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Did anyone watch Channel 4's 'Being Bipolar' documentary tonight?
I though it was OK, not sensationalist. Looking at at psychological vs psychiatric treatment and possible causes.
Looking at the extremely angry reactions on Twitter though, it sound like the programme makers got it badly wrong :(
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^ A bit like militant cycling campaigners then. Ha!
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Yeah, maybe. It's actually really intimidating to be jumped on for expressing an opinion that goes against that crowd. And I don't mean trolling.
I'm sure I've contravened all the guidelines set out by Mind when talking about my own experiences!
I suppose I'm lucky to be able to see the absurdities and dark humour in my diagnoses, most of the time, so am not going to fall to pieces if someone unintentionally says something insensitive (growing up veggie then vegan in an Australian family was bad enough).
Being precious about terminology, so for example, claiming to have been "portrayed as 'subjects' rather than 'people'" in (what was trying to be) a science programme, only makes people tread on eggshells even more. That's my view anyway.
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I've not really read previous pages of this thread to see if it's already been covered but on the subject of enforcing relaxation on yourself I've found hypnotherapy to help massively.
Bit of back story for people who don't know me. I have a tendency to over think everything be it something I'm about to do or an unpleasant memory. I've sometimes found myself saying things like 'no' and 'stop' out loud when I'm by myself as if the intelligent part of the brain is fighting the other instinctive part for control. I'd find myself physically tense 90% of the time which resulted in my whole body aching, especially my jaw. As you can imagine I can pass of as a standard calm person but inside I was falling apart. Since beginning hypnotherapy I've been able to relax more and if I notice I'm at the beginning of a downward spiral I can push it aside without having to change what I'm doing so that it distracts me away from the internal monologue.I started hypnotherapy having known nothing about it, I'd not even been recommended it by anyone else saying that it might help. I've since taken quite an interest as it does appear to work. Often people imagine it to be like the crap you see on TV, it isn't. It's attempting to influence the subconscious. Your moral boundaries will stop you from doing anything you don't want to. Ok, so it does fit some stereotypes but there's a reason why there are stereotypes. Comfy couch, low lighting, pan pipe music and a softly spoken therapist. Everyone has at many points in their life been in the trance state that the therapist is attempting to induce, e.g. - watching TV and someone is unable to get your attention as if you can't hear that person. When the mind is in the trance state the same are of the brain is active as when you reach the REM period of your sleep. During this period you process recent events. If, like many people suffering depression, you have very little or quite disturbed sleep you aren't going to be able to process previous evens properly and new things will have nowhere to go. Instead of going into the bank to be processed later they're there at the forefront of your mind going over and over.
Since starting the therapy my mood had improved. People I've met just a couple of times have noticed the difference in me. It's getting to a point now that I can start inducing a trance state on myself which is pretty much the same as meditation.
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I'm so glad hypnotherapy is helping you Oz - you've obviously gone to it with an open mind and given it your best shot, despite the (ahem) cynics like me!
I think a lot of people are put off by the term, perhaps assuming it's going to be like TV magician style hypnosis, devised to entertain and ridicule.
I hadn't realised this was offered by the NHS until you mentioned it, mainly for anxiety.
I hope it continues to help you :) xx
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AFAIK it's rarely available on the nhs due to the complications of the paperwork. The nhs expect to see results, how can you get results from something you can't see? Especially when treatment is a long term process.
I dislike watching magic on TV and things like Derren brown so haven't really been tainted by it. I tend to keep an open mind until I've experienced something first hand anyway.
Although it is called 'hypnosis' it is essentially guided mindfulness or meditation. Neither of these have the same stigma attached.
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The nhs expect to see results, how can you get results from something you can't see?
...and therein lies the challenge faced by almost every 'alternative' therapy or treatment technique, especially for psychological issues. I have seen attitudes change though, especially over the past 5 or so years, even if the funding hasn't always followed suit. It's great to see mindfulness, acupuncture, and elements of the 12 Steps being adopted by hospitals, for example.
