A Journey…: Whats the Diff? How To Tell an Average Therapist from a Great Therapist

Today…at my personal blog A Journey….

Looking for “help” to heal from dysfunction or abuse in any degree shouldnt be as hard as it is. Sometimes we can spend years in “therapy” wondering just when we are going to “get” it….whatever “it” is. Sometimes we wind up in situations where it doesnt seem to be working out but we are afraid to leave because we might wind up in just another bad situation.Sometimes these not-so-helpful therapy relationships dont feel….quite rightbut we dont knowwhats wrong.Other times we hang in there because we are being told that its not working because, well…we arent working it.

Read the entire post here via A Journey…: Whats the Diff? How To Tell an Average Therapist from a Great Therapist.

via A Journey…: Whats the Diff? How To Tell an Average Therapist from a Great Therapist.

Thoughts from John Perry on psychosis as vision, schizophrenia as process, and healing as the natural result « ALTmentalities

Just a share this time….Thoughts from John Perry on psychosis as vision, schizophrenia as process, and healing as the natural result « ALTmentalities.

via Thoughts from John Perry on psychosis as vision, schizophrenia as process, and healing as the natural result « ALTmentalities.

The D.S.M.’s Troubled Revision – NYTimes.com

Just a share this time: The D.S.M.’s Troubled Revision – NYTimes.com.

via The D.S.M.’s Troubled Revision – NYTimes.com.

A Self Directed, Self Defined Life Begins at the Doctors Office

One of the first tactics used by physicians to assure complience is that of insisting on taking the position of “I know better for you what is best for you”.

This is what I call “blind faith”.

I have actually been refused medical care by primary and “mental health” providers when I refuse to be compliant with their directions. In one instance most recently – I refused to release prior records from another doctor because of inaccuracies in his records and knowing that the new doc would then have a bia against listening to my complaints because of this.

Today….more on the idea that our physicians and other health care, mental health care providers are to be our partners who work with us rather than our parental/patriarchal authority expecting blind, childlike dependence and compliance.

Today at Beyond Meds: Medical compliance? Adherence? Screw that. My MDs are my PARTNERS – Beyond Meds.

via Medical compliance? Adherence? Screw that. My MDs are my PARTNERS – Beyond Meds.

Bipolar BS and how Psychiatry is Driving America Crazy

Todays share is about the epidemic – near pandemic – increase in both bi polar symptoms and the “diagnosing” and labeling of individuals.

In 1992/93 I was given HUGE amounts of speed aka Dexidrine for what I was told was “Adult ADHD”.

The “screenings” that revealed this to the psychiatrist I saw at the time were supposed to expose a pattern of inattention over the lifespan.

NOTE: having been down this road for many years and finally having my lifelong trauma experiences of interpersonal abuse (psychological, emotional and physical abuse and violations) validated as “trauma” …along with college level courses in psychology/development/attachment and personal research and the insight of my own experiences…I am fully convinced that “mental” instablity is, as we now know from the research, not organic and very much the interuppted process of individual  growth and development.

This in conjunction with environmental factors such as a very unhealthy american diet (that is now rampant worldwide as processed/chemical laden foods have become the staple.) Eating for nutrition is out..eating to feel “full” is the basis for excessive consumption. Simple carbohydrates, pollution and overuse of pharmaceuticals contributing to “unstable” moods and behaviors. Evidence abounds…but back to todays post….

And if we look at both the “symptoms” of the trauma response and that of adhd in children and adults what we will find is a life experience with little life structure and often a chaotic environment. This in turn does not allow for the development process that enables cognitive and emotional mastery where Erikson identifies both the successful completion of individual development and the consequences of an incomplete stage of development. Ref: Erikson psychosocial development

So by prescribing stimulants – we can artificially induce “clinical depression” which leads to the prescribing of anti depressants of which the side effects become the evidence for the next level of diagnosis and shifts one from simply being “mentally ill” to that of having a “serious mental illness”.

UPDATE and NOTE: stimulants are not the only “gateway” drug into the pseudo hope of psychitary. Many enter this nightmare via the initiation of antidepressants and or benzodiazapenes. Often in these cases then additional neuroleptics or other drugs are added to the mix once a level of tolerance has been reached and the initial drug loses its effectiveness to provide us with that artificial chemically induced high where we “feel better” …then we don’t. 

The antidepressants then induce “mania” which is used to then label the individual with “bi polar”….and on and on.

