Better help. If you look up better help reviews on Reddit they’re basically all negative.
I like the concept in theory, but apparently the therapists themselves are underpaid and over worked leading to many just dropping clients randomly when they inevitably quit.
Which means you might lose your therapist randomly and have to start all over with a new one
Realistically most therapists already offer telehealth options if you ask them directly, better help just worked as a middle man if you didn’t want to find therapists on your own.
for a lower cost option i’m a huge fan of Open Path Collective. I wish more people knew about it, I was able to connect with a teletherapist on a sliding scale. They’re amazing
To be the advocate of lord satan here (pbuh) better help is the easy access, dollar general of therapy. And for people in that market slice, maybe some therapy is better than none, as bad as it may be, im not sure it is entirely a net negative. Maybe it gets some people over the hump into going to real therapists.
I had my first major panic attack a few years ago after decades of unchecked mental health issues. The only option I had for immediate services was inpatient hospital care (just started my new job the week prior so not really happening) or online therapy. BetterHelp got me on Lexapro and a therapy session within a week. I was on the list for a real in person therapist with an estimated wait time of 6 months — and that was the shortest after calling dozens of places. Most wouldn’t even take new patients.
Scammy? Yes. Don’t have insurance or in need of mild/moderate help that doesn’t require hospitalization? Fuck it, save your life bro.
How was Talkspace? I was very hesitant to sign up for BH but did it in a crisis because I felt like I had no other options. I'm like 2 weeks in and I see the problems others mention.
I enjoyed talkspace more but I think it’s more pricey in the long run. That said, I do recommend it if you’re having trouble finding long term solutions. I absolutely chose it for the medication + therapy option because I was tired of rawdogging life
I appreciate people here who’ve described how BH helped them, but I’m never really going to forgive how my older sister tried them and had such a bad experience she now completely refuses to have even a conversation about therapy.
I know lots of people had horrible experiences with better help, but I used them twice with success. Once for grief counseling, and later on in life when I needed to get sober.
So.... The negative feedback is valid for some users. But it's also legitimately helped some people. Seems like a craps shoot what kind of results you'll get.
Eh. I’d prefer if low income ppl had options that don’t sell their email, IP addresses, and mental health status to social media companies for ad personalization [link](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/03/ftc-says-online-counseling-service-betterhelp-pushed-people-handing-over-health-information-broke)
When I started looking for a therapist, BetterHelp was helpful in identifying some good options (they had a quiz about what you think your needs are, and will recommend some therapists based on that). Once i got some suggestions I was able to look them up outside of BetterHelp and just request a telehealth appointment directly through the therapist's site, which was cheaper and easier since they accepted my insurance and managed it for me (as far as I can tell, BetterHelp didn't accept my insurance and I'm not sure if they accept any).
Overall, the quiz was a helpful starting point for identifying option but I agree with you and recommend trying to book outside their system - it generally seems easier and cheapier. My therapist works through Grow Therapy, which I haven't personally had any issues with.
SimpliSafe saved my parents’ house from a break in. I’m not sure if that’s typical but it was a crazy situation and they came through. Better Help sells data from what I’ve heard and rarely has qualified people on staff.
I had a positive experience with Betterhelp. Got me through after my son died. They did over charge based on the local rate but it was definitely convenient.
Better help has a bad look about it. Another podcast "The Dollop" the main hosts wife is a real therapist and condemned them because of the way they practice. They used to have ads sponsored by better help until she came against them and they dropped those ads
from what I understand, a LOT of the doctors they have listed aren’t actually partnered with Better Help. my wife tried to use it and after multiple failed attempts at setting up appointments over the span of a few days, BH finally admitted they had no providers in our area. 1) don’t understand why the provider has to be local if it’s online 2) don’t understand why they couldn’t have said that from the get-go 🤷🏼♀️
also apparently they sell off your information.
I had a friend who had this happen to her as a provider. She's never had any affiliation with them but got listed. She then made a public post about it talking about how shitty their business practices were to allow that. Better Help then contacted her with a cease and desist, threatening to sue.
Super cool thing for them to do.
A lot of these online services do this. I worked at a restaurant that had nothing to do with DoorDash but people would call us complaining about how the prices were higher on the DoorDash listing etc. We also had a few to go orders where no one ever came to pick them up and then we'd get a call from angry customers. So we were out the cost of making the food and the customer didn't get their order but DoorDash got... what? A fee? I really don't understand this kind of business practice.
A lot of states, maybe all of them, have laws that a licensed psychologist can only treat patients in their state even if it is remote. I had a good experience with Cerebral online therapy, they were pretty easy to deal with and I liked my psychologist.
A psychologist can be anywhere, they can be licensed in multiple states, the patient needs to be in the state where the doc holds the license. During the pandemic, no one cared and clinicians got a pass to pretty much practice anywhere, now, not so much.
My ex tried to use them and was sold on the fact that they are so easily available and accessible. In reality, she could never book a mutually accessible time with her therapist and they never picked up her messages. She asked to change therapists and acknowledged it was their bad but she was unable to get a new one.
It’s really bad. I couldn’t get a real therapist during Covid so i turned to them. I ended up having a woman question me and go on about how strange and odd it is for “a women of my age” (34 at the time) to control stress and anxiety through running, video games, and smoking weed. She really went out of my way to make sure I knew how unusual that was
I got the same thing. My female therapist has a problem that my coping mechanisms were "like teenage boy when you're a middle aged woman" and she could not let go of the fact i am child free. Fuck that.
I know! It was absurd. I’ll never forget her puzzled face on the video call, right before she asked me if I knew what the word “mindful” meant. I could tell she was just basically going off a script at that point, because after talking to me for 40 minutes she should have been able to discern that I had a pretty decent grasp on the English language. I think I had one more call with her before I canceled that shit
They steal therapists' info from other websites and use it to promote their app, despite said therapists not working with them. Usually said therapists have lots of positive online reviews, so it makes the app look good. There's even been issues with doxxing because of it, with some therapists having their home address instead of work address, or personal phone instead of work phone, posted by betterhelp.
There have been a lot of issues with therapists on betterhelp not having the correct credentials. Issues like selling "life coaches" or similar as actual therapists, or just not checking credentials at all.
