Mental Health

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="77afd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>P & W Think Tank </B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="P W Think Tank "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id151.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing Thoughts Down"><U><B><IMG SRC="7770e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id379.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Religion"><U><B><IMG SRC="7780e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Mental Health</I></div> <bR> <div> Perceptions are the contact boundary between the mental processes of the human brain and the material world. Five sense organs, eye, ear, touch, taste and smell contact objects outside the material body by perception. One additional sense is our self-awareness of feelings, such as hunger, pain, and euphoria from meditation or ingestion.</div> <bR> <div> The modern words "mental", "awareness", self-awareness", "conscience", "mind", or in older words "psyche" or "spirit" describe the "Spark of Awareness" or "Spark of Life", or simply the "spark", in even older terms, that perceives stimuli contact with these six senses.</div> <bR> <div> There are six perceptual modes. Five of the external world (eyes, ears, touch, taste and smell), plus one of awareness of the internal state of the body. Siddhartha Gotama by some spellings, or Siddhartha Gautama by others, was the founder of Buddhism. A Buddha is one who has reached perfect understanding or enlightment. Gotama Buddha, as he came to be called, lived about 563-483 BC by some accounts, or at least some time in the first half of the 6th Century BC. As described in some texts, i.e. "The Gospel of Buddha," he taugh this perceptual model, as well as modern psychological studies of perception teach this. Gotama's Buddhism did not address before or after the physical life of the body, as I understand from my studies.</div> <bR> <div> The mental world is an 'almost complimentary opposite' of the material world, much like ideas in the Tao philosophy/religion, as expressed in the "Dao De Jing" book for one example. The only real world is in one's own mind, by logic. The Western philosophies describe the same thing in their "existential predicament" problems. It also means by logic, that there are as many worlds as there are sentient beings to perceive 'the world', or 'the universe in whole' or 'parts' for that matter. The inter-world depends on the outer-world being there, though the outer-world exists without a 'mental' to perceive it. Therefore, one may consider the "mental & material" as two sides of ONE coin with perception as the edge, (Ballenger's Law of the Coin - There is <U>always</U> a third side: the edge.)</div> <bR> <div> One may also consider the mental as one and the material as one, and when adding (one + one overlapping) getting "not two." The overlapping area being the perception (by the mental/psyche/spirit/mind) of the physical/material world outside of the body. One mental circle overlapping one material circle, the total mathematical area of the 'sort of figure 8 picture' of 'overlapped circles', being less that the sum area of the two individual circles: 1 mental + 1 material overlapping = not2, but when individual areas summed without overlap 1 + 1 = 2. (In the first case the area means there is actually less than a whole experience of the two individual parts, so, in theory we never can experience 'the whole' of [(mental)(physical)] life because of the mitigation.)</div> <div> ....</div> <bR> <div> Thinking/perception causes physical changes in the physiology of the body, and like-wise changes in physiology change thinking. Mental problems and symptoms raise four diagnostic questions that must be answered "<B>Is the client scientifically described</B> by # 1, <B>or</B> 2, <B>or</B> 3, <B>or</B> 4<B>?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1</B>. One with <B>structural problems</B>, i.e. accident victims or those with genetic defects, presenting psychiatric symptoms. This type may require operations and medicines. Talk therapies and many psychiatric medicines are of limited use.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2</B>. One with <B>real biological or viral illnesses</B>, presenting psychiatric symptoms, requiring more than psychiatric medicines alone. Talk therapies and psychiatric medicines are of little use before the biological and viral illnesses are addressed.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3</B>. Those people with <B>functional problems arising from improper diet</B>. This last type is better counseled with proper diet, talk therapies, and possibly short-term drug therapy.