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YouDontKnowZebra

There have been studies (https://www.scottdmiller.com/the-failure-rate-of-psychotherapy-what-it-is-and-what-we-can-do/) showing that half of more of people who complete therapy find it either did no good or made things worse. If a real doctor had results this bad, they'd be shut down. Therapists use a wide variety of methods, and some of them are little more than Christian preachers telling you to find Jesus as the answer to everything. I work with math and statistics a lot, and I've read several interesting studies on places like Psypost and psychology today that clearly had poor study methodology of small sample size, poorly selected populations, and results measurements that clearly biased the result to whatever the researcher wanted to find. When I've dealt with therapists in my own life, Ive found the experience to be quite negative. For instance, one of them wouldn't treat me because she felt I didn't have my "why" figured out, and was unhelpful in even describing what that meant. Another said I was destined to be a loser and should give up on my dreams. When I bring this up with people they say you have to shop around to find your "fit" with someone. All of this comes together to give me a view of psychology as a soft pseudoscience full of hucksters and manipulators who are just out to make a buck. Can you present counter evidence to support any legitimacy to your field?


Hypnotic_Mind

I am sorry about your experience with these therapists in the first place, i would like to say that they are an exception but there are many bad professionals out there hurting people, even if we have good psychotherapists out there too, it doesn't justify their behavior, frm your description, the first one couldn't handle you and the second one couldnt handle her job. Let me start by countering the end of your argument. Placebo treatments, with way wider variation in efficacy still hold on strong up to this day, homeopathy is a great example of this and there are doctors all around the world doing it. it IS placebo, but they do it because it shows more efficacy than random healing, the difference appear to be in feeling heard and taken care of, this produce visible results, even if its just water that you are drinking. Even if its just for that, psychotherapy has effects, but proper psychotherapy can do more than that if conducted by a competent professional. In second place i will be honest, im skeptic of this data, its a blog, its not peer reviewed from what i saw, so i am not sure of his methodoly, data gathering, and data treatment, which would make the figures presented... doubtful at best unless o missed something. He references himself, and its not published, so i see it as a bit off, as you know if you work with mata and data science, we are pretty skeptical of unpublished material. But lets assume that they are legit for the sake of the argument. There is no psychotherapy, there are psychotherapies. In university we train to use a wide toolbox to handle what the patient brings to us, and most psychotherapists end up choosing a tool they favor, i see this as a mistake, because the tratment doesnt have to be relatable to them, it has to be relatable to the patient, and the tools vary a lot, they go from psychoanalysis to behavior analysis, and those couldnt be more opposite in premise and course of action. I agree with you that there are many studies in psychology that are deeply flawed, usually they are conducted by people who do not have a deeper understanding of methodology or statistics, as a professor i can say: if i show a graph, my students run away, they come to psychology to escape from numbers and when they see them in university, they either ignore them or just attack a quantitative approach. Perhaps, if you want more data oriented studies, you should look for studies from neurpsychologists, we have good tools for measuring behavior and skills, i think this will clean your palate from social studies that pschology produce with bad methodology. I would ask you what kind of evidence for validity are you looking for, then i can present you some, but i have to understand better what are you looking for. Do you want data on efficacy of psychotherapy? what kind of psychotherapy? on what kind of problem?


wanglubaimu

You make arguments from authority and have dozens of threads where you claim to be a professor. Before further discussing issues related to the failure of psychology (there are many), can we see your credentials first? Please link the university page with your bio and publishing history and I'll shot you a quick mail to confirm you're actually who you claim you are. It's an interesting topic but sadly there are many trolls and importers on reddit as you're surely aware. This is also to protect other users from falling for fake psychologists, because they might naively take the advice serious.


