Posted by niborr on February 19, 2001, at 11:32:06
In reply to Re: Cam etc, Some interesting ??s raised in Active..., posted by Cam W. on February 19, 2001, at 10:14:14
HI, IT'S ME, NIBOR. THIS IS A DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A THERAPIST, I AM A COPYEDITOR AND I WORK ON MY HUSBAND'S WEBSITE. HE IS A THERAPIST. SO I HAVE LEARNED SOME FROM HIM...AND FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY...ZOLOFT, XANAX, PAXIL...MY PERSONAL PACKAGE. I wonder if I should even send this message...I think I am rambling a bit. When Cam implied that Dick is being controversial just for financial gain, I sort of freaked out. Anyone who knows him, including patients and those in his self-help groups, would be able to set you straight. He does one weekly group for free. He sees people for incredibly low fees when they have no or bad insurance. He ALWAYS helps when there are children or suicide dangers. We interrupt dinners and other activities all the time when someone is in trouble.
So, yes, he does get paid for a lecture that we get in the car and drive for three hours to get to, then he talks for a couple of hours, answers questions for another hour, stays and talks privately to as many as are there who were too shy to talk in front of everyone.NIBOR: Cam, I believe what you say in the two paragraphs below is totally in line with what Richard O'Connor says. But OUCH...Paragraphs 3 and 4.........
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CAM: (1) Besides, as I have said (several times) on this board, that antidepressants (in acute or reactive depressions) are a bandage. They "put the floor under you feet" so that you are able to deal with and come to terms with the problems that caused the depression in the first place.
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(2) Treating a disorder (any disorder) is not a passive activity on the part of the afflicted. To heal from or live with a disorder requires hard work on the part of the patient via compliance with drug regimens, lifestyle changes and a real desire to get better.
NIBOR: Keeping the website going costs us about $50 a month. We earn about $40 a month from amazon.com through a deal about people buying our book from the site...however, since the first of this year alone, I have sent out 9 free books to people who claimed they couldn't afford it and thought it would help them.
And sure, we charge for lectures. Sheesh, that's his job. But the website is very rarely the way these lectures are set up. Besides, and you can believe this or not, we are not getting rich doing this work. It truly makes us happy because we can see that we are being useful.
Dick definitely believes what he writes. He is not one of these slick salemany types who go on Oprah and have boxes labeled with problems that he hits with a baseball bat to show how he can get rid of them. He was asked by an Oprah producer and the View show to come on "with a patient or two," and he absolutely refused...even if a patient would agree to. He said How could he ever expect anyone to trust him if he were to do such a thing, exploit someone even when they were "better." He was even unwilling to go on alone and help people who raised their hands from the audience. He said that looks like a quick answer from an answer-man is all a suffering person needs--get all better in 15 minutes, right. An appearance on one of those shows would have certainly helped our finances.
CAM: (3) I am assuming that Dr.O'Connor charges for these lectures he gives, so his website is just a means of employment and revenue for him. If this is the case, I guess he'd have to make controversial statements in order for people to be interested in his topic. Perhaps he truly believes in his views, but this does not make them scientifically correct.
NIBOR: No, NO, NO. His field is NOT psychoanalysis. He is a social worker. He has both masters and Ph.D. in SOCIAL WORK. He would need to tell you...but it's interpersonal therapy I believe that he does. But he doesn't limit, he uses the best of all methods.
And just read any of his material to see how he feels about the outrageousness of people not being able to get the treatment they need because of managed care and other evils of the system.
About the psychotherapy studies, it is easy to study cognitive because there is a set of "rules." Not so with interpersonal, which is more flexible and so cannot be studied acurately. Some things cannot be measured easily.
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CAM: (4) Two type of psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy) have shown to have efficacy in treating depression. Psychoanalysis, Dr.O'Connor's field of training, has not been shown to be effective. People may "want" psychotherapy, but many cannot afford it and many of those who can are not willing to do the homework required to make it effective. The effectiveness rate of psychotherapy is no greater than that of antidepressant medication (which themselves are not usually used properly). You say that psychotherapy has not been scientifically analyzed. There are hundreds, if not thousands. of article in the literature on psychotherapy. Also there are several scientific, peer-reviewed journals for the psychotherapy field.
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NIBOR: Yes, people take their meds and then can focus on their therapy...but meds alone, given by a GP, are NOT a solution. And the meds don't work on everyone who needs help, and sometimes they work for a while and then stop working.(5) There are problems inherent in the way clinical trials are done, but they are only a stepping stone to naturalistic studies and post-marketing surveillence. The methods of scientifically evaluating the effectiveness of a new chemical compound in a disease are improving, but the system we have now, is the best that there is.
poster:niborr
thread:4748
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010209/msgs/4758.html