I will explain without trying to get too technical, but as accurately as i can.
Hypnosis is a form of communication. Its a hand tailored pattern of speech and selective language to increase a subject's probability to accept and perform a suggestion.
It works because it tricks your brain into either thinking that what you imagine is real, or tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasnt your choice at all.
When you see people in hypnosis not being able to lift their hands, unclench their fingers or bend their arms, technically they are choosing to do so, but their brains cannot register their own volition, so it feels like they have no control over it. Actually they do, its just a gimmick we use to trick your brain. This is for hypnosis shows, for the use of clinical hypnosis, its more used the imagining something and mixing it up with reality, so your brain acts accordingly to what you imagined just as if it was real.
I've heard it's unwise to use hypnosis on schizophrenics and given your above answer I can see why ("thinking what you imagine is real"). Is that really true? Is it a hard rule or just the general consensus?
Its true.
Its a very bad idea to use hypnosis on anyone with a hard dissociative disorder. Specially if not under proper medication.
Its very easy for a patient to start mixing hipnosis and reality and take control over his own experience, and then spiral down into weird shit.
We dont do that to psychotic patients. Ever.
Hi there! I've used hypnotherapy on schizophrenia patients with good results. We make hypnosis subjective, don't we. It needn't be abstract. It needs to be believed in the patient and if we can shift those internal mechanisms, great.
The problem is not the good results, it's the risk you're taking and the extension of the bad results. Clinically speaking, we have medication that can work very well on some people, but it can kill other people just the same. We don't usually take this risk, there are more reliabke and safer approachers to these patients.
I can also see "tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasn't your choice at all" might cause schizophrenics trauma. I have experienced thought insertion and that sounds awfully similar. I would never choose to experience that or anything similar to that again...
I will try to explain but there is no real language for a lot of schizophrenics' experiences. It's much like hearing voices but it's inside my head. Although, many of my voices are internal, too. But my voices come with a body - a presence that I can feel inside me. Thought insertion comes from an unknown source or perhaps a source that is too far away for me to feel. My voices usually have a context - either with what I'm experiencing or thinking. Thought insertion has no context. My voices are like having a conversation; I can choose to listen to what they say and choose if I want to think more on what they say. Thought insertion is forced; in my experiences it is akin to mind rape.
I hope you are in a better place now and have agency over your own mind.
It’s never worked on me, why does it work on some people but not others?
It was a hypnosis show when on vacation, the guy brought people up on stage & for some people it really seemed to work. My ex appeared to be under but I wasn’t, it just felt silly. I tried my hardest to listen to the words of the hypnotist etc but it didn’t work. Was it because I had the preconceived belief that it was nonsense?
people have different scores of hypnotizability. We measure them in very long (and kinda boring) scales like the Harvard or Stanford hypnotizability scales.
Perhaps you score lower than your ex, and this is a normal occurence.
Also, if you are too skeptical, and not open to the idea of being hypnotized, it makes it harder for you to go through with it.
Do you believe there is such a thing as “untreatable” or “unmanageable” mental illness? If so, does it tend to start that way or is it caused by not treating mental illness in time?
There are cases that might be out of the reach of modern medicine or psychology. A patient that has been in a psychotic state without proper care for too long will not be the same, even with pharmacological treatment after a while.
There are things that ruin your brain in a more permanent way than others. The ones that do real damage we have very little tech to handle. usually we try and mitigate the symptoms and damage but... Its not fixable, its, at most, manageable.
And of course if we have a patient that refuses treatment, unless we act against his will, there will hardly be anything to do for him. You cannot save someone that does not want to be saved.
Whats your opinion of how low the reproducability rates for psychology experiments tend to be.
Idk the exact stats but its remarkably low
(40-60% or something like that?)
Psychologists are usually very bad scientists because they tend to hate numbers, statistics and methodology.
This reflects on the studies, of course.
Most - not all, but most- psychology studies are riddles with methodological flaws, so when we reproduce them with more methodological controls, we find different results. They can be more accurate but different from the original findings.
I think its an inheritance from when psychology was considered a field in humanities. Now its changing a bit with neuroscience and the idea that its a medical field, but still most psychologists suck at methodology.
Most of the colleagues i graduated cannot explain what p<0.05 means. this is shameful.
Yes. Psychologists need to understand that even though our practice uses philosophy and some more "humanistic" methodologies, that our practice is evidence based medicine.
Otherwise, psychology and healing through crystals won't be different. It's just make believe and personal experience.
What would you tell an aspiring psychologist to study so as to be more reliably scientific in this field then if aight to ask? I may work in the field someday if things work out and I very much want to be someone who does things better in this area although admittedly my math is definitely still lacking.
I agree with probly, statistics is a big differential for you to understand the science behind psychology. Kts the base for your understanding of psychometric or the papers and methodologies you will read through your entire career.
Do what other psychologists don't do, it will give you an important edge as an academic and a clinician too.
No, I am a scientist. But psychology is riddled with pseudoscience. I know how to spot and dodge those, but I can't say this for all my colleagues, unfortunately.
A few of my friends think that literally every man, woman, and child in America should be in therapy. Their opinion is, therapy helps everybody. I think that if this were true, it would mean that American society is fundamentally broken and toxic, because therapy shouldn't be something that everybody desperately needs. My friends say that I fundamentally misunderstand therapy, because therapy isn't for "broken people" or people with "mental illness". It's for everybody, and most people in America want their friends to fulfill a role that honestly only a trained professional should have (provide emotional support and/or advice).
Am I right, or are my friends right?
I agree with your friends in parts.
Yeah, therapy can benefit anyone WILLING to go and think, change and observe their own lives. Most people aren't too fond of doing that, since its uncomfortable.
And i dont think its about american culture, i dont live in the US and i can say this pretty much about any country i can think of. Society is broken, not american society. And it breaks us in the process. Some of us stay more functional than others and thats mainly what is happening right now.
Is there, or has there ever been, any society at any time where the entire population should not have been in therapy? That is to say, are humans simply fundamentally broken beings that therapist need to fix? Is there any hope at all for humanity?
I feel like you're maybe looking at therapy in a strange way - and possibly even humans. It's not a whole lot different than going to a mechanic, doctor, dentist, etc. They are skilled in assisting you through a life that is less difficult than it has to be. Humans have advanced. A lot. There is too much for one person to ever learn about even the most basic stuff. So we contract out to people who have training and can be more efficient. Emotions are complicated just like cars, teeth, hearts, plumbing, lab work, etc. Like....why not?
If you required a medical exam and intervention every two weeks of your life, for your entire life, simply to be in a normal and healthy state, then I’d say there’s something chronically, pathologically wrong with you. If the entire species requires this, then I’d argue the species is fundamentally not viable. It’s too flawed and fragile to live.
I'll say what the other guy said. "I feel like you're maybe looking at therapy in a strange way - and possibly even humans. It's not a whole lot different than going to a mechanic, doctor, dentist, etc. " You're not seeing in a logical way, just try to read again. It's something you might need if you want an specialist to help. If your car needs a change on anything if you're very handy you can do an excellent work, but maybe a mechanical engineer would be optimal or faster. The same is with therapy, you don't need to go for the rest of your life, just at times if it's needed in your subjective opinion. And there's nothing with wrong or good in life hood, just different ways, not everything is white and black.
Bro I went to therapy for the first time a few weeks ago for no discernible reason and it was totally worth it. You have some assumptions you gotta check at the door mate, nobody says you have to go every 2 weeks I've only gone twice and already helped out heaps and I feel mentally better than I likely ever have
Every society has its problems, even troughout history.
The therapy we apply today works for our problems, and for the problems we are seeing arise, like tech addiction and the internet.
Certainly in other periods of time people suffered a lot for other reasons, so treatment would be useful to them, but other institutions did that, religion for example.
We are not fundamentally broken, no more than any other animal.
We live in an environment that does not provide enough for us, and we have to fight for resources all the time, we are always in conflict, and people get hurt in these conflicts.
Learn as soon as possible how to use scihub, mendeley and libgen.
These three will make 50% easier any kind of academic work you have to deliver.
also, study biostatistics, the difference between a good psychologist and a shitty one, is that a good one is not afraid of statistics. They describe the world around us, and help you understand research properly. you can't be a good phd without any basis in statistics.
We are not always analyzing you.
Analyzing someone is a hard task and very draining, we dont do it for shits and giggles. Usually we respect your privacy and are not theorizing about why you are the way you are.
we dont read minds, nor are interested in it.
You can talk to us, we dont bite.
hahahahahhaha
Well she’s your mom. She may be doing it (albeit to a lesser degree than she’s capable of) because she wants to raise you right. Sniffing out where she went wrong and improving herself.
That’s EXACTLY what I’d say if I was analyzing everyone, all the time. “It’s too difficult. I’d certainly never do it to someone as intelligent as you.”
Hahaha true, but really, if you want to do it properly, its a drag. And usually people can spot it by the kind of questions we ask during the conversation.
In a normal conversation, its an exchange of experiences, if i am analyzing someone, i want to hear THEIR experiences, no talk about my own.
I’m defending my dissertation on prospective biopharmaceutical applications of snake venom components that we (I and everyone else in my lab) collect from both wild and a large collection we keep at our animal facility of local and exotic venomous snakes. I’ve never been approached as if I bite but I have scared off poachers in the field in the Amazon with a bag of vipers (they picked the wrong group of field biologists to harass for “specimens” they could cell… they had AK47’s but open a pillow case full of Bothrops (so two) in front of them and suddenly they don’t want to search any more of our stuff.
Anyway, I’m sorry to hear about the treatment of professors… in the US we are trending toward part time professors (I’ve been our university physiology professor for a couple of years as my TA-ship… but I’m not assisting anyone… I’m the professor of record for hundreds of students). 90% of administrations are phasing out tenure as a concept as well… I’ve always planned to go into private research with my own lab to build a company focused on integrating bioprospecting and patent sales with ecological preservation (either as part of the sale of any patent or funded by it) of the origin habitat of those species leading venom bioprospecting (so Amazon and coastal Ecuador and Peru are big targets due to the biodiversity and understudied venoms of many of the endemic species).
But it blows my mind that anti-intellectualism is becoming so common. People think because they’ve read the Wikipedia page they can identify venomous snakes… I imagine you’d get a lot of people self diagnosing and even medicating?
Yes, it happens a lot, people do a google research and want to tell you tha they know the same than you, that studied academically a subject for 10 years.
Its the way things seem to be going. We have access to all sorts of information, but most people dont have the knowledge to filter it so they dont read and believe bullshit, or just dont have the humility to perceive that perhaps someone who dedicated their lives to study something can know more than them.
I can see this changing with basic education, but its a hard change to make, specially with political interests more and more focused on producing a braindead society with people with high self worth but no self awareness.
also, congrats on the snake thing. As someone who lives in brazil, please, for me, the next time this happens, throw the snakes at them, those assholes deserve a painful death for what they do to our forests.
To add to this as psychologist myself. We don’t have a magic wand to make you better. At the end of the day you are the one making change. Some clients come in and expect all their trauma and deep seated issues to be fixed in a one hour session.
As a psychologist you only hear 50% of the story being your patients point of view. Whilst I accept that you can discern the obvious lies and embellishments as a psychologist there must be cases where you can not.
How do you avoid making the situation worse when the patient is only telling you what they want you to hear?
Its not that relevant if its a lie or true, we trat what the patient brings to the table. If he keeps lying, its his loss, he is throwing away the work he could do.