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...and therein lies the challenge faced by almost every 'alternative' therapy or treatment technique, especially for psychological issues.
It's a general problem for psychological therapies (how do you do a double blind test in a talking cure, for example?) and nothing inherent to alternative therapies. Alternative therapies for skin cancer or broken bones are not at all difficult to test - their proponents just don't like the results.
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I dislike watching magic on TV and things like Derren brown so haven't really been tainted by it. I tend to keep an open mind until I've experienced something first hand anyway.
You'd better stay away from this new show then (and not just because Phillip Schofield is hosting it): http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/30/look-into-my-eyes-phillip-schofield-set-to-host-game-show-youre-back-in-the-room-where-contestants-are-hypnotised-4683128/
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I've just registered my interest for this year's Maudsley Debate: 'Long-term use of psychiatric medications - more harm than good?'
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 from 17:30 to 19:15 (BST)
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
King's College London
Main Building
16 De Crespigny Park
SE5 8AFBook your place: http://bit.ly/1F0g6fP @KingsIoPPN
Always excellent calibre of speakers and eye-opening discussions.
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Ey? What does the Mafia have to do with the Maudsley?!
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Interesting point about 'alternative' psychological theories @miss_mouse.
Recently I've been introduced to Personal Construct Psychology, (http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/pc-theory.html)
which put simply, is the idea that we each construct the way we see things and react to things differently, the way we construe the world is an ongoing testing of our theories, we are scientists continually experimenting and changing in the way we see things.PCP therapy starts with trying to understand / help someone understand how they construes things, to understand why that how they feel or react to things is down to this. A PCP therapist may help a person test other theories which may help them construe the world a little differently, which may lead to improved relationships etc
Mainstream therapy (based largely on the Freudian model of early influences dictating current behaviour ) is so accepted and part of our language and culture (Perhaps due to the psychology industry wishing to protect its own) leads to PCP and other positive theories being rejected and unavailable in mainstream NHS
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Heaven forbid a person expressed an “insatiable appetite for pleasure”!
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That would see half the forum committed.
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Sorry it took so long to replu, been rather busy over the past month
If you have a look on these two websites you should be able to find one nearby. Neither of these will guarantee that you find atherapist that suits you but to be registered with these organisations isn't easy apparently.
http://www.hypnotherapists.org.uk/therapist-finder/
http://afsfh.com/register/ -
It's been interesting to hear mixed reactions to the news that the 'anorexia gene' has now been identified. There's always been so much emphasis on the social/environmental causes of the illness (pushy parents, fashion industry, sexual abuse etc etc), knowing there's a defective gene that could play a much greater role, could be a game changer.
On the one hand, the more that is known about the biological basis of mental health conditions, the closer we are to developing effective prevention and treatment. My worry is that if too great an emphasis is placed on the genetics, patients and their families could become fatalistic or hopeless about recovery, and/or expect too much from the drugs developed to 'cure' the sufferers, when there are clearly so many other factors and high-risk personality traits involved. People love to think of nature and nurture as mutually exclusive when they're evidently not..
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That sounds interesting and actually not a million miles away from CBT models I've seen whereby patients are asked to keep thought records so as to identify patterns, do behavioural experiments (or 'exposures') to challenge habitual actions and unhelpful theories, or develop visualisation exercises that can enable new theories to be 'tested out' by repeatedly enacting them in the imagination.
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Psychiatry, psychology, mental, mind matters
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@Miss_Mouse
@stevep - I gave up biting off live chunks of flesh when I went vegetarian back in 1996 ;)
I know some folk who practice EFT and find it effective, particularly as a self-help tool for coping with symptoms of anxiety, addiction and OCD.
Given that it can be described as acupuncture without the needles, it's perhaps all the more surprising to find it gaining the attention of mainstream scientists and medical experts.
Then again, developing an easy, cheap, alternative behaviour to distract a patient from compulsions, obsessions or spiraling anxiety has to be a good thing.
Like all treatments - to some extent medication too - the patient has to be fairly motivated and I expect there'll be some who are put of by the 'tapping' part of EFT?