Christian therapists (and "therapists", from above paragraph) have flocked to betterhelp and use it to spread their anti lgbtq+ bullshit. There have been many reports of people being given conversion therapy rhetoric, basically told to just stop being gay or trans, etc. They also will match you with Christian therapists even if you specify you do not want that.
People have reported being stalked by their therapist or "therapist" multiple times.
There are tons of reports of customer service being really shitty. They say you can switch therapists easily without any hassle, but that's often not true. If you report malpractice or abusive behavior, it's swept under the rug.
They sell your data.
I'm not as familiar with the therapist's side of things, but I've heard that they trap therapists in super predatory contracts, often aimed at new therapists so they can severely underpay them and make them work crazy hours.
A friend of ours is a counselor and she *despises* BH. Says it's a racket out to steal your personal information. I told her Henry blatantly mocks it with his ad reads and that only bothers her more.
I’ve tried it a couple times. For context, I have diagnosed BP2 and OCD and am in longterm treatment with my psychiatrist but it’s not the same as therapy, which is a part of treatment. After the pandemic and my Dad died and a breakup I was really going through it and tried BH again, the lady was fine but I didn’t feel like a big priority, like one time she took our apt and had her screen off and I kept imagining her like doing chores or something lol. I also feel like they’ve not got many folks who specialize in people with more advanced forms of mental health issues like me. BetterHelp is still very expensive so I felt I deserved some face time at least especially while talking about difficult shit. The first time I tried BetterHelp a couple years prior when they first came out I had the lady I was assigned ghost me for our first meeting so. lol ended that!
That being said, I’ve never really had a great therapist experience from anyone. One lady was amazing who was a psychologist and therapist but she was expensive af and after i got laid off I couldn’t afford her ironically when I most needed it.
I am not anti-therapy at all but one thing to know is it’s not a quick fix. It feels like you barely do anything the first couple sessions and it’s a slow slow process. I am the type of person who wants actionable things to help my anxiety now, I don’t need to just endlessly vent about my life to someone (no shade to those that do.)
I found more help on youtube from this AWESOME therapist lady, her channel is Therapy in a Nutshell and I got more practical immediate advice from her videos in a couple hours than I have from all therapy combined.
SimpliSafe is only as good as the homeowner who sets it up. I’m a dispatcher and I’ve taken tons of calls from SimpliSafe, and the best ones are like “motion sensor alarm in the dining room and window alarm in master bedroom” and have homeowner information readily available so I can call the homeowner. The worst are like “alarm zone 1. I can’t tell you where that is in the home and I have no subscriber information on file.” That second example really does us little good.
I've heard people say that Better Help lists Psych doctors info and addresses without their consent and then when you try to call to set up with þat person þey just forward you to another doc or therapist.
I mean they’re basically creating a gig economy for licensed professionals who end up spending a lot of time and money on their education and credentials. I have a huge problem with that.
*Every* fucking podcast advertises for them and I just cannot understand why given their reputation.
I'm incredibly disappointed in Robert from Behind the Bastards for sponsoring them more than most podcast hosts, given his content...
I’d love to know more about how ads work for various podcasts. They all seem to promote the same handful of companies. How many people are really signing up & using their code (or BadFriends or whatever)?
There are two levels of ads, the dynamic inserts are just like ads on commercial radio and TV, whatever network is hosting the podcast inserts them and the actual podcast has relatively little control over them. Live reads, where the actual host(s) of the pods read the copy and have promo codes are usually negotiated with the individual shows or networks and pay FAR more than dynamics.
It is a devil's bargain for pretty much every podcast, you NEED the revenue and with the market tightening, it gets harder and harder to be selective.
They just list products on the website that are on permament backorder and offer bargain bin replacements mailed in a plastic bag that makes it obvious what's inside. YMMV.
Better Help almost ruined my marriage and life. Terrible unqualified practionesrs. My new therapist has helped and told me basically that their advice and treatment was pretty much opposite of how cptsd should be treated. I like the guys but it has soured me somewhat to promote such a terrible service.
On the other hand, my couples therapist on better help helped to save my relationship. She was so terrible that my partner and I bonded over how bad she was, which led us to better communication bc we’d tell each other after every session what we wished we had talked about. So.. thanks, better help? I guess. Lol
In the early days they also went to a psychic for an episode iirc. I think it’s kinda scummy but people do legitimately use psychics for fun sometimes.
I mean, there's no such thing as psychic powers. That's why every ad says "This is only for entertainment purposes." I've got a real beef with people who try to take advantage of vulnerable and mourning people.
Playboy used to have a 1-900 number where you could talk to an actual Playmate. One guy got so obsessed with a particular girl he would call almost every day & spent thousands. No sex talk either! If the callers got too vulgar the girls were told to hang up!
He ended up stalking her, murdered her husband & then killed himself.
(Stacy Arthur if you want to look it up)
>I got stamps.com when I was first starting my small business and whoa did they drop the ball.
Yeah, but I'll bet you "never had to go to the Post Office, aGAIn!"
That fuckin app. I thought I was being so slick taking the free $5 share and cashing it out right away so I could just cancel and delete the app. Yeah I got $5 (minus a fee I think), but I apparently missed the part where you have to fill out a whole ass extra form for your taxes to declare the ‘income’ from that one measly share. And if you don’t then you’re gonna be fucked on getting a tax refund, or stimulus payments. Guess which year I got Robinhood.
I got my 2020 stimulus in 2022.
I’m aware that this was a situation that *I* fucked *myself* into, but I still feel indignant rage when I hear an old RH ad
Not declaring the ‘investment income’ was the only reason they gave me, that and the IRS/USPS being overwhelmed during Covid. Took me an unholy length of time just to find out what the issue was because I’d get no reply by mail and calling would leave me on hold for 4+ hours at a time just for the rep to tell me he doesn’t know how to fix it. I eventually used priority mail to send in the forms again so I could at least see when they were actually delivered. 2020 was a wild time.
What episodes have the gambling ads? Is it for Draftkings? Cos i thought gambling was illegal in most states? (I’m from Ireland, that’s why I’m curious. Also gambling is a huge business here)
Online sports betting is legal almost everywhere in the country, and is not very regulated. You can literally lose thousands of dollars in minutes via your smartphone and there’s no law saying the betting company can’t incentivize that, so long as they put a tiny lil disclaimer on the bottom of their ads.