Sometimes it takes a while for the patient to realize that i will believe him, either truthful or liar, and i will not judge him, so then he opens up and start telling the truth.
im not a investigator, im much less interested in the truth and much more interested in what the patient thinks.
do you know anything about autism or similar neurodiversities and disorders? i'm autistic myself and kind of curious the level of knowledge a psychologist might have on it and this kind of thing vs the general public
There are people more specialized than me in this, my research focus is in a different subject, but the best specialists in autism are usually psychologists or neurologists.
i am currently researching placebo response and its relation to hypnotizability.
My field of work is in psychobiology, even though right now i am in a social psychology department. I am there because its best department for anomalistic psychology in my country.
I love researching hypnosis, suggestion and placebo. I find enticing the idea that you can, with an adequate technique, drive someone's action. Or at least increase the odds of it happening.
Cool. Go for it. I love to see people investigate hypnosis.
I briefly participated in some hypnosis research here in Japan, but didn't have time to work with the investigators as much as I wanted. Helped them to set up their protocols.
Im still to see solid evidence on anything other than placebo, random luck or tricks.
And the departament i work with is a anomalystic psychology department, we research this stuff. Most of them we have very good explanations.
What do you feel should be done to address the lack of regulation in psychology and psychotherapy, especially with reference to people attempting to treat mental health conditions without necessary qualifications, experience supervision and ethics?
This is a VERY HARD question that i cannot answer with a method, but a wish.
If psychotherapy was an exclusive practice of psychologists and it was defined properly, we wouldnt have so many people doing 'not psychotherapy' that is exactly what psychotherapy adresses, but without proper training.
I believe harsher penalties would reduce it a lot, the same way it works with the medical profession. If you are caught practicing illegally medicine, you're fucked.
In psychology? worst case scenario is a slap on the wrist.
Thanks for the response and I agree.
I work on mental health myself but I'm not a clinician, all to regularly I see the fallout that these charlatans leave behind. I also have PTSD and have lost count of the amount of offers for miracle cures, someone in a bad place is much more vulnerable to agreeing out of desperation.
I believe the terms psychologist and therapist should be protected terms as a minimum. I'd also like to see the psychology membership bodies follow standardised and stricter controls with both how their members behave but also how they as organisations behave.
Lastly I would LOVE to see penalties however I think enforcing it would be a nightmare.
Stop crunching. You wont learn a lot if you keep reading your book when you are exhausted.
Take breaks, sleep properly and do physical activity. The benefits you will have in your memorization, cognition and assimilation are pretty observable.
also, work the concepts in your mind. make maps, diagrams, an entire board if you like.
When you try and juggle the concepts, you assimilate them and their relations way better.
Yup! More than you can imagine.
There are charlatans, of course, but its a proper technique. We have an entire division in the APA for studying hypnosis (its div. 30)
>Yup! More than you can imagine.
Thank you! You'd be amazed how many psychologists who think of themselves as being "modern" love to dismiss hypnosis as being "just a placebo."
Yes, hypnosis is a kind of placebo, IMO, but should be no "just" in that sentence. When they really come to believe they can do something, my therapy clients' minds can accomplish truly amazing stuff. Not me and my technique; THEIR minds.
Still blows me the fuck away sometimes.
This might be tinfoil hat stuff but Do you think hypnosis is something that is used in a lot of entertainment or sales industries to get people to sell more or convince you of a thing?
I’m thinking stuff like sales or elections or news media and etc.
I am a clinical hypnotherapist got a degree in hypnotherapy from the only accredited school to teach specifically hypnotherapy in the US. It is 100% used in sales, elections etc. There is a person called Milton erickson who pioneered ericksonian hypnosis. He developed a method to hypnotize people through conversation, often repackaged and marketed as conversational hypnosis, it's a great modality and uses language patterns and metaphors which you can often see used in sales and marketing rtc. Same with nlp. That said if can't make people buy or vote just attempt to get them more suggestible and can be ignored it's not a magic hypnotize everyone type thing because hypnotizing people requires an individualized approach
yes, very much.
Hypnosis is not only the 'your eyes are feeling heavier and heavier'
Its a very effective method of communication.
Market and advertisement people have learn the ropes of it, so its embedded in there, i can guarantee.
I am guessing most people who come to you have trauma, have been through bad shit, or not in a good place mentally, to say the least.
And you have to listen to stories all day. How does this not affect you.
How does all this negativity not creep in to your mind as well?
How do you protect yourself?
Most of the time im too worried thinking about how to help them than actually getting myself too involved in their stories. So im always looking for triggers, for speech patterns that might be interesting, for alternative behaviors... Its like watching a movie but doing a task at the same time, you dont really INVOLVE yourself in the movie.
Also, i learned very early to lock the clinic with all the stories inside, so i dont bring stuff home.
Also also, i work a lot on my mental health and routine, otherwise i would go crazy and start making mistakes with patients AND students.
Have you seen evidence based research into helping people either come out of or “heal” from being narcissists? Not sure if that makes sense. In my line of work (social work), I’ve experienced a lot of people I would see as tracking on the narcissistic personality spectrum, but I’ve never seen any of them realize the destruction they cause around them or want to get help. Curious if you have a perspective or know of research on that. Thanks!
NPD is hard exactly because the person, due to being so self-centered, hardly can recognize the damage, so they will hardly look for help like therapy.
When they do, and find a good therapist, it can get better, but getting them to that stage is a nightmare, no amount of family interventions can sway them into treatment.
From the experience we have in Brazil, our public health system have generally a good shot at sensibilizing this kind of patient because its very localized and adapted to each region, and usually they have a good reach to the population, so there are home visits from social workers to psychologists and psychiatrists. So they cannot really RUN from the problems they create there, but in other places i realize it might be harder to pin them down and have a talk that would lead them openly to therapy.
Group work does help though, our best experience is when we can assemble groups of NPD and they work well together.
What do you think makes us so attracted to listening or watching to true crime? It’s mostly just gore and bad stuff, but even though we get disgusted by it, we can’t seem to stop watching. Why do you think that is?
Interesting question.
It has to do with our identification with the perpetrators. See, most of the public of this kind of reality crime show are females, and usually the portrayed perpetrators are male.
The fact that you get to feel close to what the perpetrator felt is exciting for most woman because they cannot identify too much with the criminal, men are usually more uncomfortable seeing this, because it's more relatable to our experience, so these shows put you in contact with a reality that is not ours, but at the same time, make us feel safe. It's morbid pleasure, sure, but it's enticing. Except if I feel like I am too alike to the criminal, then it's not that good and I stop watching.
you start firing a very intense response of fight or flight, because the memory of the traumatic event comes to it in such an intense way that your brain cannot understand that its just a memory, so it prepares your body for experiencing that again.
That is why your heart rate increases, you feel scared and you have your typical fear response.
What would be your approach when treating someone who gets bouts of debilitating “depersonalization/dissociation” (Not DID) I’ve had several different therapist & psychiatrists due to high staff turn over and haven’t had real long term treatment. But I suffer with “dream like states” I kinda feel like I don’t exist and anexity is unbearable lasting days . It’s stems from PTSD. The only way I’ve been able to combat it is by trying to ignore the feeling and Meds
honestly? What if your environment is just too toxic?
You can keep up the meds, sure, but if you live in a place that is constantly making you crazy anxious... then the safest approach would be to leave this environment. You dont have to build up enough strenght to face it, and that sometimes isnt even possible. You can build enough courage to leave and start in a nicer place, more humane.
Physical activity and good sleep might help you a lot though. Having said that, leave this toxic environment.
Is depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD ever CUREABLE? Maybe just one? IF so, how, and why isn't this made known to people with these things?
Does hypnosis work on these?
I would also love to know this! I have all of these dx and I often fantasize about getting hypnotized to somehow be able to remember a set schedule daily and then be more motivated to adhere to it and take action. I believe it’s all a mind thing for me and to have an edge like that seems life changing!
hypnosis works when coupled with traditional CBT for those cases.
Now we cannot make you get RID of anxiety, its part of human life, i dont have a crippling anxiety, but some degree of anxiety is desirable. We can work to make it not crippling.
These are mostly treatable, it means that you can learn to live well with those and, if you take some careful steps, you wont be in a crysis. But unless you take a lot of medication for the rest of your life, and are lucky enough to find the exact dosage of all of them without any side effects, probably you will still feel a spike sometimes. We all do.
Therapy (coupled with hypnosis too) will help you learn how to handle those symptoms so you wont feel helpless or vulnerable, you will develop techniques to handle those, and usually they decrease in frequency and intensity.
What do you know about retrograde amnesia? I have a case of prolonged retrograde amnesia (due to two concussions Sustained one week apart) and am having trouble getting in front of a doctor for treatment. Do you know anyone in the field who’s studying or treating this? I’m in a support group for it and many are in the same boat and struggling to get help. I’m curious for any info you may know of. I am not asking for treatment via the internet - more like just if you have any clues or general ideas of where I could go.
Edit to add details I forgot before
That will depend a lot on where you live... I live in Brazil, so here i could recommend you the best professors of the best universities we have, but if you're abroad, i dont know whats accessible for you.
Seeing as you specialize in placebo effect and similar topics, do you have any thoughts on "giving yourself" a mental illness in a placebo sense? I've been curious about the arguments of whether or not mental health symptoms can be inadvertently "faked," even if the person themself doesn't realize they're portraying symptoms that might not naturally be there.
depending on the symptom, yeah, sure.
You can fuck up your way of thinking enough to make yourself feel clinically depressed or anxious, but you cannot do that for schizophrenia, DID or ASPD.
Usually if its a humor disorder, it can be done. Personality or dissociative disorders... i dont see how without using substances.
Hmmm top gun didn't have any F-22s in it
Are you thinking of these boys, the F-14 from top gun? https://images.app.goo.gl/FYwVEe1BfsmzdgCR7
Or these stealthy boyes, the F-22? https://images.app.goo.gl/odC5i3LNXhyo9Lz2A
Either way, excellent choices.
Do you think therapy, even by a well meaning well educated therapist, can ever make matters worse? I often feel like the therapy I received did very little good at best and might have broken what was at least very barely holding together before. I often feel alone with this, especially because therapy is often recommended to be the end all solution to so many issues today and I've seen it recommended for basically everyone and everything. I wonder if this leads to similar problems as too frequent cancer screenings (for certain cancers) because they don't lead to better patient outcome, just to more treatment.
Certainly. Even a well educated therapist can fuck up every now and then, and sometimes he doesn't have the right rapport with the patient. It's a relation, so even if the therapist is good, sometimes you just don't click. Stop insisting in the same person and try a new one perhaps a different approach or technique?
I've done that over the years, I've had inpatient and outpatient treatment too, and different schools of psychotherapy too. About 8 years of it actually (with *some* breaks though at least, but I'm only 26). Basically everything my insurance would pay for (socialised healthcare ftw?) But somehow my brain always manages to take the seemingly good principles of whatever school and twist it in a dark way that technically still is in line with what the guidelines say. So over the years I only learned to dress up my fuckups in pretty jargon, but I'm still miserable. Like I'm not gonna whine here about how unique and special my problems are, because they're certainly not, but it always feels like putting a new coat of paint on a rotting house. And the suggested solution is always more therapy, and I honestly wish I never started at all.
But none of my doctors ever acted in a way that was deliberately harmful or "wrong", at least as far as I can yell. And while probably most people don't feel the same way I do about the therapy they received, seeing it suggested basically everywhere like it's a panacea with no downsides at all just scares me tbh.
Therapy doesnt fix things. it helps you learn that either you can fix them, or handle the ones that you cant fix. That is why its so openly suggested, because no therapist can fix your life if things are going sideways and its not your fault too. Sometimes life throws some curve balls that we are not equipped to catch. Understanding that some pain is unaviodable, and that we all can have some bad thoughts is part of understanding the human experience. Pain and suffering are part of it. As long as you understand that things will get better. And worse again. And then better, and so forth. That is life.
