A recent article in the NYT provided a fascinating look at a new approach for helping and supporting people diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder that brings with it distressing and debilitating symptoms. Hallucinations, or "the voices in your head" are very common, and cause a lot of emotional pain in those who suffer them. Medications help... but only sometimes, for some people. And the meds carry risks of very serious side effects.
The traditional approach to significant psychiatric symptoms (hallucinations, serious depression and anxiety) is that the goal of treatment is "cure," or eradication of symptoms. When we see ads in magazines or TV promoting psychiatric medications, we get the impression that the pills they offer do just exactly that... eradicate the symptoms! and also make us very happy and productive! Just look at the before-and-after pictures in these ads. "Before," the folks look sad, listless, and downright unattractive. "After," the sun shines brightly and the folks are bounding in slow-motion across the beach, smiling joyfully!
Given that these startling transformations are unrealistic, maybe we should take another look at psychiatric disorders and symptoms, and get a bit more real about the whole thing. That's what Gautama Buddha did 2500 years ago: he took a look around at the world and just flatly stated the obvious. Unhappiness is universal. This world is full of pain and difficulty for all of us, at least some of the time. It is the nature of human life. He wanted, more than anything, to help the world of suffering humanity. And he offered a path, or a way to do so, that did not involve eradicating symptoms. Instead, he offered a radically different approach to the cause and end of suffering. What he taught is that it isn't so much the symptom (e.g., the "voices" or the "anxiety") that we suffer from, but our response to these human phenomena. If we respond with fear, increased anxiety, hopelessness, to the experience of upsetting events (even including voices in the head!), then the situation is made worse than it has to be. If, on the other hand, we learn to notice these phenomena, compassionately accept them, and continue to function in a valued direction, then we can gain the satisfaction of a worthwhile life in the midst of the various griefs and outrages of human life.
The Mindfulness In Action training developed for the Counseling Practicum at Avila University (mindfulness practice plus values-based behavioral change) was designed to work this way, and there is every reason to believe that it can help people with a very wide variety of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems. In fact, mindfulness-based approaches have been demonstrated to reduce the number of psychiatric hospitalizations for people with schizophrenia!
one of your students directed me to your blog. i'll be starting the graduate program at avila myself, this fall! i'm looking forward to meeting you!
ReplyDeletethis post caught my eye, as i wrote a paper about schizophrenia in relation to the introductory illness that a shaman experiences in many other cultures. i'm intensely interested in depth and critical psychology as well. i'm also drawn to eastern thought, on so many levels. buddha's thoughts on how we respond to our dis-ease are spot on.
nice to *meet* you! i'm sure i'll be seeing you soon!