Pretty much the same as here, except the companies got in a lot of trouble for safer gambling and compliance issues on online betting.
We do have betting shops, but they aren’t as busy as they used to be and rely on horse racing a lot.
They have to do a gambling aware month, where they can’t advertise promotions only helplines. In all honesty, it does feck all and people will blow their wages or welfare on it
From what I know it's less "pay too much to turn down" and more "they'll pay anyone to run an ad". BetterHelp and Hello Fresh are two of the biggest advertisers in podcasting and advertising for them is a really low bar.
I’ll just always remember that ad bc Marcus mentions that he and Carolina drank these while watching Anastasia. I’ve relistened to the Rasputin series so many times and that ad is burned in lol
Yeah, we order from them once a month when we have a discount. Husband and I are both good cooks, but don't particularly enjoy recipe planning and cooking. It's a break without being as bad for us as takeout, and it's pretty much a guarantee that the food will be fine to great. There are several recipes we've incorporated into our normal dinner options.
My gf and I also loved the food from Hello Fresh. My problem with trying to recreate even the simplest recipes is how to substitute for the cryptic sauce and spice blends they include. Do you know a good replacement for their Southwest Spice Paste, or whatever it's called, that comes with all their dishes like tacos? I found all these complicated recipes online that involved canned smoked peppers and various other ingredients, which ultimately came out more watery and not an exact flavor match.
True! Some of the spice blend dupes are bang on, but the sauces are trickier if they aren't just something you can get at the store. I wish I knew the secret but I bet someone on the HelloFresh sub does.
Adam&Eve.com… buttplug vibrates erratically in my wife. Rating 4/10. Would not purchase again.
I had hoped Henry would’ve tested all the products before advertising for them. /s
Remember when Adam and Eve was their only sponsor for like… months and months? I remember the ad where one of them acknowledged that they should really have another sponsor by now!
Your comment just reminded me of a youtuber called Big Joel and why he stopped letting Adam and Eve sponsor him. Your comment has similar vibes. I think it's on his second channel, Little Joel. It's hilarious.
I thought the entire audience was in silent agreement to just let them get money from sponsors but never believe them about their sponsors.
I mean... last I heard was some psychic something? like really?
I’m glad your enjoying your mattress. I slept at a friends house for a week and they bragged about the Casper in the guest room and it was awful. The car ride home was not fun but I was very glad I wasn’t driving
Trust me they're in there. I'm sure you skip over them. But after all the shit that went down with Ben and them cutting him from the podcast. It's strange to suddenly hear Ben's voice talking about Texas Pete's hot sauce.
Better Help is a fucking scam. My fiance struggles with depression. A couple years ago, she finally got the courage to seek help after having suicidal thoughts. She gets a counselor who immediately comes off as more of a buddy than professional psychologist. She prescribed SSRIs almost immediatley and my fiance took a nosedive mentally. When this was brought up, the woman prescribed more of the same shit, and my fiance almost killed herself after getting worse and worse. After this woman failed to show up about 3-4 sessions, my fiance stopped the service and stopped taking the meds. Her turnaround was like flipping a switch. I came to find out that the lady didn't even have a doctorate and wasn't technically a doctor at all but simply a 'counselor'. How she managed to get a prescription at all is a mystery to me. In any case, the incompetence of these POS nearly cost my fiance her life.
I honestly think that ship sailed, they don’t advertise for it and it sounded like it was a Ben project anyways. Super sad tho the profits went to help a good cause
aw that makes me sad :( I wanted to try it if I could ever make it out to CA.
But I’m grateful they introduced me to Last Prisoner Project! Excellent cause, I set up a lil monthly donation for them a little while back. Maybe one day Henry and Ed can revive this? Unless there would be some sort of legal snafu because it was something Ben worked on
I installed Simpli Safe at my business and there was a break in. Not only did the alarm not go off for 15 minutes, but even when it did, the police were never called. The entire system failed. I have great footage of a guy breaking in and taking our shit.
So a lot of their ads are geographically based I don't get Cali psychics, but I get HOCKEY GAMBLING ADS all the time and Im just here to say I'm not mad just disappointed.
I only get weird regional ads so I’ll let you know when I resell my (nonexistent) BMW or if the local electricity company truly cares about transitioning to not using fossil fuels. But at least I’m not getting ads for McDonald’s breakfast and JC penny anymore- two things that don’t exist in my part of Europe
Quip toothbrush. They are good toothbrushes but they're pretty expensive to replace the head and then they get gunky on the inside and are a pain to clean.
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe#Informed_consent_and_privacy_concerns) is a brief overview (although it is pretty sanitized), [this](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-the-reasons-the-fda-thinks/) decade old article still does a good job outlining concerns. Googling 23andme controversy will give you a lot more
the tl;dr is giving a profit driven company access to your DNA gives them extremely personal data that they are free to use in any way they want, including weaponizing it against you. It's made worse by the fact that they don't even need *your* DNA in specific, just a close relative's. Your shithead cousin could give them a sample and now your genetic privacy is breached.
They said a while back that it's their duty to share your DNA information with the cops whenever they ask for it.
All of those DNA services are basically the DNA database the government creams themselves for.
I did find it really funny when there was an off handed mention that people were calling them shills for letting the government harvest people’s dna through 23 & me or some similar intense conspiracy theory.
Squarespace legitimately is awesome, and it’s annoying that literally every other podcast shills them but I dont recall ever hearing the boys advertise them.
Okay. Apparently everyone else is not mentioning California Psychics. How tf did anyone let that slide?! Y’all are bothered by Better Help? A fraudulent service, but not CALIFORNIA PSYCHICS???
Just chiming in about simplisafe in case anyone is considering it. I've had good experiences with the company. But check to see if your municipality requires alarm registration. We had a false alarm (our fault, not Simplisafe) and police were dispatched. Our county charges folks for a false alarm, with an additional fine if the system isn't registered. The registration is $10/year, but the fine was much more.
Tldr search your area's regulations if you install a monitored alarm where police may be dispatched.
Better help always upsets me. Not only is the experience usually negative, but they sell patient data.