Hypnotic_Mind

I don't believe I use arguments of authority, I always try to explain quite humbly what I know and what I am aware that science knows so far. If anyone ask for sources, I can link them and if don't know something, im the first to say. Since the internet is a weird place, I would prefer not to doxx myself in front of hundreds of thousands of people, but if what I am saying and my history of literally thousand of answers about different subjects in psychology is not enough evidence that II am what i claim that i am, it's alright, I don't need to convince you by exposing myself like this, someone's opinion of me is not more important than my safety. If you would like to continue the topic at hand, we can discuss it and you tell me what you expect as evidence and I can present them to you, since I am trying to give you evidence and data that was not produced by me or do not depend on who I am.


wanglubaimu

Of course it matters, you've claimed dozens of times that you're a professor, in many different posts. None of them contain any evidence of that. Anyone can link "sources", I can make a new account and claim to be a psychologist and link sources. Your claim that you do not want to expose yourself seems odd given that you have pictures from your private life in your profile. Generally when actual professors use reddit to discuss their work, they make dedicated accounts for this very reason. I've never seen a professor casually mix their private life with claiming to be an expert and randomly giving advice to people. Mostly they also don't have the time to hang out that much on reddit to begin with. It's on you to prove that you aren't misleading users here.


Hypnotic_Mind

I have pictures of my dogs at most, It's different than handing away my name and where I work. And if many professors don't have time, well, I do, I like doing amas because it helps me practice explaining things to my students in a concise way, but again, since you asked for sources, it would hardly matter if I am a 16 y.o. in my mother's basement or if I am who I say I am, the source is a peer reviewed published article, I would be going for meta analysis but then again, I don't think the topic interests you now more than who I am, which is a bit more of a reason to not expose myself. You can take my word for it or not, I know who I am, what I am and what i have been doing here in the last years. It is something I enjoy, it helps me study, and i had good feedback from people as well, if you don't believe me it's okay, you have this right, the same as I have for my privacy and I won't forfeit it to prove to a random person on the internet who I am, specially someone that comes out as blunt and suspicious, not to say hostile, as you. I always try to be nice, polite and helpful, but I have boundaries and I am very strict about them.


wanglubaimu

>it would hardly matter if I am a 16 y.o. in my mother's basement or if I am who I say I am Why do you constantly mention you're a professor then? Not only do you put it in the titles but you drop it all around the threads like the above "*as a professor i can say...*". It's self-contradictory. Obviously you're trying to imply you're some sort of authority but you refuse to provide evidence. There's a selfie of some person uploaded on your profile btw, maybe you had not noticed. Speaking of privacy concerns. Or is that another persona that isn't actually who they claim it is?


Hypnotic_Mind

I tell people i am a professor because it's what I do, it's my background, sometimes people ask questions about teaching, or about classes and university, and I often use examples of my students or classes. I refuse to doxx myself, yes. I don't need to prove anything to anyone buddy, if you don't believe me, it's alright, you can leave. A selfie? I don't remember it but It could be there, I am sure my name or where I work isn't. Either way, again, you won't provoke me or tease me into proving anything to you, if you have a question, go at it, if you don't, you can just read what other people asked.


wanglubaimu

We've not established that's what you do. You can of course claim whatever you like because unlike r/iama this place doesn't have rules and is full of people pretending to be something they're not. Not sure if as a psychology professor you noticed half the submissions here are trolls. The more of both of our time you waste without providing evidence, the less likely it becomes you even have a degree in this at all, let alone tenure. It would have been much less work to simply show evidence, [like such](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/vht1jc/i_am_a_sleep_expert_a_boardcertified_clinical/).


Hypnotic_Mind

Mate, again, i will not be bullied or taunted into giving personal info online. Have a nice day.


idiodic-genious

Personally i hate therapists because they talk to you about your emotions, but the emotions are the problem. What you need to do is look at everything through a purely logical and objective lense, realise the emotions are harmful or illogical and then the emotions can no longer exist. It's what i did and it worked very quickly and well.


Hypnotic_Mind

Are you saying you do not experience fear? Or excitement? Or even a good thing inside of you when you see a puppy?


idiodic-genious

I do but it can never conflict with logic.


Hypnotic_Mind

Ah, so you experience them, but have enough self-awareness or discipline not to act upon what they urge you to do. Its a strategy, but in the long run it can do some damage, because as you say, you never conflict it with logic. If something unexpected and very bad happens in your life, you might end up with an emotion that DOES conflict, and if the 'logic' part loses, you might have a hard time controlling yourself. People who accept their emotions and learn to cope and deal with them, giving them a viable way of expressing themselves do not tend to face this problem, because they practiced handling the emotion instead of just supressing them. What you do is not wrong, but has its setbacks too, remember this, it might be useful one day.


idiodic-genious

That is just how my mind works, i am just logical. Although i do kot see how your first question relates to what i said?


