This is unfamiliar to many people.
Today, I share a book with great case value: from psychological problems to psychological advantages.
Author Xiao Wu, severe depression for 6 years. This book records the whole process from onset to cure in detail, which provides us with a new perspective for a deeper understanding of depression.
Many things seem to happen inadvertently.
In junior high school, Xiao Wu was still a child envied by many people.
He is very good at math. He is the first in almost every competition. He is a typical headmaster.
This aura not only brings confidence to Xiaowu, but also inadvertently puts him under great pressure.
In order to maintain his academic performance, he often stays up late to do problems and constantly overdraws his body, leading to excessive fatigue.
The small turning point of life happened in the second year of high school, and something happened that year.
As a member of the class study committee, he used to collect study materials.
Due to carelessness, he left the money he received on the table. When he came back, he found that all the money was gone.
The panicked Xiaowu quickly reported the situation to the teacher, and the next thing surprised him.
The teacher thought it was a classmate in the class, so he searched one by one and was dragged out to ask separately.
Many students can't stand such doubts and doubts and cry when they come back.
One of the female students with good academic performance got worse and worse after this incident.
This storm made Xiaowu feel guilty and felt that it was because of his negligence that he innocently implicated and hurt many people.
Since then, he has been preoccupied and his life at school has become more and more depressing.
One month before the exam, the most worrying thing happened.
Once in class, he suddenly felt irritable, and then his mind suddenly "stunned", as if he had broken a nerve, and then the whole person's feeling changed.
For example, I feel that the people and environment around me are becoming more and more unreal and hazy;
When studying, the attention becomes distracted, unable to concentrate, and often feels a splitting headache;
Insomnia is getting worse and worse, and I can't sleep all night.
Fortunately, with the foundation laid before, Xiao Wu was successfully admitted to high school.
In the summer vacation after the senior high school entrance examination, he had a good rest, hoping to return to his original state.
However, in the first year of high school, he found that he could never change back to his original happy and confident self.
It's like I'm trapped in a cage.
The cage is getting tighter and tighter, and there is an uncomfortable ache from the inside out. I am anxious everywhere. I have to put up with my confusion. I can't control myself, but I can't do anything.
At the end of the first year of high school, Primary Five went through the formalities of dropping out of school and began a long road of seeking medical treatment.
Accompanied by his family, he saw Chinese medicine, learned Qigong and even invited a witch doctor to practice medicine.
Only when people are desperate will they find that rushing to the hospital is not stupid, but there is no way.
In the last hospital, the doctor diagnosed him with recessive depression and suggested that he take amitriptyline, an antidepressant.
This medicine is amazing, it can force people's pupils to double, like eagle eyes;
It will also make people's heart beat more than 100 times per minute, like a heartbeat maniac.
The most serious thing is that there is a phenomenon called "extravertebral reflex", which makes people's movements extremely uncoordinated and their walking posture very strange, such as cerebral thrombosis.
Later, after another year, he felt that his state was really much better, and his body slowly returned to its original normal feeling.
So he went back to school.
Sometimes life is like this. You think a better life will come to you if you cross a hurdle. In fact, fate just lets you catch your breath, and a bigger crisis will soon come to you.
At school, because there is a teacher who looks like the former teacher of Primary Five, he is often brought into the past memories and forced to relive those painful memories in class.
He is also worried that other students will see their abnormality and that others will regard themselves as a deranged monster.
These fears and anxieties make Xiao Wu in a state of extreme tension every day, and the whole person is like a clockwork that may break at any time.
One day, he felt that he couldn't go on, so he begged his mother:
"I feel very uncomfortable and don't want to go today. Can I ask for leave again? "
As a result, he was rejected, and his disappointed mother accused him of having no ambition. In a rage, she picked up a broom and gave him a beating.
But it was such a move that Xiaowu's heart suddenly collapsed.
Seeing the balcony window open, he rushed over and jumped without hesitation.
Fortunately, Xiaowu's home is on the third floor. He was seriously injured, but his life was not in danger.
However, he had no choice but to find that he had become a person with a history of suicide.
After jumping off a building, Xiaowu began to live in exile.
He can not go to school, he can not receive treatment, and no one will force him to do what he doesn't want to do.
