Posted by mattdds on June 1, 2003, at 15:49:39
In reply to Re: Found Psychological Babble - ready to babble; » mattdds, posted by Squiggles on June 1, 2003, at 13:32:31
Squiggles,
>>I think that early childhood education or
maybe it is better to say training, is
probably a great determining factor in
the way a personality learns to deal with
emotional and social problems.>>Would you agree with that?
To a certain extent. It is interesting, that some people with horrendous childhood experiences will not go on to have any significant psyhcological problems. On the other hand, there are people like myself that had very normal childhoods (as far as I know), and have suffered greatly with mental illness.
So I am certain there is a genetic (or other) component to mental illness. I would even venture a guess that certaint types of thinking are somewhat pre-programmed, like obsessive thinking for example.
Does that mean that only drugs will work? Not at all. Blood phobias are a good example of this. They are highly inherited, but can be overcome without medication using gradual exposure techniques.
>>Well, i do believe that i am cognitively
capable ( which is not the case when a person
is in an emotional crisis ) i am able to learn
things.I am glad you have gotten better! That's wonderful. It does help to have your cognition fully intact, but again, I am living proof that even when it is not, you can do more than you think. See, this is part of the illness, the belief that you are powerless over it. It can certainly *feel* like you cannot do anything, but you can. If you buy into that delusion, then it simply becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I do, however, believe that when one is severely impaired due to symptoms, behavioral techniques, like activity scheduling, will help initiate or catalyze improvement. I posted above about this in the previous thread. I was able to use cognitive therapy successfully at at time when I was extremely (at least subjectively) "cognitively impaired". Look for the link in the thread above if you want to hear the story.
Best,
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:230572
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/230615.html