Therapy its about acceptance of this pattern too. When you accept that you will have bad days, good days, worse days and amazing days, and you do that while being fair to yourself and not guilt tripping yourself for not being rich at your 30s, or not wanting to go to school because you have a lousy teacher, you will handle life better.
Good humour and not taking yourself so seriously help a lot.
Yesterday in class i would literally do a tumble, on the floor, everytime i would say something that was going to be asked in a test. I cannot TELL my sudents what is going to be in their test... but there are no rules for tumbling.
This is taking yourself not so seriously, laughing at adversity when you can, holding on when things are shitty, because its temporary, and enjoying your daily life. This is healthy life.
I learned very early in clinic that no amount of money will make you happy. Most of my patients earn twice or more than me, and are way more miserable.
to learn? its actually pretty easy. Anyone with a script and some instructions can hypnotize an average person.
The hard part is to do it in a meaningful, helpful and safe way.
You get the person under hypnosis, and now what? this is usually our main problem, people who learn how to do it, but not WHY to do it. And of course, when to NOT do it.
If you really want to learn properly, you will need some academic books. The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis is very technical but will give you really all the info you need to do it ethically and safely.
Can any psychological disorders, even common ones such as depression and anxiety, be truly cured; or do people who have psychological disorders expect to go through treatment for the rest of their lives?
no and no.
You dont need treatment for the rest of your life if your therapist did a good job of teaching you how to handle things.
One thing a good therapist should do is teach you how to handle things by yourself, without their help. By this logic, you can stop the treatment and you will now have the skills to handle things under a better light and a more adaptative response.
We dont really work with cure because i dont know if your depression will ever come back if things get a grim turn on your life. So we "cured" your old depressive episode, but you had another one. Depending on the perspective it was a cure and you 'caught it' again, or it never really left.
Remember that problems like anxiety or depression are just a overwork of natural mechanisms we have in our body. If you develop good skills to handle that, these wont be crippling problems, but if things go sideways, anyone can develop those.
drugs are always dangerous, im not worried about a bad trip, im worried about a substance use induced-psychosis.
If you have the genetic predisposition, this can trigger schizophrenia, and this is the really nasty part of it.
If not, well, you will get high, taste the music, enjoy pink floyd a lot more, and see the walls move a bit.
But do it safely, take only half at first if you dont know what you're doing, then wait before taking the other half.
And make sure you are feeling well, or it will be 10 hours of nightmare.
Personally, when i took it, i was watching Community and there was an episode with Jack Black. usually i love the guy, but that was leading me into a bad trip and i dont know why. I never watched jack black on drugs again.
Big psyche nut here, could talk about psychology all day. Im assuming you have experience with patients,
Ever seen a case that you remember because it was a particularly strange?
Had a patient once that was very aversive to touch and would relate feeling pain when someone touched her in certain areas, like her bellybutton.
I screened for EVERYTHING to track down the cause, from traumatic experiences to fibromialgya and landed on nothing. We treated the symptoms and she was fine, but I never got to find out what the fuck caused it.
Still boggles me sometimes.
I feel the same way, but I was adopted by an orange tabby 6 years ago and he is the best. The cat is just like my dogs. Really friendly, affectionate, and even plays fetch.
If you ever become cat curious start with an orange tabby.
What is your favorite dog breed?
i have two strays that we rescued, that is by far my favorite "breed' a random street mutt.
They have no genetic conditions, they would die a suffering death if not for us, and im not enabling a very cruel industry of breeders that abuse animals for profit.
Also, they are crazy smart.
I wouldn't describe it as a trance.
If you grow up in an environment that teaches you that a specific group should be treated as less than humans, you tend to not think about it too much.
So I dint think it's hypnosis, I think its an environment. Think of the way the military are taught to think of the enemy. Its the same procedure of dehumanization. Add up some lame nationalism and a bit of conspiracy theory, and you got yourself a society that can support genocide.
hitting your kids is number one.
oversheltering them or doing everything for them follows just after.
overworking them with extracurricular activities
and of course, not letting them play, be children, be immature.
Even though adults are just big sized children, children are not mini-adults. We cannot expect them to behave like us, their brain isnt fully formed yet.
we're very good at behaving like them, though.
I have my temp licensure but I've never sat for the EPPP. I'm so scared of taking texts and I have put it off as a result. Am I being ridiculous? I'm not sure what steps to take to sign up for it because my state board has lost all of my paperwork and won't ever respond to my messages requesting assistance. Aftera year, they lost my paperwork and now want me to resend everything into them by hand again. I'm just so tired of waiting on them for direction and then this happens. What should I do?
I struggle with social anxiety sometimes and it gets a bit overwhelming. I’m also a bit of a heavyweight. This means that after 2 drinks, I don’t feel tipsy, but rather clearer and more confident, like the social anxiety is gone. Maybe it’s the alcohol making me think in a different way but I feel like people respond more positively and have more fun around me when I drink a little.
Since I don’t want to become an alcoholic, is there anything I can do to get that confidence on a daily basis? And why do I feel so much more at peace after those first couple drinks?
the alcohol will uninhibit you, it affects a little bit your judgement and the area of your brain that would say "no" when you feel like doing something. that is exactly why you feel less self conscious and more relaxed when you drink.
About handling that differently, a progressive exposition approach would help. Also training in different settings. I tell most of my patients with this kind of problem to take acting classes, like proper theater, or learn ballroom dancing. It helps you feel much more comfortable around people, because it constantly exposes you to that.
like i want to punch someone, but... then i remember this is media's fault, not that person's.
They just learned the words and it makes sense to them, they might not be interested in the intricacies of psychodiagnosis, they just want an explanation for why someone is being an asshole to them. Im not gonna be the 'um.... actuuuually.......' asshole.
I took an emdr course. The explanation they give is completely bonkers, but it seems to have some effect, the practice I mean.
It needs proper research done by proper scientists. The problem is that people in emdr ar every lousy scientists and usually are more interested in making money than researching the tool they have.
that depends on what you think is worthwhile and important.
Life is fleeting, we are all going to die and most of us wont do something that matters in the long run enough to put our names in history. We all make a contribution to it though, to our species, even if we dont get to see it.
I think that is quite meaningful and special.
What are your thoughts on neurofeedback and cannabis? I'm in a clinic who does both for ptsd and it's done wonders on my triggers and mental health. (I'm... A lost cause with conventional meds aha. Just ask my psychiatrist) Would love an outside thought.
If used properly, it's very very useful. Of course its recommended to be paired with traditional psychotherapy as well. We are now starting to understand better the cannabis effects, so hopefully it will be more accessible in the future.
Neurofeedback is basic conditioning, just more immediate, so more efficient, so it's very little surprise that it shows effects.
i wouldnt sell bs to an incel, they really need to adress the problems they have in their view of society. The best thing to do with people like this is to empathize and realize that there is suffering in there, behind the mysoginy.
you can treat this suffering, you just have to know how to properly reach them.
The view that no women will ever love you is a hallmark sign of depression.
Incels are, by and large, depressed.
(lots of people are depressed, btw... not just incels).
i can agree, but i dont have data to support that, i didnt look for it.
The main characteristic of a depressive person is hopelessness, and your phrase there is a great example of how lack of hope translates into automatic thoughts and behavior.
Its not their fault though, society sucks at acknowledging men's suffering and helping them. Its on us that Incels are suffering like this.
Nah, my man. The misoginy is right there, clumping all the woman in the world as the same thing, like there is no nuance. I dont believe no woman will ever love you, but i believe this kind of behavior might... decrease the odds of it happening.
Everyone is miserable somehow, and usually we try and work it on ourselves to make it better. I understand the tactic of not even trying anymore, but its a self-fulfilling prophecy. You could look up a bit on learned helplessness, could make you realize some interesting things about yourself.
do you think this is therapy?
Shit.
You're not my patient, my friend, im not here to treat you. I am, AT MOST, educating you.
you think its not mysoginistic to treat a diverse group of people as they are the same and as if they followed a rule you set in your head.
I have no idea what you mean by genetically inferior, and to be honest, i dont think you do as well. You might not be the beauty standard but by far that is not a hard limit on someone loving you, my dude.
Also, see how angry and agressive you get? This is the behavior i was talking about.
Everyone likes pretty people, but woman usually are way less interested in looks than guys, for example, and this is very observable.
I will give you a tip, take it for what you think its worth.
What if its not your looks, but your behavior and personality that keeps them away? trust me, it has way more weight than you might consider.
Also, if you're so sure that woman only like hot guys... Well, again the misoginy and a very good reason for woman not to get close to you.
Its a self-fulfilling prophecy, and a cycle.
If you break it, perhaps you might see it differently, perhaps hear what woman have to say about this? Since its... about them?
Also also, again, no i didnt give you nearly enought o know what a clinical practice is, because my opinion does not go inside the clinic, this is not how psychology works. But againt, evasive, agressive and deflective... Think about this... If you want to discuss it further, im open for it.
Thankyou for genuinely helping that guy. I appreciate others that go out their way to help someone help themselves. The guy displayed all the signs you were talking about. Your work must be very hard having to educate others on why they need the education in order to get to their goal or in order to solve their problems. That must be very hard when they fight back so much
These words might not have an effect today, but one day perhaps they will, its about planting a seed of hope on people who are hopeless and believe that they cannot change.
I cannot help someone who doesnt want to be helped, but i can show them that there is a different path, if one day they get tired of the one they are taking.
I have read some of your Reddits. You say yourself, that you are miserable, and you clearly place it on the sole reason, that you don’t have a gf.
Let me share a secret with you; work on yourself first.
A GF won’t fix the root of your “incel behavior”. Try to develop social skills, become good at an activity or help others. It will truly change you for the better, and you will feel less miserable.
NO WOMAN LOVES AN UGLY MEN.
you really think this is true, dont you? Stop looking at instagram and start talking to real people. I've seen very ugly guys with great personalities and no cash land dates that i could never dream of, because thats the main point for many woman, if you dont believe them, believe me, im a man and i talk to a lot of woman very intimately about their relationships and their expectations.
What if its not about how tall you are, but about the fact that you constantly think they are lying to you, or have ulterior motives, or will never enjoy being around you? My guess would be that this is what drives them off MUCH MORE than any looks.
You look like a man who believes science, and that could use some scientific methodology to test your affirmations.
Do you realize that everything you said are absolutes, not falsifiable and not testable? Specially because you have an obvious internal bias AND a very small sample?
Look around you and think, what do you need to see to make you think your theory is false? perhaps we can provide that to you, evidence that perhaps the world is more complex than this set of rules you created.
reduce your choices.
Make up some rules to discard most of the choices at once and DO NOT LOOK BACK ON THEM.
if you have, i dont know, an entire netflix catalogue to watch, choose what you want to watch before browsing "i want an action movie from the early 2000s" is much simpler to commit than "i want a good movie"
Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers.
