Answer the question

Thanks, for asking. Thanks for answering. You guys are really cool out there. I enjoy all of the exchanges. Sometimes I wish I didn't see 35 clients a week so we could just sit here and talk.

But, ever since psychotherapy was able to be covered by medical insurance payments, which began in the late 1970s, it has been necessary to give everyone a diagnosis if you wanted the insurance company to pay the bill. That gave a strong impetus to the idea that this mental stuff is medical; so it must be disease.

Then, drug companies began to enter the picture in a big way, and they pushed the idea hard, that if you are anxious, depressed, upset, wild, shy, angry, oppositional, or plain old obnoxious, then they had a pill for it, so it really must be a disease.

We also had more technologies that could show what was going on in the brain when someone became anxious or depressed or any of those things. That made it all seem like it is physiological.

Of course it is, at that level. That's reductionism. Everything we do, feel, think, imagine, feel, shows up in our brains and our bodies because that's who we are.

But, here's a nice extreme example. You walk into the bedroom and your girl is in bed with your buddy. You have a reaction. You are surprised, stunned, angry, hurt, confused, and even unhappy.

Your brain is full of chemicals and electrical charges running up and back. It runs through your entire body, your muscles, your heart, your lungs, the whole deal.

So, what do you treat? Do you seek a tranquilizer to stop all the chemicals? Will that make it better? Is what is happening a disease?

Now, I agree that's an extreme situation. But what if you failed a test, or dropped the ball, or lost your job. And then you lost another one, and couldn't pay the rent, and your car broke,and you kid got sick.


What about more damaging things such as your parents were abusive, or your uncle molested you, or your husband beat you regularly?

Those things cause long-term chemical imbalances in the brain. Is that a disease?

Now, sometimes, taking pills can be a necessary step in getting your brain back into balance. Sometimes it just calms you down. Sometimes a pill stops you in your tracks, you can hardly think and you get fat.

Also, some people really do have bad brains. Those brains, because of injuries, some congenital defect or toxins, don't work right.

But, IMHP, those case are much less frequent than we are being led to believe. And we are being led to believe that by people who are making money from products and services based on those beliefs. We believe it more because it seems like "science," and it seems to offer an easy solution.

Changing your life is very difficult (I've been doing the same thing, with slight improvements, for thirty years). But it's your life and your responsibility.

But, it isn't of course, because everything you do is determined by how your physical being has already interacted with all you have experienced.

But, you can alter that by adding the experience of new thoughts, by bringing new thoughts right into your own head.

But, how can you do that unless you have learned about it? That had to come from somewhere.

I guess just from reading this bog.