Mental Illness treatments

TREATMENTS

There are three principal methods of treating mental and emotional illness today-psychological, physical, and social. Psychological Treatments Psychotherapy is the overall term for psychological forms of treatment. While there are many definitions, essentially psychotherapy involves discussion, probing, evaluation, advice, and other treatment given through the medium of words. Psychotherapy itself does not include use of medicines or other physical treatment, though any of these may be used as an adjunct.

Usually, in psychotherapy, patient and therapist sit down in a quiet room; sometimes the patient may lie on a couch. The therapist encourages the patient to speak freely about himself and his feelings. Often, as the patient does so and the therapist interprets and makes suggestions, the patient begins to see himself and his problems more clearly; he may lose some of his inordinate fears as he understands his problems better; he may soon experience completely different feelings about old problems. Psychotherapy may aim simply at relieving a temporary state of depression, and sometimes this may even be accomplished in as little as half an hour; or, at the other extreme, it may aim, over a period of years, at making fundamental changes in personality.

A process called ventilation may be used in brief psychotherapy. It amounts, seemingly simply, to letting a troubled person blow off steam. Yet, when it is done properly by a therapist trained in its use, ventilation alone may permit a relatively healthy person facing a minor crisis to dis- lodge his feelings of gloom or panic and his inability to do anything constructive and restore his usual self-control.

When emotional problems are more serious and ventilation is not enough, reassurance may be added. This is authoritative, informed re- assurance. Particularly dramatic examples of how effective it sometimes can be came during the Korean conflict. Most soldiers who had to be taken out of the line because of acute combat nerves could return to action after a few brief sessions with a psychiatrist. In addition to encouraging them to talk frankly about their fears and guilt feelings, the psychiatrist could reassure them that virtually every officer and soldier is secretly afraid. In psychotherapy, the patient-because he is aware that the therapist has no personal bias and is specially informed about psychological problems as no friend or family member is-can take advice and suggestions he would not accept from others (for example, on settling marital dis- agreements or problems with children).