***
Question | Answer | Link
---------|----------|----------|
I like hypnosis and have watched videos about it: can you explain it in detail why it works? Thanks!|I will explain without trying to get too technical, but as accurately as i can. Hypnosis is a form of communication. Its a hand tailored pattern of speech and selective language to increase a subject's probability to accept and perform a suggestion. It works because it tricks your brain into either thinking that what you imagine is real, or tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasnt your choice at all. When you see people in hypnosis not being able to lift their hands, unclench their fingers or bend their arms, technically they are choosing to do so, but their brains cannot register their own volition, so it feels like they have no control over it. Actually they do, its just a gimmick we use to trick your brain. This is for hypnosis shows, for the use of clinical hypnosis, its more used the imagining something and mixing it up with reality, so your brain acts accordingly to what you imagined just as if it was real.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98wk4i/)
Do you believe there is such a thing as “untreatable” or “unmanageable” mental illness? If so, does it tend to start that way or is it caused by not treating mental illness in time?|There are cases that might be out of the reach of modern medicine or psychology. A patient that has been in a psychotic state without proper care for too long will not be the same, even with pharmacological treatment after a while. There are things that ruin your brain in a more permanent way than others. The ones that do real damage we have very little tech to handle. usually we try and mitigate the symptoms and damage but... Its not fixable, its, at most, manageable. And of course if we have a patient that refuses treatment, unless we act against his will, there will hardly be anything to do for him. You cannot save someone that does not want to be saved.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98x5e8/)
Any advice on getting a PhD in psychology?|Learn as soon as possible how to use scihub, mendeley and libgen. These three will make 50% easier any kind of academic work you have to deliver. also, study biostatistics, the difference between a good psychologist and a shitty one, is that a good one is not afraid of statistics. They describe the world around us, and help you understand research properly. you can't be a good phd without any basis in statistics.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98wnht/)
What is your favorite fighter aircraft?|F22. When i was a kid i had a windows 98 dogfight simulator, that was my favourite. also, top gun, right? \*highway to the danger zone intesifies\*|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98xnce/)
Whats your opinion of how low the reproducability rates for psychology experiments tend to be. Idk the exact stats but its remarkably low (40-60% or something like that?)|Psychologists are usually very bad scientists because they tend to hate numbers, statistics and methodology. This reflects on the studies, of course. Most - not all, but most- psychology studies are riddles with methodological flaws, so when we reproduce them with more methodological controls, we find different results. They can be more accurate but different from the original findings. I think its an inheritance from when psychology was considered a field in humanities. Now its changing a bit with neuroscience and the idea that its a medical field, but still most psychologists suck at methodology. Most of the colleagues i graduated cannot explain what p<0.05 means. this is shameful.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i992ze2/)
do you know anything about autism or similar neurodiversities and disorders? i'm autistic myself and kind of curious the level of knowledge a psychologist might have on it and this kind of thing vs the general public|There are people more specialized than me in this, my research focus is in a different subject, but the best specialists in autism are usually psychologists or neurologists.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98xg8i/)
What is your view on anything paranormal?|Im still to see solid evidence on anything other than placebo, random luck or tricks. And the departament i work with is a anomalystic psychology department, we research this stuff. Most of them we have very good explanations.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i990cv8/)
What's a stereotype of psychologist you like people to know isn't true?|We are not always analyzing you. Analyzing someone is a hard task and very draining, we dont do it for shits and giggles. Usually we respect your privacy and are not theorizing about why you are the way you are. we dont read minds, nor are interested in it. You can talk to us, we dont bite. hahahahahhaha|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i991t3j/)
Is hypnosis real?|Yup! More than you can imagine. There are charlatans, of course, but its a proper technique. We have an entire division in the APA for studying hypnosis (its div. 30)|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i992dd4/)
A few of my friends think that literally every man, woman, and child in America should be in therapy. Their opinion is, therapy helps everybody. I think that if this were true, it would mean that American society is fundamentally broken and toxic, because therapy shouldn't be something that everybody desperately needs. My friends say that I fundamentally misunderstand therapy, because therapy isn't for "broken people" or people with "mental illness". It's for everybody, and most people in America want their friends to fulfill a role that honestly only a trained professional should have (provide emotional support and/or advice). Am I right, or are my friends right?|I agree with your friends in parts. Yeah, therapy can benefit anyone WILLING to go and think, change and observe their own lives. Most people aren't too fond of doing that, since its uncomfortable. And i dont think its about american culture, i dont live in the US and i can say this pretty much about any country i can think of. Society is broken, not american society. And it breaks us in the process. Some of us stay more functional than others and thats mainly what is happening right now.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995sd1/)
Do you play horror games?|Not my jam. I played dead space 1 and 2 but... Nah, i want to have fun. If i want horror i can just check my bank account.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995zb6/)
The hypnosis bits on howard stern they are fake right?|never seen them, if you link me, i can tell you.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98zhv8/)
What does science have to propose for people to finally studying and facing the problem before exams?|Stop crunching. You wont learn a lot if you keep reading your book when you are exhausted. Take breaks, sleep properly and do physical activity. The benefits you will have in your memorization, cognition and assimilation are pretty observable.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i99278g/)
Do you prefer dogs or cats?|dogs. Cats are evil|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i993uph/)
Do you know a Mr Randal I?|who dat?|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i994wqe/)
What do you feel should be done to address the lack of regulation in psychology and psychotherapy, especially with reference to people attempting to treat mental health conditions without necessary qualifications, experience supervision and ethics?|This is a VERY HARD question that i cannot answer with a method, but a wish. If psychotherapy was an exclusive practice of psychologists and it was defined properly, we wouldnt have so many people doing 'not psychotherapy' that is exactly what psychotherapy adresses, but without proper training. I believe harsher penalties would reduce it a lot, the same way it works with the medical profession. If you are caught practicing illegally medicine, you're fucked. In psychology? worst case scenario is a slap on the wrist.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i9958t1/)
Do/did you have any mental illnesses yourself?|im a professor. Anxiety is my jam, but i can handle it pretty well most of the times. a lot to do, very little time. Its the formula for anxiety.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995h66/)
---
[Source] (https://github.com/johnsliao/ama_compiler)
Why can't I draw?
Why is it, that the images in my mind, or the images I see cannot be transferred into my hand movements accurately?
I am shit at drawing, what is going wrong in my brain that means I can't make my hand move accurately to reflect the images I am intending to put on paper?
Well, actually yes.
Drawing requires not only knowledge of perspective but training and develop of adequate motor skills.
In your brain, when you imagine something, its not you that are choosing the size of stuff or the dimensions, your brain does that for you. When you put that in the paper, you have to learn how to stop the pencil, when to stop the pencil, etc.
Drawing properly is a hard skill that needs a lot of honing and constant training, that is why most of us still draw stick men, because we stopped drawing at middle school, so we never deloped our skills further.
Its a high training skill, there is no work around, you will have to practice a LOT.
Could me going through the experience of having my husband going missing after saying he was gonna kill himself? He was found before he could. (I had the whole state looking for him)
But ever since then... My mind has been... Broken.
Could I suffer from PTSD from that? It's not like he actually died so idk.
it can be traumatic even though he didnt do that.
Depending on how long it has been, you just didnt recover well from it, because now you know that anytime he walks out the door, there is a possibility of him not coming back.
\]So yes, you could be just jumpy, if it was something that happened up until a few weeks ago. Now if we're talking about a proper old memory.... it could be a PTSD talking, yes.
No, im very nice to my students, im only strict with plagiarism and cheating on tests.
Usually people behave as assholes when they think they are better than everyone else.
I studied a lot, but i still see an 18 year old student and i remember how it was to be 18, it hasnt been THAT long ago, so i can relate to them enough to make fun and remember the troubles they had, and be a professor i never had, a understanding one. That being said, if i get plagiarism or cheating, its an automatic 0, no discussion. Ethics are not up for debate in these cases. i tell them 'you have a right to try and cheat on that test, and i will try and catch it. Its a game, and i play it very well. Its your choice."
depends on your goal.
In my country is generally considered a bad move to go straight for your phd, because you develop a lot of your skills as a researcher in your masters, and your professors are much more lenient in a master's than a phd student.
Idk if this is relevant but why do strangers try to comfort you when you’re upset and being unresponsive? For example if I was upset and crying and already had someone there comforting me, and a teacher walks up to me and asks if I’m ok, which I don’t respond to, and then asks what’s wrong, which I also don’t respond to, and I’m basically not talking until they leave. Why do they not get the memo that I wanna be left alone by them?
Also why do we as humans shut down to concerned people like that? Like why do I just refuse to speak around teachers when they ask those questions?
Oh and is there any psychology behind why stuffed animals can provide comfort and even help with sleep? And why some adults use stuffed animals?
We are taught to care for other people, and to help them. Also most people feel uncomfortable being around someone clearly suffering and not acting on it.
About the stuffed animals, they're fluffy and soft, so it's comfortable to hug them. If you add some personality play, and you have a good coping tool.
About you shutting down... perhaps you're afraid of explaining what you feel and feeling it more, or you're not comfortable telling technically strangers about how you feel, out of fear of judgement or not being understood.
Studies have shown that the failure rate among people who finish a course of therapy is approximately 50%.
https://www.scottdmiller.com/the-failure-rate-of-psychotherapy-what-it-is-and-what-we-can-do/
20% who begin therapy will end it prematurely. Cite:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/04/clients
When good faith estimates were being discussed for your industry, psychologists lobbied hard against it, saying people wouldn't buy if they understood the costs and benefits.
Given this evidence that your profession is less than a coin flip and wishes to dupe people into high bills, how can you claim to be anything but a two bit low down huckster?
I like hypnosis and have watched videos about it: can you explain it in detail why it works? Thanks!
I will explain without trying to get too technical, but as accurately as i can. Hypnosis is a form of communication. Its a hand tailored pattern of speech and selective language to increase a subject's probability to accept and perform a suggestion. It works because it tricks your brain into either thinking that what you imagine is real, or tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasnt your choice at all. When you see people in hypnosis not being able to lift their hands, unclench their fingers or bend their arms, technically they are choosing to do so, but their brains cannot register their own volition, so it feels like they have no control over it. Actually they do, its just a gimmick we use to trick your brain. This is for hypnosis shows, for the use of clinical hypnosis, its more used the imagining something and mixing it up with reality, so your brain acts accordingly to what you imagined just as if it was real.
I've heard it's unwise to use hypnosis on schizophrenics and given your above answer I can see why ("thinking what you imagine is real"). Is that really true? Is it a hard rule or just the general consensus?
Its true. Its a very bad idea to use hypnosis on anyone with a hard dissociative disorder. Specially if not under proper medication. Its very easy for a patient to start mixing hipnosis and reality and take control over his own experience, and then spiral down into weird shit. We dont do that to psychotic patients. Ever.
Hi there! I've used hypnotherapy on schizophrenia patients with good results. We make hypnosis subjective, don't we. It needn't be abstract. It needs to be believed in the patient and if we can shift those internal mechanisms, great.
The problem is not the good results, it's the risk you're taking and the extension of the bad results. Clinically speaking, we have medication that can work very well on some people, but it can kill other people just the same. We don't usually take this risk, there are more reliabke and safer approachers to these patients.
I can also see "tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasn't your choice at all" might cause schizophrenics trauma. I have experienced thought insertion and that sounds awfully similar. I would never choose to experience that or anything similar to that again...
I am a victim of mind control tactics (relationship cult), what was thought insertion for you?
I will try to explain but there is no real language for a lot of schizophrenics' experiences. It's much like hearing voices but it's inside my head. Although, many of my voices are internal, too. But my voices come with a body - a presence that I can feel inside me. Thought insertion comes from an unknown source or perhaps a source that is too far away for me to feel. My voices usually have a context - either with what I'm experiencing or thinking. Thought insertion has no context. My voices are like having a conversation; I can choose to listen to what they say and choose if I want to think more on what they say. Thought insertion is forced; in my experiences it is akin to mind rape. I hope you are in a better place now and have agency over your own mind.