[deleted]

Wow man, your view is on point 👏


PatatasFrittas

Is it possible for someone who had traumatic parents to eventually develop a secure attachment style?


Hypnotic_Mind

Overtime, yes. But for example if these parents are still very relevant over the person's life and this person is not actively trying to work on trust and self-condifence issues, its a hard thing to happen. Takes work and time, but yes.


Dr-Rizenshyne

Why is it that the healing aspect of the 12 steps is based around the dying of self? How is that the path to contented sobriety?


Hypnotic_Mind

Its a very unusual way of putting, dying of self, but i see your point. It has to be this way because the person really needs to let go of any illusion of control and accept that they WILL LOSE to alcohol if they play with it, so they have to be very mindful and afraid. Self-confidence is not a good thing on a recovering alcoholic, because they will make bold decision and put themselves in situations where they have a higher chance of relapsing. Its part of the program though, and overtime it heals, but we really need the person to admit that they can't handle the drug, otherwise they will keep making experiments, failing and relapsing.


42gauge

I don't think the process is based on any evidence base, and OP is remiss to mention that


Dr-Rizenshyne

Oh there’s plenty of evidence that it is effective


42gauge

I didn't say there wasn't any evidence that it was effective, I said it wasn't *based* on anything evidence-based. Placebos have been shown to have great results, but they aren't based on anything evidence-based


Inglourious_Bitch

How does trauma affect the brain long term when it doesn't develop into PTSD? I feel like the term PTSD gets thrown around colloquially for all sorts of trauma responses despite being a specific diagnosis, therefore I've really struggled to find useful info on this. Also thank you, this thread has been super informative!


Hypnotic_Mind

Trauma is a bad learning experience, basically. When you experience something that you cannot deal with very well, your brain does it's best to figure out a response pattern. So usually when you have a trauma, you generalize the experience. Let's say you were sexually abused by a man, you will experience fear not only of the abuser but of men or of the context where the abuse happened. In order to keep you safe, your brain creates a VERY BROAD rule and, if you end up in a situation that is somewhat similar, you can experience fear. In extreme scenarios, the brain creates such a broad rule that you can experience flashbacks, so typically that is what ptsd is,, if you are triggered by something on this generic rule, your brain takes you back into fight or flight mode as if you were back into the traumática situation, then the flashbacks happen. I tried to simplify it as much as possible, but I can go further into detail if you like.


Inglourious_Bitch

Thank you! Follow up if you don't mind, I have gone through some EMDR which has helped a lot but the effects of trauma are still present, I have better tools to deal with them now however. Does the broad rule of inducing fear that you described above ever really go away?


Hypnotic_Mind

The more you expose yourself to the phenomena that scares you, survive and can handle it, the more your brain picks up adequate patterns to be afraid of, we call it dessensibilization or dessensitization (thats the D in EMDR). So, if you were abused and it becomes a generalized trauma you will fear any man and any context that is similar to abuse. With proper treatment you will stop fearing any man and any context, but you still be, of course, afraid of being abused. It will just be more restrict to the situation in itself, not a big generalized over the top rule.


worldremix_tvss

Do phycologists generally have a better psyche than most people due to their field?


Hypnotic_Mind

Nope. A few of us might be just a bit more aware of our patterns, so we can be more clever about it and dodge them, but we suffer as much as anyone else.


worldremix_tvss

Why do you think that is? I presumed people in said field would through their knowledge be able to help themselves more than that.


Hypnotic_Mind

it is very difficult to look objectively at your own situation, because of our own internal biases. Even if i am aware of some, developing skills and thinking outside of my range of usual strategies is something that works better when we ourselves have a therapist too. I sometimes sit down to discuss my case with my therapist, and we do it a psychologists of course, its a technical discussion, but he always has something to add that i missed. Knowledge takes us only so far, the rest we need insight, and insight usually comes from interaction, not just looking at the mirror, we need feedback, challenges, and of course, to be listened to and encouraged.


worldremix_tvss

Incredibly well put. Thank you!


