Depressed Patients Don’t Get Enough Follow-Up
Recent controversy in antidepressant therapies centered on an increased risk of suicidal thoughts in new patients who started antidepressant medications. However, a new study published in American Journal of Managed Care suggests that this concern about increased risk of suicidal thoughts in patients taking antidepressants did not translate into physicians following up on patients who started antidepressant therapy. Read more
Cognitive Therapy Looks Beyond Childhood to Help Depressed Patients
Suzanne Leigh of San Franciso Chronicle wrote an excellent article about cognitive therapy as a depression treatment modality.
“Don’t Tell Me About Your Childhood” began with the general idea of talk therapy we’ve come to know. Whenever we think about psychotherapy, we’d have an image of a patient on a couch speaking with a somewhat disinterested therapist who would be asking the patient about his or her mother or childhood. Read more
Interesting Way to “HEAL”
Andrea Grimes writes about attending a “bootcamp” aimed to heal people who are in emotionally abusive relationships. The bootcamp was based on Dr. Steven Stosny’s method. Dr. Stosny is an anger and domestic abuse expert.
Andrea cringes at the $800 price tag for the event, and learns the acronym “HEALS” for Stosny’s compassion-grounded process:
“H” - visualizing the word “HEALS” when you feel angry
“E” - experiencing core hurts
“A” - accessing your core value
“L” - loving yourself
“S” - solving the problem
Although Andrea described examples of the “HEALS” process, I suspect that most situations may end up in the “self love” bucket. That is, whenever you become angry at someone’s actions, it may be because you perceived that action to mean you were unlovable and undeserving in some way. Then you lash out at the perpetrator that has triggered this experience in you, thereby inflicting abuse. The solution is then to swim in imageries and experiences that make you feel good and lovable, which are usually conducive to compassion.
Abusers need to practice these steps 12 times a day for 6 weeks, essentially reprogramming how one reacts to a situation.
(P.S. Perhaps those with road rage may consider Stosny’s “compassionate driving” method for one’s intermittent explosive disorders.)