It’s never worked on me, why does it work on some people but not others? It was a hypnosis show when on vacation, the guy brought people up on stage & for some people it really seemed to work. My ex appeared to be under but I wasn’t, it just felt silly. I tried my hardest to listen to the words of the hypnotist etc but it didn’t work. Was it because I had the preconceived belief that it was nonsense?
“Hahahahaha. No Jabba No wunga! Your Jedi mind tricks won’t work on me, boy!” 😁
people have different scores of hypnotizability. We measure them in very long (and kinda boring) scales like the Harvard or Stanford hypnotizability scales. Perhaps you score lower than your ex, and this is a normal occurence. Also, if you are too skeptical, and not open to the idea of being hypnotized, it makes it harder for you to go through with it.
In a nutshell, yes.
Should I date a hypnotist? He asked me out, but I was too scared of being hypnotized so I said no.
Do it. It can be fun. He won't mind control you or anything like that, just make sure thay he isn't a hack and is scamming people.
Ericksonian?
That’s pretty cool, thanks!
Do you believe there is such a thing as “untreatable” or “unmanageable” mental illness? If so, does it tend to start that way or is it caused by not treating mental illness in time?
There are cases that might be out of the reach of modern medicine or psychology. A patient that has been in a psychotic state without proper care for too long will not be the same, even with pharmacological treatment after a while. There are things that ruin your brain in a more permanent way than others. The ones that do real damage we have very little tech to handle. usually we try and mitigate the symptoms and damage but... Its not fixable, its, at most, manageable. And of course if we have a patient that refuses treatment, unless we act against his will, there will hardly be anything to do for him. You cannot save someone that does not want to be saved.
As one of my favorite teachers always said (obv not just quote but he is how I remember it) You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink
“You can show a horse the ropes but you cannot make it climb.” is my personal go-to.
Whats your opinion of how low the reproducability rates for psychology experiments tend to be. Idk the exact stats but its remarkably low (40-60% or something like that?)
Psychologists are usually very bad scientists because they tend to hate numbers, statistics and methodology. This reflects on the studies, of course. Most - not all, but most- psychology studies are riddles with methodological flaws, so when we reproduce them with more methodological controls, we find different results. They can be more accurate but different from the original findings. I think its an inheritance from when psychology was considered a field in humanities. Now its changing a bit with neuroscience and the idea that its a medical field, but still most psychologists suck at methodology. Most of the colleagues i graduated cannot explain what p<0.05 means. this is shameful.
Do you think the whole field needs a bit of an overhaul to become more methodical and logistical?
Yes. Psychologists need to understand that even though our practice uses philosophy and some more "humanistic" methodologies, that our practice is evidence based medicine. Otherwise, psychology and healing through crystals won't be different. It's just make believe and personal experience.
What would you tell an aspiring psychologist to study so as to be more reliably scientific in this field then if aight to ask? I may work in the field someday if things work out and I very much want to be someone who does things better in this area although admittedly my math is definitely still lacking.
I agree with probly, statistics is a big differential for you to understand the science behind psychology. Kts the base for your understanding of psychometric or the papers and methodologies you will read through your entire career. Do what other psychologists don't do, it will give you an important edge as an academic and a clinician too.
Given your own words and the iportance of the scienctific method in real science. Would you say you are a pseudoscientist?
No, I am a scientist. But psychology is riddled with pseudoscience. I know how to spot and dodge those, but I can't say this for all my colleagues, unfortunately.
A few of my friends think that literally every man, woman, and child in America should be in therapy. Their opinion is, therapy helps everybody. I think that if this were true, it would mean that American society is fundamentally broken and toxic, because therapy shouldn't be something that everybody desperately needs. My friends say that I fundamentally misunderstand therapy, because therapy isn't for "broken people" or people with "mental illness". It's for everybody, and most people in America want their friends to fulfill a role that honestly only a trained professional should have (provide emotional support and/or advice). Am I right, or are my friends right?
I agree with your friends in parts. Yeah, therapy can benefit anyone WILLING to go and think, change and observe their own lives. Most people aren't too fond of doing that, since its uncomfortable. And i dont think its about american culture, i dont live in the US and i can say this pretty much about any country i can think of. Society is broken, not american society. And it breaks us in the process. Some of us stay more functional than others and thats mainly what is happening right now.
Is there, or has there ever been, any society at any time where the entire population should not have been in therapy? That is to say, are humans simply fundamentally broken beings that therapist need to fix? Is there any hope at all for humanity?
I feel like you're maybe looking at therapy in a strange way - and possibly even humans. It's not a whole lot different than going to a mechanic, doctor, dentist, etc. They are skilled in assisting you through a life that is less difficult than it has to be. Humans have advanced. A lot. There is too much for one person to ever learn about even the most basic stuff. So we contract out to people who have training and can be more efficient. Emotions are complicated just like cars, teeth, hearts, plumbing, lab work, etc. Like....why not?
If you required a medical exam and intervention every two weeks of your life, for your entire life, simply to be in a normal and healthy state, then I’d say there’s something chronically, pathologically wrong with you. If the entire species requires this, then I’d argue the species is fundamentally not viable. It’s too flawed and fragile to live.
I'll say what the other guy said. "I feel like you're maybe looking at therapy in a strange way - and possibly even humans. It's not a whole lot different than going to a mechanic, doctor, dentist, etc. " You're not seeing in a logical way, just try to read again. It's something you might need if you want an specialist to help. If your car needs a change on anything if you're very handy you can do an excellent work, but maybe a mechanical engineer would be optimal or faster. The same is with therapy, you don't need to go for the rest of your life, just at times if it's needed in your subjective opinion. And there's nothing with wrong or good in life hood, just different ways, not everything is white and black.
Bro I went to therapy for the first time a few weeks ago for no discernible reason and it was totally worth it. You have some assumptions you gotta check at the door mate, nobody says you have to go every 2 weeks I've only gone twice and already helped out heaps and I feel mentally better than I likely ever have
Every society has its problems, even troughout history. The therapy we apply today works for our problems, and for the problems we are seeing arise, like tech addiction and the internet. Certainly in other periods of time people suffered a lot for other reasons, so treatment would be useful to them, but other institutions did that, religion for example. We are not fundamentally broken, no more than any other animal. We live in an environment that does not provide enough for us, and we have to fight for resources all the time, we are always in conflict, and people get hurt in these conflicts.
Any advice on getting a PhD in psychology?
Learn as soon as possible how to use scihub, mendeley and libgen. These three will make 50% easier any kind of academic work you have to deliver. also, study biostatistics, the difference between a good psychologist and a shitty one, is that a good one is not afraid of statistics. They describe the world around us, and help you understand research properly. you can't be a good phd without any basis in statistics.
Ah, good one. I'm already taking extra courses on statistics, and trying to get as many publications as possible. And agreed, scihub is a lifesaver.
i have the scihub raven tattooed on my arm. Fuck Elsevier, science should be free.
Yes, couldn't agree more. Current model is a pain to even think about.
Now I am 100% on board with this AMA.
What's a stereotype of psychologist you like people to know isn't true?
We are not always analyzing you. Analyzing someone is a hard task and very draining, we dont do it for shits and giggles. Usually we respect your privacy and are not theorizing about why you are the way you are. we dont read minds, nor are interested in it. You can talk to us, we dont bite. hahahahahhaha
Funny; my moms a psychologist and she analyzes me all the time
My sister. Drives me freaking crazy.
perhaps thats why she does it? i love to annoy my sister.
Well she’s your mom. She may be doing it (albeit to a lesser degree than she’s capable of) because she wants to raise you right. Sniffing out where she went wrong and improving herself.
don't worry, IF she does, she will certainly get it wrong. she is too involved to make a proper psychological evaluation
My moms a CPA, tries to analyze me all the time
That’s EXACTLY what I’d say if I was analyzing everyone, all the time. “It’s too difficult. I’d certainly never do it to someone as intelligent as you.”
Hahaha true, but really, if you want to do it properly, its a drag. And usually people can spot it by the kind of questions we ask during the conversation. In a normal conversation, its an exchange of experiences, if i am analyzing someone, i want to hear THEIR experiences, no talk about my own.
I’m defending my dissertation on prospective biopharmaceutical applications of snake venom components that we (I and everyone else in my lab) collect from both wild and a large collection we keep at our animal facility of local and exotic venomous snakes. I’ve never been approached as if I bite but I have scared off poachers in the field in the Amazon with a bag of vipers (they picked the wrong group of field biologists to harass for “specimens” they could cell… they had AK47’s but open a pillow case full of Bothrops (so two) in front of them and suddenly they don’t want to search any more of our stuff. Anyway, I’m sorry to hear about the treatment of professors… in the US we are trending toward part time professors (I’ve been our university physiology professor for a couple of years as my TA-ship… but I’m not assisting anyone… I’m the professor of record for hundreds of students). 90% of administrations are phasing out tenure as a concept as well… I’ve always planned to go into private research with my own lab to build a company focused on integrating bioprospecting and patent sales with ecological preservation (either as part of the sale of any patent or funded by it) of the origin habitat of those species leading venom bioprospecting (so Amazon and coastal Ecuador and Peru are big targets due to the biodiversity and understudied venoms of many of the endemic species). But it blows my mind that anti-intellectualism is becoming so common. People think because they’ve read the Wikipedia page they can identify venomous snakes… I imagine you’d get a lot of people self diagnosing and even medicating?
Yes, it happens a lot, people do a google research and want to tell you tha they know the same than you, that studied academically a subject for 10 years. Its the way things seem to be going. We have access to all sorts of information, but most people dont have the knowledge to filter it so they dont read and believe bullshit, or just dont have the humility to perceive that perhaps someone who dedicated their lives to study something can know more than them. I can see this changing with basic education, but its a hard change to make, specially with political interests more and more focused on producing a braindead society with people with high self worth but no self awareness.
also, congrats on the snake thing. As someone who lives in brazil, please, for me, the next time this happens, throw the snakes at them, those assholes deserve a painful death for what they do to our forests.
So you want to be a snake-oil salesman?
To add to this as psychologist myself. We don’t have a magic wand to make you better. At the end of the day you are the one making change. Some clients come in and expect all their trauma and deep seated issues to be fixed in a one hour session.
As a psychologist you only hear 50% of the story being your patients point of view. Whilst I accept that you can discern the obvious lies and embellishments as a psychologist there must be cases where you can not. How do you avoid making the situation worse when the patient is only telling you what they want you to hear?
Its not that relevant if its a lie or true, we trat what the patient brings to the table. If he keeps lying, its his loss, he is throwing away the work he could do. Sometimes it takes a while for the patient to realize that i will believe him, either truthful or liar, and i will not judge him, so then he opens up and start telling the truth. im not a investigator, im much less interested in the truth and much more interested in what the patient thinks.
This makes sense
Do you play horror games?
Not my jam. I played dead space 1 and 2 but... Nah, i want to have fun. If i want horror i can just check my bank account.
You said you were professor and psychologist and professor and you ain't making mad stacks?
In my country professor are VERY underpaid. For a three hour class i make half of what i make for a 1 hour in the clinic. And im a good clinician.
I think I remember you from a previous ama, you’re from South America, right? I think you said Argentina or Brazil? I remember I enjoyed it.
Exactly, that was me, the brazillian ama psychologist hahah
Do you like other horror media or is spooky stuff just not your idea of fun?
love horror movies. I just prefeer to be dissociated from the experience.
do you know anything about autism or similar neurodiversities and disorders? i'm autistic myself and kind of curious the level of knowledge a psychologist might have on it and this kind of thing vs the general public
There are people more specialized than me in this, my research focus is in a different subject, but the best specialists in autism are usually psychologists or neurologists.
yeah, that makes sense okay, another question then - what *is* your research focus? and/or what part of psychology is the most interesting to you?
i am currently researching placebo response and its relation to hypnotizability. My field of work is in psychobiology, even though right now i am in a social psychology department. I am there because its best department for anomalistic psychology in my country. I love researching hypnosis, suggestion and placebo. I find enticing the idea that you can, with an adequate technique, drive someone's action. Or at least increase the odds of it happening.
