Kellevision

I Just Got Played by a Narcissist

She started talking to me about how stellar her performance was at a recent social event, obviously fishing for compliments, and I refused to bask in admiration and feed her ego.  The results were dramatic.  She went for the jugular.  Narcissistic rage in action.

Trauma and Mental Disorders

I am reading a lot of research on how the symptoms of trauma and those of many major mental illnesses seriously overlap and will posting about this for the next week.  Most clinicians realize that the symptoms of depression and anxiety are part of the trauma spectrum.  Clients are often diagnosed with Major Depression or some type of anxiety disorder when the real problem is trauma.  Medication only lessens the symptoms (if you are lucky) but fails to resolve the actual disorder.  Treatment for the trauma resolves the issue and medication is no longer needed.  Clinicians are also are of the relationship between some personality disorder (i.e. Borderline Personality Disorder) and trauma.  But what I am now finding is that the medical model for psychiatric disorders may not be as accurate as it claims to be, or even useful.  Research is showing that trauma may be the underlying cause of such major mental illnesses as; Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder.  And that symptoms such as hallucinations, mood swings and psychosis may be better explained as trauma symtoms rather than a biological disorder.  It seems that once the trauma is treated, the "disorder" resolves itself without medication.

Because this is such a revolutionary way of thinking I'll be posting the research findings for each symptom or disorder complete with references to journal articles. 

I hope you enjoy this series.  In the future, to return to this series, click the "Trauma" category in the right side bar.

Personality Disorders

A lot of clients I see are diagnosed with Axis I disorders like Schizophrenia, Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder when in actuality, they are suffering from a Personality Disorder.  Personality Disorders are rarely discussed because they ultimately cannot be medicated and require long term psychotherapy.  Insurance companies do not cover them and, at least where I live, the county mental health authority does not treat them.  So in order for people with Personality Disorders to get any help, they are mislabeled as one of the "Big Three" (Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder or Major Depression) - disorders which are covered by most systems.  I think this is a great disservice to patients and clients.  People have a right to know what is really going on with them and what the proper treatment provided.  What are Personality Disorders?