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Originally Posted by Atypical_Disaster
Well they are biological disorders to some extent. But that's not the whole picture by any means, and "treating" it as you would treat a physical illness without paying heed to the emotions and psychological pain that go along with it is just... stupid...
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I completely agree!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sometimes psychotic
What exactly is psychoeducation anyway? I mean I know it's learning about the disease but what do they do like endless powerpoints or something? I mean they don't even know the mechanism yet....do they just talk about the meds?
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Well I've only been to 2 courses so far, and I'm pretty well informed already having studied psychiatry and now studying psychology, which may colour my views... The sz/psychosis talk was run by an ex-community psych nurse and a 'lived experience' woman with bipolar disorder with psychosis. We started off filling a large piece of paper with our understanding of what psychosis is, which took a while. Then we had a break, before the PowerPoint slides, which covered definitions and statistics. Treatment wasn't covered, neither was coping skills - apparently I have to do the next psychosis course that is 4 sessions over 4 weeks. Out of the 16 people signed up for the course, 6 turned up which is hugely inefficient. I learnt nothing new and basically wasted 2 1/2 hours of my life. Then we had to fill in reams of feedback forms so they can justify their existence to the NHS.
Then I did a 3 day course about the Wellness Recovery Action Plan run by the charity Rethink. Again I thought I would learn coping skills for crisis...nope. Only 4 turned up for this course and 1 only came for the first session. Basically it involved listing early warning signs of approaching badness and listing things we already do that helps. Nothing new learnt. Also the guy, who has 'lived experience' of bipolar, couldn't answer my questions as to what constitutes a crisis (because whenever I feel I am doing really badly and reach out for help, healthcare professionals are distinctly underwhelmed, so I wanted to know what I'm doing 'wrong') because it's a 'personal definition' blah blah blah. And the plan, and also the psychosis course, seem to see MH problems as completely episodic - we are well, we get ill, we get better...but what about the people who have chronic problems? I've been ill 6 years now, hearing voices etc for 4 years. At times the psychotic stuff is the worst bit, at other times the depression is the worst bit, RARELY the hypomania hits and I feel great for a few days before I'm tipped into a living hell of irritability and agitation. Never in 6 years have I been 'well', so what about me?! Where do I fit in their neat little models?!
I'm sorry, I'm a bit mad typing all of that. The thought that I can't have the therapy I need because they're wasting money on this stupid programme that does not help the well informed consumer and pushes the medication/psychiatric party line just makes me mad
The head honcho of the NHS MH services here has bipolar disease and it is his philosophy that drives this psychoeducation programme. I'm all about education, knowledge is power, but I bet he could afford private therapy when he was ill, or maybe that's my cynicism...
*Willow*