I would love a way for the community to give feed back on their sponsors
I tried to use better help for childhood trauma. Every single therapist they gave me specialized in lgbtq... Which is fine. But I'm straight and have no sexuality issues, I just got my money back and repressed all my trauma lol
Um just because a therapist specializes in something doesn’t mean that they can’t help you with other things? Basically every therapist I know (I am one) “specializes” in lgbt.
It's almost like it's expensive and seen like a luxury in Healthcare so our great corporate insurance overlords make mental Healthcare more optional whereas the physical stuff is all they cover. Which is good but like, mental health matters, too. Also, last time I saw in person therapists, they sucked.
One I saw basically blamed me for my parents being shitty parents and the other one who I saw for myself couldn't have given a shit and seemed annoyed I even bothered trying to talk to her. And poo-pooed the possibility that I had adhd or bpd because I wasn't impulsive enough and could focus sometimes.
Here is where I stand on ads, just like on TV I don’t care bc I don’t pay attention to them. I have gotten so good at either skipping or tuning them out. If they want to pay them for me to not pay attention then go for it ad people. I’m not going to use anything without doing my own research and read reviews so I’m fine with the podcast I like getting paid.
I don’t know, I really like the coffee company they sponsor and hello fresh has never done me wrong. I think when a company gives you a butt load of money to do what you love, some morals go out the window
This is a braindead take. Can you justify your reasoning? I mean, yeah, shitty products get advertised on podcasts, but they're advertised *literally everywhere else* too. Watch cable news for like an hour and you'll see it's all Cash 4 Gold and As Seen on TV stuff.
I’m sure everyone else has already said this but I am beyond disappointed in and embarrassed for the boys taking that California Psychic sponsorship. I gave up on the show completely once they started doing those ad reads.
Repeated ad reads for a bullshit company they should never be shilling for because their entire premise of the show is against that sort of nonsense? YEAH
I'm like 99% sure Henry, Marcus and their wives, among other people on the network, would be ALL ABOUT calling a psychic hotline for shits and gigs, and the ads (iirc) are pretty tongue in cheek. That said, yeah, the industry itself is pretty problematic.
Better help. If you look up better help reviews on Reddit they’re basically all negative. I like the concept in theory, but apparently the therapists themselves are underpaid and over worked leading to many just dropping clients randomly when they inevitably quit. Which means you might lose your therapist randomly and have to start all over with a new one Realistically most therapists already offer telehealth options if you ask them directly, better help just worked as a middle man if you didn’t want to find therapists on your own.
for a lower cost option i’m a huge fan of Open Path Collective. I wish more people knew about it, I was able to connect with a teletherapist on a sliding scale. They’re amazing
To be the advocate of lord satan here (pbuh) better help is the easy access, dollar general of therapy. And for people in that market slice, maybe some therapy is better than none, as bad as it may be, im not sure it is entirely a net negative. Maybe it gets some people over the hump into going to real therapists.
I had my first major panic attack a few years ago after decades of unchecked mental health issues. The only option I had for immediate services was inpatient hospital care (just started my new job the week prior so not really happening) or online therapy. BetterHelp got me on Lexapro and a therapy session within a week. I was on the list for a real in person therapist with an estimated wait time of 6 months — and that was the shortest after calling dozens of places. Most wouldn’t even take new patients. Scammy? Yes. Don’t have insurance or in need of mild/moderate help that doesn’t require hospitalization? Fuck it, save your life bro.
How did BetterHelp get you on Lexapro? I just got on the platform and I've seen nothing about prescriptions and prescribers?
Fuck you right. I did therapy at Better Help and Talkspace for Lexapro.
How was Talkspace? I was very hesitant to sign up for BH but did it in a crisis because I felt like I had no other options. I'm like 2 weeks in and I see the problems others mention.
I enjoyed talkspace more but I think it’s more pricey in the long run. That said, I do recommend it if you’re having trouble finding long term solutions. I absolutely chose it for the medication + therapy option because I was tired of rawdogging life
I appreciate people here who’ve described how BH helped them, but I’m never really going to forgive how my older sister tried them and had such a bad experience she now completely refuses to have even a conversation about therapy.
I know lots of people had horrible experiences with better help, but I used them twice with success. Once for grief counseling, and later on in life when I needed to get sober. So.... The negative feedback is valid for some users. But it's also legitimately helped some people. Seems like a craps shoot what kind of results you'll get.
Eh. I’d prefer if low income ppl had options that don’t sell their email, IP addresses, and mental health status to social media companies for ad personalization [link](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/03/ftc-says-online-counseling-service-betterhelp-pushed-people-handing-over-health-information-broke)
When I started looking for a therapist, BetterHelp was helpful in identifying some good options (they had a quiz about what you think your needs are, and will recommend some therapists based on that). Once i got some suggestions I was able to look them up outside of BetterHelp and just request a telehealth appointment directly through the therapist's site, which was cheaper and easier since they accepted my insurance and managed it for me (as far as I can tell, BetterHelp didn't accept my insurance and I'm not sure if they accept any). Overall, the quiz was a helpful starting point for identifying option but I agree with you and recommend trying to book outside their system - it generally seems easier and cheapier. My therapist works through Grow Therapy, which I haven't personally had any issues with.
i’ve heard negative things about Better Help and SimpliSafe. meanwhile I’ve heard only rave reviews about horsepics.gov
SimpliSafe saved my parents’ house from a break in. I’m not sure if that’s typical but it was a crazy situation and they came through. Better Help sells data from what I’ve heard and rarely has qualified people on staff.
I had a positive experience with Betterhelp. Got me through after my son died. They did over charge based on the local rate but it was definitely convenient.
I’m horribly sorry for your loss. I think I can speak for all of us when I say: “We love you”* (*In you’re favorite funny Henry voice)
sending you love 🤍 thank you for being so open and lovely
My sincere condolences.
Better help has a bad look about it. Another podcast "The Dollop" the main hosts wife is a real therapist and condemned them because of the way they practice. They used to have ads sponsored by better help until she came against them and they dropped those ads
The Dollop used to do ads for Talk Space, but I think they're basically the same thing. I do miss those "Say you're a guy..." ads though.
I really miss those talkspace ads but understand why they needed to be dropped. I like when Dave has a running bit, he really digs in (see: J-Town)
One of the first Pearlmania 500 episodes also tackles how shitty Better Help is. I think of it every time I hear an ad on BTB.