</div> <bR> <div> <B>4</B>. One with <B>functional problems</B> in thinking, having a normal brain and nerves, free of bacteria and virus, presenting psych~ symptoms, that arise 1. without information/knowledge, 2. lack of application to thought and reasoning/educations, and/or 3. poor reasoning skills to apply, i.e., lacks equanimity, or, poor performance with syllogistic reasoning, and 'poor functional understanding' of other applied logics and methods of problem solving. Many, many, many people fall into this category, I believe. This type is better counseled with talk therapies, and possibly, short-term psychiatric medicine therapies. For example, medicines can stabilize the client back to reasonable >>where talk therapies can work toward sanity.</div> <bR> <div> <B>NOTE: </B>Medicine <I>considerations ARE indicated</I> when there is a presentation of full psychosis, flight of ideas before full psychosis, or, indicative scores on 'intuitive or formal psychometric scales' for depression, mania, panic, pain or other indications by other psychometric inventories.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> A Family Treatment Plan starting point can be based on integrating the body, mind, and spirit. Two books, one, Eva A. Wood, MD's <B>MEDICINE, MINE, AND MEANING</B>, published in 2004 by In One Press LLC and <B>Plato, Not Prozac: Applying Eternal Wisdom to Everyday Problems</B>," by Lou Marinoff, published June 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers, 1ST QUILL, offers a starting point for application of theory.</div> <div> ....</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Schizophrenia</B> is better understood from the schizophrenic person's point of view. When one 'has/perceives' 'no control' of their own life they may use their imagination to create a mental place where the outside objects do the things they imagine them to do,  like taking forms, moving around, or speaking words of praise or chastisement or giving 'orders to do'. It is an abstract world of their creation, with a complexity related to their 'G-factor IQ' scores and exact environmental issues, or, in other words, a fictional life written in thought, much like a fictional book written in ink = the official psych~ of all schizophrenia. And, then, there are those who believe that one can have schizophrenic-like experiences that may be a connection to Para-phenomena, but that is not generally accepted by the licensed psychiatrists. They will usually give antipsychotic medications if this "symptom of psychosis" presents itself.</div> <bR> <div> .....</div> <bR> <div> The true 'multiple personality' is specifically not a frequent diagnosis in my experience, though lesser degrees of it are. I think, but I am not sure, but I think that the <B>D.I.D. or Disassociated Identity Diagnosis</B>, is usually a lessor degree of that definition. I don't remember the % any more, but the uses of the extreme definition, <B>Multiple Personality</B>, in specific cases is very small.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Remember</B> that all <U>psychological and psychiatric diagnoses</U> - 'words' which come first (John 1:1) - are defined by <U>sets of symptoms</U>, are only >>>> <I>a list of behaviors you can see and write down on paper </I>>>>> <U>with </U><I><U>disputed psychometric validity</U></I>. Still, I understand <I>the human personality as a circle that includes 'the everything' of that one personality</I>, although the whole <I>everything</I> may consist of <I>disassociated parts</I>.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Nature or Nurture?</B> An engram (the whole pattern of synaptic connections from a group of nerves to other nerves to muscles, etc., for a single complete thought) is created when an environment forces a response from a person(ality). This is the physical/material body side of the coin - addressed by the <I>medical model of medicine</I>. The direction of that thought - the 'spark of awareness' - is the mental/spiritual/psyche/mind side of the coin, addressed by <I>philosophy and psychology and religions</I>. Which is more important: the engram of the material body, addressed by the physical sciences such as psychiatry and neurology, or, the mental/spiritual/psyche/mind 'spark of awareness' addressed by philosophy, psychology and religion? That is the Nature/Nurture Issue.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The 'medical model'</B> addresses "illness" by changing the material body. A surgical operation by a medical doctor "cures" by removing or adding or rearranging a part, or parts, of the physical body. Medicine is chemicals or foods put into the body to cure an illness. Medical doctors use their "educated guess" that a specific chemical or food diet will cure the specific illness, although the body will eventually die of old age anyway. The medical model also uses physical therapies to strengthen weak muscles and breathing, to normalize blood flow in the heart, arteries and veins, to normalize bowel and urine functions, and so forth. Psychiatry addresses mental illness by giving a medicine guessed to reduce or eliminate the psych~ symptoms so the patient's mind can blossom like a flower into a more-normal functional pattern of thoughts; leading to more-normal patterns of behaviors.