So instead of stopping the initial drug that causes this chronic state of emotional and mental/cognitive dysfunction….the drugs become the the solution. Polypharmacy becomes the norm as we struggle to maintain any sense of self or sanity through a drug induced insanity.

More another day….for now….read on here: Bipolar being grossly over-treated everywhere – Beyond Meds.

via Bipolar being grossly over-treated everywhere – Beyond Meds.

9 Lessons on Loss, Forgiveness, and Healing | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In

Today I wanted to go a different direction with knowledge.

Because knowledge is not only what the truth is about the things we have been told in psychiatry but knowledge of the real source of emotional distress and the path I’ve followed to find freedom from it is really what the journey is about, isn’t it?

Today then…a post on finding forgiveness…and freedom. 

I’ve written some on forgiveness over at my personal blog, A Journey...today though I wanted to share another part of the path to freedom from emotional pain.

Grieving the loss of the life and relationships we lost or never had.

We all know about “anger”…but not everyone knows that if we are engaged in emotional healing anger and resentments are only part of the process and we often will try to hang onto that, refusing to move into forgiveness. Not even realizing that we have sadness and grief to visit yet to find freedom from our pain.

And what I’ve learned is that if we will allow the anger….the way to get “unstuck” from that place I found…is to allow the anger to melt into the grief and sadness.

Because with traumas….and family dysfunction there are going to be losses. Hell…losing 2 decades of my life to psychiatry is yet another loss that I’m working through every day.

But – I didn’t realize those losses from the traumas as sadness until another who traveled this path before me taught me to go through the anger and to allow the sadness and tears to come and that this – was where I’d find healing.

This – is where I first experienced that peace that passed my understanding as I healed myself from a lifetime of victimhood and began to find the power to no longer be that victim, to learn to live far beyond survival and rest myself on the place of “now” that would become my best life.

Today’s share….9 Lessons on Loss, Forgiveness, and Healing | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In.

And a poem I wrote….a haiku…that I’d like to share is here; tears wash the soul free.

A Tale of Two Wolves…tells the story of a young warrior seeking wisdom

Knowledge IS power.

And truth DOES set us free.

In peace, love and hope. 

Namaste.

“Disease Mongering”: Self Screening as a Pseudo Confidence in Self Directed Health Care – NYTimes.com

Yes; when we are looking for answers we like those checklists.

The one for ADHD had me believing that if I overlooked seeing my car keys in a pile of junk that my brain was experiencing some deficiet and that maybe I would benefit from their expensive drug.

So of course, after hearing this line back in the 90′s when I was seeking “help” as I was exiting a violent marriage I thought…

Hey! I do that! Maybe THATS whats wrong with me!

Not that I was living in a chaotic environment looking over my shoulder wondering when the shoe would drop again.

But the psychiatrist was eager to give me a “trial” of this expensive drug and at the outset – I was immediatly physically addicted ie when I tried to stop taking it I experienced severe withdrawal symptoms like mood swings, depression, angery outbursts, insomnia and then of course psychosis.

And this was in turn used to say “Yes, I’m afraid you have more than just adhd. you also have depression and mania”

Thus began the 15 year nightmare that became my life as I fell into the cesspool of psychiatry.

Ok….I’m done with the venting.

Here’s a piece from the NYT on disease mongering and how self screening and fancy marketing has created a country that daily consumes exhorbitant amounts of drugs to fix every ailment.

But of course – side effects become a new disease that needs more drugs.

Ah well….read for yourself.

An excerpt:

The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “disease mongering,” redefining what is normal and abnormal in a way that widens potential markets for those who sell treatments. And, as detailed in a recent study in the journal Social Science & Medicine, one marketing strategy has accomplished more in this regard than any other by using what has come to be the very symbol of quality and reliability for doctors and patients everywhere: the checklist.Placed on Web sites, on downloadable apps and in pamphlets in doctors’ offices, these checklists of symptoms have become a critical part of every major pharmaceutical marketing campaign. What makes them so attractive is that they make it easy for patients to diagnose their own ailments, to take some control over their own health.

via Using Symptom Checklists to Sell Drugs – NYTimes.com.

via “Disease Mongering”: Self Screening as a Pseudo Confidence in Self Directed Health Care – NYTimes.com.

Military Researchers Avoid Looking at Wars Role in Veterans Suffering -

Read the article referenced in the title here:

Military Researchers Avoid Looking at Wars Role in Veterans Suffering -.