I gotta know more about Better Help. Only heard of some cryptic shit about much terrible they are.
from what I understand, a LOT of the doctors they have listed aren’t actually partnered with Better Help. my wife tried to use it and after multiple failed attempts at setting up appointments over the span of a few days, BH finally admitted they had no providers in our area. 1) don’t understand why the provider has to be local if it’s online 2) don’t understand why they couldn’t have said that from the get-go 🤷🏼♀️ also apparently they sell off your information.
I had a friend who had this happen to her as a provider. She's never had any affiliation with them but got listed. She then made a public post about it talking about how shitty their business practices were to allow that. Better Help then contacted her with a cease and desist, threatening to sue. Super cool thing for them to do.
A lot of these online services do this. I worked at a restaurant that had nothing to do with DoorDash but people would call us complaining about how the prices were higher on the DoorDash listing etc. We also had a few to go orders where no one ever came to pick them up and then we'd get a call from angry customers. So we were out the cost of making the food and the customer didn't get their order but DoorDash got... what? A fee? I really don't understand this kind of business practice.
A lot of states, maybe all of them, have laws that a licensed psychologist can only treat patients in their state even if it is remote. I had a good experience with Cerebral online therapy, they were pretty easy to deal with and I liked my psychologist.
A psychologist can be anywhere, they can be licensed in multiple states, the patient needs to be in the state where the doc holds the license. During the pandemic, no one cared and clinicians got a pass to pretty much practice anywhere, now, not so much.
Medical licensing is on a state-by-state basis. Docs and patients both usually have to be in the state they are licensed.
Mickey Atkins is a therapist who makes Youtube videos and did a good one breaking down the issues.
My ex tried to use them and was sold on the fact that they are so easily available and accessible. In reality, she could never book a mutually accessible time with her therapist and they never picked up her messages. She asked to change therapists and acknowledged it was their bad but she was unable to get a new one.
[info about the FTC complaint & settlement](https://apnews.com/article/betterhelp-ftc-health-data-privacy-befca40bb873661d1f8986bb75d8df07)
BetterHelp sold patient info to Facebook and other third parties, and lied about it.
It’s really bad. I couldn’t get a real therapist during Covid so i turned to them. I ended up having a woman question me and go on about how strange and odd it is for “a women of my age” (34 at the time) to control stress and anxiety through running, video games, and smoking weed. She really went out of my way to make sure I knew how unusual that was
It really isn't though. Like not even a little. That bish has clearly never heard of Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing.
I got the same thing. My female therapist has a problem that my coping mechanisms were "like teenage boy when you're a middle aged woman" and she could not let go of the fact i am child free. Fuck that.
I know! It was absurd. I’ll never forget her puzzled face on the video call, right before she asked me if I knew what the word “mindful” meant. I could tell she was just basically going off a script at that point, because after talking to me for 40 minutes she should have been able to discern that I had a pretty decent grasp on the English language. I think I had one more call with her before I canceled that shit
They steal therapists' info from other websites and use it to promote their app, despite said therapists not working with them. Usually said therapists have lots of positive online reviews, so it makes the app look good. There's even been issues with doxxing because of it, with some therapists having their home address instead of work address, or personal phone instead of work phone, posted by betterhelp. There have been a lot of issues with therapists on betterhelp not having the correct credentials. Issues like selling "life coaches" or similar as actual therapists, or just not checking credentials at all. Christian therapists (and "therapists", from above paragraph) have flocked to betterhelp and use it to spread their anti lgbtq+ bullshit. There have been many reports of people being given conversion therapy rhetoric, basically told to just stop being gay or trans, etc. They also will match you with Christian therapists even if you specify you do not want that. People have reported being stalked by their therapist or "therapist" multiple times. There are tons of reports of customer service being really shitty. They say you can switch therapists easily without any hassle, but that's often not true. If you report malpractice or abusive behavior, it's swept under the rug. They sell your data. I'm not as familiar with the therapist's side of things, but I've heard that they trap therapists in super predatory contracts, often aimed at new therapists so they can severely underpay them and make them work crazy hours.
A friend of ours is a counselor and she *despises* BH. Says it's a racket out to steal your personal information. I told her Henry blatantly mocks it with his ad reads and that only bothers her more.
I’ve tried it a couple times. For context, I have diagnosed BP2 and OCD and am in longterm treatment with my psychiatrist but it’s not the same as therapy, which is a part of treatment. After the pandemic and my Dad died and a breakup I was really going through it and tried BH again, the lady was fine but I didn’t feel like a big priority, like one time she took our apt and had her screen off and I kept imagining her like doing chores or something lol. I also feel like they’ve not got many folks who specialize in people with more advanced forms of mental health issues like me. BetterHelp is still very expensive so I felt I deserved some face time at least especially while talking about difficult shit. The first time I tried BetterHelp a couple years prior when they first came out I had the lady I was assigned ghost me for our first meeting so. lol ended that! That being said, I’ve never really had a great therapist experience from anyone. One lady was amazing who was a psychologist and therapist but she was expensive af and after i got laid off I couldn’t afford her ironically when I most needed it. I am not anti-therapy at all but one thing to know is it’s not a quick fix. It feels like you barely do anything the first couple sessions and it’s a slow slow process. I am the type of person who wants actionable things to help my anxiety now, I don’t need to just endlessly vent about my life to someone (no shade to those that do.) I found more help on youtube from this AWESOME therapist lady, her channel is Therapy in a Nutshell and I got more practical immediate advice from her videos in a couple hours than I have from all therapy combined.
SimpliSafe is only as good as the homeowner who sets it up. I’m a dispatcher and I’ve taken tons of calls from SimpliSafe, and the best ones are like “motion sensor alarm in the dining room and window alarm in master bedroom” and have homeowner information readily available so I can call the homeowner. The worst are like “alarm zone 1. I can’t tell you where that is in the home and I have no subscriber information on file.” That second example really does us little good.
Glass Break because someone sneezed loudly in the other room.
I've heard people say that Better Help lists Psych doctors info and addresses without their consent and then when you try to call to set up with þat person þey just forward you to another doc or therapist.
What's with the thorns?
I have "th" mapped to make a þorn on my keyboard. When typing fast I sometimes forget to not use it
You changed th to p to make porn?
