How do you "feel" about Psychotherapy
In today's world everyone wants their problems solved, but does Psychotherapy play a role in Natural Healing? The ultimate aim of Psychology and Psychotherapy is for the patient to heal themselves from within without the use of drugs or artificial means. (Please do not confuse Psychology with Psychiatry; they are not the same. Psychiatrists use drug modalities whereas Psychologists do not prescribe drugs - just so everyone knows the difference between the two.) Has anyone been helped by Psychology, ie: through "Talk Therapy, Group Therapy, etc; or does anyone feel that they have been hurt by either Psychology or Psychiatry? Keep in mind the difference between the two types of practices. Has anyone been helped psychologically by natural healing techniques, supplements or other natural healing techniques?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by TimG on -
Was there anything that you found useful in the "Group Therapy" sessions?
What worked (for me) was the co-ed environment. Enjoying the commaderie of the different sexes and getting different viewpoints from them personally enabled me to "shift viewpoints" to see other sides and not just my own.
I can't really say that "group" was all that beneficial, although there was one fellow (a neighborhood bully) who used to beat up gays. Came to find out in group that he once engaged in oral sex with another guy. So what I did learn there was that if someone protests too much, there's probably something hiding behind the protest.
"Do you remember what approach they used to get to the problems that caused people to become addicted?"
Please keep in mind that this was over 25 years ago. It was a Christian program (the Christian God as a "higher power"), and I think the basic premise was AA's 12-Step Program. Group was one of those steps where you admitted what you did as violations of your basic mores.
"Also, what "life-style" changes worked for you?"
There were several factors in my own personal recovery, the prime being removal from the environment that was (for lack of a better word) psychotic. How I was living was insane and the people I associated with were no better. The decision to leave or I was going to die was the major turning point.
The second was a safe environment in which I could recover. There were NO drugs of any kind (excluding drugs for a physical condition, such as asthma). No alcohol. No physical violence. That it was Christian made little difference. It could've been Buddhist and I would've done just as well. The simple fact that it was SAFE made all the difference in the world.
Next was nutrition. Meals were homecooked, three squares daily. By this community's standards it would be piss-poor, but having consistent meals contributed to the overall physical health.
Lastly would be consistency. Routine. Prediction. These were the stable actions done at a certain time every day. Doing the dishes. Cleaning the house. Sweeping. Washing the floors. Dusting. Laundry.
It wasn't all routine; we would go ice skating, go to parks or even camping trips.
These lifestyle changes I kept (which brought me to "normal") and expanded on. I get out of town and go to the lake every weekend (weather permitting). I enjoy sailing, canoeing, swimming, nature walks... or simply basking in the sun.
"Three squares homecooked" took a deep dive in my 30's, but have since learned about natural health and went back to cooking... but at a higher plateau of quality.
I live in a safe neighborhood and know all my neighbors, either side of me, across the street and behind me.
So far as what I learned at the recovery home? Being the only "survivor" from my group, I have long ago thrown away the philosophies taught during that period.
But I will say this: I will be forever grateful to them for the safe environment, friendship with others, nutritional benefits and stability. Those, above everything else they had to offer, lead me to begin a new life.
And that's the long version. haha
-
Permalink Reply by Terrie on
-
Hey Tim:
I am so glad that you were able to turn things around for yourself. It just re-inforces what I believe about the individual healing themselves. But I also think that you are right about the feelings of security. When we feel secure we can begin to heal, and heal much faster.
Back when I did therapy I eventually threw away most of the Freud and Jung stuff and went into the "Reality Therapy" mode. Basically it simple - a person has a problem and they realize they have a problem, so what are THEY going to do about it. If the support is there, the life-style changes are embraced (just like you did) and the person wants to change - they will change. I do think though there there are many psychological problems, as opposed to emotional ones, that are caused by brain/body chemical problems, ie: the body and the brain is not getting what it needs in order to sustain itself under optimum conditions. I personally think that the onset of Bi-Polar disorder is just such a situation, perhaps with a trigger event that finally puts the patient over the edge of the cliff. If caught soon enough and the proper nutrition is brought to bear, I think that many people who experience mental illnesses could be "cured." One that occurs then the life-style changes and spiritual aspects can be used to augment a self-fulfilling and happy life.
I am so glad that you were successful and can now share your experiences for the benefit of others.
Do you think that Yoga and those modalities help?
Thanks,
Jerry
-
Permalink Reply by TimG on
-
"...as opposed to emotional ones, that are caused by brain/body chemical problems..."