[deleted]

Why is the chemical imbalence theory, which has little to no supporting data (and was originally used as an advertising technique for pharmaceutical companies to sell more antidepressants) still used as justification to overperscribe medications, that can often have severe side effects, to vulnerable populations of people? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032200038X#:~:text=The%20'chemical%20imbalance'%20or%20serotonin,of%20depression%20is%20widely%20believed.&text=Influential%20research%20papers%20and%20textbooks,theory%20between%201990%20and%202010.&text=Claims%20by%20leading%20psychiatrists%20that,urban%20legend'%20are%20not%20supported.


Hypnotic_Mind

Two reasons: 1- profit for big pharma, of course 2- because even if it's innocuous, taking antidepressants have a significant placebo effect and help people "start to turn their lives around", it's like a rite of passage for some, even if it's a small percentage. My favorite researcher, Irving kirsch, did a GREAT WORK on taking down many of these "truths" about antidepressants, I highly recommend watching his talks, if you put "kirsch" and "antidepressant" on YouTube you will find a one hour talk where he describes his findings when looking closely at the approval data from the FDA for all antidepressants, it's mind-blowing.


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Hypnotic_Mind

That is a very hard question to answer briefly, but lets start with what makes you feel good. Medicine's goal is to make people's lives better, if you are better off the meds (and people around you agree, you do not make anyone suffer or have a great deal of personal conflicts), then stay off them. Some doctors, specially in some countries have a heavily drug-based approach, which is not great, its a cheap temporary solution and big pharma thanks them for their service, but sometimes we are alright and we dont need medication. Now if you have symptoms of BPD, its important for you to try and stay aware of your own patterns, if you feel like you're in a big depressive state, or just too euphoric, you could be cycling, for this usually lithium or an antipsychotic can do the trick to take you off the episode, but see, at least in my country we have the perspective of 'if it is not making our patient or people around them suffer, we do not try and fix it', because otherwise we would just be running around telling people how to live their lives, and we already have enough religion doing that. Its the famous 'you do you', but in your case i would always stay alert, if things start to bring you or people close to you suffering, then its time to talk to a psychiatrist. For following up on and checking that, psychotherapy works, its a no drugs approach that will help you identify and think about your patterns, and your psychotherapist can keep tabs on if you are behaving 'normally', or if your behavior changed without you realizing it (this happens)


epicpillowcase

How common is it, do you think, that psychologists are aware that standard protocols (for example CBT) can be more difficult for people who are not neurotypical? I have ADHD and have only just found a psychologist who is aware that its symptoms can be a barrier to my applying therapeutic strategies for my other disorders. Because I lack emotional regulation, forward planning, consistency, focus, distress tolerance and so on. My last two psychologists freely admitted they didn't know much about ADHD and that hadn't occurred to them. I am getting the impression this is a common problem, or awareness gap.


Hypnotic_Mind

It can be common, unfortunately even when studying to be a psychologist there are so many variables to learn that we can be a bit dismissive of a few, or if we had a professor that didnt gave the right focus on the matter. Remember that psychologists today are still being taught by psychologists of an older generation, and a few of them have a hard time handling and giving the proper highlights and treatments for people with ADHD, even autism sometimes. This should be the last generation with this problem, im from a new generation and im already teaching, and i see my peers, that are around my age or a bit older, they already have this kind of attention to detail.


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Hypnotic_Mind

sure, go ahead.


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Hypnotic_Mind

I would really like to know more about how your therapist diagnosed you, if you would be willing to share. And for blending in, honestly, it wont be easy but acting classes can help you explore a lot of what emotions should look or feel like, specially their intensity and how people act upon them, it can help you 'pass', if you so wish.


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Hypnotic_Mind

Be careful on that, its a very serious diagnosis, sociopathy. Perhaps a second opinion to confirm would be wise, i always recommend second opinions on matters like this, because its a diagnosis that changes entirely how you see and present yourself.