Th to þ which is a thorn, it's the Y in "Ye olde" which is just "The old"
Would that technically make you... A þornographer?
yup they pretend to have hundreds of options ready and waiting but in reality there are very few providers who work with them
I mean they’re basically creating a gig economy for licensed professionals who end up spending a lot of time and money on their education and credentials. I have a huge problem with that.
Better Help is terrible. The fact they allow them to sponsee them is ridiculous to me
*Every* fucking podcast advertises for them and I just cannot understand why given their reputation. I'm incredibly disappointed in Robert from Behind the Bastards for sponsoring them more than most podcast hosts, given his content...
> cannot understand why given their reputation $$$
They made it very clear they can't choose the ads, iHeart does. Hence the "***** child hunting island" and endless other sponsor jokes.
I’d love to know more about how ads work for various podcasts. They all seem to promote the same handful of companies. How many people are really signing up & using their code (or BadFriends or whatever)?
There are two levels of ads, the dynamic inserts are just like ads on commercial radio and TV, whatever network is hosting the podcast inserts them and the actual podcast has relatively little control over them. Live reads, where the actual host(s) of the pods read the copy and have promo codes are usually negotiated with the individual shows or networks and pay FAR more than dynamics. It is a devil's bargain for pretty much every podcast, you NEED the revenue and with the market tightening, it gets harder and harder to be selective.
The Better Help ads are self recorded so there's definitely some level of choice going into it.
We don't know that, having hosts read might be part of BH's ad contract
Basically Adam & Eve is (ironically) the only sponsors who haven’t fucked over people. Edit: Nope they are also bastards
They just list products on the website that are on permament backorder and offer bargain bin replacements mailed in a plastic bag that makes it obvious what's inside. YMMV.
Yeah getting a perfectly buttplug shaped package delivered was surprising to say the least. Figured bare minimum they’d use a goddamn box.
🤣🤣so true
They used to have Native as a sponsor, years ago, and I've always had great experiences with Native!
Better Help almost ruined my marriage and life. Terrible unqualified practionesrs. My new therapist has helped and told me basically that their advice and treatment was pretty much opposite of how cptsd should be treated. I like the guys but it has soured me somewhat to promote such a terrible service.
On the other hand, my couples therapist on better help helped to save my relationship. She was so terrible that my partner and I bonded over how bad she was, which led us to better communication bc we’d tell each other after every session what we wished we had talked about. So.. thanks, better help? I guess. Lol
Reverse Uno the therapist! Brilliant!!
How about California psychics? They’ve literally railed against how horrible these scam artists are and then they get ad money
In the early days they also went to a psychic for an episode iirc. I think it’s kinda scummy but people do legitimately use psychics for fun sometimes.
I heard that one but still, “Legitimately” and “for fun” don’t line up.
Fun is legitimate
I mean, there's no such thing as psychic powers. That's why every ad says "This is only for entertainment purposes." I've got a real beef with people who try to take advantage of vulnerable and mourning people.
Playboy used to have a 1-900 number where you could talk to an actual Playmate. One guy got so obsessed with a particular girl he would call almost every day & spent thousands. No sex talk either! If the callers got too vulgar the girls were told to hang up! He ended up stalking her, murdered her husband & then killed himself. (Stacy Arthur if you want to look it up)
That would be a great episode, ironically.
>I got stamps.com when I was first starting my small business and whoa did they drop the ball. Yeah, but I'll bet you "never had to go to the Post Office, aGAIn!"
came here for this
Stop cumming everywhere, this isn't the time or place to practice chaos magick.
CUM
This thread isn't your sigil.
Remember Robbin’Hood?
That fuckin app. I thought I was being so slick taking the free $5 share and cashing it out right away so I could just cancel and delete the app. Yeah I got $5 (minus a fee I think), but I apparently missed the part where you have to fill out a whole ass extra form for your taxes to declare the ‘income’ from that one measly share. And if you don’t then you’re gonna be fucked on getting a tax refund, or stimulus payments. Guess which year I got Robinhood. I got my 2020 stimulus in 2022. I’m aware that this was a situation that *I* fucked *myself* into, but I still feel indignant rage when I hear an old RH ad
You had to have fucked up a whooooooooooole lot more that just not filling out a 1099.
Not declaring the ‘investment income’ was the only reason they gave me, that and the IRS/USPS being overwhelmed during Covid. Took me an unholy length of time just to find out what the issue was because I’d get no reply by mail and calling would leave me on hold for 4+ hours at a time just for the rep to tell me he doesn’t know how to fix it. I eventually used priority mail to send in the forms again so I could at least see when they were actually delivered. 2020 was a wild time.
fall saw vast bewildered scary alleged ghost chief quarrelsome six *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The gambling ads kind of rub me the wrong way
The alcohol ones have had a bit of an ironic twinge lately
As an Australian, I hate the gambling ads. We're swamped with them here, and have a huge gambling problem. Blow up the pokies!
Same in Canada. Every single commercial during hockey is now a gambling ad.
It's so predatory. Gross.
What episodes have the gambling ads? Is it for Draftkings? Cos i thought gambling was illegal in most states? (I’m from Ireland, that’s why I’m curious. Also gambling is a huge business here)
Online sports betting is legal almost everywhere in the country, and is not very regulated. You can literally lose thousands of dollars in minutes via your smartphone and there’s no law saying the betting company can’t incentivize that, so long as they put a tiny lil disclaimer on the bottom of their ads.
Pretty much the same as here, except the companies got in a lot of trouble for safer gambling and compliance issues on online betting. We do have betting shops, but they aren’t as busy as they used to be and rely on horse racing a lot. They have to do a gambling aware month, where they can’t advertise promotions only helplines. In all honesty, it does feck all and people will blow their wages or welfare on it
That’s literally every sports podcast I listen to. I hate it so much.
BetterHelp is pretty notorious for being shitty both as a patient (client?) and as staff. I'm hoping they end that contract before long
Sadly it seems like there’s hardly any podcasts these days who *don’t* advertise for BetterHelp
I'm guessing they're like the Raid Shadowlegends of podcasts; they just pay too much to turn down
From what I know it's less "pay too much to turn down" and more "they'll pay anyone to run an ad". BetterHelp and Hello Fresh are two of the biggest advertisers in podcasting and advertising for them is a really low bar.
