuals, the same with ghost files)

I've seen people mention how expensive just the ghost hunting stuff is, and like yeah, maybe stop buying that big fancy brandname equipment without and instead ask for sponsors to advertise your stuff, all that stuff is nonsense anyway so it's not like you're lying about like betterhelp or something

and idk, maybe having a show where you apparently eat gold and caviar isn't the best if you're struggling with money (esp bc who watches it? not me)

what they need is someone who actually knows anything as their ceo, having less than half the staff they do, and investing in the avenues they already have with SOME pay walled content (not all), and maybe learn how to actually produce their shows without bleeding themselves dry bc the fans watch for THEM not the "production value"

#watcher #watcher entertainment #listen guys this is the dumbest thing you could have done #long post #ive just seen a lot of 'you guys just dont want to pay artists' bro i was ALREADY giving them money and supporting them #this is NOT how to do that this is how to shoot your fanbase dead #also like many people cant afford this now? especially when its an exorbitant amount for almost nothing

[bioethicists]

hm i really hope that someone has said this better than me but the betterhelp ads (specifically the video ones, as the podcast ones tend to be less scripted) are such poignant examples of alienation + the role of 'go to therapy' in perpetuating that alienation. keep in mind that, if you personally found a therapist who is genuinely healing for you + that therapist happens to be through betterhelp- i'm genuinely happy for you + that experience does not invalidate anything i have to say below! (but jsyk they're trying to sell your shit to facebook lol)

starting strong w/ the fact that betterhelp is essentially the uber of therapy (aka using an independent contractor model which is harmful + predatory towards its providers), rushing in to fill the market on largely uninsured and/or uninformed ppl who want the ease of a concierge system without the cost + lacks a meaningful supervision system (which led to one gay man being recommended a conversion therapist when he asked for someone to help with his identity struggles, btw!). smarter people than me have written about the ways in which these trendy independent contractor apps strip people of labor rights, fail to provide adequate wages, + in the case of healthcare apps, increase digital surveillance + decrease accountability demanded from providers while exploiting the failure of the US healthcare system in order to churn a profit w/o actually creating sustainable, equitable change.

the betterhelp video ads all circle around a theme- a millennial starts talking about some form of emotional pain or worry, usually relatively standard existential worries ("do you ever think nothing has meaning?") or life worries ("i hate my job" "i think i'm gay"). their friends or the ppl around them respond blankly + coldly, looking at them like they're crazy. while i understand these ads are supposed to be tongue in cheek, they demonstrate the crushing reality of our alienation from one another- the solution to your friends responding to your evident pain with confusion + apathy is to confine that pain to a therapy session! nobody wants to hear your struggles or understands them- come generate profits for us by facetiming a newly graduated 24 year old who can barely make rent!

this theme fits well with what already put me off about betterhelp's marketing- their goal has never been to provide access to therapy for those who want it or to altruistically fill in some healthcare gap. their goal, bolstered by the rise in emotional suffering following, you know, the worldwide pandemic, is to generate + increase demand for therapy as a commodity. their earlier podcast ads focused on convincing others that therapy "isn't just for crazy ppl" + "everyone should be in therapy". regardless of if you personally agree with that statement, it should be evident that this is a blatant marketing tactic in which therapy is a commodity to be peddled, not an offer of support or healing. in fact, they're probably actively shying away from treating "crazy people", bcuz their flimsy support systems could not possibly handle an influx of ppl regularly in crisis or experiencing breaks with a common reality. their target audience is your average millennial under late capitalism + post COVID - anxious, lonely, vaguely depressed, unhappy with their jobs, worried + hopeless about their futures.

i'm not here to tell anyone not to get therapy. that's a personal decision + is none of my fucking business. it's about questioning the total alienation we feel from one another, such that pouring our heart our unexpectedly to a friend + being met with a blank stare is framed as "haha you need therapy" + not "it's crushing that this is how distant we are from one another". it's about a company noticing that (unfortunately very real) distance + fear of vulnerability + using that to direct our emotions into the confines of a business transaction under abusive labor conditions. it's about a world in which we are not engaging with one another emotionally (despite, or i guess bcuz of: widespread suffering, recent mass death, class warfare/untenable working conditions, increased pressure of fascist politics, generational trauma + abuse, etc etc). commodifying therapy isn't going to make that loneliness go away- it's going to normalize it.

#anti psychiatry #smh i write all these on the toilet then my wife is like charlie it's been a fucking hour

[incorrectghostfiles]

Listen I know folks are very mad but let me be very honest - based off of how much Watcher is basing its website around the Dropout model, the comparisons to Netflix are ridiculous. If Watcher stayed on YouTube, they would not be able to expand their show range or stay independent, and I am frankly mind boggled that people are more willing to get BetterHelp and its predatory ass practices hawked to them then pay a coffee a month for Watcher

I think it's mostly the fact that everything will be behind a pay wall (six bucks for a handful of videos is not cheap), rather than use patreon (which can be highly successful, if done correctly). Six bucks is what you pay for a big assortment of videos. They could have done it differently (like tiers: 3 bucks for the videos, 5 bucks for 10% off merch & the debriefs, 10 bucks for a monthly goodie & exclusive extra videos etc, to name one idea).

As for BetterHelp (fuck BetterHelp, all my friends hate BetterHelp), there are other sponsors they could get.

No idea if I worded all of this right, but I hope it explains just why people are so upset with it.

#shane madej #ryan bergara #watcher #ghost files #steven lim #ghoul boys

[oliviawebsite]

at the point where i click off youtube vids if they drop a betterhelp sponsor or some shit like that. you gotta stop letting money overtake morals like that you are shilling a very evil company that just wants to harvest your data by taking advantage of a vulnerable and under-assisted demographic. fuck off.

[olderthannetfic]

Normally I'm not the biggest asshole about youtubers doing ads for sponsors. That said, if you're someone who talks mental health, especially for queer youth, and you do an ad for Betterhelp... you're a fucking disgrace. Literally, it's not hard to find out the shit they do with your information, especially information from queer people.

--

There are several ubiquitous sponsors, including them at the top of the list, Hello Fresh, etc., that youtubers should be embarrassed to team up with.

[monstraduplicia]

my only thought is like. I do not engage with media with the thought that "oh, i wish real life was like this" like when i watch horror movies, I'm not sitting there wishing some dude with an axe was chasing me irl. the same goes for films/books with incest? like I truly cannot understand why all these people think reading or watching anything with incest even the most black and white good victim bad predator happy ending narrative means you want that? and honestly who even cares if you do. speaking as someone who has trauma and yknow. has empathy for other abuse survivors, the victims feelings towards their abuser is nuanced! some people want to fuck their abusers. some people love their abusers. some people have no idea they were abused, it just happened. its not all hate fear disgust. it's EVERYTHING. trauma literally warps your entire worldview. it is insidious and hard to battle, especially when its your own family that hurts you. survivors already have enough shame without the world yelling at them for daring to seek out media that has personal meaning to them, that reflects how they feel. the same ppl telling "incest fans" to kill themselves are the same ppl who demand every movie and tv show have 50 tenderqueer characters that talk like a betterhelp ad for representation! okay well where is the representation for "bad victims" and traumatized freaks

#txt #this is poorly worded but i dont care im tired im so tired