 Read my rant here…>>>

The mental health system is founded on principles of teaching avoidence to those who suffer emotionally or cognitively. I”m assuming they do this because they don’t have anything else to offer.

And of course…the VA follows this same model as we can see in this article by Paula Caplan, PhD.

The Naval Medical Center in San Diego “is studying whether an anesthetic used during childbirth could help relieve symptoms” of war trauma.

From the VA’s website on PTSD at the National Center for PTSD:

Avoidance is a common reaction to trauma. It is natural to want to avoid thinking about or feeling emotions about a stressful event. But when avoidance is extreme, or when it’s the main way you cope, it can interfere with your emotional recovery and healing.

Yet this is what they offer returning Warriors?

Mmmmm…..

Its really not rocket science folks.

And I’m always stymied that instead of teaching emotional maturity and how to face our pain to go through it – we have an entire country that seeks the quick fix and a pill.

My bets are on that if we actually offered skill development and stress awareness/management strategies that we’d have a lot of folks interested to learn how to go through the pain to get past it.

But as long as the “professionals” tell us that our thoughts, feelings and behavior are a disease that will require medical and pharmaceutical management…

“FOR LIFE”

I”m guessing I”m not going to find too many takers on the idea that we can heal ourselves.

For me? When I believed I had a disease there was nothing you could have told me otherwise.

All it took was one “professional” to validate what I’d always known.

That I WAS NOT “sick”.

And that I could learn what I needed to turn things around for myself.

So yay VA!

Lets just keep sending those double messages.

“PTSD is avoidence; now lets get you some dope so you don’t have to face it”.

Geez.

 Read this piece at Paula’s website here: via Military Researchers Avoid Looking at Wars Role in Veterans Suffering -.

“Chemical Imbalance is sort of last-century thinking” by Psychiatrist from Harvard U

I really cannot comment on this in a neutral way so will simply share some really great articles. The first is an excerpt from todays post by Paula Caplan…the second link is for additional supportive resources in todays piece from Beyond Meds:

From Dr. Paula Caplan:

Powerful Psychiatrists Push False Theory on Unknowing Souls | Psychology Today.

Consider this quotation from the NPR story: “Chemical imbalance is sort of last-century thinking. It’s much more complicated than that,” says Dr. Joseph Coyle, a professor of neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. “It’s really an outmoded way of thinking.” Pretty clear message from Coyle, who edits the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Here is the bizarre and deeply disturbing part of the NPR story: Alan Frazer, who chairs the pharmacology department at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and researcher of the drugs that are marketed under the label (and promise) “antidepressants,” announces that it is fine for patients to believe in this unproven theory. Why? It enables them to “come out of the closet” about being depressed. Did Frazer not think how stunningly unethical and probably illegal it is to tell, or allow patients to believe, something that has never been proven? And did the NPR interviewer fail to challenge this practice, or did an editor higher up the chain cut the question (if it was asked) and answer? (emphasis mine)

And from Beyond Meds aka the best resource for information on these issues and alternatives that I’ve found go here to read about this piece and many many others by clicking here.

 

 

The APA is going to “Occupy Medicine?” Let’s show them a REAL occupation! « ALTmentalities

Psychiatry is getting on the band wagon and wants their place at the table with “real” doctors?

From AlteMentalities:

The APA must have an almost supernaturally subtle sense of humor and irony – the finest and most unflinching I have ever encountered.Or else they are so steeped in hypocrisy that even the most blatant contradictions, the most horrendous lies cross-referenced, of course, are fervently preached as gospel truth. A pack of true believers, indeed.There’s a spirit of unrest sweeping this country – the recent and successful PIPA/SOPA internet blackout protest, the various “Occupy” movements, the multiple student protests on college and occasionally high school campuses being a few examples. People are getting stirred up.Well, the APA doesn’t want to be left out. Let it be known that they, too, can occupy something!“Occupy Medicine: Reclaiming our lost leadership”A call to arms was issued in the January edition of the APA’s journal, the Psychiatric Times. It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry bloody tears of frustration. Let’s try to laugh, shall we?

Read this really awaesome and VERY WELL DOCUMENTED post here via The APA is going to “Occupy Medicine?” Let’s show them a REAL occupation! « ALTmentalities.

via The APA is going to “Occupy Medicine?” Let’s show them a REAL occupation! « ALTmentalities.