Quote:
Originally Posted by CantExplain
Um... How did smoking raise your sanity score?
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Smoking was one of the categories they asked questions about. Quite a few questions actually.
Drugs 0
Physical Issues 0
Smoking Issues 38
Gambling Issues 0
Technology Issues 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mastodon
It's good to hear that your life has improved so much - it's always inspiring to know that it is possible to change and get better. 
About your question: you are aware of the fact that "evidence based" and "empirical" does not mean that those methods will work with all people, right? I definitely agree with you that methods have to have some basis in scientific thought, but that's true for most of the major psychotherapy modes or schools. Nobody denies that both relational, behavioural, and psychodynamic modalities have a solid foundation in research and have been clinically proven to be effective, although most major research studies seem to indicate very strongly that the modality matters less than the rapport between therapist and client.
If you are looking for changes in behavioural patterns, I suspect that one of the behavioural modalities, CBT or DBT (the latter being a specialised form of the former, if I understand it correctly) is probably most useful for you. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by CantExplain
Um... How did smoking raise your sanity score?
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Of course... but okay, I've been reading Self-Help type materials for about 10 years now. And if you've ever gotten involved with them, you know there are a lot of dead ends, stuff that doesn't work, theoretical philosophies. In those 10 years of trying to figure out how to solve my own very serious issues, I've seen a lot of stuff that works and a lot of stuff that doesn't work. For the first 8 years or so, I would just pick up anything that made sense to me.
I used to have the mentality "I'll try it if it makes sense to me," and honestly it led me down a lot of disappointing paths. A lot of suffering, and a lot of crap I don't wish on anybody. Somewhere along the line I switched my mentality to "I'll only try it if it passes the most stringent empirical testing," and after I took that mentality, it was like night and day. I was able to systematically
destroy each and everyone of my problems.
So now my questions when I'm looking for a new approach for a problem my questions are: "Is it proven," "does it actually get results," "what percentage of people did it work for," "How many times has it been tested," "what was the sample size," and that's what works for me.
There's a lot of really well-meaning staff out there that makes SO much sense, but it just simply doesn't get results. One example being Tony Robbins and his Positive Thinking type materials. Theoretically, they're awesome. But medically someone who has negative thoughts probably has way more complex issues than just "hey you gotta think positively!" can solve.
Anyway, I've never tried actual CBT, but I've tried ACT. ACT is based on
CBT but it's a littler different. It's kind of a newer version
Check it out if you've never heard of it:
Wikipedia has a good article if you look up "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" showing some of the research behind it
A book on ACT called "The Happiness Trap" really helped me get rid of some seriously unhelpful thought patterns that I've had for literally decades.
CBT, I'll definitely willing to try it. Especially since it's "tried and true" and there are 1000 different topics it covers.
As far as DBT, I've actually never heard of it. I'm gonna look into it
right now. Thanks!
