Category Archives: Treatment Approaches

Introducing “Speed: Facing our Addiction to Fast & Faster & Overcoming our Fear of Slowing down”

Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, , ,
Stephanie Brown Phd
By Stephanie Brown PhD.

I picked this book from the Big Bad Wolf for RM8 (under US$2), thinking that this is really something people nowadays are going to need. The content can be slightly outdated (as compared to the rapid advancement of the technology world these days), but definitely not the messages it is trying to bring.

For the past few decades, we’ve all been told to be efficient, to keep moving, to make full use of all our time, to be in control, to have more and more, to keep in touch every waking hours, not to stop, not to slow down, not to be left behind…

We keep adding activities into our schedules, and never take any out, thinking that as long as somehow adjusting them around, we will manage it all… We have the constant need to do something, to check the phone, to go on Facebook, to work harder, to get more, constant feeling of “never enough”. We think we are communicating better with the technology advancement, but we are no longer looking at each other and talking to each other when we dine together…

… …

The style of writing can be a bit boring to me, but repetition is needed to help people to face their fear of slowing down and to learn to live a more mindful and meaningful life.

So, whether or not you think you are so addicted to speed (or gadgets or something similar or related), take a look!

介绍书:＜负面思考的力量＞

Basic & General, Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, ,

很巧的我在前几篇文章里刚提起了关于接受负面，与负面相处的看法，激起我写那篇文章的原由是它，结果几个月后我去了台湾，就在诚品拿起了这本书，当时候没发现原来那连接里写的就是我买下的这本书 (NT$270, RM34.22)。

NegativeThinkingBook

我不否认我是满怀期待看这本书的，我想是我误会了标题的意思，从西方心理学的角度，作者写的不是负面思考的好处（所带来的力量），而是可以看见事情的真面目（包括正负两面）的好处。

这样说你可以明白吗？

意思是说，你一味的消沉，难过，绝望，想什么都是负面的，那其实没有好处，但是当事情发生了，你要有能看见事情的正负两面，不能过度正面，不能过度负面，看到实际真实的全面，再从中作最坏的准备，最好的期待。

他反驳的是以往人们那种一味打击负面，鼓励正面，甚至过度正面的想法。这个我可以认同。事实上书写到后来，还是相当鼓励，甚至教导你怎么去正面的。只是请你同时不要忘了要现实（realistic），要看到真面目，要知道经历负面的事和情绪，看到负面，也可以有好处。太过正面，就不切实际了。除了找到正负面的平衡和力量，态度也不要太冲动急躁，更要时时有可以商量事情，点醒你的对象。

书里还提起了森田疗法（Morita Therapy），虽然还没有机会认真接触它，但应该跟我提倡的接受与承诺疗法（Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT）有类似的中心思想。等我看了再分享！

说回这本书呢，我会建议给入门者看，只是市面上有更多更以理论为基础（theory-based）的书。也可能因为它是翻译书的关系，有些意思，想法，道理，理论，在经过语言与文化的转换后，就会有所变质？

想睡得更沉更好? 不妨先让自己醒着吧!

Basic & General, Issues & Debates, Treatment Approaches, , ,

你无法入睡。粗略估计，在美国大约有30％的人长期失眠，一般的标准建议，就是养成良好的睡眠习惯，并尽量早点上床。如果（或者）这方法行不通，也还有几十种帮助睡眠的药物。

然而，根据科学文献 (scientific journal articles)，对于长期失眠最好的治疗方法，却是大多数人都没有尝试过，而且听起来有些疯狂：睡得更好的秘诀就是(至少在一段时间里)故意减少睡眠时间。

这就是所谓的睡眠限制疗法 (Sleep Restriction Therapy)，它是认知行为疗法专门针对失眠治疗(CBT-I, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy specifically for Insomnia)的其中一部分。这样做是为了减少你花在试图睡着的时间(比起你实际能睡着的时间)。

方法是这样的：用几个星期的时间，记录你真正得到的睡眠是多少个小时 – 比如说每晚可以睡五个半小时。下来，设定肯定必须起身的时间，通常是你最迟必须醒来又来得及去上班的时间 – 比如，早上6:30，所以，在睡眠限制疗法的原则下，你不让自己在凌晨1点之前上床。如果你在这段时间(1点多到6点半)成功地睡着了，你就可以开始渐渐地让自己早点休息，每次大约提早15分钟上床，直到你可以每晚熟睡完整的七八个小时。

当然，任何一个失眠者最不想做的事情就是故意剥夺减少自己的睡眠时间。然而大量的证据表明这个方法有效，而且根据一些研究至少跟药物同等有效(或比一些药物更为有效)。

当然 CBT-I 不仅仅是睡眠限制 – 它着重于改变失眠者有关睡眠的思想和行为，包括典型的建议，如在睡前一小时关掉手机等的电子设备，还有每天在固定的时间上床和起床。虽然这是一个优秀的治疗方法，但是患者一旦发现他们必须做的是特地的剥夺自己的睡眠时间，他们就选择放弃疗程。 这也是为什么这个已经被研究证明有效的方法没有得到充分利用的原因。当然这方法一点也不容易执行，尤其对失眠者来说要抵抗睡意，想睡时不去睡觉是非常困难煎熬的。失眠者往往非常在意他们睡了多少个小时，但是他们可能忽略了，睡了五六个小时不是问题所在，他们最应该驱除的，是躺在床上干看天花板辗转难眠的时间。

 

原文的英文版在这:

To Get Better Sleep, Maybe Try Staying Awake 

之前写过给失眠者的建议:

Insomnia & Poor Sleep

睡好眠清单 (.pdf)

Introducing “Freedom From OCD: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty”

Obsession & Compulsion, Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, ,

By Jonathan Grayson PhD.

