Mike Ballard wrote:
>
> By Daphne Liddle
> The first remedy offered by the NHS is invariably strong drugs which do help
> some but carry the risk of severe side effects. Then there are the “talking
> therapies”, in particular Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, in which patients are
> told to control their thinking, block negative thoughts and to think only
> positive thoughts.
> This approach insists that the depression comes from inside the brain of the
> patient – not from the objective reality of the outside world. But in a world
This is nonsense. (1) The either/or assumed is nonsense. Even the physical pain from a knife cut is in a literal sense only in your brain: that is why pain killers work. (2) As Miles will probably point out, Cognitive Therapy has a good record. Even if (say) your depression comes from severe childhood abuse, the depression is still in your head and only in your head. And that depression will only go away through changes "inside" the head. When drugs work (as they do for many) it is because they make it possible to change one's thinking and block the thoughts that are making you miserable. That those thoughts come from being raped as a child does not change the fact that it is, now, the thoughts and not the rape that is causing the misery this moment.
Carrol