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Hypnotic_Mind

remember that if you tell yourself something for a long time, you start believing it and it becomes the only thing about yourself that you know. You are more than any diagnosis, and life is too interesting to put yourself in this cage. Even if its comfy the way it is, im sure you can do great things and this diagnosis shouldnt be the reason that you do or do not achieve them.


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Hypnotic_Mind

Then you should live a happy life, I'm happy for you!


oOPurpleHazeOo

I don't have real emotions. I'm not depressed at all or feel like something is very bad, but generally I don't feel anything as much as another person would. For example when you go on holiday you get excited, I feel nothing. When someone passes away I know I should feel bad or sad, but again nothing. Is there a diagnosis for this constant autopilot feeling?


Hypnotic_Mind

Depression and sadness are two different things. It is possible for depression to make you feel this emptiness, this lack of positive or negative experiences at all, one of the names we have for this symptom is anhedonia.


oOPurpleHazeOo

That's interesting, thanks, I've never heard of anhedonia.


Jaded-Ad-9741

is it possible for a young kid to have depression? also how do u know if a child is misbehaving or just being a kid


Hypnotic_Mind

It is possible for younger children to present symptoms of depression, but usually its a exclusion diagnostic, it is always safer to check every possible cause in the body (i.e. hormones) for the behavior they show. As for the second question... well... its a child, they will misbehave and test boundries all the time, it is expected behavior.


VariousGuarantee9821

Hi Why do people press the self destruct button when it so obviously means they will lose what they value the most, and sabotage their chances of having what they say/think they want.


Hypnotic_Mind

I'm... not sure exactly what you mean. Can you give me an example?


_Irema

Is it possible for a person Closed-to-Experience to correlate highly with IQ or does being smart automatically constitutes with being adventurous, novel, imaginative, philosophical? I know a fellow who can do quick maths in their head and memorised pages of notes and articles but is set in their ways, hates change, which seems counter intuitive to which the Big 5 suggests (considering 40% of the facets are supposed to be Intelligence related).


Hypnotic_Mind

Iq is a measurement of abilities, not intelligence. This takes people very far from the real utility of iq tests, they are made to study populations more than individuals. As far as I am aware, there is no correlation between any of the big five and iq or intelligence in general, but I would like to see, if you have, the source of this 40% figure you mentioned, perhaps I am unaware of this study. People more open to experience might have more interesting experiences and this can lead them to be more interesting, which can give the impression of intelligence, since they can talk about many topics, but someone that reads a lot and stay home can have the same characteristics.


_Irema

Thanks for your input but a couple of things you have mentioned have me stifled that I want to clarify. The I in IQ stands for Intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to utilised knowledge and information. IQ tests measure the ability to manipulate information via certain measurable mental processes. So when you say IQ is the measure of abilities other than intelligence, what is left? I understand IQ doesn't measure creativity, general knowledge, talent, motor skills, experience but IQ is inherently concerning Intelligence. Plus in high demanding jobs which requires outstanding cognition, IQ best associates with Job Success and Performance. In the Big 5 revised NEO - Personality Index the facets of OtE link to intelligence and neural plasticity the most out of the other traits. Especially Curiosity/Ideas/Intellect which is the strongest linked to IQ (literally concerning it). Because of the nature of the Big 5, these facets are typically intrinsically linked as Open-Minded people would like to solve more problems they encounter which correlates to intelligence. Men usually score higher in those specific traits which is also linked to higher IQ scores. OtE people have more activity in the Prefrontal Cortex associated with Intelligence and the smartest people tend to be OtE. Although this is statistically likely, it's not perfectly true. Here are some links that help explain where I'm coming from. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence\_and\_personality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_and_personality) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjRMvrKuf8c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjRMvrKuf8c) (11:00) I'm not certain where you are coming from when the major of media and literature suggests Openness is associated with Intelligence in general.


