Multiple Voices

How Does Anger Become Pathological?

Anger becomes pathological when a person has over a long time mismanaged their anger. This starts in most cases already in childhood when children are raised within a family and/or society in which children's expression of affect and especially of anger is discouraged or even punished. These are families in which children are maybe see, but certainly not heard. These are families in which usually only parents are entitled to express anger and they often do so to punish or discipline their kids.

Of course, predicting what kind of person someone will become due to the suppression of anger is very difficult. The habitual and chronic repression of anger leads to a personality of a person that is quiet, passive, polite, maybe even over the top helpful until he or she snaps and acts surprisingly ‘out of character’, goes wild, goes on a rampage, or becomes very violent towards him/herself.

Someone who has learned from very early on to suppress anger is rather a time-bomb waiting to go off. Anger chronically suppressed or repressed seems to create a pressure-cooker dynamic that is very difficult to keep under control. Totally legitimate anger pent up over years tends to grow and earn interest like a bank account leading to a person struggling to cope with their resentment, bitterness, hatred, rage, and overall intolerance towards other people’s minor transgressions. Hence we notice aggressive, violent, or self-destructive behaviours that often have horrific consequences.

Some people think that pathological anger can also be a result of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, mental or neurological impairment, which seem to lower a person’s threshold for being able to regulate, manage, and express anger or frustration appropriately. My hunch is, however, that those impairments are also mediated or at least influenced by adverse childhood circumstances and chronically unexpressed anger.

As long as we as society are unable to appreciate anger as a natural feeling that informs us about a perceived ‘disrespect’, we will probably continue to have to deal with anger problems later on in life.

Coping in Times of Stress

The recovery from sexual abuse is not always a straight forward journey. There are times when survivors will cope easily with the HERE AND NOW. At other times the THERE AND THEN intrudes and compromises their daily functioning. Times like Christmas, Easter, Hollidays, Thanksgiving, weddings, and baptisms, to name a few, are events that can be highly triggering for survivors.

It can make a huge difference for a person's coping capabilities to have a plan ready for these difficult times. Once the stress level rises and people start getting distressed, thinking rationally is not always possible. Click the following link Download Depression Action Plan for ideas how to construct such a plan for yourself.

DID Treatment: Practical Steps Towards Happiness

Here are the promised 'Happiness Exercises'. Why do I call them that? Because research has shown that when you do these exercises regularly, you will feel better. Not only that, your sense of improved well-being and happiness lasts for many months after having done the exercises. Although the research has not been done with people who have multiple personalities, or more correctly dissociative identity disorder, I reckon it can't hurt to do them anyhow. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

DID Treatment: Stop Depression by Pursuing Happiness

It has been common since the 60s that people  visit a counsellor or therapist to talk about the problems and difficulties that trouble their lives. Beliefs like "...It has to get harder before it gets better"  reflect commonly accepted wisdom and experiences people had for a very, very long time. These beliefs are now challenged by discoveries made by researchers who focus on what is known as 'positive psychology'. Without discounting the usefulness of traditional therapy that explores the problems people have and assists in finding new understandings or new behaviours, they suggest that a more effective approach would be to ALSO focus on people's strength and virtues.

Drugs or Counselling for Depression?

A new meta analysis of 47 studies claims that the effectiveness of certain antidepressants is questionable and results show insignificant improvements compared to placebos (sugar pills).

This study has caused a world wide stirring - it shakes peoples trust in the medical profession that eagerly prescribes antidepressant drugs, and it questions the ethical conduct of pharmaceutical companies.

Exercise: The magic bullet to combat depression?

Depression is a serious health concern world-wide. Not only can it be crippling in itself, often depression is accompanied by other serious mental health problems. Treatment for depression consists of drug treatment, counselling or psychotherapy, a combination of both drugs and counselling, or ... you guessed it, EXERCISE! That exercise is effective in many cases has been indicated in a vast number of studies. It is pretty clear, depressed people, you have to put on your sneakers and off to the park for a jog. But wait ... there is more ... it's not that easy. Read on by clicking the link.

Nature via nurture! Research review

For many decades people debated the nature versus nurture theory of depression. One theory was that you would be prone to depression if there has been a history of depression in your family. Then there is the good old chemical imbalance theory that just won't go away. Others think that depression is due to adverse life-circumstances. These two 'camps' have been pretty opposed to each other over the years. The advocates of the biological cause of depression have strongly promoted drug treatment, very much to the delight of the pharmaceutical industry. The advocates of the adverse life circumstance theory have been adament that only psychotherapy or counselling will allow recovery from depression. I would be very interested to hear how people's experiences of depression and the treatment thereof have been.