Posted by jay on October 6, 2001, at 18:01:00
In reply to Re: psycho-social support (redirect from PB) » jay, posted by Elizabeth on October 6, 2001, at 10:36:55
I guess I posted the "reminder" because I have such strong faith in both social and biological therapies. Yes, that is my bias, but social therapy isn't limited to going to a counsellor to get psycho-analysis or CBT. It also involves basic things we *all* need to focus on, especially "life-skills". There is also much more to the story though...
Please just hear me out, because I find this area lacking, and it seems majorly problematic amoung us with mental health issues. Life-skills of course is everything from communicating, to finding a job, to eating and cooking properly. There are people out there who used to be CEO's who now collect welfare (*not* a bad thing!), and can't even get out of bed and make a peanut-butter and jam sandwich. Many of us have lost all our friends and much of our family, and it takes activation of the very basics of some type of social support to get life back together again.
Maybe that isn't you, but I will tell you it is massive and widespread.
Rich and middle class people often have a few people around them to help keep things together. They have insurance, can go without a job while being in the hospital. They write books about going around the world and having 'breakdowns' on all corners of the planet. It is the poor, who make up the largest majority of mental-health clients, who need this basic type of social support. Therapy and support is far from limited to sitting in a therapists office, paying 200 dollars an hour exploring your childhood. It involves getting the very basic skills of life together, and maybe some on here aren't concerned with those things because they don't have to be, but there are a majority of people who are deeply in need of basic life skill support. That clasifies as a therapy just as much as psychoanalysis.Maybe we are coming from two different vantage points, so I think that is likely where the confusion is. Mental illness may cross class boundaries, but the proof is it hits harder and wider, as usual, among the poor and lower-class.
So, yes, in closing, social-support (and even economic support) is *just* as important as is medical/biological therapy for these folks.
Thanks for listening..
Jay
> > Well, it is just a reminder that they are true counterparts, and one belongs with the other. If it was posted only on p-s-support, it wouldn't be seen..heh.
>
> Can you please explain why you posted your "reminder" in a thread that was about purchasing textbooks? You posted "In reply to Read this book: APP textbook of Psychopharmacology, posted by 3 Beer Effect on September 28, 2001, at 3:48:37" -- but I don't see any connection between your post and 3 Beer Effect's post (http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010927/msgs/79791.html).
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> > If I post a "med" reminder on p-s-support, it again is just asking for balance.
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> I would think that if balance were your concern, you would have posted complementary "reminders" to both forums.
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> According to your posts on this board and on PB, you believe that "building a good social support network and engaging in psycho and cognitive therapy is a *must* along with meds if you want to get better" (your words). A little while ago there was a debate about whether it was okay to "evangelize" on PB. Some people were "triggered" -- reminded of unpleasant things that had happened to them in the past -- when a couple of posters started plugging their religions. One of the "evangelizers" felt it was his duty to try to convert people to his religion because otherwise they would go to hell. Do you see what I'm getting at?
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> I'm sure you didn't intend to offend anyone, but in the future, please consider who your audience is and try to be supportive. You may have felt "attacked," but some people on PB felt attacked too. I thought you sounded perhaps a bit condescending. You seemed to be saying that your treatment of choice (talk therapy + meds) is the only thing that will work, for anyone. Reading your posts to PSB only confirms this impression. It's particularly distressing that you stereotype those who aren't interested in talk therapy as having "ego-type issues" and believing that "they are too 'smart' for therapy or something." (Yes, you did sound "harsh and judgmental." I don't understand why you posted something if you knew that you were being unsupportive.) Personally, I've been through a lot of talk therapy of many flavors (among them: cognitive, interpersonal (group), psychodynamic, and supportive therapies), and it isn't for me. For the most part, it didn't help much, and in some cases it was actually harmful. I know that there are others who have been through this too. Please be more respectful in the future and take care not to invalidate others' experiences.
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> Nobody is telling you that you shouldn't be in talk therapy. Nobody (nobody on these forums, anyway) is saying that everyone with a mental disorder should be in psychoanalysis, or that everyone should take Effexor, or even that everyone should take meds of some sort. In the same vein, please don't try to tell other people what treatment is right for them. We're all different.
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> Thanks.
>
> -elizabeth
poster:jay
thread:12189
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011006/msgs/12192.html