SageTree

Abuse Resources and Information
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I hope and pray that these links are not needed. And my deepest compassion goes to you if you do.

You are not alone in this world and there are many people who want to help you.

May you find the relief, empowerment and safety in telling your story. And know you can help break the cycle within your life as well as showing courage, that others may not fear to speak.

In lovingkindness,
SageTree

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Galt

There's a form of therapy that has evolved specifically to treat psycho trauma that has proven very effective and usually much more rapid in it's relief of symptoms than traditional cognitive therapy or its other alternatives. It's called EMDR (Eye Motion Desensitization Reprocessing) and was developed sometime back in the 70's I believe by a cancer survivor/therapist named Francine Shapiro.

EMDR Institute, Inc.

It essentially uses very mild tactile and visual stimulus to help people retrain their brain to respond differently to unresolved psychological traumas from their past. Many times these traumas play out later in life by negatively affecting peoples behavior and personality.

My wife for example had been the victim of molestation beginning when she was only 8 yrs. old, and had been rather unsuccessful at developing any kind of relationships beyond her pets and animals for most of her life. We've been married for over 25 years now and I would attribute a large portion of that longevity to our successes in working with EMDR and Imago Therapy (which I will post about in a separate thread).

I first learned of it from a friend who was suffering from PTSD relating to his experiences as a Tunnel Rat during his service in Viet Nam. His relief was so significant and nearly immediate that we could hardly believe it was the same guy. After reading more about it and trying it myself to encourage her, my wife finally gave it a try, and after only four sessions she was remarkably improved.

Minor slights or irritations that used to immediately escalate into major bile spewing battles all but disappeared. Her almost constant depression was alleviated and she began to re-engage in our children's lives. The changes were nothing short of amazing.

Aside from being generally much more efficient and patient friendly than alternatives it has also been shown to have some surprising impact on otherwise difficult or thought to be impossible to treat issues. Child molesters themselves, for example have shown a reduction in recidivism. The therapy is one of only a few that has been approved by the V.A. for the treatment of PTSD for vets. Substance abuse and addictive behavior and even some of the suffering of Bipolarism. This is especially noteworthy since Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) is considered to be a principally physiological disorder that is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain. All of the same EMDR has shown to be helpful with a number of patients.

The most remarkable part however is the lack of attention that this has received in the mainstream psycho therapy field. In conversations with several therapists and teachers that are friends of mine they have admitted that while they know little or nothing about the therapy. They are typically negative regarding anything that doesn't jibe with their chosen field of study. When pressed several have admitted that their possession of an advanced graduate degree in a potentially less effective area doesn't make them eager to do much of anything other than work to reinforce and support the self believed importance of their preconceived notions of their field's importance and legitimacy. To do otherwise they perceive as attacking the very validity of their life's work and the self important legitimacy of their whole education.

In other words...they suffer from the same mentality as the flat worlders of old. They fear anything that challenges their status quo. Sad as hell but true. What's saddest of all is that so many so called "professionals" in the field of mental health are so adept at generating the kind of denial and rationalizations that they would keep a patient in therapy for decades over.

While investigating and learning about this, after years of very disappointing experiences for my wife in traditional cognitive therapy, I began to notice that this type of anti-intellectual discrimination was rather common place among psychologists. If it wasn't the same litany that had been regurgitated to them by their professors, then there was no place for it in their world. There are exceptions of course, but in my experience to date they have been few and far between.

When considering any kind of psychotherapy, especially where psychiatrist and pharmacological treatment is in play, simply ask the therapist what their cure rate is. This makes them all rather uncomfortable because the majority of their patients never experience any real or permanent relief. They continue to get paid well, but if their existence was dependent on actual positive permanent results there'd be a lot of them starving in the streets. This is exacerbated by the industrialization of psycho therapy in our screwed up medical care business. There are now actual franchises that these people can join where they get access to programmed getaways and mega dollar retreats that are nothing more IMO than well crafted scams designed to separate vulnerable patients, and their insurance companies, from their money.

I attended a group session with my wife several times where they had members that had been attending for almost 20 years...and they were still exhibiting the same behaviors that had been there at the start. When the therapist was questioned about why she continued to take these peoples money for something that was pretty obviously a failure she asked that we never return. So much for professionalism and compassion.

The psycho therapy industry problems aside, I would strongly urge everyone to pick up a book from the library on EMDR and familiarize themselves with it. I would suggest that it's doubtful that all of us don't know someone who could benefit from this relatively new and ground breaking form of therapy.

Not trying to sound like a crazed zealot but between cannabis, homeopathy and therapy like EMDR I believe we could unscrew the majority of what's wrong with medical care in the world today and its dependence on chemicals and technology.

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"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
_________________

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

SageTree

It's funny how things come to light at once. When it rains it pours!!!!! Thanks for bringing up the topic and good article.

Over coming PTSD: 7/18/10

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Galt

Not related to psycho trauma per se but I was poisoned at work by solvents and heavy metals that I worked with. The result was CNS, liver, kidney, spleen, peripheral nerve and skin damage. It also destroyed most of my sense of taste and smell, caused me tinnitus and hearing loss as well as screwing up my balance and equilibrium. I get muscle spasms similar to an MS sufferer and joint aches that keep me in bed for days at a time. Now I'm starting to have G.I. problems as well.

