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Original poster

Does anyone know about or have experience of techniques for recovering from trauma?

40 replies

Beachcomber · 10/12/2011 19:35

Hello. I would be really grateful if we could have a discussion about trauma recovery.

In particular I'm interested in types of therapy which do not require the person to share information about the origin of the trauma with the therapist.

I have heard of techniques which can help people who are too traumatized to be able to go through types of therapy which require talking about the traumatic event or events. I'm thinking in the case of PTSD where re-visiting the events which caused the PTSD re-traumatizes the person and is therefore not safe for them.

I wondered if anyone knows about such techniques or has experience of them? Even if you don't know about it, but would be interested in discussing the subject, please post - I know very little about this myself but would really like to explore it.

Thanks.

OP posts:
Original poster
Beachcomber · 11/12/2011 10:04

Woo is good. And because this is the feminist section, let's analyse that word woo..

It is a discrediting word used to 'other' - pretty patriarchal huh?

My sister did Reiki - she did a long distance treatment on me as part of her training. She phoned me afterwards to discuss what I had felt and she asked me if I had my period or a tummy ache as she could 'feel' something in that area. I said no, was totally fine and normal. Only turned out I was pregnant but didn't know it yet (really early days before missed period).

I had never considered Reiki for mental health - thanks Bertie. Will ask my sister about it.

OP posts:
xPAULAx · 11/12/2011 10:04

*I do

xPAULAx · 11/12/2011 10:03

U do self-hypnosis and music theeapy. Musuc therapy is particularly effective. At least for me because I'm the emotional sort.

Hth

BertieBotts · 11/12/2011 09:57

My mum does Reiki, which I know is a bit woo, but does seem to work in the experiences she has had. She has worked with children as well as adults, and when I was pregnant the first time I felt my baby move was during a treatment and after that he was always very active during the treatments.

The theory is that any kind of trauma or negative experience can cause energy blocks, which manifest themselves as physical and/or mental health problems, there are various ways of treating it which will clear the blockage, but reiki in particular is a very gentle way of doing it.

Original poster
Beachcomber · 11/12/2011 09:56

I think the Electra thing came from Jung no? (Still Freud's fault though.)

Off to check.

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Original poster
Beachcomber · 11/12/2011 09:51

Thanks for posting Plumpdog, please keep chipping in!

My considered opinion is that Freud = misogynistic bullshit.

I agree that not all mental health issues are down to abuse at the hands of others, but I do think environmental factors play a massive (unrecognised) role. And what is our environment - it is patriarchy.

Women are in a constant state of cognitive dissonance - that fucks with your head. There are often threads on here about women wondering if they have PND when it sounds like the poor souls are simply exhausted and isolated.

I was miserable for the early years with my children - DD1 had health problems, DD2 was the baby that never slept (for 3 fucking years) and couldn't be put down, I was mostly alone with them all day, lived in a place where I didn't know anybody, family in another country, yadda, yadda, yadda. I wasn't depressed I was fucking miserable and with good reason.

Then of course you get all this guilt because you aren't Loving Being Mummy. Let's face it, being mummy sucks a lot of the time and it sucks because of patriarchy - therefore nobody wants to address it (or gives a shit about it).

I was pretty close to going to my doctor at one point because I wondered whether I was depressed. No doubt he would have told me I was and given me pills. It was only because of feminism that I didn't do that - I know I wasn't depressed/ill, I was reacting in a totally normal way to a pile of crap. My unhappiness was healthy IYSWIM.

And all I had to deal with was basic low level Being Mummy crap - I didn't have anyone abusing me or any other bad treatment to deal with.

OP posts:
cuibono · 10/12/2011 23:24

but of course not every person diagnosed with bpd or suffering similar types of distress has a history of, erm, premature sexual experience or whatever Freud called abuse

thanks for linking to the other threads, will have a read (or maybe tomorrow, might not be bedtime stuff)

PlumpDogPillionaire · 10/12/2011 23:07

Thank you, Beachcomber.

This might have been said in a linked thread (I've only read a bit so far and wanted to chip in again), but doesn't the Freud/Electra complex thing sort of demonstrate very clearly that psy professions invent mental illnesses rather than address the fact of abuse in women's lives?
wasn't it the case that Freud's 'Electra' patient clearly had been sexually abused by her father, and that Freud initially recorded this, but then seeing how incendiary it would be to develop his theories based on that fact he revised it so that she had 'desired' some sort of sexual attachment to her father?

Original poster
Beachcomber · 10/12/2011 22:33

Actually I think I might be mixing up 2 threads.

This one

And this one

How sad about your daughter's friend - your comment about multiple killers is very perceptive. I hope your DD is ok.

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cuibono · 10/12/2011 21:48

Was that the thread about borderline personality disorder and PTSD being broadly the same thing? I remember it because I think it was about the time my daughter was in or had recently been discharged from a hospital that offered DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy, for borderline) and even in quite brief chats with the other patients (all young women) there were lots of awful disclosures. Not a new or original thought but it felt so unjust to label them as personality disordered.

Not long after my daughter was discharged we went to the funeral of one of her friends from that hospital. It was bizarre, suicides are obviously difficult but they made it sound as if she tragically leapt from happy normal girl to dead on the brink of adulthood without any supervening events. It looked a bit like a slow murder with multiple killers to me.

Original poster
Beachcomber · 10/12/2011 21:25

I think a friend of mine has done the eye thing but i think it was with tapping rather than eye movements. I didn't make the connection until I read this

The Human Givens technique sounds very interesting.

I have a family member who has been an anti-depressants for years - she is unable to discuss certain painful events and refuses to go for therapy as she doesn't want to have to tell the therapist what is upsetting her. Thinking about that and what you just posted cuibono is reminding me of the thread we had on here about mental health. I think it was dittany who started it - it was about how so much of what is described as mental health problems in women, is in fact trauma, and is a perfectly normal and natural reaction to life events. I certainly think this is the case for my family member.

OP posts:
cuibono · 10/12/2011 20:54

Oh emdr = eye movement one

must have cross posted. Was led to believe it would be every bit as upsetting as cbt or any other sort of therapy, maybe should ask again. When I say upsetting I suppose I end up more or less decompensating

not that there is any pleasing me, it is annoying when a single event assumes too much importance in the discussions with mental health professionals but at same time I wonder if various of my traumatising experiences wouldn't provide a better explanation (than bipolar) for why I am a bit rubbish. I'm surprised at how few women I know in the mental health system have even been asked about these things when history is taken.

Original poster
Beachcomber · 10/12/2011 20:54

Thanks for the replies, am off to read about eye thing and human givens.

OP posts:
cuibono · 10/12/2011 20:19

Timely thread! My cpn has developed an enthusiasm for the 'human givens' approach (not human gibbons :( sadly, but something to do with magically rewinding your amygdala?) but I am not sure about proceeding with something for which there isn't widespread endorsement or very much evidence. Does this mean I am not alone? :)

I can't have cbt or (what is eye movement one called?) for the reasons you state - perhaps the non-traumatizing treatments for trauma don't exist (yet) but in the absence of that would be interested to find out more about the wider topic. Didn't feminist theory play an important part in the development of existing treatments or am I confusing a few different topics?

PlumpDogPillionaire · 10/12/2011 20:19

EMDR, which I think has to do with eye movements?
Started by Dr Francine Shapiro.
That's all I know.