That is extreme. He claims it worked for him but he may be the only person in the world that it works for (if it really worked). This was a self-report without experimental control so it is hard to say if his "self-treatment" worked or didn't work. Who knows. Perhaps he decided to fix the barrel and start one morning using his loaded 9mm. He did do a lot better than most people with the similar issues.
On Dec 21, 3:33 pm, "Liz Purkrabek" <[email protected]> wrote: > That's great if it worked for the guy. > > Liz > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jason > (Memphis) > Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 2:58 PM > To: Memphis Freethought Alliance > Subject: Unconventional Approach to Coping with Depression > > Here is a story of an unconventional approach to dealing with > depression. This is a adult diagnosed with bi-polar from California. > I don't know the long-term consequences (that is, decades) but this > person claimed that it worked for a least the few years that I knew > him. > > This is his approach. > > PROBLEM: He had a problem getting out of bed in the morning and had > frequent "comfortably numb spells," which eventually led to a job loss > and other issues that accompanied the job loss especially relationship > (martial and divorce) challenges. That is not atypical for mental > health patients. So the following "solution" is his unproven, > extreme, unconventional approach that worked for him as far as getting > himself back into his life. He thought his problem was that he lacked > energy each morning to get out bed and contemplated suicide on a > number of occasions. He allegedly would "drown" himself in thoughts > such as "it is not worth it," "....it is too much effort...,' "nobody > care. i am nobody", " or "this is too overwhelming"...."life will > never get better what's the point..." etc etc. or just cried. > > SOLUTION: He bought a 9mm semi-automatic pistol but didn't buy any > bullets and damaged the barrel so it wouldn't work without a > replacement. Each morning he would reach under his bed, point the > defective 9mm to his temple, think about killing himself and slowly > apply pressure to the trigger. When he heard the click from the empty > chamber, he forced himself to imagine that he was dead and contemplate > the worthless of his life and how his death did not matter to the > people in the world around him--his insignificance. He would engage > in this "self-therapy" each more for about 30 minutes. If he got > depressed or was depressed, he would force himself to deliberately > embrace and repeat these negative thoughts. Then he would force > himself to state the direct opposite of this negative statements for > the next 30-min but still occasionally think about the negatives. He > then would get out of bed (when it worked), embrace these negative and > positive thoughts and spend the rest to the day distracting himself > with life. He claims that he also frequently felt overwhelmed with > negative feelings so in order to learn to embrace these out of control > overwhelming feelings, he would hold his breath and just accept that > he was going to die by suffocation and kept holding his breath and > accepting his death until he passed out (and he always woke up). He > used this as an analogy for his strategy for his negative emotions and > reported that it helped. These techniques did not always work, but he > claimed that it was the best self-treatment that he came across so far > that worked for him. And he still relied on some (albeit less) > medications. > > That is was just the oddest story from a mental health patient. > However, he seemed to work for him so who am I to criticize. When > Jeff was talking about unconventional mental health approaches, it > reminded me of this patient. > > Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Memphis Freethought Alliance" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/memphisfreethoughtalliance?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