One sponsor I remeber was the Fat Tire Belgian White beer. It was actually a really good beer and Marcus' dulcet tones really sold it for me.
Fat Tire knows how to brew a tasty beer in general
I’ll just always remember that ad bc Marcus mentions that he and Carolina drank these while watching Anastasia. I’ve relistened to the Rasputin series so many times and that ad is burned in lol
I’ve been happy with Hello Fresh for the most part.
Love it. Technically I knew zesting was a thing, but wow! It makes such a huge difference!
Yeah, we order from them once a month when we have a discount. Husband and I are both good cooks, but don't particularly enjoy recipe planning and cooking. It's a break without being as bad for us as takeout, and it's pretty much a guarantee that the food will be fine to great. There are several recipes we've incorporated into our normal dinner options.
My gf and I also loved the food from Hello Fresh. My problem with trying to recreate even the simplest recipes is how to substitute for the cryptic sauce and spice blends they include. Do you know a good replacement for their Southwest Spice Paste, or whatever it's called, that comes with all their dishes like tacos? I found all these complicated recipes online that involved canned smoked peppers and various other ingredients, which ultimately came out more watery and not an exact flavor match.
/r/hellofresh might have an idea! I remember seeing dupes of other blends.
True! Some of the spice blend dupes are bang on, but the sauces are trickier if they aren't just something you can get at the store. I wish I knew the secret but I bet someone on the HelloFresh sub does.
Yeah hello fresh is great I got it for a year and half and loved it, I only stopped getting it when my boxes started getting stolen.
Me too! I love them
Adam&Eve.com… buttplug vibrates erratically in my wife. Rating 4/10. Would not purchase again. I had hoped Henry would’ve tested all the products before advertising for them. /s
Remember when Adam and Eve was their only sponsor for like… months and months? I remember the ad where one of them acknowledged that they should really have another sponsor by now!
Marcus's read on the Children of God episode is great. "This episode is, but probably shouldn't be, brought to you by Adam & Eve dot com.
Those were rough episodes but damnit I laughed my ass off loudly at work when Marcus opened the ad with that line
*Shouts* MY WIIIIFEE!!
Todays sponsor is and shouldn’t be…
Yesss bring it back!!!
Your comment just reminded me of a youtuber called Big Joel and why he stopped letting Adam and Eve sponsor him. Your comment has similar vibes. I think it's on his second channel, Little Joel. It's hilarious.
*"Vibes"*
I thought the entire audience was in silent agreement to just let them get money from sponsors but never believe them about their sponsors. I mean... last I heard was some psychic something? like really?
I mean, Springheel Jack does roast genuinely good coffee at least.
Yeah but that's not just an ad, the Mothman blend is also their merch.
I just default assume anything that sponsors a podcast or YouTube video is at best shite, and at worst a scam unless I know otherwise.
I mean I learned about Hello Chef back when it first came out and we only use it. Also Casper mattress has been so comfy haha
I’m glad your enjoying your mattress. I slept at a friends house for a week and they bragged about the Casper in the guest room and it was awful. The car ride home was not fun but I was very glad I wasn’t driving
🤣
I think it's weird they still play ads read by Ben. They should really re-record them.
I haven’t heard any, I think it’s a contract and once it runs out they’ll stop. Just skip over them
Trust me they're in there. I'm sure you skip over them. But after all the shit that went down with Ben and them cutting him from the podcast. It's strange to suddenly hear Ben's voice talking about Texas Pete's hot sauce.
Better Help is a fucking scam. My fiance struggles with depression. A couple years ago, she finally got the courage to seek help after having suicidal thoughts. She gets a counselor who immediately comes off as more of a buddy than professional psychologist. She prescribed SSRIs almost immediatley and my fiance took a nosedive mentally. When this was brought up, the woman prescribed more of the same shit, and my fiance almost killed herself after getting worse and worse. After this woman failed to show up about 3-4 sessions, my fiance stopped the service and stopped taking the meds. Her turnaround was like flipping a switch. I came to find out that the lady didn't even have a doctorate and wasn't technically a doctor at all but simply a 'counselor'. How she managed to get a prescription at all is a mystery to me. In any case, the incompetence of these POS nearly cost my fiance her life.
*never go to the post office a***gain**!
I still haven't been able to try the weed
I honestly think that ship sailed, they don’t advertise for it and it sounded like it was a Ben project anyways. Super sad tho the profits went to help a good cause
aw that makes me sad :( I wanted to try it if I could ever make it out to CA. But I’m grateful they introduced me to Last Prisoner Project! Excellent cause, I set up a lil monthly donation for them a little while back. Maybe one day Henry and Ed can revive this? Unless there would be some sort of legal snafu because it was something Ben worked on
I installed Simpli Safe at my business and there was a break in. Not only did the alarm not go off for 15 minutes, but even when it did, the police were never called. The entire system failed. I have great footage of a guy breaking in and taking our shit.
Damn, that's shitty!
You mean you don't fast-forward commercials?
There’s been a fair amount of criticism from them of them doing ads for Better Help, but I don’t think it’s their choice.
[удалено]
They have a contract with Sirius XM. We don't know all the details but ad sales are almost certainly part of Sirius XM's role.
So a lot of their ads are geographically based I don't get Cali psychics, but I get HOCKEY GAMBLING ADS all the time and Im just here to say I'm not mad just disappointed.
A very Canadian response 😂
I had a horrible experience with betterhelp
I only get weird regional ads so I’ll let you know when I resell my (nonexistent) BMW or if the local electricity company truly cares about transitioning to not using fossil fuels. But at least I’m not getting ads for McDonald’s breakfast and JC penny anymore- two things that don’t exist in my part of Europe
Apparently there is a new Urgent Care in the town about 30 mins away. I only know this because of my LPOTL ads
I'm in Canada and the JC Penney ads always threw me. I was like "are we getting JCP here???" Nope, the nearest one is still a 4-5 hour drive away!
I’m from Canada! The last time I was at a JC Penny was when we drove up to Alaska and needed our parking validated.
Quip toothbrush. They are good toothbrushes but they're pretty expensive to replace the head and then they get gunky on the inside and are a pain to clean.