By Jonathan Grayson PhD.

I picked this book from Kinokuniya Kuala Lumpur in September (RM80.36), out of the desperate desire to really help the patients in the clinic and people out there with Obsessive and Compulsive Disorder (OCD). And I have to say this is really the book that I’ve been looking for; so much that I contacted the author Jonathan Grayson, got his permission and translated the materials into Mandarin Chinese so that it can help some non-English populations **.

The author is a definite advocate of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) therapy. With his extensive experience working with people suffered from OCD since over three decades ago, his writing made you feel that he really understands you, your OCD and how you feel, BUT he gives you no certainty, no absolute answer, no 100%, in fact he provides almost no reassurance in his book, unlike many other OCD books that I’ve read. And this is why I like it about, and why I think it’s helping people.

Not just that, the book also contains various scripts and examples that you can record and listen to, and this is really important to help you in doing ERP. He also provides you with great details as of what to do when you’re in doubt, what to do if you slip during the treatment etc. For those CBT trained therapists, the book also tells us how we should adapt CBT to make it more workable and effective for OCD, and how traditional CBT may make the problems worse.

So whether you have been suffering from OCD, have a family or friend who suffer from it, or you’re like me, have been looking for a good OCD treatment book, this is definitely worth reading!

Are you willing to learn to live with Uncertainty? 

**For the downloads of materials, worksheets and tools in Chinese, please check here!

The English versions are available on the author’s website www.freedomfromOCD.com

How to Unhook from Speed?

Treatment Approaches,

The Twenty Guidelines for Slowing Down

Your Behaviour

  1. You ask for help; you seek a mentor who believes in slowing down for guidance and support.
  2. You develop a recovery action plan.
  3. You begin to make small steps toward change.
  4. You learn to pause, to reflect on your behaviour, feelings and thinking.
  5. You ask yourself, “What am I doing?”

Your Feelings

  1. You feel the reality of limits and face the feeling of failure.
  2. You become aware of feelings, and learn to listen to them,
  3. You trust that the high of impulsive action is not the feeling you seek.
  4. You develop a wider range of new feelings.
  5. You come to trust that deep, intimate human “connection” exists in a slowed down, quiet state.

Your Thinking

  1. You behave in the reality of limits.
  2. You learn to recognize and challenge your belief in entitlement.
  3. You challenge your belief in willpower.
  4. You believe in the value of small steps and a slower sense of time.
  5. You believe in a new definition of success: your best effort within a structure of limits.
  6. You believe in the value of delay, endurance and the concept of “enough”.
  7. You believe that growth and the change are not instant; that “quick fixes” reinforce the thinking of fast and impulsive action.
  8. You believe in the value and necessity of reflection as a part of health and success.
  9. You challenge your all-or-none thinking.
  10. You give new meaning to “service”.

 

Adapted from Speed: Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster – And Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down, by Stephanie Brown Phd.

Learning Psychological Flexibility since Young

Basic & General, Issues & Debates, Treatment Approaches, , , ,

Our education taught us to work so hard to​ score 96 on maths, 95 on Chinese, 100 on moral, 90 on science etc. On top of that, it’s very common in Asian countries that children are​ sent to tuition classes, music, art​, martial art​ classes etc.

We’re a generation with blessings​(?)​, nothing much to worry about, parents,​ teachers, or the government will plan the route and do the worries for us, what’s better, problems are solved before we even​ realised it.

But what if we fall? Fall so badly​?​ ​Being in big trouble? Facing major life challenges?

​Sometimes we read in the news – A teenager of 17 years old committed suicide because “my girlfriend wants to breakup with me, life is meaningless”, the other one because she is one A short to make it a straight As in SPM. We see depression, mood swing, anxiety-related problems, OCD, insomnia in younger and younger age. We thought they are supposed to be having fun at that age​, but they don’t seem to be able to have fun?!

​Why never we learnt psychological flexibility since young? Why the environment was never created to learn that since young? Why English, Maths, Science, (even) Moral, Volley ball, etc, but never about how to bounce back, how to be emotionally resilient? ​Or in other words, how to stand up when we fall? Why for over 10 years we’ve been attending schools and universities, but the educational system never taught us this?

Prevention is better than cure, but we aren’t even preventing the happening of mental disorders, quite often people only start to learn about resilience after they suffer (like our patients who wished that they knew this and that long time ago).

How do we create that kind of environment for our next generations? Where (whether positive or negative) thoughts and feelings are taken lightly; where we understand negative and positive events, thoughts, feelings are just equally likely to happen as the positive ones, so we face them all and accept them all; where we allow children to explore their feelings and thoughts during difficult times; where even a young child understand what value is and changing or persisting his/her behaviour in serving of the values; where we are able to adapt to changing environmental and situational demands and get the balance in them?