Side Effects Of Psychotherapy

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Another post based on the letter with a question about psychotherapy and how it might end. I want to emphasize that in the overwhelming majority of cases it ends normally, and people still get what they go to a psychotherapist for. The method of treatment is wonderful and promising, helping millions of people to improve their lives. But since there is no perfection in the world, there are cases.

I remembered one episode. During the period of "rampant" NLP in our region, everyone who was not lazy went to study psychotherapy and grow personally. When I remember what kind of bacchanalia reigned in this matter in those days, it just takes horror. Just someone took and read the books of the founders of this method, then took a license to conduct these trainings, and a license to issue licenses and trained everyone with the issuance of appropriate certificates. We had plenty of such "nelpers". Naturally, the indication for training and treatment was the presence of a certain amount and the desire to join the patching of human souls, and there were no contraindications. So, a certain citizen, in an attempt to find internal subpersonalities, which he represented in the form of internal organs, began to appeal to them. And after a week, the organs answered his call. Literally. Not only did they answer and began to teach him about life, and such an argument flared up by nightfall that the uncle began to threaten his organs with immediate surgical removal if they did not shut up. I even reached the emergency room of one of the hospitals and demanded a surgeon. From there he was admitted to a hospital of a different profile.

The broad masses believe that psychotherapy is like a balm for mental wounds and there is nothing more useful and correct than going to a psychotherapist. What's wrong with that? It's just that they will scribble with you about problems and give all sorts of smart advice.

But, I want to note that even Freud said that sometimes when treating in this way, not a decrease in symptoms can be observed, but, on the contrary, their intensification. Why? And the devil only knows, he did not fully develop his thought, as far as I know. But the longer psychotherapy existed, the more and more different confirmations of this were. Yes, side effects were rare, but they still took place, and therefore, in order to optimize these negative phenomena, they began to understand what was the matter.

Firstly, it is not difficult to guess that there are 2 parts to psychotherapy. This is the psychotherapist himself and the one (or those) who are in the client's position. Failures can be on both sides.

Let's start with a psychotherapist. The psychotherapist is the main tool (s) of the psychotherapeutic process. If the process is hammering a nail, then we definitely won't need a saw. There are people who are not inclined to this work. They are driven by different motives, but not the client's help. It doesn't have to be some villain who deliberately tries to exploit the client. It's just that a psychotherapist is the same person as his client and therefore has his own problems, which may be the main reason for his desire to devote himself to this business. Therefore, in order to become a psychotherapist, a person must undergo sufficiently serious psychotherapy himself as a patient. He must know himself so as not to introduce additional confusion into the psyche of the patient (client). In addition, returning to hammering in nails, if we do have a hammer, then it must have certain parameters in order to be useful in the process. The psychotherapist must have a special education. This means that the therapist must understand what he is dealing with. If a specialist does not see this pathology and does not understand it, then he can pose a danger to himself and to the patient.

A few words about the patient. There are a lot of psychotherapy methods, but there are certain states of the human psyche in which psychotherapy is not desirable, especially group therapy. These are acute psychoses, especially with delusions of attitude, persecution and impact, low intelligence. You need to be extremely careful with psychotherapy in cases where there are severe personality disorders, especially of the excitable type. These citizens may behave aggressively during the group session, which can derail the entire psychotherapeutic process. Although many anxiety-spectrum disorders are direct indications for psychotherapy, it must be considered. That, due to their personality traits, these people are extremely sensitive to adverse effects. It is not a sin to mention hysterical patients with whom, again, problems may arise due to the fact that they may not understand the psychotherapist correctly. Therefore, a fairly strict selection of patients is desirable for psychotherapy.

Secondly, speaking about the actual side effects of psychotherapy, there are 5 types (Karvasarsky).

1st is an aggravation of the main symptoms

The second is the emergence of new adverse symptoms. This is:

- loss of interpersonal connections (Even if an interpersonal connection is pathological, its simple rupture is not ecological for a person, a person should not go nowhere, there should be a replacement of connections from pathological to correct ones. Especially when it comes to breaking with the family.)

- the appearance of signs of depression or mania (increased mood)

- the appearance of psychosomatic disorders

- affective instability (tearfulness, anger)

- suicides

- psychotic symptoms

- criminal behavior

- alcohol and drug abuse

3rd Flight into illness. The patient finds an incurable psychological problem with which he then goes to therapists.

4th Addiction … In this context, the so-called "psychotherapeutic cult" is discussed when the patient completely shifts all his problems onto the shoulders of a psychotherapist, wise and sagacious, becomes dependent on his opinion, sessions, and the therapist willingly takes on this role.

5th Negative social consequences - rash divorces, dismissals, property transactions).

Of course, looking at the side effects, we can say that many of them can have a beneficial effect on the personality, but it is worth remembering that the psyche is certainly a plastic phenomenon, but not indefinitely. The personality can be changed, but if beneficial phenomena occur on the 3rd day of psychotherapy, this should be alarming. Either everything will return to normal after another 3 days, or your patient will still need PTSD treatment. Any, even the best, changes are stressful. The more unexpectedly happiness falls on the client's head, the more likely it is that the effects of stress will be quite palpable.

It must be said right away that side effects can occur during psychotherapy with a specialist with any level of training and experience. The difference between an experienced and an inexperienced psychotherapist is that the first does not let it all go by itself and immediately takes action without coming up with any supernatural reasons for "superpowerful catharsis." In principle, it does not matter what it will be called, but these signs indicate that the process of psychotherapy is on the wrong path. Why not true? Because the personality of the client has fundamental difficulties with psychotherapy and cannot cope with it. The therapist must do something about this situation. What exactly depends on the client, his problem and the current stage of psychotherapy. Discontinuation of psychotherapy should also be considered if changes in the patient's behavior become threatening.

If, for example, for some internal reason the client does not report these problems to the psychotherapist, but the family or close people see negative changes, it would be correct to inform the psychotherapist about what is happening. This will help correct the situation, return the process of psychotherapy to the right track. If, when you contact, the therapist begins to beat himself in the chest with his tail, then this is a good sign of the need to change the specialist.