The family no longer has any requirements for him, and of course there is no longer any expectation.
As long as he lives.
Fifth, stop fighting your depression and force yourself to change back to your original self.
His life seems to have entered the abyss of endless darkness.
But strangely, when he stopped fighting depression, he felt less pain.
During his illness, in order to kill time, he decided to do something that interested him.
For example, reading books, he has read many novels by literary masters and re-experienced life in other people's stories.
Because of these masterpieces, Xiao Wu's outlook on life has changed. He began to re-examine himself bit by bit, secretly vowing that he must achieve something and not let others look down on him.
But the question is, where is the way out?
One day, a doctor friend gave him a book about psychotherapy.
This book mainly introduces the catharsis therapy of psychoanalysis, also called free association method.
According to this theory, human memory not only stores information, but also stores people's emotions and emotions. It is the existence of the latter that makes the memory full of excitement.
In the process of psychotherapy, if the patient experiences it repeatedly, it will help to relieve the anxiety in memory and release the inner pain, so as to achieve the purpose of healing.
Xiao Wu's sister seems to have found a lifeline and told him to try anyway.
So, two people who knew nothing about psychotherapy started their road of self-help for a glimmer of hope.
During the "treatment", Xiaowu's sister acted as a psychological counselor, guiding him into a state of deep memory.
Generally, she will let Xiao Wu recall a pleasant experience first, and then describe all the feelings she has recalled.
This kind of warm-up can help patients relax and fully contact with memory.
Then get down to business and recall the past events that made the patient uncomfortable or even painful.
For example, the fuse of depression in grade five, the incident of losing money in grade two, they began to recall again and again.
From the time when things happened, the weather at that time, what happened, what people at the scene said and what kind of expression they had, Xiaowu's feelings about every detail should be described.
When he recalls for the first time, he can still feel strong remorse and pain, but the anxiety in a memory can't be infinite. After repeated memories, anxiety and excitement will gradually weaken.
After half a year, Xiao Wu felt that his mentality had obviously improved.
Of course, for a person suffering from major depression for a long time, it is not enough to release emotions only in a trigger event.
Under the guidance of her sister, Xiao Wu decided to go back to school to recall that painful time.
When listening to the class, you should solve the headache problem;
I'm sweaty and sticky. I'm still struggling with the oil and the lamp.
Abdominal pain, abdominal pain, and the stomach rises like a stone;
I took five valium tablets, and it didn't work. It seems I haven't taken them before.
After venting these emotions over and over again, the memory advanced to childhood, and even returned to Xiao Wu's childhood when he could not talk or walk.
In those extremely vague memories, he vaguely found that he was not happy at that time. The cause of unhappiness is a kind of pain that I don't know why.
This retrospective memory made him feel uncomfortable, even a sense of suffocation.
But one day, he suddenly found that the depression and pain at the end of that memory were his feelings in the most painful depression.
In other words, what really trapped him was not the loss of money, nor the fatigue of study, but his early unhappiness.
This awakening made him suddenly realize, and then his body and mind changed beyond imagination:
I am completely different now than I was three hours ago! All the noise has been settled, and the past is like a dream! But now I am sober and relaxed, and my heart is full of a natural peace and joy. The great mental pressure has dissipated, and the nightmare that has plagued me for six years has finally released me, and the real me is back.
After recovering from illness, Xiao Wu became a writer, published science fiction novels, and lived a vibrant life.
Looking back on Xiaowu's road from depression to self-healing, we can find that his luck is based on two points:
First of all, we found the right treatment.
Some psychological stress induces psychological problems, but what keeps them trapped in the disease is not simple psychological problems, but more importantly, painful physical feelings. Only by venting and letting it vent can psychological pain be alleviated.
This catharsis therapy is at least suitable for Xiao Wu's situation.
Secondly, I found the right person.
Five can recover from depression, at least half of the credit goes to his sister.
Although my sister is not a psychological counselor, her "treatment" method is simple or even unprofessional, but her unconditional support and loving listening provide great emotional support for Xiaowu. This is also the most important and core ability of a counselor.
In a sense, what can really cure a person is never technology, but care and love.
Knowing this, you will know the real way to get rid of the pain.