Obviously a lot of people here hide a lot of information. What is keeping you all from extreme stress considering the possibility that a government is spying on your actions despite strict privacy practices? Considering my current situation and my extreme threat model it feels like the privacy walls around me are closing in. I’m very paranoid. I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet. Every knock on my door and phone call feels like the police. I don’t talk with others about what I do and I’m always hiding my internet activity from others. Any thoughts would be helpful
Hypothetically, if you were the most wanted man alive you would still go to a therapist and confess all your crimes as long as it is off camera and not a HIPAA violation?
Aren’t therapists mandatory reporters?
It depends. In the US I think it varies by state. And it’s only for big things like murder or child sexual abuse.
If you say “yeah I stole a piece of candy once” that’s not worth reporting. If you say “decades ago I touched a minor inappropriately” they probably won’t pursue it. If you say “yesterday I killed my neighbor and his family” yeah they’re gonna fucking bolt from that room and call 911 as fast as they fucking can.
I don’t know, it might depend on the crime. I believe that clergy get a higher level of privilege than therapists. You can literally confess a murder to a priest and they aren’t allowed to (and won’t) tell anyone.
Famously, in the 1970s, Daniel Ellsberg stayed out of jail after it emerged that Nixon’s fixers had broken into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to get his case files. These days they would just break into a computer.
Recently in the US, a murder suspect’s father told a priest, who tipped off the FBI, leading to the arrest.
IDK how it works exactly, maybe the secrecy only counts when you confess your own sins, not someone else’s. I’m sure there is theological doctrine one way or the other.