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Make Awareness Your New Year’s Resolution.

My father trained as a psychiatric nurse after the Second World War.  During his career he witnessed firsthand many of the systemic changes (and fads) within mental health care.  He trained in the remnants of the soon to be disbanded Victorian asylum system.  He saw the ascendancy and decline of Freud’s theories of mental health, as well as the rise and ultimate hegemony of biological psychiatry.  He was a pioneer in the fields of community care for serious mental health problems, and even worked in secure mental hospitals.

We didn’t spend much time talking about our work and careers, so when he was dying from the cancer that was to take his life, I was curious as to what he thought was the single most important factor in promoting mental health.  His response was instant, clear and shockingly precise “insight”.  He didn’t need to explain, I knew exactly what he meant.

Most of us, most of the time, are reactive.  Life carries us forward as a series of responses to stimuli.  We get angry about the same things … over and over again.  We get demoralised about the same things … over and over again.  We choose the same kinds of relationships with the same kinds of people … over and over again.

If we are lucky, our swing through the reactive jungle of life is rather pleasant.  We may not be aware of anything, or even ever make a truly ‘free’ choice … but we are happy.

For most of us at some point in our lives, the reactive somnolence no longer works.  We are in psychic pain and we need to stop, reflect, and become aware of the way we are living our lives.  It is in these moments of awareness, what my father called ‘insight’, that we are truly free to choose a different, perhaps more rewarding way of life.

The tragedy is that we can all benefit from waking up.  We shouldn’t need to wait until we are so unhappy we need professional help.  Developing insight and awareness into one’s life, also sometimes called mindfulness, doesn’t even need a therapist.  All you need to do is start to meditate every day.  The best thing is to join a class, or if you can’t manage this, try an app or an mp3 download.

Whatever you do this year … learn to do it with awareness.

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Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers:

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt) for men in Manchester
• Counselling for men in Manchester
• Psychotherapy for men in Manchester
• Telephone and Skype counselling for men wherever you live
• Supervision and consultative support for therapists in Manchester
• Mediation for employment disputes in Manchester and the UK

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Early Therapy May Help Prevent Psychosis.

People are most at risk of developing a psychotic illness in their teens or early twenties.  As a psychotic illness is devastating for the young person and their family, recent emphasis has been placed on early intervention at those at risk of developing psychosis.  The most common treatment is antipsychotic drugs, but this strategy is controversial as the side effects can be severe, including weight gain, and in any event, patients often stop taking the drugs.

A recent study by Dr Patrick McGorry, a professor at the University of Melbourne, looked at 115 young people at risk of developing psychosis and gave them a range of psychological and drug treatments.  Although the study was small, the researchers concluded that “… it’s quite safe and reasonably effective … to offer supportive psychosocial care to these patients”.

Therapy, in other words, should be considered as an early intervention to young people at risk of developing psychosis.  Furthermore, therapy avoids the risky side effects of antipsychotic drugs.

As a therapist who works in the heart of the Manchester student district, I’ve seen many clients over the years who could be considered at risk of developing psychosis.  My experience has also been that therapy can help these clients, so it’s great to see evidence that supports this position.

If you feel you may be experiencing delusions or hallucinations, it is really important you let someone know.  Contrary to popular belief, delusions and hallucinations are remarkably common, and are not necessarily a sign you will become seriously psychotic.  It is important, though, that you get checked out and offered the support you need to make sense of your symptoms.

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Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers:

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt) for men in Manchester
• Counselling for men in Manchester
• Psychotherapy for men in Manchester
• Telephone and Skype counselling for men wherever you live
• Supervision and consultative support for therapists in Manchester
• Mediation for employment disputes in Manchester and the UK

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NHS Psychosis Services Are a Disgrace.

What would you expect from a psychiatric inpatient facility?  Most people would hope for a clean, secure environment, staffed by caring staff with the time to spend to really understanding your problems.  In other words, a therapeutic experience.

The reality in the UK is far from this.  In fact it’s a disgrace.  A recent report by the Schizophrenia Commission reveals NHS facilities that feel unsafe to service users, with overworked staff pushing heavy use of psychiatric drugs as a way of containing and managing psychiatric illness.

It’s hard not to conclude that if you weren’t crazy before you entered an NHS psychiatric ward, you would be by the time you left.  These are the last places people with difficult and frightening psychological and emotional symptoms should be sent.  For most patients though, choice is taken out of their hands.  The Schizophrenia Commission reported year on year increases in forced detention in these facilities.  Given the poor standard of care on offer, it’s unsurprising patients refuse to be readmitted.

How should people with psychosis be treated?  Well the Schizophrenia Commission recommends early intervention and increased access to talking therapies particularly cognitive behavioural therapy.  In fact despite NICE recommending cbt for people with psychotic symptoms, only 10% of patients actually receive bona fide therapy. 

