YOUR MIND AND YOUR EMOTIONS: EFFECTIVE TREATMENT BY PSYCHOTHERAPY

Posted by admin

There are many kinds of treatment for neurotic and psychosomatic ailments. The most effective for the people I have been discussing so far is psychotherapy. It means treatment by psychological methods.

Almost every doctor practises some form of psychotherapy, some times without knowing it. In dealing with a patient who has an exaggerated fear that he is ill, the doctor’s examination, explanation, reassurance, and firmness are forms of psychotherapy. Or when he helps a tense and nervous person to find a hobby, that is psychotherapy, too.

Guidance and counselling

There are times when simply putting one’s problems into words helps to clarify them and make them seem less alarming. It may reveal what the real trouble is.

Confessing one’s weaknesses, failures, and sins is valuable, provided the person to whom they are described understands their importance, however trivial they may actually be. He must also be able to make the person who is confessing feel that he is not condemned, but that litis still worthwhile, despite his faults and frailties.

Receiving information is sometimes most useful in equipping an individual to solve his own problems—especially il they are due, wholly or in part, to ignorance or misinformation.

Adjunctive therapies

These forms of help play the same kind of role in psychotherapy as nursing care does in medical treatment. One of the most common is occupational therapy. Actually, occupational therapy means far more than providing methods of relieving tensions. People whose emotional problems are associated with the fact that they do not feel useful are often tremendously benefited by doing something that makes them realize they are creative, successful, and independent—on even a small scale. Sports and hobbies make many people happier and more relaxed simply because they are enjoyable. They also increase confidence in one’s capacity to have meaningful social relationships.

Medicines

Medicines such as barbiturates and tranquillizers are given in some instances to relieve tension; stimulants such as amphetamines are occasionally prescribed. These medicines should be taken only on a doctor’s orders. As a general rule, they are given in connection with other treatment.

Another type of medicine, such as Amytal sodium, is sometimes used to put the person into a sleep-like state, so that hopefully he will be able to recall and tell the doctor or therapist what is troubling him. It is similar to treatment by hypnosis.