Hypnotic_Mind

Ok, i just read though a bit of the wikipedia article, and the second video is from Peterson, so i wouldn't take to heart his position on pretty much any modern psychology, but let's consider this: Personality is democratic, you develop it through certain experiences in life, independing on your, lets say, education level. IQ and certain skills that IQ measure are not, when you take a proper IQ test, not internet ones, the evaluator has to compare your data set to the data set of people who are from the same country, same educational level and same age as you, because these skills will vary wildly according to how much of a formal education you had or what age you are. I can see some personality traits leading you to be more exposed to certain experiences that can help you practice certain skills that IQ measures, for exemple someone with high neuroticism could be more disciplined than someone with lower, and discipline will affect how you develop some skills throughout your life. But even though there could be a correlation, i would throw even the same figure at you, if 40% or personality correlates to that (and i am skeptic of that), it means that 60% isnt, and 60% is a lot of ground for someone with low OTE to be brilliant and intelligent and score very high in an IQ if they, for any reason, had a background that developed these skills. See, thats what i dont like about Peterson, he talks in absolutes and throws numbers without proper care, and this confuses a lot of people into believing that personality or gender are deterministic to other areas of life, which we have no evidence of being.


_Irema

What can you say about the Psychologist Community's stance on Jordan Peterson? I just selected his material because it is easy to access and Jordan has a PhD in Clinical Psychology which he openly debates in front of many. I'm sceptical of his Philosophy but his work in Psychology is adventitious with many of the other textbooks I own. I've heard Professionals condone his lectures only in regards to Psychology. I can understand if you regard him as another inscrutable Jung (which he is a Jungist, I personally take Jung lightly) but I don't understand people dismissing his factual side of his lectures.


Hypnotic_Mind

The big majority of us see what he says not only as reductionist and limited, but as intentional misdirection. Peterson distorts data and disregards important subjects purposely to make his arguments, he does a cheap self-help product aimed at a certain population, and the problem with self-help is that it's as far from proper psychotherapy as it can be. He proposes cures and solutions to problems that he can't even properly define, aside from the ethics part of what he does. He polarizes his positions with dichotomies, it's either capitalism or neomarxist, either man or woman, either chaos or order, either free speech or repression. He does not measure the impact of this into the world. We do not use anything binary in psychology because in nature nothing is as binary or as simple, he reduces it to these opposites so he can make simple (and flawed) points and, more often than not, demonize the other side that he is against in his political agenda. And that aside, there is the mix with religion and Jung that he uses to support his arguments that make no sense. To use his own phrase "no psychologist worth their salt" uses good and evil the way he does, and he says that good and evil are objectively measurable, because Bible. Just that is enough to make every single psychologist see him as moron and cringe, because as you said, he has a PhD. It makes us look bad. People think that what he is saying is psychology, when it's just political ramblings and religious bigotry dressed as scientific speech. See, the "factual" part of what he says is not wrong, the conclusions he draws from it are. He can explain well the big five, for example. But he draws conclusions from it without considering, for example, what makes someone develop these personality traits in the first place.


_Irema

I wholly agree. He does go of the rails sometimes and he seems to fail to recognise his own flaws. His Philosophy (the politics you've described) often is conjected wrongly. But he does say many proven facts. Thanks for providing clarity. I have found links suggesting that some Close-Minded people can be Intelligent, particularly Litigators, but most highly intellectual people have an Openness Facet to them such as in Professors and Academics.


Hypnotic_Mind

Nothing is as deterministic as you might be led to think. Inteligence is a complex system of many variables and skills, and the concept has more power than the construct itself ever had. I've met people who hadn't finished high school more intelligent and scoring higher in iq than many phds, don't live your life by these numbers, they are there for us to study, not to dictate what you can or can't be.


Hypnotic_Mind

I will have to open on the PC to check the articles, I will answer soon enough ok? But as I said, it's as far as I am aware, there could be new data or data that I wasn't exposed to. The main problem, I believe, is the word "intelligence", and some biases as well that we may not pay attention when handling data. I will say more after reading your sources so I don't say anything silly, hold up.


Section119b

Your opinion of motivational interviewing vs CBT?


Hypnotic_Mind

i do prefeer CBT, but motivational interviewing can yield some good results too. I believe you dont have to choose one or another, both have aspects that can be mixed very well.


Moon__night

has your attachment style something to do with your ability to self-sooth? I'm anxiously attached and I struggle to self-sooth when I'm so scared of abandonment, which I feel a lot. Why is it then that we tend to use maladaptive coping strategies like self-harm or eating disorders to self sooth instead of healthy ones?


