I Left Behavioral Health after 23 Years: Ask me anything

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Subhumanoidal

Well-known member
Sep 17, 2018
4,061
3,175
113
#41
@Aaron56
I keep seeing something called EMDR.
Do you know anything about it (in layman's terms) ?
EMDR is a treatment for PTSD, among other problems.
Your mind processes events during REM. Trauma prevents these events from being processed. EMDR simulates REM, while you're awake, to help unlock trauma.
 

Eli1

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2022
4,783
2,070
113
46
#42
@Aaron56 a lot of adults in this forum has a lot of problems with a graphical Red X when someone disagrees with them.
What would be the best course of treatment to help these adults?
 

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,887
1,684
113
#43
@Aaron56
I keep seeing something called EMDR.
Do you know anything about it (in layman's terms) ?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Not much. It pivots on the premise that eye movement corresponds to memory and thought processing. By choreographing eye movements during trauma recall, for example, the person may receive emotional relief.
 

Godsgirl1983

Well-known member
Feb 2, 2023
1,720
1,051
113
#44
EMDR is a treatment for PTSD, among other problems.
Your mind processes events during REM. Trauma prevents these events from being processed. EMDR simulates REM, while you're awake, to help unlock trauma.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Not much. It pivots on the premise that eye movement corresponds to memory and thought processing. By choreographing eye movements during trauma recall, for example, the person may receive emotional relief.
So it's not some new, modern form of hypnosis?
 

Subhumanoidal

Well-known member
Sep 17, 2018
4,061
3,175
113
#45
So it's not some new, modern form of hypnosis?
Not at all. You're fully awake and aware the entire time. In fact your active participation is required.

Basically the therapist will have a special light that has a string lights side by side in a line. They set the speed of the light (somewhat fast) and you sit a number of feet back from it.
Keeping your head still you follow the light with only your eyes, this is the part that simulates REM during sleep.
The therapist then will give you basic instructions, telling you to think on a certain element of your trauma. That's it.
Doing this in 10 min increments 4-5 times per session should begin unlocking the trauma.
The therapist I had that told me about it said she used it on a client she had who'd been kidnapped and locked in a car trunk for a day. She had severe PTSD and could barely sleep.
After 2 sessions with EMDR she made huge, life changing leaps in her recovery and healing.
It has a high success rate with PTSD.
It also requires a special class and certification, so not all counselors, etc... are trained in it.
Despite not having trauma I tried it a few times (as it supposedly has other uses as well, for some). It didn't help me, hence only a few tries, and I not having the conditions it's focused on, but I found nothing harmful or concerning about its use, spiritually. I spent a week researching it before even attempting it as I, too, had my doubts, but it came up safe sounding there, as well.
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
26,074
13,777
113
#46
What would be the best course of treatment to help these adults?
Moderators should just eliminate the option of the red X and everyone will be happy. Those who disagree can keep it to themselves. I simply ignore those red Xs, since most of them are disagreeing with Scripture.
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
6,235
2,530
113
#47
@Aaron56 a lot of adults in this forum has a lot of problems with a graphical Red X when someone disagrees with them.
What would be the best course of treatment to help these adults?
I'd give you the red "x" but I'm scared of the crazies. (Not really, but it sounded funny in my head when I wrote it)
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
6,235
2,530
113
#48
I agree, John. I believe it's a mix of all of the above. Studies are pretty clear: more social media = higher rates of depression among users. This is a global finding. For children whose minds are not yet physically formed, high social media use creates indelible habits of perception and learning. This is incontrovertible and one of the reasons Meta is being sued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/d...media-addiction-harms-childrens-mental-health
Here's a clip from Dr Jordan Peterson...

What do you think or comment about his thoughts?

https://x.com/PiersUncensored/status/1719462994856325506?s=20
 

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,887
1,684
113
#49

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,887
1,684
113
#50
So it's not some new, modern form of hypnosis?
Not really. Hypnosis is highly suggestive whereas EMDR should not permit suggestions. In EMDR the person is coached to process information in a different way using latent ways of thinking.

BTW: I would have to study EMDR before I would endorse it, if ever. It might be beneficial in a benign way but it might not be. I'm not sure.
 

justahumanbeing

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2020
466
257
63
#51
Brother, please give me a few ways to self treat depressive mood swings. And what are the best ways to take care and maintain a healthy and happy state of mind? I am open to suggestions.
 

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,887
1,684
113
#52
Brother, please give me a few ways to self treat depressive mood swings. And what are the best ways to take care and maintain a healthy and happy state of mind? I am open to suggestions.
Dear justahumanbeing, I apologize but I do not know enough to help you. Find a believing helper near you or contact someone who might know such a person. The reassurance I can give you is that I know many many people who have dealt with something similar but they do so no longer because they were healed. Do not lose heart.