"I personally think that the onset of Bi-Polar disorder is just such a situation, perhaps with a trigger event that finally puts the patient over the edge of the cliff."
And that, Sir, is why I would never personally embrace psychology in natural healing, nor psychiatry. "Bipolar disorders", AHDH, ADD, "Mathematics Disorder" (ad nuseum) are manufactured "mental illnesses." They are VOTED INTO EXISTENCE by a panel of psychiatrists who then include it as a listing in the DSM.
Honestly, have you REALLY looked at a copy of the DSM IV-TR? By its own standards, it looks to be 99.9% of humanity would be "mentally ill." Today, mental health professionals by the hundreds are now speaking out against their peers in what was considered in the latter half of the 20th Century as a bona fide industry.
By their own admission, mental illness professionals (psychiatrists in particular) have stated that there never has been a test to prove that such a thing as "bipolar disorder" exists. There is no biopsy to find a "chemical imbalance." No blood test. No urine test. No "stand on one foot and jump up and down." Nada.
If you personally know of (and use) a bona fide physical test that diagnoses "bipolar disorder" with an absolute certainty, please let me know. I don't mind being proven wrong.
Those psychiatrists and psychologists that do earn my respect are those willing to fight against the criminality that the industry represents. http://www.cchr.org, http://www.ablechild.org, http://www.breggin.com... these are but a few who's Boards of Directors include mental health professionals fighting the industry's practices and criminal behaviors.
Don't get me wrong. I love your contributions to the forum, Jerry. You strike me as a very capable human being and you have my utmost respect as you've fought a renegade "psychologist" in this forum. There is no doubt that psychology is far less damaging than psychiatry and traditional medicine. But it still believes that these "illnesses" are real and NOT due to such things as allergies, malnutrition, electromagnetic chaos, etc.. If it did, you'd be a nutritionist and not a psychologist. ;)
Which is why, to my mind, psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, group therapy, hypnosis, treatment drugs in various forms, traditional medicine, etc. etc., do not belong in natural healing.
However if you're ever in the neighorhood, I'd love to sit down and have a beer with you sometime. :)
-
-
Lynne:
I have never experienced Yoga, but if it helps then it must be useful. A lot of people are into it, I just don't understand it. I would think that your opinion about it teaching the person to learn how to work through the pain and emerge with the attitude that former things do not bother as much is valid. My only question is where do you draw the line on how much pain you inflict upon yourself.
Meditation is very useful and very powerful once it is mastered. Even some of the mystics of the Church.like Thomas Merton, were very much involved in meditation. It tends to center the spiritual side of the psyche and eventually get to the root of many issues both in this life as well as the spiritual. In some ways, I think, it can be a very dangerous tool if not properly self-evaluated though. There is always a fine line between reality and perception, but that is just my opinion.
Jerry
-
-
Hey Charlie,
It's Jerry. I think that both you and time are right on target here. Experience is the best teacher. You are so right about the spiritual factors. For us personally, we believe in the importance of God and spirituality from the get-go of both life and any therapy programs. A bit of help from the Almighty never hurt anything.
From Tim's perspective it really does show how important the security factors are, and then there is the rest of the recovery process that comes down to a lot of individuality I think. You are so right though about the tonic supplements.
My Mother, bless her soul, has suffered from Manic Depressiona and Bi-Polar Disorder which later in life gave way to sull-scale psychosis. She had to be hospitalized, over my protests, and you know how that goes; it is nothing more than ware-housing, and lots of psychotrophic drugs. Years ago her psychiatrist (who had gone through like eight marriages if that tells you anything) discouraged "talk therapy" which I still feel that early one would have helped Mom with a lot of issues that she had pushed to the back of her mind and which was one thing that caused her to not be able to cope. The long and the short of it is that when Terrie and I went down to see her we bought some herbal supplements and started Mom on those. Within two days there was a marked difference in her behavior, so much so that I called up her psychiatrist and ordered him to take Mom off the psychotrophic drugs. She did a lot better until they started the drugs again. It became clear to us that the imbalance in Mother's brain was from a lack of the different nutrients that she needed.
How does your tonic work?
Thanks,
Jerry
-
-
Hey Charlie,
This sounds like a good regimen. I am a firm believer that the body must heal itself, and that includes the mental processes via the brain. It's a bad analogy but, if the carborator or the exhaust is clogged then the engine is going to malfunction. Same way with the brain. I am of the opinion that at least half of the mental health issues people face, the pathological ones, are due to bad hardware that has become weakened physically and autonomically; the other half of the problems are generally learned behaviors that can be unlearned coupled with some bad genetics along the way that have to be overcome in some cases. Therapy can go a long way in the right environment, but I think it has to be keyed to a clean-up of the overall machine too.
