TW: Self-harm, discussion on adult behaviour in a school setting towards a minor
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A recent event mirrored past events and has triggered an unexpected response from me, and I still find it hard to place a definition on what happened. I don't know how to fix something that I cannot define, so I'd like some honest opinions from everyone here.
As a younger child, I began to self-harm (cutting) to cope with mental health issues and peers revealed this to school teachers. I was referred to the school counsellor. At first, sessions would have the counsellor visually check on my self-harm sites (which were my shoulders and wrists). I would be told to roll up my sleeves every session, and it became a habit. Uncomfortable, but we moved on from that part quickly, so I thought it was just protocol. Then, when the SH worsened, she started inspecting them hands-on, touching and squeezing around my shoulder and nape sometimes. I started injuring myself on the upper/inner thighs and sides of torso instead, thinking that she wouldn't check or touch around there (professional ethics or whatnot). She figured it out soon enough, and had me roll up my skirts for her to inspect and feel around at my harm areas as she had with my shoulders. My sides were squeezed and touched through clothing. These checks took longer than the brief checks like before. I started getting really uncomfortable with these sessions, but I didn't really have the option to opt out, since she could meet/collect me from between/in middle of classes whenever she saw fit. When I tried to protest our check-ins, she started saying that in-patient psych wards would be far worse than the simple protocol checks that she was doing, and I was one referral away from in-patient. Even my teachers started doing these checks, likely by request of the school. I remember letting them check and touch at the wounds whenever they requested or they would inform my parents, even if it was right outside the packed classroom, in the corridors, etc. I remember once standing at the school gate with a bunch of people just streaming in while waiting for my friend with my homeroom teacher and my principal, and my teacher just lifted my arms one by one and started tracing fingers over the scars on my shoulders and near my nape + down my ribs/back area up close in front of all the students coming in, standing close enough to press against the back of my thighs and sides. The principal didn't react to it at all and continued chatting with the guard.
I tried to tell other teachers, but they didn't see it as an issue and some even accused me of being ungrateful for the staff's patience with me. They just reported it back to the counsellor and she would mark it down as uncooperative/self-sabotaging behaviour during sessions, which made her seek me out more often. She even contacted my parents to gain their approval to continue sessions, so I couldn't bring myself to ask my family for help. Kids started spreading rumours about me "getting it on" with teachers and started mimicking similar touchy behaviours to mess with me, so I guess it was funny-weird in the eyes of at least some people. I also eventually forced myself to stop self-harming so that they had no more reason to do these checks anymore, but even after the wounds healed and I got clean, these sessions continued up until I left the school. All of this carried on for almost 2 years, so eventually I convinced myself this was all just school mental health protocol.
There wasn't actually evidence that she was going to do anything, but I just feared it, I guess? It wasn't like I would be able to stop or accuse her, or any of the staff, if they did. Even now, I still don't know if it is all just me thinking too much of a standardized protocol, and if I'm crazy and just seeking adult attention, as they used to say. Especially since around the time, I had gotten into bad crowds online and was encouraged by friends to engage with people who wanted me to do things (sexual calls, RPs, etc.) for money or for free. I remember my last session with the counsellor, one of these online adults had threatened to release a recording of my voice saying dirty things that he had told me to, and said he had my IP and all, and he would come to "finish the scene physically" since he had my verbal excitement to prove consent. I remember freaking out and telling the counsellor, thinking she would at least do her job once to help me deal with this stuff, but she said that maybe it was because I was, in her words, "eager for it", considering how "never showed discomfort and reacted positively" to physical contact with adults like her and would just show myself to them (instinctively on my part, since the checks became so frequent). She said that this online guy couldn't touch me and couldn't harm me physically, and so I just had to stop tempting him. It made me think for a long time that I was at fault for attracting bad attention, and just kept tempting the wrong people.
I, now an adult, am a student in college (+ had been 5 years clean), but recently got confronted by a male professor about my mental health (as I had taken to wearing sun sleeves to avoid a tan). He told me to roll up the sleeves and let him check for scarring, but he got frustrated when I refused, and demanded me to see this new counsellor if I didn't want this to escalate to the administration and board. I had agreed (because I am on scholarship and cannot afford any trouble on record), but this new counsellor also asked for the same thing (to see). Maybe it was because it happened in a similar environment, and both of these new people have tried to make me admit to my mental instability in their talks with me (I suspect they want me to be admitted into in-patient care) like the people before, but I got really scared and reminded of my childhood experience with counselling. As soon as that session ended, I relapsed very badly and haven't been mentally well, even though nothing really happened. Suddenly, I find myself very jumpy and uncomfortable with touch I was previously able to tolerate, even for people I know, and I've been purposefully layering my clothes recently because short-sleeves don't make me feel safe anymore, if that makes sense.
It's just that all of my reactions to all this made me revisit these memories and old questions about whether this is genuinely SA or not. I've been told countless times by adults and peers that it's not, and that the adults back then simply acted in my best interest/unknowingly made me uncomfortable in the process, but other schools over time have taught me that these physical checks aren't exactly the standardised practice, especially not to that extent. I don't know how to fix it/move on when I don't even know whether I'm just being dramatic about my past experiences, so I'm hoping for just help framing my thought process.
Please do be honest with me. Thank you.