Lived Experience Forum

[Willy]

I am glad these "mindfulness techniques" as they are called worked for you. In my experience they are not magic but I have found that if I keep practising they do make a significant difference.
I find lately that I am experiencing waves of emotion quite frequently. I don't think this is a bad thing it just feels a bit "messy"
Regards

Willy 

[Patchworks]

I find I'm a great deal more emotional off meds than on them. I believe thhe meds affect our brain chemistry in irrepairable ways, like I've never been the same as I was before I ever had them. It's this reason why they should be one of several treatment options and perhaps even last resort option. 

[Willy]

Hi @Patchworks
It is pretty common knowledge that the primary function of meds is to suppress emotions.

In the "old days", neuroleptics (antipsychotics) used to be known as major tranquilizers. All the other medical psycho-jargon is the work of the spin doctors (advertising people).

I like to think of psychiatric meds as pain killers for emotional pain. In that capacity they can be useful in the short term in exactly the same way as physical pain killers can be. They don't however fix or change any underlying problems.
Physical pain medication usually has a message on it saying something like "If pain persists, see your doctor". 

But psychiatric meds say nothing like this. The medical advice often given is to just keep taking them indefinitely. If things get worse, you try different meds until hopefully something improves. Apparently meds only work reasonably well without significant side affects for about 20% of people.

We now have a situation in Australia where state mental health authorities are insisting that people with serious mental health problems take quite high doses of psychiatric medication indefinitely, regardless of possible long term physical health consequences. Refusal to comply often results in legal action and further non compliance  can result in incarceration.

There is no evidence to support the theory that so called mental illness is a caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This appears to have been just another multi billion dollar propaganda campaign engineered by the by the spin doctors for the pharmaceutical companies.

There is a lot of growing evidence that childhood trauma plays a big part in mental health problems. That doesn't mean that you were beaten up or sexually abused etc as a child. Far from it. The trouble is not the traumatic event. The problem is that as as children many of us have never learned how to manage or release the residual emotions associated with trauma. It stays there in our body and can accumulate throughout our lives. Almost everybody has this to some degree. When some event occurs to trigger this unresolved traumatic emotion it often explodes like a bomb.

There are ways of releasing this emotion. These methods are not new. They have been around for tens of thousands of years but seem to have been largely lost in contemporary society where mental health problems are escalating.

Here is a technique that I came across recently . It seems to be to be a life skill worth learning for anybody dealing with trauma related emotions. It is somewhat similar to one my own psychologist taught me several months ago. It is called the RAIN technique.

Recognise
Allow
Investigate
Nurture

There is a short youtube video by Canadian doctor Gabor Mate. He is author of a fairly recently released book called The Myth Of Normal. He explains the RAIN technique and how it is used to deal with anger but it can be employed with any emotion.
If interested Google "You Tube Dr. Gabor Maté on How to Process Anger and Rage | The Tim Ferriss Show"

Other things that are being shown to have a significant impact on our mental health are social conditions like
Loneliness
Poverty
Discrimination
Jobless
Homeless
Stress
Physical Illness

These of course can also be interrelated with unresolved residual emotions from trauma.

Regards
Willy

[Patchworks]

Thanks so much @Willy for your reply. I watched the Dr Gabor Maté video. I have been trying to maintain my meds on the lowest therapeutic dose,  and starting to sit with emotions. In moments alone,  I'll allow myself to recognise my emotion about something,  I guess allowing myself to feel it, to cry, and it does give me some catharsis, a bit of release. 

Some psychosocial states I find very difficult to endure such as heightened anxiety and paranoia. Particularly anxiety. I can tell my cortisol rises and I become so unsettled and the complete opposite of my usual calm. I don't take any prn any more in these situations (as I said,  keeping meds to a minimum) so I'm here figuring how to manage in other ways. The mindfulness and grounding techniques can help sometimes but not always. 

While I am fortunate meds mostly work for me,  they're not without side effects. So if I can work on recovery as you are, maybe I can taper off some meds and avoid a premature death or reduced quality of life from diabetes and its related health impacts. 

I agree with the childhood experiences impacting us. My parents' generation/culture didn't include expressive emotions. I don't understand how they can keep the stiff upper lip always. We're human and human nature is we are emotional beings too. I much prefer having emotions than blunting them away with major tranquillisers,  even if those emotions are very uncomfortable like rage or shame.

When I get through my current pile of unread books,  I'll be buying Dr Gabor's myth of normal as I've got a lot from his other books

[Willy]

@Patchworks 
I think what you are attempting is what many, perhaps most people do who for one reason or another are not happy with a purely pharmaceutical approach.i.e they minimise medication while using some form of therapy/life skills technique to work on the underlying problems. It can be a slow and sometimes difficult journey in my experience.
Regards

Willy