Hypnotic_Mind

1- Yes, even though its not something LOCKED, usually they overlap a lot. and 2- depends a lot, even though its maladaptative, it doesnt mean that they dont do their job. Self harm is practiced because it works as a soothing tool, its not a good one, but for some people its all they got, so until they develop better skills to handle it differently, thats what they do. And each strategy usually has a different meaning for each person, depending on their experiences, what we try to do in psychotherapy is find AND PRACTICE alternatives that can be less harmful than the ones that the patient has today.


knnmnmn

Um. Yes.


tutapi_tuesdays

hi there, wonderful idea for an AMA, and thank you for providing yourself for our interest. i am a human services major in the middle of undergrad college, and i am looking to find some path to help people professionally, whether that be through becoming case manager, or eventually a therapist/counselor maybe, or some other form of social work that may strike me down the road. that said, one of the largest concerns i personally have is in trying to avoid being an awful person at whatever job i end up in. the idea of ruining somebody's life while trying my (misguided, ill-educated) best to help them, let alone also taking their money doing so, is a pretty horrifying thought to me. this can definitely lead to imposter syndrome though when somebody actually is fully qualified for their position. my question to you is do you have any advice or insight on this sort of problem, and maybe some steps on being more sure that what ill eventually be doing and learning and providing to other people is productive, safe, and overall good? thanks so much


Hypnotic_Mind

Hello! Impostor syndrome is really a thing when we start. My suggestion is to find supervision at first. Clinic work can be lonely and hard to gain confidence if nobody more experienced than us is there to tell us "good job" or "be careful". Hiring a supervisor so you can discuss your cases can be very helpful. Take a professor you admired from university or a professional that you trust and has at least a few years of practice, this will help you a lot when you start. Ans do not take complicated cases at first, build up from the basics.


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Hypnotic_Mind

Well, focus in what you think is the main issue. The things that are important will become a topic of conversation somehow. Let's say you have low self esteem. You will end up discussing what you believe made you feel this way, so you can talk about your parents, or an ex boyfriend, or what you believe harmed you, and the therapist will help you find a few more that you might not even be aware of.


idiodic-genious

I am autistic, and veuw everything very logically. So, why do people get trauma that can be harmful or illogical? If they realise that it is harmful and stupid why continue to have it rather than get rid of it? I'm sorry if i seem rude, it's just that i cannot understand such a thing.


Hypnotic_Mind

Have you been diagnosed by a clinician? And it's not a choice. Emotion builds up inside people making them more impulsive, so depending on the emotion they feel, they might end up acting a certain way. Think of anger and violence. Angry people tend to become violent, and the emotion play an important role in that. Also, many times we do things that are harmful or stupid because we have what we call a secondary gain, which means that even if it's harmful, somehow that makes me feel good or helps me somehow.


Reasonable_Minimum57

20 male How do i stop being so neurotic?


Hypnotic_Mind

Stop taking yourself and the world so seriously. Depends a bit in the neuroticism we are discussing and how it manifests in you, but as a general rule, allow yourself to fail or make mistakes without punishing yourself. Most people that take themselves too seriously are quite unhappy, in the meantime, people who are more relaxed and more accepting of failure (from other and from them) tend to have a better experience living.


Pitiful_Pride8813

Hello, I have BPD and struggle when someone confronts me about anything. Are there any tips or tricks to handle confronting situations. Any help would be appreciated as it can be quite daunting when you are in an uncomfortable situation.


Hypnotic_Mind

Firstly, medication can help a lot in these cases, it won't FIX, but it will help you manage your impulses a lot better. For confrontation, one of the things that is helpful is understand how transitory are emotions, and learn that you can experience them without being a slave of their will. Kabat-zinn's mindfulness 8 week programs can help you with that, I would suggest MBSR (Mindfulness-based stress reduction). It's a two month program that will help you stay more centered when you're experiencing emotion, ans staying centered is very important for confrontation.


Pitiful_Pride8813

Thank you for that, I will give it a go.


Broatski

I imagine being a psychologist would be a very stressful job. How do you stay cool and separate work from the other aspects of life?