I would think that your tonic would go a long way in helping people with mental health issues due to the brain chemistry involvment and linked to the liver and other organs being weakened.
.
Thanks,
Jerry.
-
-
Charlie:
From my perspective, and everyone is different, I think that you are right. We know that if even a smoker can refrain from smoking for 48 hours that his or her behavior can be changed, so 17 days is a lot of time to change if a person really wants to.
Me personally, I used to be a three pack a day man early in life; one day I just put them down. I was fine until ten years later I started to chew! I could quite that but there is just something that tells me not too; in short, I don't want to or I would change the behavior.
The key is simple, if some wants to change they can in very little time, but they have to want to and the body has to be allowed to clean itself of the toxins.
Jerry
-
-
Lynne:
I have never engaged Yoga so I can not speak of its benefits; only those who are familiar with it can do that. What I do know is that people who have a faith structure seem to do better than those who do not, particularly during a crisis which is where I have spent many years helping folks dealing with that aspect. I think that when you have something to fall back on, and in your case it may be Yoga, it does help to control pain and other factors. As a Christian I find the inner support from my faith very important because I came to realize early on that there is much in life that I can not personally control, which includes the actions of others and even the ingredients in our food sources. Naturally no one can tell you what works for you personally; only you can do that. I can say that I have never met a happy aethiest though, nor an aethiest in a fox-hole." We all need something beyond ourselves to validate what we already hold to be true.
I do think that many mental and emotional illnesses can either be avoided or corrected by proper therapies, both preventive and interventional, by making the body work as it should through proper nutrition and by helping ourselves feel good about each other and ourselves.
Part of the problem that I feel people make is in making excuses for our behaviors. Part of "Reality Therapy" is in recognizing that something is a problem, not making excuses for it, and then correcting the problem by various means. Since Yoga apparently teaches discipline it may in fact help the person to gain control. Maybe you could tell us a little more about it and how it works,
Jerry
-
-
Ezmee:
Thanks for sharing that. It's good to know that you are making progress.
I think that too many times physicians, particularly psychiatrists, make a rush to judgment because it is easier to just grab a pen and pad and start writing prescriptions, rather than trying to get to the root of the problems. (My cousin, who is an MD once told me that in regular Med School that they only got one course in pharmacology and that was ironic since MD's spend most of their time doing what - prescribing medicines.) Everyone today that walks in the doors seem to walk out with a diagnosis of either Manic-Depression, Bi-Polar disorger, ADD or some other disease de jour. It strikes me as very convienent and very profitable for the drug companies.
One thing I always liked about "Reality Therapy," as opposed to some other treatment modalities, was that it put the problems right out on the table - Why do you feel this way, etc?, and then you began to deal with it. If a person is either unhappy, or depressed, there is generally a reason why. First you find the under-lying reason, and then you fix it; sometimes it is a long process but it can be done. Nutrition, as we ll know, can play a major role in both the disease and the cure.
I am a firm believer in the old advice to look into the mirror every day and say "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better."
In the end it is really up to us to solve or problems; no drug or doctor of whatever ilk and do it for us.
Jerry
-
-
To All:
I am a believer that, except for some genetic things that are carried down from generation to generation and some pathologies of the brain - which are probably caused by a variety of factors including what we put into our bodies, we generally create our own problems in life that have to be "cured." ( Everyone needs a little help sometimes though.) I think that this is done, first by not feeding the body and brain what it needs, second by our own way of thinking and coping skills, and lastly by our toxic relationships that we develope and making excuses for our behaviors. Therefore most things can be "cured" by our desire to "cure" them. In short, Got a problem, then solve it. What do you think? Obviously the drugs and a lot of other therapies are not working. Don't worry about hurting my feelings here; if I am wrong then I am wrong.
The next thing is, do you think that "Group Sessions" are really just big "Pity Parties" or do they help at all in any way, or really hurt the person trying to find their own solutions?
Lastly, is it really about the money? (I know when I was working in the hospital we had to see certain categories of patients just because if we popped our head in the door then the hospital got paid more federal money.) So, is it really all just about the money and the "Frasier" syndrome and making the psychiatrists/psychologists/clinic social workers feel good and the drug companies and hospitals richer?
Jerry
© 2009 Created by naturalcures