Grace and Peace
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,319
6,647
113
62
#53
Brother, please give me a few ways to self treat depressive mood swings. And what are the best ways to take care and maintain a healthy and happy state of mind? I am open to suggestions.
I'm certainly no expert on the matter, so from a medical perspective, I wouldn't want to comment.
From a physical and spiritual perspective, I do believe there are things you can do. Routine is good for the body. Regular sleep and proper nutrition promotes health which does support us emotionally and psychologically. When we are tired, hungry, lonely or feel otherwise deprived, our focus will be self-centered, and not other or God centered. This makes it difficult both to take our thoughts captive to refrain from sin or to focus on God and walk in the Spirit.
It's also a good idea to have trustworthy people in your life you can speak to spiritual matters about.
 

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,887
1,684
113
#54
It's also a good idea to have trustworthy people in your life you can speak to spiritual matters about.

This x 1000.

There is so much need for this today. I just finished a corporate training this afternoon (about 100 people) entitled Connection: Healing for the Body, Soul, and Spirit. It's a 10,000 foot fly over, nothing too deep, about the importance of intimate, meaningful connections. For the believer, this includes people with whom we can discuss our most personal issues. There is so much about doctrine of the body, wherein each person is essential to the whole, that the church does not practice regularly.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,319
6,647
113
62
#55
This x 1000.

There is so much need for this today. I just finished a corporate training this afternoon (about 100 people) entitled Connection: Healing for the Body, Soul, and Spirit. It's a 10,000 foot fly over, nothing too deep, about the importance of intimate, meaningful connections. For the believer, this includes people with whom we can discuss our most personal issues. There is so much about doctrine of the body, wherein each person is essential to the whole, that the church does not practice regularly.
And they said there would be no math. SMH.
 

goga

New member
Nov 25, 2023
22
13
3
#56
It is not. In case when normal part of human brain seize to function, people often refer to revert to primitive lizard part of it as a cure, as in most cases it triggers a desire to want the very relationship to begin with. Don't feed the animal.. it dies.
 

Poinsetta

Well-known member
Nov 24, 2018
10,648
6,220
113
34
#57
hello my name is Ann ive been hospitalized in a behavioral health facility because i went through a crisis and i just opened the kitchen utensils drawer not knowing what to get then my mom asked me the question and i told her i’m not okay so she called the police and they took me there i had an experience i will never forget and all i had was my faith to get through it (like a test to pass and get out soon and go back home) there i saw that God was with me and he never really left me and i hung closer to him than ever before. *more power and strength * but i don’t ever want to go back
 
Mar 15, 2023
73
12
8
#58
How does a person become cleansed of a bitter internal greed and selfishness that did not exist as much until they backslid, and now it seems to have created anhedonia to all things, even christian> It seems like I have no future in heaven or on earth or in hell. I am merely waiting to die. There is no delivery of prayers of significance, no training for anything, no option to evangelise because God seems to have stopped me at every turn. And this leads me to a position of inactivity and merely waiting to die. I have no desire hardly at all to go to church where no-one "fellowships", where I have to do all the work of "fellowshipping" for the sake of it, and there is no "hobbies" permitted that are not sinful. Its a dead life with no hope or activity. And my prayer life is in the toilet. What does anyone do, or have hope in with this?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,319
6,647
113
62
#59
How does a person become cleansed of a bitter internal greed and selfishness that did not exist as much until they backslid, and now it seems to have created anhedonia to all things, even christian> It seems like I have no future in heaven or on earth or in hell. I am merely waiting to die. There is no delivery of prayers of significance, no training for anything, no option to evangelise because God seems to have stopped me at every turn. And this leads me to a position of inactivity and merely waiting to die. I have no desire hardly at all to go to church where no-one "fellowships", where I have to do all the work of "fellowshipping" for the sake of it, and there is no "hobbies" permitted that are not sinful. Its a dead life with no hope or activity. And my prayer life is in the toilet. What does anyone do, or have hope in with this?
I don't mean this to sound harsh because I can see that you are hurting and discouraged. But your answer is found in dying to yourself.

Your focus is on you: on how God is responding to you and how people are responding to you. Focus on God. You will be drawn again into His presence...draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you. Here in His presence, you will be satisfied. You will find in Him all you need. Because of this, you will no longer look for the things you were lacking from people. Thus, you will be free to give to others as He has given to you.

Am praying for you. Grace and peace.
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,188
113
#60
Not really. Hypnosis is highly suggestive whereas EMDR should not permit suggestions. In EMDR the person is coached to process information in a different way using latent ways of thinking.

BTW: I would have to study EMDR before I would endorse it, if ever. It might be beneficial in a benign way but it might not be. I'm not sure.
Is this tapping or something different?

Tapping does seem to work for some trauma.