Drop the language of disorder
Sep 22, 2012
I must be on a roll lately -- going from one inspiring experience to another ;-)
I've written about the excellent presentation by Mary Jo Barrett "The Five Essentials of Effective Trauma Treatment" -- [LINK]
More recently, I've started reading Mike Lew's classic "Victims No Longer" -- a book for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse -- available in the Dunedin Public Library 362.768 LEW -- great coverage of a broad range of issues, expressed in easy to understand, sensitive, insightful and dynamic -- I'd call it essential reading for all those who care about men who suffered sexual abuse as children -- although it's written primarily about the effects of incest, I found it still to be useful (yes, even for an old guy in his late 50's, despite my abuser being an older boy at school).
Most recently, I've just read Peter Kinderman's editorial for the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health -- Drop the Lanaguage of Disorder -- available here [LINK]
It's rare for me to read an article and immediately feel compelled to select portions for quoting -- this was my experience on first reading this brief article. It's written by some of the MOST dynamic and, in my view, "psychologically healthy" academics and clinicians you're ever likely to see in a group -- Peter Kinderman, as first author, and Rich Bentall, both from Uni LIverpool, John Read, from Auckland, and Joanna Moncrieff, from University College London. Moncrieff and Bentall have for a long time been part of the "Critical Psychiatry" "movement" -- well worth investigating if the traditional approach to mental health leaves you cold, as it does me.
I'll restrain myself, though, from quoting too much -- it's a brief article (only 4 pages), easy to read, and refreshing!
But I will quote the closing paragraph, and then strongly encourage you to read all of the article:
Clinicians are ... likely to be more effective if they respond to an individual’s particular difficulties rather than their diagnostic label.
You might also find the following articles interesting, relating to the basis of the contribution of childhood adversity to adult difficulties:
Johnson, C. Y. (2012, September 21). Scientists begin to unravel the long-lasting biological effects of early-life adversity, social isolation. The Boston Globe -- boston.com. Boston, MA. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/news/science/2012/09/21/scientists-begin-unravel-the-long-lasting-biological-effects-early-life-adversity-social-isolation/j28yh2lHWj3P8vYY1CpGPO/story.html
available here: [LINK]
Read J, &Bentall RP. (2012) Negative childhood experiences and mental health: theoretical, clinical and primary prevention implications. Br J Psychiatry. 200(2): 89-91. Available here [LINK]
As the Read and Bentall article reminds us:
"Psychosocial factors such as poverty, unemployment and trauma are the most strongly-evidenced causal factors for psychological distress"
You might also find the following interesting if you have questiions about alternatives to drug treatments:
The Guardian newspaper : Friday 21 September 2012
The doctors prescribing the drugs don't know they don't do what they're meant to. Nor do their patients. The manufacturers know full well, but they're not telling.
Andrews, P. W., Thomson, J. A., Amstadter, A., & Neale, M. C. (2012). Primum Non Nocere: An Evolutionary Analysis of Whether Antidepressants Do More Harm than Good. Frontiers in Psychology, 3. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00117 [LINK]