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The psychological model</B> addresses "illness" with a modern version of the "talking cure." The term "talking cure" was originally coined by Sigmund Freud's description of his psychoanalysis technique. Freud is also generally credited as being the father of all fields that treat mental problems, including both psychiatry and psychology. Psychology uses a scientific research approach based on statistical analysis of of animal and human behaviors. The statistical conclusions have redefined the "talking cure" as a number of different specific talking techniques to treat different 'sets of observable psych~ symptoms'. The most successful currently being (in 2006) <I>Cognitive Behavioral Therapy</I> (CBT).</div> <div> CBT uses different talking techniques based on research of cognition, specifically on how humans think. For example, in one CBT technique, talking is used to create "images of behaviors" in the client's mind when they are not faced with their problem, so the client is prepared to handle the problem when they do face it. A client can be taught to do this on their own so the actual time spent with a therapist is greatly reduced, which reduces the cost for the client, and/or their insurance company. Another successful talking technique is <I>Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy</I> (REBT), which was a CBT forerunner.</div> <div> REBT teaches the client to realize that first comes a perception, or feeling, that causes a thought in their brain. That thought points them to a behavioral choice. A habit is formed after some number of the same 'feeling, thought and choice of same behavior' sequences. The 'thought stage' can become so automatic and quick that it seems to drop out of the sequence. In fact, the thought happens whether or not the person is aware of it, but because the same behavior is chosen each time for that perception/feeling, the real-time in the thought stage is greatly reduced. By making the client aware of the 'feeling stage then thought stage' again, allows them to rethink their choices for that feeling, and they can see the reality of being able to choose a different-than-usual behavior for a given perception/feeling.</div> <div> <I>Neural Linguistic Programming</I> (NLP) is a newer (and controversial in 2006) technique that has risen out of hypnosis therapy. 'States of mind' are created, programmed, into the client's thinking by designing a sentence/paragraph structure, based on linguistics theory and research, to suit the therapeutic end, delivered by talking with a designed speech inflection, tone, timing and repetition derived from hypnosis theory and research.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> The direction a thought will take depends on the person/animal's (psychological) learning when put in the new environment. In other words, 'muscular feelings' about the environment cause 'thoughts/engrams' that point to some 'choice of action/behavior' (Albert Ellis, Ph.D.'s Rational Emotive Behavior Theory).</div> <div>     It is the habitual response we modify, i.e.,</div> <bR> <div> {[(historical and current choices) ((some genetic expressions' influence) in some (function) with the (usual environmental stimuli available))] + the (relational function) with [the new environmental stimuli]} = {a coping method/behavior/action choice}.</div> <bR> <div> In other words, the person ( it ), will tend to use successful 'coping methods' derived from it's life experience, or modify them as deemed appropriate by it's 'educated guess'.</div> <bR> <div> The reality of and probability of success for 'the chosen coping method' is related to the person/animal's, education and mental maturity, i.e.,</div> <bR> <div> < Enlightenment >and< facts of how physically extreme the new < environment >> for the 'person/animal/(or plant)', >and< the length of time it stays there> = success in coping.</div> <bR> <div> ....</div> <bR> <div> For further understand I will recommend <B>one book,</B> rather than offer choices of starting points. With any choice we must discriminate: "This one and not the others." There are many ways to 'the middle of the road approach' = 'sanity'.</div> <bR> <div> I recommend you <B>START</B> with reading "<B>Plato, Not Prozac: Applying Eternal Wisdom to Everyday Problems</B>," by Lou Marinoff, published June 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers, 1ST QUILL. ISBN: 00609361.</div> <bR> <div> Thank you for reading my work.</div> <div> Photographer and Writer Joe Ballenger Jr.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>