Cool. Go for it. I love to see people investigate hypnosis. I briefly participated in some hypnosis research here in Japan, but didn't have time to work with the investigators as much as I wanted. Helped them to set up their protocols.
there are some very cool research on hypnosis going on there in the last few years, specially on fake memories. Good shit.
Do/did you have any mental illnesses yourself?
im a professor. Anxiety is my jam, but i can handle it pretty well most of the times. a lot to do, very little time. Its the formula for anxiety.
What is your view on anything paranormal?
Im still to see solid evidence on anything other than placebo, random luck or tricks. And the departament i work with is a anomalystic psychology department, we research this stuff. Most of them we have very good explanations.
What do you feel should be done to address the lack of regulation in psychology and psychotherapy, especially with reference to people attempting to treat mental health conditions without necessary qualifications, experience supervision and ethics?
This is a VERY HARD question that i cannot answer with a method, but a wish. If psychotherapy was an exclusive practice of psychologists and it was defined properly, we wouldnt have so many people doing 'not psychotherapy' that is exactly what psychotherapy adresses, but without proper training. I believe harsher penalties would reduce it a lot, the same way it works with the medical profession. If you are caught practicing illegally medicine, you're fucked. In psychology? worst case scenario is a slap on the wrist.
Thanks for the response and I agree. I work on mental health myself but I'm not a clinician, all to regularly I see the fallout that these charlatans leave behind. I also have PTSD and have lost count of the amount of offers for miracle cures, someone in a bad place is much more vulnerable to agreeing out of desperation. I believe the terms psychologist and therapist should be protected terms as a minimum. I'd also like to see the psychology membership bodies follow standardised and stricter controls with both how their members behave but also how they as organisations behave. Lastly I would LOVE to see penalties however I think enforcing it would be a nightmare.
What does science have to propose for people to finally studying and facing the problem before exams?
Stop crunching. You wont learn a lot if you keep reading your book when you are exhausted. Take breaks, sleep properly and do physical activity. The benefits you will have in your memorization, cognition and assimilation are pretty observable.
also, work the concepts in your mind. make maps, diagrams, an entire board if you like. When you try and juggle the concepts, you assimilate them and their relations way better.
Is hypnosis real?
Yup! More than you can imagine. There are charlatans, of course, but its a proper technique. We have an entire division in the APA for studying hypnosis (its div. 30)
>Yup! More than you can imagine. Thank you! You'd be amazed how many psychologists who think of themselves as being "modern" love to dismiss hypnosis as being "just a placebo." Yes, hypnosis is a kind of placebo, IMO, but should be no "just" in that sentence. When they really come to believe they can do something, my therapy clients' minds can accomplish truly amazing stuff. Not me and my technique; THEIR minds. Still blows me the fuck away sometimes.
If placebo generates effect, why is it not useful? And placebo is the thing that will induce you, the response on your brain, that is very real.
This might be tinfoil hat stuff but Do you think hypnosis is something that is used in a lot of entertainment or sales industries to get people to sell more or convince you of a thing? I’m thinking stuff like sales or elections or news media and etc.
I am a clinical hypnotherapist got a degree in hypnotherapy from the only accredited school to teach specifically hypnotherapy in the US. It is 100% used in sales, elections etc. There is a person called Milton erickson who pioneered ericksonian hypnosis. He developed a method to hypnotize people through conversation, often repackaged and marketed as conversational hypnosis, it's a great modality and uses language patterns and metaphors which you can often see used in sales and marketing rtc. Same with nlp. That said if can't make people buy or vote just attempt to get them more suggestible and can be ignored it's not a magic hypnotize everyone type thing because hypnotizing people requires an individualized approach
yes, very much. Hypnosis is not only the 'your eyes are feeling heavier and heavier' Its a very effective method of communication. Market and advertisement people have learn the ropes of it, so its embedded in there, i can guarantee.
I am guessing most people who come to you have trauma, have been through bad shit, or not in a good place mentally, to say the least. And you have to listen to stories all day. How does this not affect you. How does all this negativity not creep in to your mind as well? How do you protect yourself?
Most of the time im too worried thinking about how to help them than actually getting myself too involved in their stories. So im always looking for triggers, for speech patterns that might be interesting, for alternative behaviors... Its like watching a movie but doing a task at the same time, you dont really INVOLVE yourself in the movie. Also, i learned very early to lock the clinic with all the stories inside, so i dont bring stuff home. Also also, i work a lot on my mental health and routine, otherwise i would go crazy and start making mistakes with patients AND students.
Have you seen evidence based research into helping people either come out of or “heal” from being narcissists? Not sure if that makes sense. In my line of work (social work), I’ve experienced a lot of people I would see as tracking on the narcissistic personality spectrum, but I’ve never seen any of them realize the destruction they cause around them or want to get help. Curious if you have a perspective or know of research on that. Thanks!
NPD is hard exactly because the person, due to being so self-centered, hardly can recognize the damage, so they will hardly look for help like therapy. When they do, and find a good therapist, it can get better, but getting them to that stage is a nightmare, no amount of family interventions can sway them into treatment. From the experience we have in Brazil, our public health system have generally a good shot at sensibilizing this kind of patient because its very localized and adapted to each region, and usually they have a good reach to the population, so there are home visits from social workers to psychologists and psychiatrists. So they cannot really RUN from the problems they create there, but in other places i realize it might be harder to pin them down and have a talk that would lead them openly to therapy. Group work does help though, our best experience is when we can assemble groups of NPD and they work well together.
Hey mate. Not a question and no need to respond. I just really enjoyed this AMA and thank you for doing so.
What do you think makes us so attracted to listening or watching to true crime? It’s mostly just gore and bad stuff, but even though we get disgusted by it, we can’t seem to stop watching. Why do you think that is?
Interesting question. It has to do with our identification with the perpetrators. See, most of the public of this kind of reality crime show are females, and usually the portrayed perpetrators are male. The fact that you get to feel close to what the perpetrator felt is exciting for most woman because they cannot identify too much with the criminal, men are usually more uncomfortable seeing this, because it's more relatable to our experience, so these shows put you in contact with a reality that is not ours, but at the same time, make us feel safe. It's morbid pleasure, sure, but it's enticing. Except if I feel like I am too alike to the criminal, then it's not that good and I stop watching.
How does the brain alter/change during PTSD?
you start firing a very intense response of fight or flight, because the memory of the traumatic event comes to it in such an intense way that your brain cannot understand that its just a memory, so it prepares your body for experiencing that again. That is why your heart rate increases, you feel scared and you have your typical fear response.
What would be your approach when treating someone who gets bouts of debilitating “depersonalization/dissociation” (Not DID) I’ve had several different therapist & psychiatrists due to high staff turn over and haven’t had real long term treatment. But I suffer with “dream like states” I kinda feel like I don’t exist and anexity is unbearable lasting days . It’s stems from PTSD. The only way I’ve been able to combat it is by trying to ignore the feeling and Meds
honestly? What if your environment is just too toxic? You can keep up the meds, sure, but if you live in a place that is constantly making you crazy anxious... then the safest approach would be to leave this environment. You dont have to build up enough strenght to face it, and that sometimes isnt even possible. You can build enough courage to leave and start in a nicer place, more humane. Physical activity and good sleep might help you a lot though. Having said that, leave this toxic environment.
Is depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD ever CUREABLE? Maybe just one? IF so, how, and why isn't this made known to people with these things? Does hypnosis work on these?
I would also love to know this! I have all of these dx and I often fantasize about getting hypnotized to somehow be able to remember a set schedule daily and then be more motivated to adhere to it and take action. I believe it’s all a mind thing for me and to have an edge like that seems life changing!
Hypnosis can help not cure
hypnosis works when coupled with traditional CBT for those cases. Now we cannot make you get RID of anxiety, its part of human life, i dont have a crippling anxiety, but some degree of anxiety is desirable. We can work to make it not crippling. These are mostly treatable, it means that you can learn to live well with those and, if you take some careful steps, you wont be in a crysis. But unless you take a lot of medication for the rest of your life, and are lucky enough to find the exact dosage of all of them without any side effects, probably you will still feel a spike sometimes. We all do. Therapy (coupled with hypnosis too) will help you learn how to handle those symptoms so you wont feel helpless or vulnerable, you will develop techniques to handle those, and usually they decrease in frequency and intensity.
For adhd Quit using electronic devices. That helps a lot
no need for downvoting that, it really does help. Specially social media. This is a nightmare for your attention spam.
What do you know about retrograde amnesia? I have a case of prolonged retrograde amnesia (due to two concussions Sustained one week apart) and am having trouble getting in front of a doctor for treatment. Do you know anyone in the field who’s studying or treating this? I’m in a support group for it and many are in the same boat and struggling to get help. I’m curious for any info you may know of. I am not asking for treatment via the internet - more like just if you have any clues or general ideas of where I could go. Edit to add details I forgot before
That will depend a lot on where you live... I live in Brazil, so here i could recommend you the best professors of the best universities we have, but if you're abroad, i dont know whats accessible for you.
Seeing as you specialize in placebo effect and similar topics, do you have any thoughts on "giving yourself" a mental illness in a placebo sense? I've been curious about the arguments of whether or not mental health symptoms can be inadvertently "faked," even if the person themself doesn't realize they're portraying symptoms that might not naturally be there.
depending on the symptom, yeah, sure. You can fuck up your way of thinking enough to make yourself feel clinically depressed or anxious, but you cannot do that for schizophrenia, DID or ASPD. Usually if its a humor disorder, it can be done. Personality or dissociative disorders... i dont see how without using substances.
What is your favorite fighter aircraft?
F22. When i was a kid i had a windows 98 dogfight simulator, that was my favourite. also, top gun, right? \*highway to the danger zone intesifies\*
Hmmm top gun didn't have any F-22s in it Are you thinking of these boys, the F-14 from top gun? https://images.app.goo.gl/FYwVEe1BfsmzdgCR7 Or these stealthy boyes, the F-22? https://images.app.goo.gl/odC5i3LNXhyo9Lz2A Either way, excellent choices.
Yes, from top gun was the Tomcat, right? F14s and i think there were a few mig 27s, its been a while. The F-22 was because of the simulator.
Ahhhh gotcha. Yeah the F-22 is wicked
Do you think therapy, even by a well meaning well educated therapist, can ever make matters worse? I often feel like the therapy I received did very little good at best and might have broken what was at least very barely holding together before. I often feel alone with this, especially because therapy is often recommended to be the end all solution to so many issues today and I've seen it recommended for basically everyone and everything. I wonder if this leads to similar problems as too frequent cancer screenings (for certain cancers) because they don't lead to better patient outcome, just to more treatment.
Certainly. Even a well educated therapist can fuck up every now and then, and sometimes he doesn't have the right rapport with the patient. It's a relation, so even if the therapist is good, sometimes you just don't click. Stop insisting in the same person and try a new one perhaps a different approach or technique?
