18. Change is Possible

I want you to know that it is possible to change unwanted thoughts, feelings, behaviors and beliefs, creating choices to live the life you desire. I have worked as a therapist in numerous mental health clinics with many clients coming to me with severe diagnoses of some form of “psychosis”. I have always been able to help people who were open and willing to work on change, to find resolution to their problem patterns, allowing for a more fulfilling life.

For lasting change, we need to work with underlying unconscious patterns and programs we experience as unwanted feelings that repeatedly recreate our problems. Outdated and ineffective old tapes from our childhood are playing in our head, directing our thoughts and controlling our experiences.

Through therapeutic processes, such as Core Transformation (refer to Glossary) we work with unwanted feelings and open pathways to find and utilize new and better choices to get what we need from within, allowing for deep and lasting healing.

In the field of mental health, the tendency is to operate with the disease model. Traditional practices of psychotherapy have focused on diagnosing clients. If we believe there is something wrong with us, well, then there is. In my experience, many professionals whose job it is to help their clients, have bought into the belief that diagnoses are real. The tendency is to treat the symptoms without making changes in underlying patterns and programs that continue to perpetuate the problems. With this belief, interventions involve teaching skills to help clients “cope” with problems and prescribe medications to mask feelings.

Clients have asked me if I believe in chemical imbalances and thus the need for taking medications to balance serotonin levels, for instance. We are interconnected in our mind and body. What we think and feel creates chemical responses that affect our body. We can intervene in this holistic cycle at any point. Since I have training to influence the mind and emotions, that is where I focus to help create choices in inner responses. Clients report significant change in their physiology when they are in a state of peace and joy, rather than anger or fear.

I do not think people can live their best life or reach their full potential when they are defined by a diagnosis or taking medications that alter their mental and emotional functioning. These drugs do not help to deal with the underlying problems. They treat the symptoms. It is like putting a band-aid on a dirty wound, allowing it to continue to fester and never heal. Medications can only help manage the symptoms for so long and then the dose must be increased or problems keep resurfacing, unless they are dealt with effectively.

I work with the wellness model, utilizing solution-focused therapy. It is beneficial to determine what is going on within a person I am working with that contributes to their problems. For example, if someone comes in stating they have depression or anxiety, I want to learn what is going on in their thoughts and experiences that contribute to feeling depressed or anxious. This, as well as defining goals (which I will discuss at length later) is what we work on in therapy. This is the information I need to help my clients make changes and find solutions.

A client came in with severe depression. When we explored further, he reported always focusing on the worst possible possibility, having on-going thoughts of what could go wrong and how he should have done something differently to prevent his problems. He felt afraid to do anything or go anywhere with anyone. He was lonely, sad, and feeling hopeless. He had gone to many personal growth workshops, various therapies, and tried a variety of different medications, with no change. He still had the old tapes playing in his head.

In therapy, we worked with the underlying programs that began in his life from messages he got at birth from immature and incompetent parents who had their own issues. He was able to release his past programs, live more fully in the present time, and was more open to experiencing life. When change happens and life works better, it becomes a positive self-reinforcing experience that we unconsciously keep doing more.

I recently rediscovered the book: The Myth of Mental Illness by Dr. Thomas Szasz, written in 1961. I know I read it in the mid-70’s. It didn’t mean much to me then; however, now I am so grateful to find a fellow compatriot. Dr. Szasz who wrote about all the things I believe and yet, have not found support for in my work in the field of “mental health.” He repeats that there is “no mental illness.” He then goes on to explain all the political and societal reasons why the myth of mental illness exists.

To quote Dr. Szasz:

The claim that mental illnesses are diagnosable disorders of the brain is not based on scientific research; it is a lie, an error, or a naïve revival of the somatic premise of the long-discredited humoral theory of disease. My claim is that mental illnesses are fictitious illnesses.

Persons said to have mental diseases have reasons for their actions that must be understood; they cannot be treated or cured by drugs or other medical interventions but may be helped to help themselves overcome the obstacles they face.”

Thomas Szasz denied there was any such thing as “mental illness;” it is not a fact of nature, but a man-made myth:

Mental illness is not a disease, whose nature is being elucidated by science; it is rather a myth fabricated by psychiatrists for reasons of professional advancement and endorsed by society because it sanctions easy solutions for problem people.

In the field of mental health, the focus has been on finding what’s wrong with someone and trying to determine its origin. The way we have been trying to solve the problem, has been contributing to perpetuating the problem. (Refer to the Article on Our Attempted Solution Keep Us Stuck.) We can’t do anything to change the past and, as a matter of fact, spending time rehashing our early traumas is a common Attempted Solution that contributes to staying stuck in our problems.