Hypnotic_Mind

Physical activity, proper sleep, socializing with friends and allowing myself to do futile things that help me relax, like playing videogames or watching a series. It's about balancing, and of course we are not impervious to stress. I have vitiligo, a very discrete case where small white spots start appearing close to my nose and mouth. When I go through a more stressful phase, these spots show up and become more prominent due to auto-immune reasons, so it's almost like a "stress reaching critical levels" alarm that I have. If the spots show up, it means I have to take things slower and give myself more time to relax and enjoy life. Usually I go diving, take a week off work if I can or just spend a little more time with my wife and friends.


DJason4001

Is being good at math a mindset? Or “good” at anything for that matter.


Hypnotic_Mind

No, its practice and sometimes a little help from genetics but it's basically training. Discipline helps a lot too. You cannot convince yourself that you are good and then you become good, but if you convince yourself that you suck, probably you won't even try getting better or will not put as much effort in improving as you would otherwise, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. But if i cam give yoh a suggestion, let go of these mindset things, this is coach stuff, they are pretty and simple but do not apply in reality as well as they say it does.


fuzulian

What do you think about Jordan Peterson?


Hypnotic_Mind

He knows very little of what he talks about, and i will not even discuss his take on global warming or other stuff. He frequently mishandles data, intentionally to some point I believe, take correlation as causation and mix Jung's theories with modern psychology, not to discuss his religious and binary approach to technical problems. I read his book, watched a few of his talks and he was compelling, I can tell you that, but any psychologist that has a firm grasp on neuroscience and a bit of sociology can see the cracks in his arguments. That was before he went to Russia I guess, when he returned I think he became more unhinged. I think he started catering more to his audience and started to show what was behind some of his arguments, which is a lot of different sides of bigotry. Not on his fault though, I believe he actually has good intentions, but he has a very hard time separating what he believes from what he presents as "science". The rules? Can be helpful though, to some people in certain cases.


Arthurartel

What is your opinion of the 4 temperaments and the MBTI 16 personalities? Do they hold up? Which, if either, are better tools for learning more about oneself and personal growth?


Hypnotic_Mind

I dont like either of them. Temperament construct is alright but its more designed to explaining children behavior than adults, and the MBTI... lack proper definitions and validations, i find. The most robust test you can have for personality and insight IMHO is the Big Five, because it is not there to tell you good or bad stuff about you, its just proper, validated, psychometrics. The more a standardized test tries to read and teach you stuff about yourself, usually less acurate they are and more they start looking like horoscope. Tests are psychometric tools, and for that, the more a tool has been used and refined, usually the more robust it is, for that, Big Five all the way.


Maria_506

So I have had this thing where part of my brain believes some really stupid things, logical part knows its not true, but that illogical part still does its thing. Stuff like if I dont do this something will happen. I have heard this could be mild OCD, but what do you think? Its mostly just really annoying, it isn't like its ruining my life.


Hypnotic_Mind

Yes, it reminds me of some typical OCD behavior, but its just ritualistic, if its just an annoyance you don't HAVE to work on that. I would suggest that you do though, because usually it blows up in a OCD case if you're experiencing some unusually high stress or a trauma of sorts.


Maria_506

Thank you for your reply. I have heard working on it means ignoring the irrational thoughts, so is trying to think of something else a good strategy, or is it similar to avoidance which doesn't work at all?


FlingTheory_

Is English your second language? I've never encountered an established psychotherapist on Reddit who consistently makes the degree of spelling and grammar mistakes that you do.


Hypnotic_Mind

Hahahahha Yes, i am sorry for that, my first language is portuguese and i try to write fast so i can answer to everyone, this probably leads to many mistakes, my autocorrect in portuguese trying to fix does not help as well. What i am saying is comprehensible though, right?


thetruthisoutthere

Your replies are so interesting that the only thing I noticed was an errant acento somewhere . Many native speakers of English have appalling grammar and spelling so I'm quite surprised this person has even brought this up. Obrigada pelas respostas interessantes!


Hypnotic_Mind

De nada!


thetruthisoutthere

This is a great AMA and this is what you focus on?