can therapists lie if the truth would be unbearable to their client? on the very first session, my therapist asked me how i'd feel if it turned out that i only have traits of a disorder but not an actual mental disorder. i replied i wouldn't believe her. that was three years ago, but validity of my OCD and struggles in general is a huge theme for me and when she first diagnosed me with GAD and SAD after a few months, i had a major, three days long episode where i genuinely felt like i was forcefully locked inside my brain and forced to run in loops, because i had gone to her specifically because i knew i had something more than just anxiety. i kept searching and checking to prove that it couldn't be just that. it was an incredibly painful loop. now im paranoid that she has only diagnosed me with OCD because of this. im worried that she might be saying it only to make me happy, because if she said otherwise i would stop collaborating and simply quit therapy. what if she's only playing along so i won't be upset? it seems very realistic because she's always vague and rarely uses clinical terms, even if she knows that i know enough about psychology to understand her if she did use them.

Giving you a diagnosis she doesn’t genuinely believe you have would be unethical and could get her disbarred from practicing. She cannot “lie” to you about your diagnosis. And the worries you elaborate here are highly indicative of OCD rumination. Perhaps you can talk with her about this paranoia and even address it with some ERP? People with OCD often doubt the validity of their diagnosis, and it can even become the center of our obsessions.

@pureolife is right. Fear of not actually having OCD is a common symptom of OCD. But let’s consider something for a second. Take someone who has OCD 100% for sure, and send them to 100 therapists for a diagnosis. In all likelihood, not all 100 therapists will agree with the OCD Diagnosis. That means that a number of therapists gave a false diagnosis. 1 therapist’s diagnosis doesn’t define you.

Although a diagnosis is helpful, it is just a diagnosis, just words that can help you figure out what interventions you need. So if ERP or ACT is helpful then that’s great. But I relate because when I saw a new psychiatrist, he didn’t seem convinced about my OCD probably because I didn’t share a lot because I wasn’t sure if I felt comfortable

thank you both for answering. rather than a "fake" diagnosis (in my country private psychologists don't give out any documents that certify your diagnosis, they only tell you during sessions), im scared that she's being vague on purpose by telling me that i have "an obsessive profile", "obsessive-compulsive mechanisms", "a primarily obsessive and anxious disorder with comorbidity", "these are traits of OCD", instead of just saying clearly "you have OCD", and uses all these vague expressions that hint at just traits to avoid saying "you don't really have full blown OCD". sorry, i should have made this more clear in the post. her vagueness with words drives me insane and im scared of asking her something like "can you repeat to me exactly what's the diagnosis" because not only it's reassurance seeking so she probably wouldn't do it, but also i would hurt her feelings because it would seem like i doubt her abilities. she said that exposure worked for some of my past themes (harm mostly, which is more under my control now), but not this one because it's really so deeply rooted in me, and every exposure attempt ended really, really badly (i have some self harm compulsions). CBT didn't work either so we're gonna try ACT as well.