Initially I was mad as hell about it because my employer had done this knowingly to myself and others just out of greed. One guy had a heart attack and died, another a stroke, another developed MS and three others have internal organ problems. There were only ten of us to start with. This eventually led to pretty serious depression since I went from being extremely active and outdoor oriented to being a virtual shut in who never left the house except to see another doctor.

I was also working through trying to get all of the appropriate authorities to punish my employer for what they had done. Twelve different State and Federal agencies and they managed to buy off, bribe and bullshit their way out of all but a few thousand dollars in fines several years ago. This of course made everything exponentially worse, so the docs started giving me all kinds of brain drugs and psycho crap. This of course just added to the liver and kidney distress, so I finally just stopped taking everything and told them all to kiss my ass.

That was several years ago. I am still totally disabled, but I kayak regularly with a good friend or my son, and I self medicate several times a week, hence my presence on this site. Many of my cognitive problems have actually improved as has my balance problem, so much for weed killing memory eh? I went back to try the EMDR again and thankfully have found that I now don't consume myself plotting my past employers' deaths or just getting depressed and pissed of, I just kind of go with the flow and take it as it comes.

The Tapping Algorithm is almost a combination of the EMDR and much of the acupuncture that I also get regularly. Rather surprising isn't it how much smaller the world gets as we get older.

Oh yeah. Not a big believer in the whole god, heaven and hell thing, but I am definitely becoming a believer in karma. My old employer is now being investigated again by the same original agencies plus they are looking at some serious criminal indictments.

What comes around goes around...well at least sometimes.

When I have some more time I'll post about the Imago therapy. Also very helpful and something that people can do together without having to participate in the medicine machine madness, although there are many good Imago trained therapist now practicing as well.

Be well.

__________________
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
_________________

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

my_scatterheart

^Thanks for sharing your strength, dude. Much appreciated.

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Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

Galt

Yeah well I guess a big part of dealin' with stress and the shit that life sends our way is the realization that things can always get worse, and for a lot of folks it already is.

The best thing I got out of the military was in working with ex-Nam POW's. They all lived by one basic precept, Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude. To this day that is still one of the military's guiding principals in their survival training programs, PMA.

So as shitty as things get for us here, at least I'm not hanging by my elbows being beat and starved everyday in solitary for seven years. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, or at least more crotchety and stubborn as is my case.

I can get in my car and drive five minutes to a store where I can get anything from Kobe beef steaks to French truffles all sitting there patiently waiting for me to choose whilst I wander about in air conditioned comfort. Almost anything that I can imagine I can buy within 15 minutes of my front door.

I've been to the Middle East and Central America and have had an opportunity to see what real poverty, suffering and ignorance are all about. It's hard to imagine people here complaining about being poor because they ran out of money on their Independence Card somewhere between paying for cable and buying the latest ring tone for their cell phone. How'd ya like to wake up every morning wondering where you're going to find food for your six kids or what am I gonna do about my little boy's rickets, only to realize that there isn't anything that you can do. At one of the places that I worked there was such a crush every day at the gate of our dump that they actually had a lottery to see who the lucky hundred were that got to pick through our garbage for food that day. As fucked up as that sounds, I assure you that it's a whole lot worse when you witness it first hand.

While we have the time and means to worry ourselves to death with hyper-tension and depression, at least we can usually manage at least some modicum of hope. Seeing people that have actually descended to a point in their existence where they've never even known hope is a very humbling catharsis.

Every American should take the opportunity to travel abroad to witness just how insane the extremes are. It would certainly make it easier for people to understand why others are willing to endure so much to come here. It might also give them some perspective on how destructive our military industrial complex's imperialism has been...but I digress, sort of...'cuz it's all related. It's not funny but when you're worried that somebody may kill you or rape you every day of your life there isn't much time to wallow in self pity and despair. How productive can a society be when it's people have to spend most every waking moment just trying to find food or stay alive?

We all need to be more self reliant...especially in the U.S., land of the fattest poor people on earth. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what the fuck you can do for yourself. Very often the very act of doing is a curative in and of itself. In a society where consumption and the acquisition of more and more stuff rules the day it's no wonder that people's attitudes and priorities are fucked up. Gimme mine, I deserve it just 'cuz I want it, me first , fuck him, fuck you, fuck everybody else.

In a world populated by hypocrites it never ceases to amaze me just how much finger pointing goes on. Eventually I hope to see people rise above the dogma of their rulers and religions long enough to look around and realize that it's not the haves against the have nots, the dark against the light, men against women, young against old, or even liberals against conservatives...it's us against them...the puppet masters.

Wanna see true evil in its purest form, look at what the international bankers have done to the developing countries of the world in the name of resource allocation for their corporate minions with the full force of nation destroying western military might. Wanna feel a whole lot better about your own plight, just imagine living somewhere where you really can't do anything for yourself to improve it.

Reticence and apathy is what got us here. Effort is required to rise and ascend, and that's not something that someone or the government is going to do for us. Get up off of your ass and engage. Do something, anything to move in a positive direction. One day you may just look up and realize that you're nowhere near as alone as you may sometimes feel. Everybody pretty much wants and needs the same things out'a life, but nobody can simply give it to ya and have it mean anything.

Sorry for the wandering diatribe. Sometimes can't resist the urge to pontificate. Markings of a reformed zealot.

O.K., I'm climbing down off of my high horse now...sorry, but this is also very therapeutic.

Love and laugh like everyday is your last...

__________________
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
_________________

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

SageTree

*admires your high horse

She's a bute!

Thanks for sharing with us Brother.

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