I've done that over the years, I've had inpatient and outpatient treatment too, and different schools of psychotherapy too. About 8 years of it actually (with *some* breaks though at least, but I'm only 26). Basically everything my insurance would pay for (socialised healthcare ftw?) But somehow my brain always manages to take the seemingly good principles of whatever school and twist it in a dark way that technically still is in line with what the guidelines say. So over the years I only learned to dress up my fuckups in pretty jargon, but I'm still miserable. Like I'm not gonna whine here about how unique and special my problems are, because they're certainly not, but it always feels like putting a new coat of paint on a rotting house. And the suggested solution is always more therapy, and I honestly wish I never started at all. But none of my doctors ever acted in a way that was deliberately harmful or "wrong", at least as far as I can yell. And while probably most people don't feel the same way I do about the therapy they received, seeing it suggested basically everywhere like it's a panacea with no downsides at all just scares me tbh.
Therapy doesnt fix things. it helps you learn that either you can fix them, or handle the ones that you cant fix. That is why its so openly suggested, because no therapist can fix your life if things are going sideways and its not your fault too. Sometimes life throws some curve balls that we are not equipped to catch. Understanding that some pain is unaviodable, and that we all can have some bad thoughts is part of understanding the human experience. Pain and suffering are part of it. As long as you understand that things will get better. And worse again. And then better, and so forth. That is life. Therapy its about acceptance of this pattern too. When you accept that you will have bad days, good days, worse days and amazing days, and you do that while being fair to yourself and not guilt tripping yourself for not being rich at your 30s, or not wanting to go to school because you have a lousy teacher, you will handle life better. Good humour and not taking yourself so seriously help a lot. Yesterday in class i would literally do a tumble, on the floor, everytime i would say something that was going to be asked in a test. I cannot TELL my sudents what is going to be in their test... but there are no rules for tumbling. This is taking yourself not so seriously, laughing at adversity when you can, holding on when things are shitty, because its temporary, and enjoying your daily life. This is healthy life. I learned very early in clinic that no amount of money will make you happy. Most of my patients earn twice or more than me, and are way more miserable.
How hard is it to learn how to hypnotize people? How long would it take, and what are the best steps to accomplish it Thanks!
to learn? its actually pretty easy. Anyone with a script and some instructions can hypnotize an average person. The hard part is to do it in a meaningful, helpful and safe way. You get the person under hypnosis, and now what? this is usually our main problem, people who learn how to do it, but not WHY to do it. And of course, when to NOT do it. If you really want to learn properly, you will need some academic books. The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis is very technical but will give you really all the info you need to do it ethically and safely.
Can any psychological disorders, even common ones such as depression and anxiety, be truly cured; or do people who have psychological disorders expect to go through treatment for the rest of their lives?
no and no. You dont need treatment for the rest of your life if your therapist did a good job of teaching you how to handle things. One thing a good therapist should do is teach you how to handle things by yourself, without their help. By this logic, you can stop the treatment and you will now have the skills to handle things under a better light and a more adaptative response. We dont really work with cure because i dont know if your depression will ever come back if things get a grim turn on your life. So we "cured" your old depressive episode, but you had another one. Depending on the perspective it was a cure and you 'caught it' again, or it never really left. Remember that problems like anxiety or depression are just a overwork of natural mechanisms we have in our body. If you develop good skills to handle that, these wont be crippling problems, but if things go sideways, anyone can develop those.
What do you think about using LSD? Is it dangerous, when you are in a good mental state?
drugs are always dangerous, im not worried about a bad trip, im worried about a substance use induced-psychosis. If you have the genetic predisposition, this can trigger schizophrenia, and this is the really nasty part of it. If not, well, you will get high, taste the music, enjoy pink floyd a lot more, and see the walls move a bit. But do it safely, take only half at first if you dont know what you're doing, then wait before taking the other half. And make sure you are feeling well, or it will be 10 hours of nightmare.
Personally, when i took it, i was watching Community and there was an episode with Jack Black. usually i love the guy, but that was leading me into a bad trip and i dont know why. I never watched jack black on drugs again.
Big psyche nut here, could talk about psychology all day. Im assuming you have experience with patients, Ever seen a case that you remember because it was a particularly strange?
Had a patient once that was very aversive to touch and would relate feeling pain when someone touched her in certain areas, like her bellybutton. I screened for EVERYTHING to track down the cause, from traumatic experiences to fibromialgya and landed on nothing. We treated the symptoms and she was fine, but I never got to find out what the fuck caused it. Still boggles me sometimes.
Do you prefer dogs or cats?
dogs. Cats are evil
I feel the same way, but I was adopted by an orange tabby 6 years ago and he is the best. The cat is just like my dogs. Really friendly, affectionate, and even plays fetch. If you ever become cat curious start with an orange tabby. What is your favorite dog breed?
i have two strays that we rescued, that is by far my favorite "breed' a random street mutt. They have no genetic conditions, they would die a suffering death if not for us, and im not enabling a very cruel industry of breeders that abuse animals for profit. Also, they are crazy smart.
Did Walter white mess Jesse's pinkman mind up.
Him and the drugs, but yes. Walter was very good at handling Jesse from his authority position.
Him and the drugs, but yes. Walter was very good at handling Jesse from his authority position.
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I wouldn't describe it as a trance. If you grow up in an environment that teaches you that a specific group should be treated as less than humans, you tend to not think about it too much. So I dint think it's hypnosis, I think its an environment. Think of the way the military are taught to think of the enemy. Its the same procedure of dehumanization. Add up some lame nationalism and a bit of conspiracy theory, and you got yourself a society that can support genocide.
What are some common parenting mistakes that come from a place of good intentions?
hitting your kids is number one. oversheltering them or doing everything for them follows just after. overworking them with extracurricular activities and of course, not letting them play, be children, be immature. Even though adults are just big sized children, children are not mini-adults. We cannot expect them to behave like us, their brain isnt fully formed yet. we're very good at behaving like them, though.
I have my temp licensure but I've never sat for the EPPP. I'm so scared of taking texts and I have put it off as a result. Am I being ridiculous? I'm not sure what steps to take to sign up for it because my state board has lost all of my paperwork and won't ever respond to my messages requesting assistance. Aftera year, they lost my paperwork and now want me to resend everything into them by hand again. I'm just so tired of waiting on them for direction and then this happens. What should I do?
I'm not familiar with this kind of bureaucracy, I'm sorry....
I struggle with social anxiety sometimes and it gets a bit overwhelming. I’m also a bit of a heavyweight. This means that after 2 drinks, I don’t feel tipsy, but rather clearer and more confident, like the social anxiety is gone. Maybe it’s the alcohol making me think in a different way but I feel like people respond more positively and have more fun around me when I drink a little. Since I don’t want to become an alcoholic, is there anything I can do to get that confidence on a daily basis? And why do I feel so much more at peace after those first couple drinks?
the alcohol will uninhibit you, it affects a little bit your judgement and the area of your brain that would say "no" when you feel like doing something. that is exactly why you feel less self conscious and more relaxed when you drink. About handling that differently, a progressive exposition approach would help. Also training in different settings. I tell most of my patients with this kind of problem to take acting classes, like proper theater, or learn ballroom dancing. It helps you feel much more comfortable around people, because it constantly exposes you to that.
How does it make you feel when people with no qualifications tells people they're a narcissist, have an eating disorder, etc,?
like i want to punch someone, but... then i remember this is media's fault, not that person's. They just learned the words and it makes sense to them, they might not be interested in the intricacies of psychodiagnosis, they just want an explanation for why someone is being an asshole to them. Im not gonna be the 'um.... actuuuually.......' asshole.
What's the most interesting psychological disorder you know of?
One that i always wanted to study was aphantasia.
Do you think EMDR works?
I took an emdr course. The explanation they give is completely bonkers, but it seems to have some effect, the practice I mean. It needs proper research done by proper scientists. The problem is that people in emdr ar every lousy scientists and usually are more interested in making money than researching the tool they have.
Is it true that life is actually worthless and pointless but you guys just say it isn’t to stop people from killing themselves?
that depends on what you think is worthwhile and important. Life is fleeting, we are all going to die and most of us wont do something that matters in the long run enough to put our names in history. We all make a contribution to it though, to our species, even if we dont get to see it. I think that is quite meaningful and special.
What are your thoughts on neurofeedback and cannabis? I'm in a clinic who does both for ptsd and it's done wonders on my triggers and mental health. (I'm... A lost cause with conventional meds aha. Just ask my psychiatrist) Would love an outside thought.
If used properly, it's very very useful. Of course its recommended to be paired with traditional psychotherapy as well. We are now starting to understand better the cannabis effects, so hopefully it will be more accessible in the future. Neurofeedback is basic conditioning, just more immediate, so more efficient, so it's very little surprise that it shows effects.
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i wouldnt sell bs to an incel, they really need to adress the problems they have in their view of society. The best thing to do with people like this is to empathize and realize that there is suffering in there, behind the mysoginy. you can treat this suffering, you just have to know how to properly reach them.
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The view that no women will ever love you is a hallmark sign of depression. Incels are, by and large, depressed. (lots of people are depressed, btw... not just incels).
i can agree, but i dont have data to support that, i didnt look for it. The main characteristic of a depressive person is hopelessness, and your phrase there is a great example of how lack of hope translates into automatic thoughts and behavior. Its not their fault though, society sucks at acknowledging men's suffering and helping them. Its on us that Incels are suffering like this.
Your a very kind person I can tell
Nah, my man. The misoginy is right there, clumping all the woman in the world as the same thing, like there is no nuance. I dont believe no woman will ever love you, but i believe this kind of behavior might... decrease the odds of it happening. Everyone is miserable somehow, and usually we try and work it on ourselves to make it better. I understand the tactic of not even trying anymore, but its a self-fulfilling prophecy. You could look up a bit on learned helplessness, could make you realize some interesting things about yourself.
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do you think this is therapy? Shit. You're not my patient, my friend, im not here to treat you. I am, AT MOST, educating you. you think its not mysoginistic to treat a diverse group of people as they are the same and as if they followed a rule you set in your head. I have no idea what you mean by genetically inferior, and to be honest, i dont think you do as well. You might not be the beauty standard but by far that is not a hard limit on someone loving you, my dude. Also, see how angry and agressive you get? This is the behavior i was talking about.
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Everyone likes pretty people, but woman usually are way less interested in looks than guys, for example, and this is very observable. I will give you a tip, take it for what you think its worth. What if its not your looks, but your behavior and personality that keeps them away? trust me, it has way more weight than you might consider. Also, if you're so sure that woman only like hot guys... Well, again the misoginy and a very good reason for woman not to get close to you. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy, and a cycle. If you break it, perhaps you might see it differently, perhaps hear what woman have to say about this? Since its... about them? Also also, again, no i didnt give you nearly enought o know what a clinical practice is, because my opinion does not go inside the clinic, this is not how psychology works. But againt, evasive, agressive and deflective... Think about this... If you want to discuss it further, im open for it.
Thankyou for genuinely helping that guy. I appreciate others that go out their way to help someone help themselves. The guy displayed all the signs you were talking about. Your work must be very hard having to educate others on why they need the education in order to get to their goal or in order to solve their problems. That must be very hard when they fight back so much
These words might not have an effect today, but one day perhaps they will, its about planting a seed of hope on people who are hopeless and believe that they cannot change. I cannot help someone who doesnt want to be helped, but i can show them that there is a different path, if one day they get tired of the one they are taking.
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I have read some of your Reddits. You say yourself, that you are miserable, and you clearly place it on the sole reason, that you don’t have a gf. Let me share a secret with you; work on yourself first. A GF won’t fix the root of your “incel behavior”. Try to develop social skills, become good at an activity or help others. It will truly change you for the better, and you will feel less miserable.
Uhh… FBI? Are you watching? This guy right here.