I couldn’t agree more.  As a private practitioner I often see young people who are starting to slip down the road to psychotic symptoms.  Paranoia, mistrust and distorted perceptions of the world are often an early stage indicator of a full-blown psychotic episode to come.  If dealt with early, my view is a psychotic episode can be averted in many people with the result that expensive inpatient (miss) care can be avoided in many cases, for the benefit of the patient and the reduced cost to the NHS (inpatient care currently takes up 20% of the NHS mental health budget). 

If you are reading this and you are concerned about your own mental health or those of a loved one, what should you do?  Early intervention is the lesson of the Schizophrenia Commission.  If you can’t get access to a therapist quickly on the NHS, then a private referral may be money well spent. 

For anybody experiencing borderline or actual psychotic symptoms, however, such as paranoia or delusional thinking, if you’re smoking marijuana stop it!  Dope in these circumstances is a fast track to mental collapse.  Furthermore its highly unlikely you will get a grip on your symptoms if you continue to smoke.  The same also goes for speed and other stimulant drugs.  I know its boring but it’s the truth.

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Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers:

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt) for men in Manchester
• Counselling for men in Manchester
• Psychotherapy for men in Manchester
• Telephone and Skype counselling for men wherever you live
• Supervision and consultative support for therapists in Manchester
• Mediation for employment disputes in Manchester and the UK

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What Does “Taking Responsibility” Mean?

I remember, many years ago, I was suffering very badly from depression.  I was unable to get off the couch and days rolled into weeks which, in turn, rolled into months of starring at the ceiling.  Everything I had tried hadn’t worked. 

I had spent years in therapy.  Why, after spending all that time had therapy ‘not worked’?  I had trained as a therapist.  I knew ‘from the inside’ the nature of mental health problems.  Why hadn’t this knowledge helped?  In desperation I had turned to the psychiatric profession who duly treated my depression ‘aggressively’.  I was on a cocktail of five psychiatric drugs.  But they hadn’t worked either.  Why?

I felt at the end of the road.  Nothing was working.  Therapy, insight or drugs.  I felt I had nowhere left to turn.  I remember standing one rainy winter’s night by a railway line.  I had scaled the wall and scrambled to the edge of the track.  High speed inter-city and local trains screamed past frighteningly close.  The police and my mother were repeatedly calling my cell phone, but I ignored them. I was perilously close to death. 

Fortunately there was enough of me that still wanted to live, and I turned away and started walking home.  The police were searching for me and quickly picked me up.  The officer was relieved to have found me alive.  The care and compassion I saw in his eyes reconnected me to the human race.  He didn’t make a fuss, for which I was grateful.  I was returning home to try one more time.

This time, though, it was different.  I was going to sort my life out.  I had spent years putting my faith in other people’s solutions.  My therapists.  My lecturers.  My trainers.  My psychiatrists.  If I was going to be rescued from my living hell, I was going to have to do it for myself.  By myself. I realised I had to start to take responsibility for myself.

The changes I made to my life transformed it.  They form the basis of the work I now do with my clients.  What I realised was that I had spent years expecting professionals to sort my life out for me.  This therapist, this drug, or this book … will make the difference.  I was outsourcing my happiness, and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working.

I sometimes see this with my clients too.  They want me to work it all out for them.  Tell them what to do to be happy.  Like me, they fail to realise I am only a guide.  I can only support and encourage them on their journey.  The journey, however, can only be travelled by them.

So I learnt to take responsibility for myself, my life, and my happiness.  The result is a happy and successful life for me.  It also gives me something solid to base my work with my clients. It seems to resonate with my clients, and I simply can’t keep up with the demand.

It also made me realise in choosing my own therapists and consultants, I need people who had themselves been battered by the rough waves of life.  Qualifications, though important, are not my main criteria. I don’t need a therapist who has had a charmed life and read lots of books!

So why am I telling you this?  Well one simple reason is to get you to think about your attitude to the people who are trying to help you.  Whether this is a friend, family member or therapist.  However good the advice, unless you take responsibility for your own suffering, it is unlikely to help in the long run.

There is another reason, though.  I’ve decided to put my insights down in a book.  I want to say what depression and anxiety looked like from the inside, and what I needed to do to take responsibility, and recover.  I want to inspire others to do the same.  I want to go beyond the fifteen or so people I can see each week.

I hope you are interested in this project and want to follow its development. Check out my new website “How To Beat Depression Without Drugs” and register your details.  I will keep you informed of developments.

If I know there are people supporting me it will help me enormously.  Thanks.

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Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers:

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt) for men in Manchester
• Counselling for men in Manchester
• Psychotherapy for men in Manchester
• Telephone and Skype counselling for men wherever you live
• Supervision and consultative support for therapists in Manchester
• Mediation for employment disputes in Manchester and the UK
• Dr Tyson is writing "How To Beat Depression Without Drugs" a self help book for sufferers

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