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2scoops
USA
386 Posts |
 Posted - 03/27/2012 : 20:57:07
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Dr. Zafirides,
What are some other options? Do you have an idea of what I would need to do to get a counseling degree, since I have a BS in Marketing? Thank you for the reply. My heart is definitely into the mind, body and spirit. I'm ready to take the next step. |
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theohiostateq
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 15:27:56
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Dr. Zafirides:
Did you read the article in today's Cols. Dispatch about Thad Matta? Any opinions from a distance? |
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Dr. Zafirides
189 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2012 : 19:57:54
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quote:
Originally posted by ajm222
speaking of anti-depressants, i always suggest people read "Anatomy of an Epidemic" before relying on them too much. i personally believe (and have experienced) that AD's can be very dangerous and should be used at most for no more than 6 months or so. with all the studies showing how meditation and cognitive therpay and even placebos are just as effective, i see no reason to use them. they are indeed powerful and i can personally attest to their effectiveness. but i believe long-term they can cause changes to the brain that can be very dangerous. just my opinion, based on lots of research and experience.
Anti-depressants should always be seen as a small part of the road to health, never the whole road. They just don't work that way. I understand your concerns about long-term treatment with meds, but there are long-term consequences to not properly treating depression and anxiety that affect the immune system, the cardiovascular system, the inflammatory system, etc. It is a complex question with no clear black or white answers. Some peoples' lives have been absolutely transformed with the meds, while others continue to struggle.
There is still so much we don't know in medicine. We just must be aware of that fact. Great points though!
Dr. Z |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2012 : 07:31:13
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Dr. Z,
I would like to hear more about your treatment program. It seems to me that you view these issues as arising more from "core anxieties" than from some protective strategy the brain employs to distract us from really dangerous, hidden emotions.
My experience was that I had anxiety decades before I had pain or other bothersome symptoms. Once the symptoms got bad enough that I struggled to function, I naturally (and erroneously) saw my problem as something physical and sought treatment through physical therapy, a cadre of doctors, and ultimately lost nearly a year of my life in the search for an answer.
I found the core of my answer in the writings of two doctors: Claire Weekes and Abraham Low, both of whose writings predated Sarno's, but neither of whom specifically mention pain as the predominant symptom. It wasn't until I started to see the pain the same way that I saw my insomnia, inability to pay attention, constant diarrhea, and many other symptoms I was having as arising from a single issue that I got better. I am now symptom free and enjoying a full life.
While I was reading Dr. Low one afternoon, a statement he made virtually "leaped off the page" and convicted me. He stated that the reason we don't get better is because we constantly think erroneously about our symptoms. We seek relief, alternate explanations, avoid doing things that bring them on, and otherwise behave irresponsibly when we have a wholly benign condition in which our natural stress responses have gone into overdrive and must be retrained to reach homeostasis.
I believe this to be the single largest barrier to recovery. I work as a volunteer with people in my community who have been dealing with stress problems. Their symptoms, like mine, are varied and troubling. Most are disabled, or so they think, so they don't work, don't interact with others, and do not follow the advice of the doctor who is in charge of the group. I lived this, so I know just how powerful the fear is to going back to living and accepting the explanation that the symptoms are nothing at all to concern themselves with.
The point of my writing all this is to make a plea to you and others who are working in the world of treatment but who also have sway over the diagnostic criterion for these conditions. I have opined here for years that the pain known as TMS is exactly the same thing as the muscle tension mentioned as a symptom of GAD. But currently these disorders are listed with separate symptoms as though they exist in a vacuum or box of some sort, which further adds to the confusion and dismay of patients who want to inform themselves and venture to the DSM-IV or online equivalent for information. If you have panic attacks AND pain, you don't meet any existing criteria, so your treatment is not clear. This is tragic, in my opinion, and so unnecessary.
I would like to see one small, powerful change made to the DSM in its new iteration. Please, please, please insist that idiopathic, chronic pain be listed as a symptom of anxiety disorders, and try to have it listed under all of them if they must be broken up and listed separately. I thank you for taking the considerable time to read this.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.
Dr. Thomas Szasz |
Edited by - Hillbilly on 03/30/2012 06:01:46 |
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Dr. Zafirides
189 Posts |
Posted - 04/01/2012 : 22:02:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Neo Veloci
Hi Dr. Zafirides,
Your contributions to this forum are very interesting.
Would you mind if I trouble you to give your opinion on my anger issue as mentioned in this thread?
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7291
I could your use your opinion on the child/parent equation.
My question: When I'm angry, I'm sure I could bend the negativity spiral back to positivity but isn't that just my inner parent trying to rationalize things? Won't my inner child still be angry and keep my pain level up?
Looking forward to your reply. Now I'm going to buy Dr. Schubiners book. 
Neo,
Posted a reply on your thread. Just FYI.
Dr. Z
Kindly,
Peter Zafirides, MD
http://www.thehealthymind.com |
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Neo Veloci
Netherlands
15 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2012 : 08:40:45
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| Thank you. I do have one follow up question though, if you'll permit me... I posted it in the other thread. |
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2012 : 20:59:59
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quote:
Originally posted by Hillbilly
If you have panic attacks AND pain, you don't meet any existing criteria, so your treatment is not clear. This is tragic, in my opinion, and so unnecessary.
Yes.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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merilevy
USA
2 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 15:54:24
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Thanks for starting this thread. I am a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern and have dealt with TMS myself (in my case it was wrist tendinitis that lasted several years). I see clients in the San Francisco East Bay area and I really enjoy working with clients overcoming TMS-related pain. Do you know of any listings of TMS therapists that I could join to get the word out?
Thanks!
Meri Levy, MA
Marriage and Family Therapist Intern
Oak Creek Counseling Center
www.merilevy.com |
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Dr. Zafirides
189 Posts |
Posted - 04/16/2012 : 18:29:48
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quote:
Originally posted by merilevy
Thanks for starting this thread. I am a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern and have dealt with TMS myself (in my case it was wrist tendinitis that lasted several years). I see clients in the San Francisco East Bay area and I really enjoy working with clients overcoming TMS-related pain. Do you know of any listings of TMS therapists that I could join to get the word out?
Thanks!
Meri Levy, MA
Marriage and Family Therapist Intern
Oak Creek Counseling Center
www.merilevy.com
Meri,
We are planning to develop a network of TMS clinicians through our non-profit organization, the PPDA (Psychophysiologic Disorders Association).
The PPDA will announce the formation of that network in the future. Stay tuned!!
Kindly,
Peter Zafirides, MD
http://www.thehealthymind.com |
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Great Forum! I am a TMS Clinician