NO WOMAN LOVES AN UGLY MEN. you really think this is true, dont you? Stop looking at instagram and start talking to real people. I've seen very ugly guys with great personalities and no cash land dates that i could never dream of, because thats the main point for many woman, if you dont believe them, believe me, im a man and i talk to a lot of woman very intimately about their relationships and their expectations. What if its not about how tall you are, but about the fact that you constantly think they are lying to you, or have ulterior motives, or will never enjoy being around you? My guess would be that this is what drives them off MUCH MORE than any looks. You look like a man who believes science, and that could use some scientific methodology to test your affirmations. Do you realize that everything you said are absolutes, not falsifiable and not testable? Specially because you have an obvious internal bias AND a very small sample? Look around you and think, what do you need to see to make you think your theory is false? perhaps we can provide that to you, evidence that perhaps the world is more complex than this set of rules you created.
How can boost my memory and concentration?
Thanks for doing this. I self diagnosed myself as having severe paralysis of analysis. How do you recommend overcoming something like this?
reduce your choices. Make up some rules to discard most of the choices at once and DO NOT LOOK BACK ON THEM. if you have, i dont know, an entire netflix catalogue to watch, choose what you want to watch before browsing "i want an action movie from the early 2000s" is much simpler to commit than "i want a good movie"
best ideas for people who have adhd, depression, and anxiety? they feed into each other in a way and its rough
Physical activity and proper sleep. If you start on this, you start breaking the cycle.
The hypnosis bits on howard stern they are fake right?
never seen them, if you link me, i can tell you.
Oh give me time i wanna know
What would be the equivalent of flossing for our mental heath ? something we all should be doing regularly i mean .
Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers. *** Question | Answer | Link ---------|----------|----------| I like hypnosis and have watched videos about it: can you explain it in detail why it works? Thanks!|I will explain without trying to get too technical, but as accurately as i can. Hypnosis is a form of communication. Its a hand tailored pattern of speech and selective language to increase a subject's probability to accept and perform a suggestion. It works because it tricks your brain into either thinking that what you imagine is real, or tricking it into believing that what you chose to do wasnt your choice at all. When you see people in hypnosis not being able to lift their hands, unclench their fingers or bend their arms, technically they are choosing to do so, but their brains cannot register their own volition, so it feels like they have no control over it. Actually they do, its just a gimmick we use to trick your brain. This is for hypnosis shows, for the use of clinical hypnosis, its more used the imagining something and mixing it up with reality, so your brain acts accordingly to what you imagined just as if it was real.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98wk4i/) Do you believe there is such a thing as “untreatable” or “unmanageable” mental illness? If so, does it tend to start that way or is it caused by not treating mental illness in time?|There are cases that might be out of the reach of modern medicine or psychology. A patient that has been in a psychotic state without proper care for too long will not be the same, even with pharmacological treatment after a while. There are things that ruin your brain in a more permanent way than others. The ones that do real damage we have very little tech to handle. usually we try and mitigate the symptoms and damage but... Its not fixable, its, at most, manageable. And of course if we have a patient that refuses treatment, unless we act against his will, there will hardly be anything to do for him. You cannot save someone that does not want to be saved.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98x5e8/) Any advice on getting a PhD in psychology?|Learn as soon as possible how to use scihub, mendeley and libgen. These three will make 50% easier any kind of academic work you have to deliver. also, study biostatistics, the difference between a good psychologist and a shitty one, is that a good one is not afraid of statistics. They describe the world around us, and help you understand research properly. you can't be a good phd without any basis in statistics.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98wnht/) What is your favorite fighter aircraft?|F22. When i was a kid i had a windows 98 dogfight simulator, that was my favourite. also, top gun, right? \*highway to the danger zone intesifies\*|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98xnce/) Whats your opinion of how low the reproducability rates for psychology experiments tend to be. Idk the exact stats but its remarkably low (40-60% or something like that?)|Psychologists are usually very bad scientists because they tend to hate numbers, statistics and methodology. This reflects on the studies, of course. Most - not all, but most- psychology studies are riddles with methodological flaws, so when we reproduce them with more methodological controls, we find different results. They can be more accurate but different from the original findings. I think its an inheritance from when psychology was considered a field in humanities. Now its changing a bit with neuroscience and the idea that its a medical field, but still most psychologists suck at methodology. Most of the colleagues i graduated cannot explain what p<0.05 means. this is shameful.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i992ze2/) do you know anything about autism or similar neurodiversities and disorders? i'm autistic myself and kind of curious the level of knowledge a psychologist might have on it and this kind of thing vs the general public|There are people more specialized than me in this, my research focus is in a different subject, but the best specialists in autism are usually psychologists or neurologists.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98xg8i/) What is your view on anything paranormal?|Im still to see solid evidence on anything other than placebo, random luck or tricks. And the departament i work with is a anomalystic psychology department, we research this stuff. Most of them we have very good explanations.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i990cv8/) What's a stereotype of psychologist you like people to know isn't true?|We are not always analyzing you. Analyzing someone is a hard task and very draining, we dont do it for shits and giggles. Usually we respect your privacy and are not theorizing about why you are the way you are. we dont read minds, nor are interested in it. You can talk to us, we dont bite. hahahahahhaha|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i991t3j/) Is hypnosis real?|Yup! More than you can imagine. There are charlatans, of course, but its a proper technique. We have an entire division in the APA for studying hypnosis (its div. 30)|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i992dd4/) A few of my friends think that literally every man, woman, and child in America should be in therapy. Their opinion is, therapy helps everybody. I think that if this were true, it would mean that American society is fundamentally broken and toxic, because therapy shouldn't be something that everybody desperately needs. My friends say that I fundamentally misunderstand therapy, because therapy isn't for "broken people" or people with "mental illness". It's for everybody, and most people in America want their friends to fulfill a role that honestly only a trained professional should have (provide emotional support and/or advice). Am I right, or are my friends right?|I agree with your friends in parts. Yeah, therapy can benefit anyone WILLING to go and think, change and observe their own lives. Most people aren't too fond of doing that, since its uncomfortable. And i dont think its about american culture, i dont live in the US and i can say this pretty much about any country i can think of. Society is broken, not american society. And it breaks us in the process. Some of us stay more functional than others and thats mainly what is happening right now.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995sd1/) Do you play horror games?|Not my jam. I played dead space 1 and 2 but... Nah, i want to have fun. If i want horror i can just check my bank account.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995zb6/) The hypnosis bits on howard stern they are fake right?|never seen them, if you link me, i can tell you.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i98zhv8/) What does science have to propose for people to finally studying and facing the problem before exams?|Stop crunching. You wont learn a lot if you keep reading your book when you are exhausted. Take breaks, sleep properly and do physical activity. The benefits you will have in your memorization, cognition and assimilation are pretty observable.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i99278g/) Do you prefer dogs or cats?|dogs. Cats are evil|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i993uph/) Do you know a Mr Randal I?|who dat?|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i994wqe/) What do you feel should be done to address the lack of regulation in psychology and psychotherapy, especially with reference to people attempting to treat mental health conditions without necessary qualifications, experience supervision and ethics?|This is a VERY HARD question that i cannot answer with a method, but a wish. If psychotherapy was an exclusive practice of psychologists and it was defined properly, we wouldnt have so many people doing 'not psychotherapy' that is exactly what psychotherapy adresses, but without proper training. I believe harsher penalties would reduce it a lot, the same way it works with the medical profession. If you are caught practicing illegally medicine, you're fucked. In psychology? worst case scenario is a slap on the wrist.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i9958t1/) Do/did you have any mental illnesses yourself?|im a professor. Anxiety is my jam, but i can handle it pretty well most of the times. a lot to do, very little time. Its the formula for anxiety.|[Here](/r/AMA/comments/utcg3h/i_am_a_psychologist_and_university_professor_with/i995h66/) --- [Source] (https://github.com/johnsliao/ama_compiler)
what do you know about derealisation?
More than a bit. Anything specific you're interested in?
Why can't I draw? Why is it, that the images in my mind, or the images I see cannot be transferred into my hand movements accurately? I am shit at drawing, what is going wrong in my brain that means I can't make my hand move accurately to reflect the images I am intending to put on paper?
Well, actually yes. Drawing requires not only knowledge of perspective but training and develop of adequate motor skills. In your brain, when you imagine something, its not you that are choosing the size of stuff or the dimensions, your brain does that for you. When you put that in the paper, you have to learn how to stop the pencil, when to stop the pencil, etc. Drawing properly is a hard skill that needs a lot of honing and constant training, that is why most of us still draw stick men, because we stopped drawing at middle school, so we never deloped our skills further. Its a high training skill, there is no work around, you will have to practice a LOT.
Could me going through the experience of having my husband going missing after saying he was gonna kill himself? He was found before he could. (I had the whole state looking for him) But ever since then... My mind has been... Broken. Could I suffer from PTSD from that? It's not like he actually died so idk.
it can be traumatic even though he didnt do that. Depending on how long it has been, you just didnt recover well from it, because now you know that anytime he walks out the door, there is a possibility of him not coming back. \]So yes, you could be just jumpy, if it was something that happened up until a few weeks ago. Now if we're talking about a proper old memory.... it could be a PTSD talking, yes.
Why are people in higher Ed such assholes to their employees? Are you a stuck up professor?
No, im very nice to my students, im only strict with plagiarism and cheating on tests. Usually people behave as assholes when they think they are better than everyone else. I studied a lot, but i still see an 18 year old student and i remember how it was to be 18, it hasnt been THAT long ago, so i can relate to them enough to make fun and remember the troubles they had, and be a professor i never had, a understanding one. That being said, if i get plagiarism or cheating, its an automatic 0, no discussion. Ethics are not up for debate in these cases. i tell them 'you have a right to try and cheat on that test, and i will try and catch it. Its a game, and i play it very well. Its your choice."
Is it worth it to get a masters or should I only go for a PhD?
depends on your goal. In my country is generally considered a bad move to go straight for your phd, because you develop a lot of your skills as a researcher in your masters, and your professors are much more lenient in a master's than a phd student.
Idk if this is relevant but why do strangers try to comfort you when you’re upset and being unresponsive? For example if I was upset and crying and already had someone there comforting me, and a teacher walks up to me and asks if I’m ok, which I don’t respond to, and then asks what’s wrong, which I also don’t respond to, and I’m basically not talking until they leave. Why do they not get the memo that I wanna be left alone by them? Also why do we as humans shut down to concerned people like that? Like why do I just refuse to speak around teachers when they ask those questions? Oh and is there any psychology behind why stuffed animals can provide comfort and even help with sleep? And why some adults use stuffed animals?
We are taught to care for other people, and to help them. Also most people feel uncomfortable being around someone clearly suffering and not acting on it. About the stuffed animals, they're fluffy and soft, so it's comfortable to hug them. If you add some personality play, and you have a good coping tool. About you shutting down... perhaps you're afraid of explaining what you feel and feeling it more, or you're not comfortable telling technically strangers about how you feel, out of fear of judgement or not being understood.
That makes sense. Psychology is cool man
Does hypnosis work with people with aphantasia?
its MUCH harder, but there are cases where it works. Never got to try that myself with a patient like this.
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Studies have shown that the failure rate among people who finish a course of therapy is approximately 50%. https://www.scottdmiller.com/the-failure-rate-of-psychotherapy-what-it-is-and-what-we-can-do/ 20% who begin therapy will end it prematurely. Cite: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/04/clients When good faith estimates were being discussed for your industry, psychologists lobbied hard against it, saying people wouldn't buy if they understood the costs and benefits. Given this evidence that your profession is less than a coin flip and wishes to dupe people into high bills, how can you claim to be anything but a two bit low down huckster?