Like many geek feminists, I’ve been worn down, burned out, and generally fucked up by this thing we’re doing. I’ve been in and out of therapy for years, trying to manage anxiety, depression, and all the rest, and I’ve been talking to a lot of others who have too.

Every time I’ve been to see a new therapist, I’ve had to spend multiple sessions bringing them up to speed on all the stuff we know: that the tech industry and geek culture are majority-male, misogynist, and bad for our mental health; and that this is part of our daily lives that we can’t escape from by just getting off the Internet.

At WisCon, a few of us got together and decided to draft a document that we could share with therapists and other mental health professionals, to give them an overview of the situation and cut through some of the most common unhelpful suggestions. I’ve spent the last few days filling it in with detailed information, and I’d consider it a more or less complete resource at this point.

You can find it here, on the Geek Feminism Wiki: Resources for Therapists.

Hopefully, this will save you a session or two of going over it all in exhausting detail, and give your therapist the information they need to start helping you.

In future, we’d love to put together a list of therapists who are already hip to this stuff. We’ve also been talking — albeit in much vaguer future terms — about a support fund for geek feminists who need help with legal, medical, or other expenses (including mental health expenses) as a result of discrimination/harassment/abuse in the geek community. What do you think?