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ON MENTAL ILLNESS: The Value of Therapy

Jack Bragen
Saturday March 23, 2019 - 10:35:00 PM

Medication is presumed to be a non-negotiable necessity for people with schizophrenia. The disease is considered biologically-based. Medication, much of the time, treats the worst of the symptoms by introducing a new abnormality to counter the devastating abnormality created by the illness. People with schizophrenia are thought to have excessive dopamine in an area of the brain, and this is believed to cause improper gating of thoughts. 

The medication lowers dopamine in all parts of the brain, and this includes the malfunctioning area, causing the gating area to function closer to "normal." The problem is that a patient is left with a slowed central nervous system, making it much harder to function to do a very wide variety of tasks, many of which most non-afflicted people take for granted, and assume anyone can do. 

When we have this slowed functioning, it is harder to defend oneself against verbal and psychological manipulation or other forces of assault. This is where we are vulnerable to those therapists who are therapeutically assaultive. This happens. 

Not to knock treatment professionals--they have good purposes. However, there are a few bad apples, who seem to get something out of wreaking havoc to the "code" within our minds that might otherwise allow us to function in life. 

Therapy has purposes. One of them is to facilitate relief from the pain that is often inherent in living with mental illness. Therapists often provide supportiveness. This includes pointing it out when we've done something right. This is helpful since it can generate positive emotions. 

Positive emotions and positive thinking allow success at tasks and enterprises on which we embark. Instilling "positivity" is potentially very helpful. 

However, some therapists focus too much on what is apparently going wrong. This is based on the idea that a mental health consumer is like a broken machine and must always be fixed. This is where the consumer is not perceived as an actual person, Instead, they are the material on which it is the therapist's job to perform work. 

Focusing on the negative, including in an attempt at helping, causes the patient's mind to create and dwell in more negativity. If the mind is filled with thoughts of what is supposedly wrong, it is bad content that results in a bad mood and ineffectiveness. Secondly, therapists might pick apart the thought processes of the consumer, by means of questions and sub-questions. I consider this to be a psychological form of vivisection. 

Psychological vivisection exists. And it can trigger an angry response. When it does, the therapist will analyze "What specifically makes you feel that way?" A good response to this, that you can rehearse is "Your dumb questions." Then, the therapist will probably ask either "Which question bothers you?" or, they will ask, "What about the questions makes you angry?" and then, they will ask, "What in your past leads you to be upset about this?" When they ask this, you can simply answer with, "I simply dislike being picked apart and I wish you would stop doing that." Then, they will ask, "What do you want to have happen in therapy?" or, "What do you want to get from therapy?" 

The modus operandi of these therapists is to take and maintain control of the conversation through a pre-prepared set of rehearsed questions. 

It is up to you. I believe that what I'm calling psychological vivisection really exists, and I believe it is abusive. It is a common practice for less experienced therapists, and it is done because they haven't figured out yet how to be a supportive therapist. Perhaps they are too young or perhaps they just lack enough expertise. 

Being medicated often causes the consumer to be more vulnerable verbally. It is easy for most therapists to lead the conversation to go where they want when dealing with a medicated person. This holds true even when a session begins with a therapist not saying anything. 

Many therapists continue to utilize what I consider outmoded systems. The assumption is often that something went wrong in a person's past, and that is what brought them into a position of receiving therapy. And while this could be true for many people, I question the usefulness of continually rehashing one's past.  

I've observed that therapists have methods of muddying a person's anger. In some instances, this is achieved along with, and by means of, invalidation. The questioning that therapists do, and the assertions that they make (e.g. this is your symptoms, it's not real) have a way of psychologically castrating a person. Of course, the therapist can defend this and protest that they aren't doing this. Then, the focus is back on the consumer, and on what made him or her have this "erroneous" perception. 

Those therapists who want to really help someone, and are able to do this, are a good find. And it is good to give mental health professionals the benefit of the doubt, and to presume, unless they repeatedly show otherwise, that they are trying to help. 

When accused or otherwise pressed, it is human nature to defend oneself. Thus, therapists could sometimes mistakenly resort to their tools of analysis in an attempt at obtaining refuge, if a consumer is hostile or accusatory towards the therapist. 

I've interacted with and observed people who are molded by the mental health treatment system. Some have adopted infantile ways of functioning and some completely believe in their own helplessness. 

Therapy, at its best, is a way of releasing old and unnecessary pain, and it is a way for us to feel that we are not alone in our struggle. Bad therapy, at its worst, reinforces helplessness, and it is a hindrance to success.