If you missed the dumpster fire that has been happening to Therapist Twitter in the last 3-4 days, I'm happy for you. Your life is less stressful for it, tbh. Whether you've seen it or not, I have thoughts, some personal and some general, that you may take or leave. 1/

Therapists are people. Most of us joined twitter before or at the very least separate from our careers. I joined this bird app back in 2009 because 19yo me wanted to follow Taylor Swift and meet fellow Wild hockey fans. Unless we're a branded account (and most of us aren't), 2/

we talk about our jobs here like anyone talks about their jobs (because they interest us and are a big part of our lives) but for some reason we are often expected to answer for any/all harms or issues in our entire field, even in our personal space. 3/

I follow a fellow hockey fan who works for an internet provider. I do not seek a statement from him every time I'm pissed at C*mcast (and let's be honest, I'm pissed at C*mcast a LOT). Because our relationship isn't professional. He's just a dude who likes my hockey team. 4/

I also think the expectations that we never joke around, or admit to being tired, or admit to being human, are unfair. We work in a profession where we're held to a higher standard, yes. But this is personal space and a higher standard doesn't mean we can't have personalities. 5/

In the past few months, I've seen therapy twitter blow up with "it's unprofessional to drink beverages in session," I've been accused of being unprofessional and trashing my job by saying I'm tired (on my day off, no less!), a therapist friend was targeted by a pile-on of 6/

harassment bc she made an innocuous joke (that was clarified as such several times), another therapist friend was called unprofessional for swearing, and I'm sure there are more I'm not remembering or didn't see. It's exhausting. That's not being "held to a higher standard." 7/

That's being expected to live up to an idea you've created of us in your head based on what we do for our day job, and it isn't okay. And what's worse, when these things happen, people threaten our professional lives, threaten to "report" us, threaten doxxing, etc. 8/

I've been doxxed before, and when it happened it resulted in someone finding my car on campus and writing "Die, Cunt" on my dirty windshield. I was a student, and an intern, so it was a year of learning. Lesson learned, don't take safety for granted. 9/

So while things like "don't threaten to doxx people or report them for nonissues" or "don't encourage targeted harassment" or "don't screenshot and defame people" should be basic social media concepts, I'd like to encourage a re-up of these concepts and also add- allow people 10/

to be human, allow people to set boundaries around their personal social media presence without finding workarounds or engaging in harassment by proxy, and if you're only following us to wait for opportunities to jump on us for things,maybe don't? It's tedious and exhausting. 11/

And it makes this bird app feel more anxiety-inducing than it's worth for all of us. All I'm asking is you try to think about us the same way you'd think about anyone else on here - humans who just want to exist and engage in community, without being punching bags. 12/

Lastly as my own boundary, I'm not going to get into any aggressive back-and-forths on this, for my own wellbeing, because I have about ten thousand things more important to me than twitter drama to deal with. I'm thankful to all the lovely supportive folks here who I know 13/

have my back and who know I have theirs. Y'all are my MVPs, even when the world's on fire. In conclusion, my final thought is some very important advice: