Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 August 2019
The Myth of the Placebo Response
A Perspective Article by Wayne B. Jonas (Samueli Integrative Health Programs, Alexandria, VA, USA; Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA; Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA) published in the Frontiers in Psychiatry blog
Abstract
The placebo response is a myth. It does not exist in reality, and continuing to name it is hindering the optimal application of science to healing in medicine.
On the surface, it is obvious that, when defined as a biological response to an inert pill (like a sugar pill), the idea of a “response” to a placebo is impossible. Inert treatments by definition do not produce responses. So why do we continue to ponder why people get better from taking inert substances and base our acceptance of legitimate treatments on demonstrating that they go beyond that response?
The problem arises because we have flawed assumptions of the value that reductionistic science and the demonstration of specific effects has for healing. To support those flawed assumptions, we support the idea of “the placebo response”. This causes confusion among patients, clinicians, regulators, and even scientists.
Legitimate medical treatments have become defined as those that do more than produce a placebo response. An entire pharmaceutical industry and its regulators attempt to control and profit by proving that small molecules produce a clinical effect greater than the placebo response. Billions of dollars are made when that is proven, often even when the size of the response in the active over the placebo group is miniscule.
The fact is people heal and that inherent healing capacity is both powerful and influenced by mental, social, and contextual factors that are embedded in every medical encounter since the idea of treatment began.
In this chapter, I argue that our understanding of healing and ability to enhance it will be accelerated if we stop using the term “placebo response” and call it what it is—the meaning response, and its special application in medicine called the healing response.
Full text (HTML) with link to downloadable PDF
I found the arguments put forward by this author fascinating.
Thursday, 25 October 2018
Religion is about emotion regulation, and it’s very good at it
a post by Stephen T Asma for the Big Think blog
Religion does not help us to explain nature. It did what it could in pre-scientific times, but that job was properly unseated by science. Most religious laypeople and even clergy agree: Pope John Paul II declared in 1996 that evolution is a fact and Catholics should get over it. No doubt some extreme anti-scientific thinking lives on in such places as Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it has become a fringe position. Most mainstream religious people accept a version of Galileo's division of labour: 'The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.'
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Religion does not help us to explain nature. It did what it could in pre-scientific times, but that job was properly unseated by science. Most religious laypeople and even clergy agree: Pope John Paul II declared in 1996 that evolution is a fact and Catholics should get over it. No doubt some extreme anti-scientific thinking lives on in such places as Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it has become a fringe position. Most mainstream religious people accept a version of Galileo's division of labour: 'The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.'
Continue reading
Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Dear Narcissist, Stop, You’re on the Wrong Track!
a post by Athena Staik for Neuroscience and Relationships blog [via World of Psychology]
This post consists of a letter from this therapist, which is addressed to those that meet the criteria for narcissistic or antisocial personality disorders, NPD or APD respectively. Ideally, an NPD or APD would read this message, and to some degree, embrace and seek professional help to change the serious patterns of abuse they intentionally use to traumatize others for their own gain.
In reality, persons with these disorders are not likely to even read this post, much less respond by taking it seriously enough to engage in authentic changes their wrong track patterns. This letter thus is written primarily with those who have been victimized by an NPD or APD in mind, and as a result experience symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome.
The purpose here is to support key steps those who’ve been victimized must take to engage in healing processes, specifically, in breaking free of the mind-body thought-control patterns that NPDs and APDs predictably instill in those they prey on in order to prop up their false-self egos as superior, and their supremacist ideology as biologically determined.
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Hazel’s comment
I would take issue with the gender specific nature of much of the advice offered. It’s not that the advice is wrong but I tried reading it in the light of supporting two people who have been traumatised by a narcissist. Both of these people have been severely hurt by their mothers.
This post consists of a letter from this therapist, which is addressed to those that meet the criteria for narcissistic or antisocial personality disorders, NPD or APD respectively. Ideally, an NPD or APD would read this message, and to some degree, embrace and seek professional help to change the serious patterns of abuse they intentionally use to traumatize others for their own gain.
In reality, persons with these disorders are not likely to even read this post, much less respond by taking it seriously enough to engage in authentic changes their wrong track patterns. This letter thus is written primarily with those who have been victimized by an NPD or APD in mind, and as a result experience symptoms of narcissistic abuse syndrome.
The purpose here is to support key steps those who’ve been victimized must take to engage in healing processes, specifically, in breaking free of the mind-body thought-control patterns that NPDs and APDs predictably instill in those they prey on in order to prop up their false-self egos as superior, and their supremacist ideology as biologically determined.
Continue reading
Hazel’s comment
I would take issue with the gender specific nature of much of the advice offered. It’s not that the advice is wrong but I tried reading it in the light of supporting two people who have been traumatised by a narcissist. Both of these people have been severely hurt by their mothers.
Saturday, 3 March 2018
How I Got My Spark for Life Back: 5 Practices for Healing and Happiness
a post by Bethany Fullerton for the Tiny Buddha blog
Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free. ~Robert Tew
In 2014, I was drowning in unhappiness. I had moved to Palestine five years earlier, later met my husband, and decided to remain in one of the most conflicted countries in the world.
There I was, living in a different country far from the comforts of home that I had always known. My marriage was rife with conflict and pain, and I had nobody to turn to.
I had no family nearby, and with the high turnover of internationals in the country, many of the friends I’d made had left to go back to their home countries, leaving me behind.
My fear and shame around the difficulties in my marriage kept me from sharing my struggles with the few friends that remained. My friendships felt shallow, and I felt more and more isolated and alone.
Continue reading
Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free. ~Robert Tew
In 2014, I was drowning in unhappiness. I had moved to Palestine five years earlier, later met my husband, and decided to remain in one of the most conflicted countries in the world.
There I was, living in a different country far from the comforts of home that I had always known. My marriage was rife with conflict and pain, and I had nobody to turn to.
I had no family nearby, and with the high turnover of internationals in the country, many of the friends I’d made had left to go back to their home countries, leaving me behind.
My fear and shame around the difficulties in my marriage kept me from sharing my struggles with the few friends that remained. My friendships felt shallow, and I felt more and more isolated and alone.
Continue reading
Monday, 5 February 2018
Why You Need to Recognize These 7 Lines from the Narcissist’s Script
a post by Peg Streep for Knotted: The Mother-Daughter Relationship blog [via World of Psychology]
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Just that little bit of what Peg Streep tells me reminds of my husband who insists that the past has to be buried, as deeply as possible.
I didn’t realize until relatively recently how much my view of things is shaped by childhood. I took the position, until I went into therapy, that at age 42, all of my problems had to do with the present. But they don’t.Our culture is characterized by impatience with slow recovery, has a penchant for quick fixes, and a focus on forward motion, and future possibility; these cultural biases make it hard for someone who’s trying to make sense of and deal with childhood experiences as these messages, received from readers of my book Daughter Detox: Healing from an Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life, attest. Get Over It! Is considered by many to be positive cheerleading, even though it belies any understanding of what psychological damage looks like.
Even my therapist said that my mother did the best she could, and I believed that and, frankly, thought I should just make do with what she did give me and muddle through. But that’s not the answer, I now realize. Reading this book has made me realize how much I am getting in my own way.
Everyone in my life keeps telling me to move on, that the past is the past, and I need to just get on with living in the moment. They just don’t get it. The little girl I was needs to be dealt with.
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Just that little bit of what Peg Streep tells me reminds of my husband who insists that the past has to be buried, as deeply as possible.
Friday, 24 November 2017
7 Amazing Things That Happen When You Start Loving Yourself More
a post by Aska Kolton for the Tiny Buddha blog
“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits—anything that kept me small. My judgment called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving,” ~Kim McMillen
I started learning about self-love a long time ago.
In fact, I started learning about self-love so long ago that when, fifteen years later, a shaman in Peru I told me that self-love was the answer to all my questions, I got really pissed off!
I had struggled with depression as a teenager. For about two years, I lived a very sad life. I don't even remember much to be honest. I felt the pain of existence. I avoided people. Every day felt like yet another obstacle to overcome. I existed rather than lived. Eventually, I overcame it and discovered some tools that I still use to help me with any low moments l might have today. One of them was the practice of self-love.
I found a few helpful books on meditation, the Silva Method, visualization, and the famous book You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay.
I wrote affirmations daily. I kept doing my mirror work. I started to be more appreciative and kinder to myself. I meditated regularly and gradually rebuilt myself. I thought I had nailed self-love. I thought I had really understood what self-love was.
I was wrong.
Continue reading
“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits—anything that kept me small. My judgment called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving,” ~Kim McMillen
I started learning about self-love a long time ago.
In fact, I started learning about self-love so long ago that when, fifteen years later, a shaman in Peru I told me that self-love was the answer to all my questions, I got really pissed off!
I had struggled with depression as a teenager. For about two years, I lived a very sad life. I don't even remember much to be honest. I felt the pain of existence. I avoided people. Every day felt like yet another obstacle to overcome. I existed rather than lived. Eventually, I overcame it and discovered some tools that I still use to help me with any low moments l might have today. One of them was the practice of self-love.
I found a few helpful books on meditation, the Silva Method, visualization, and the famous book You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay.
I wrote affirmations daily. I kept doing my mirror work. I started to be more appreciative and kinder to myself. I meditated regularly and gradually rebuilt myself. I thought I had nailed self-love. I thought I had really understood what self-love was.
I was wrong.
Continue reading
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