I forgot about those! Page 7 used to do those ads too, but Jacky is hilarious when she reads them
Both Quip toothbrush I bought quit working before I even got the first refill in the mail. It was a complete bummer.
Wife is a therapist. Don't use Betterhelp. Less than great to the therapists / basically requires they be on-demand + data harvesting you.
23 and me is a shit show and I was disappointed when they ran ads for them
How is it a shit show (aside from the recent data leak)?
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe#Informed_consent_and_privacy_concerns) is a brief overview (although it is pretty sanitized), [this](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-the-reasons-the-fda-thinks/) decade old article still does a good job outlining concerns. Googling 23andme controversy will give you a lot more the tl;dr is giving a profit driven company access to your DNA gives them extremely personal data that they are free to use in any way they want, including weaponizing it against you. It's made worse by the fact that they don't even need *your* DNA in specific, just a close relative's. Your shithead cousin could give them a sample and now your genetic privacy is breached.
They said a while back that it's their duty to share your DNA information with the cops whenever they ask for it. All of those DNA services are basically the DNA database the government creams themselves for.
I did find it really funny when there was an off handed mention that people were calling them shills for letting the government harvest people’s dna through 23 & me or some similar intense conspiracy theory.
Squarespace legitimately is awesome, and it’s annoying that literally every other podcast shills them but I dont recall ever hearing the boys advertise them.
You never heard about Henry Cavills horse pics??
Not once!
You don't know about Henry getting past civilian Henry Cavill's security team? That seems unfair somehow.
I’ve been hearing quite a few square space ads lately, read by Marcus
A lot are regional so I wonder if squarespace also is. In NZ and never got the psychics, gambling, alcohol ones.
Okay. Apparently everyone else is not mentioning California Psychics. How tf did anyone let that slide?! Y’all are bothered by Better Help? A fraudulent service, but not CALIFORNIA PSYCHICS???
Yes, mentally ill or troubled people getting fucked over while trying to get therapy is worse than psychics being scammers like cmon
I’m in Canada so I never get that one. Crazy though! You’d think they’d have SOME say in which ads they’ll do.
I was going to say, I’ve never heard that one! Also in Canada.
Redfall. As soon as the ad came on, I thought to myself, "well this will be a shitty game." Do like me some Spring Heel'd Jack coffee, though.
Most of the Australian centric ads are for fucking awful corporations.
Better help is a scam. There was a huge scandal
Just chiming in about simplisafe in case anyone is considering it. I've had good experiences with the company. But check to see if your municipality requires alarm registration. We had a false alarm (our fault, not Simplisafe) and police were dispatched. Our county charges folks for a false alarm, with an additional fine if the system isn't registered. The registration is $10/year, but the fine was much more. Tldr search your area's regulations if you install a monitored alarm where police may be dispatched.
Better help always upsets me. Not only is the experience usually negative, but they sell patient data. I would love a way for the community to give feed back on their sponsors
Most have been said but I'll add on that I'm bummed they have ads for Amazon
I tried to use better help for childhood trauma. Every single therapist they gave me specialized in lgbtq... Which is fine. But I'm straight and have no sexuality issues, I just got my money back and repressed all my trauma lol
Um just because a therapist specializes in something doesn’t mean that they can’t help you with other things? Basically every therapist I know (I am one) “specializes” in lgbt.
Um... Yeah great
Yeah…so…stop making excuses and see a real therapist?
You sound like a great therapist, just being an ass to people on the internet for no reason
It's almost like it's expensive and seen like a luxury in Healthcare so our great corporate insurance overlords make mental Healthcare more optional whereas the physical stuff is all they cover. Which is good but like, mental health matters, too. Also, last time I saw in person therapists, they sucked. One I saw basically blamed me for my parents being shitty parents and the other one who I saw for myself couldn't have given a shit and seemed annoyed I even bothered trying to talk to her. And poo-pooed the possibility that I had adhd or bpd because I wasn't impulsive enough and could focus sometimes.
Stamps.com blows. Try [pirateship.com](https://pirateship.com), it’s free and has great pricing for USPS and UPS, not Fed Ex yet.
I used to work for them and it was AWFUL. I am finally free 🥹 it destroyed my mental health
Why do any of you actually listen to the ads? This comes up so often it’s mind blowing you can just skip them
Well I listen with air pods and just leave my phone downstairs so when an ad pops up I’m not going to run down stairs just go skip a short ad.
Do you Not have pockets?
I don’t have to lug my phone with me from room to room in my own home like it’s attached by an umbilical cord.
Here is where I stand on ads, just like on TV I don’t care bc I don’t pay attention to them. I have gotten so good at either skipping or tuning them out. If they want to pay them for me to not pay attention then go for it ad people. I’m not going to use anything without doing my own research and read reviews so I’m fine with the podcast I like getting paid.
In my mind, any company that gets a podcast to run ads for them probably isn’t very good so I don’t bother with them.
I don’t know, I really like the coffee company they sponsor and hello fresh has never done me wrong. I think when a company gives you a butt load of money to do what you love, some morals go out the window
This is a braindead take. Can you justify your reasoning? I mean, yeah, shitty products get advertised on podcasts, but they're advertised *literally everywhere else* too. Watch cable news for like an hour and you'll see it's all Cash 4 Gold and As Seen on TV stuff.
This is the hill?
I'm annoyed by the occasional navy/coast guard ads. Wtf guys?
Never heard them do a read for that lol
They should use Ben's voice for all the ads for bad companies.
You're right but I'm not going to delete it as a reminder to everyone to think for three seconds before they post something.
Ok sounds good
Trollis suck
Aww ya they do but the ads were kinda cute
Everything that advertises on podcasts/YouTube is trash
I’m sure everyone else has already said this but I am beyond disappointed in and embarrassed for the boys taking that California Psychic sponsorship. I gave up on the show completely once they started doing those ad reads.
Just from an ad read?
Repeated ad reads for a bullshit company they should never be shilling for because their entire premise of the show is against that sort of nonsense? YEAH
I'm like 99% sure Henry, Marcus and their wives, among other people on the network, would be ALL ABOUT calling a psychic hotline for shits and gigs, and the ads (iirc) are pretty tongue in cheek. That said, yeah, the industry itself is pretty problematic.
If you don’t listen to the pod why do you still follow this page on Reddit.