What power do psychiatric diagnoses have? Part №2

When I was at the university on a course in psychiatry I found exactly the traces of all psychotic conditions - except for the family fever. I was frightened at first, then I was having fun together with my classmates. A remarkable MMPI test at all times gave me peaks on an hysteroid and anxious scale. Well, yes, sometimes I like to show myself - a clever and beautiful woman. Well, yes, I often worry too much. Favorite - read the most unconscious - protection - hyper control and regression. So what? I think that my personal therapy was directed, first of all, to uncover the resources of my other parties. And if now sometimes me in unconscious wagering by the hysterical type and brings in - there is a possibility to get out quickly enough from them. On the realization - what am I doing here now - do I? And for what?

When one of my clients announces their "diagnosis" to me - begins to talk about themselves as schizoid or depressive, I first of all are interested in finding out what meaning a person gives to his symptoms. For example, a depressed person who is depressed can sit opposite me in a "low start" position, tense with body, and with a glint in his eyes to talk about his depression like this: "I'm sluggish, weak, completely powerless" But his condition, which he calls "lethargy" very different from my ideas about her. And from what I observe "here and now" in direct contact with him. Begin to ask: "Are you now with me languid?" And in return I can hear: "Of course - do not you see? And in general - earlier in the morning I ran five kilometers in 20 minutes, and now I need at this distance half an hour "No comment ...

Before accepting the diagnosis "on faith" and trying to immediately "treat" the client, it would be good to try to clarify its life context, from which the need to appropriately assign this diagnosis to oneself grew. That in his - her life this happened, that the adoption of such a semantic form was the best way to make your life so ... bearable.

In each diagnosis there is a resource, and a trap. Resource is his explanatory part. At the moment of confusion or pain, the meanings borrowed by us "Oh! What is this happening to me ?! Why do I react this way? "" Form "the experience. Dullness is dull. It seems that they justify our actions. But then these fixed meanings can become a trap. Accustomed to convert their feelings only one, once determined by a certain diagnosis, we fall out of the flow of time. The situation around us has already changed many times - and we, "pinned" with self-smeared once-symptomatic, once from time we give the same reactions ...

And when also the psychologist to you your diagnosis constantly confirms - you even more "stick" and "fix". On its only color - smell - taste. And the rest of your, quite viable and resourceful parts, go into the shadows.

So, according to my feelings, the clarification of the personal meanings of the diagnosis assigned by the client is the first step to release from its "tight" shell for today.

- I am depressed.

- How do you define this in yourself? What is this state for you? How do you live in this state? Why do you need such a life?

And more questions and questions ...

And if a person will answer these questions, at least in part, answer - it is up to the therapist to carefully collect a map of "liberation" from these answers. Which the person already has. He just read it difficult.

Another good way to quietly get rid of all kinds of fixation and reinforced concrete protection - read the episodes - to develop the observing part of the psyche. Someone calls this his Adult, someone - an observing part of the Ego, someone is a function of choice. For me it is a thread that keeps the balloon of my psyche in touch with reality. Or is it a feeling that at any moment I can lean on the ground. With both feet. Durable.

The most real part of our body is the body. Psychic - for the most part - a product of his life. And the better you feel your body, the easier it is for you to understand your bodily sensations. Which are pre - feelings and pre - emotions.

Initially, our bodily sensations are always related to what is happening with the body. In the context of his contact with the environment. And if we return to ourselves this sensitivity to these primary reactions, and move away from the instant - often unconscious - and therefore quick "meanings" of what is happening here and now - it is quite possible to start reacting to life in a new way each time. Spontaneously. And to regain the children's joy of daily discoveries. Sensations of unpredictability of life. Yes - of course, a little frightening. Like everything new. But at the same time and exciting your curiosity. Refreshing your perception.

In conclusion, I will say this. To proudly and with good reason to wear the High Name of Psychiatric Diagnosis, you need to have a complete picture of it. Which - in psychiatry - consists of three syndromes, each with three symptoms. At the same time, the picture should remain unchanged for at least six months. Those. your psyche should be firmly fixed in the states defined by the diagnosis, reactions to the surrounding world, forms of defensive behavior, regardless of what happens to you and around you every day - month - year. And here, if you always react to everything exactly according to the "textbook" - then yes, there is something to think over exactly what psychiatrists are thinking about.

But in my psychological practice, there are no such clients. And there are people who, in some difficult situations for themselves, can be frightened, lost, upset. While remaining so ... receptive. Seekers. Alive. Although it can sometimes be confused in your choices like when, on what and what to react ... .A for me, the experience of confusion is a good opportunity even though sometimes to meet in my life with something new, but a frightening, but still uncertain, but while exciting curiosity and interest ... Proving that life continues in all its diversity...

Author - Irina Lopatuhina

Psychologist, Gestalt therapist

Website: lopatuhina.ru