I hear you naia, and you have a lot of good things to say. But for me, hearing "the research shows" followed by "so x is true" is very off-putting, not as much when stated by laypeople such as yourself, but especially when stated by a professional/expert. The research also shows that CBT cures depression, so why aren't we all doing CBT therapy? In fact, the harmful 12 session CBT allowance so many in the UK are restricted to is based on what "the research shows". I think research that is replicated time and time again ultimately becomes higher-level theory, but even then they are not really absolutes...

I'm all for attachment therapy and its application in therapy, and I got really attached to some of my therapists and benefitted from it in many ways, but applying those theories in clinical practice is very much of an art. I also think that even when applied effectively, or perhaps by the 'good enough therapist', there are still huge diminishing returns. It helps a lot at first, but once you ("you" being any potential person) now understand or are in touch with your emotions, learn how to truly be yourself, and the positive impact on relationships outside of therapy, the subsequent gains for some can be quite small. Particularly those with depression. On this and other PTSD or mental health forums, there are many who have been in these therapies for years, and even though it may help, so many are still are not well, not living their life fully, or not achieving anything close to self-actualization.

As far as psychology research goes, we can discuss representative populations, blinding studies, reliability, validity, etc., but I really think what it boils down to is that maybe we should not give too much "power" to research. Reality does not conform to research outcomes, especially since psychology is not a hard science.

This experience easily illustrates why the research claims are off putting to me. I had severe insomnia for a years. But in the past 2 years, it got much worse. I have been suffering so badly, that it felt like I had a protracted version of the rare disease called fatal familial insomnia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia, where people die a torturous and horrible death after not sleeping for months.

So I was only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night, and it was totally non-refreshing sleep, so I sought out a sleep aid. My PCP referred me to a sleep doctor, so I had to wait 2 months to get treatment options. After waiting 2 months, the entire appointment that cost $350+ consisted of the MD trying to persuade me to do CBT therapy. CBT therapy is proven by the research to be the most effective treatment for insomnia. I argued with this man the entire appointment that CBT is not the right treatment for me. Finally as I was leaving, he said, "my wife has the same problem as you and she is the same way, she will not do CBT for insomnia".

So after another month or so of torturous fatigue waiting for follow up from my PCP, I did my own research and ended up trying trazadone, then nortriptlyine, which truly ended up being a lifesaver for me. Not a permanent solution, or the single solution, but my body was literally breaking down from lack of sleep and chronic fatigue. After doing this research, I was shocked that this doctor knew nothing about the fragmented and non-refreshing sleep fibromyalgia suffers go through and he--a sleep doctor--did not know the appropriate treatments! So even though the research shows CBT is the treatment for insomnia, I, as well as perhaps millions of fibroymalgia suffers, can not cause my brain to produce delta waves/enter delta wave sleep. Arguably, meditation is supposed to help put the brain in delta waves, but I cannot control my brain waves throughout the night, and no amount of CBT is going to change the functions of my nervous system.

So I wonder if what you say here is sort of like someone on an forum for chronic insomnia sufferers telling everyone that the research shows CBT is the answer? Just my take on it. Please don't be discouraged posting here naia. I lot of people like your posts just the same. Just please understand that reality often does not conform to what "the research shows". And one research truth can totally cancel out the next, so they really are not absolutes.

I also think that many people give too much "power" to research. I mean if research was that powerful, sleep aids wouldn't be one of the most frequently prescribed medications--they would not even exist perhaps; everyone's depression would be cured, and so on.