Mental Health

Our Approach:

Mental Disorders are all treatable and curable.

When you have a mental disorder, you tend to think that it is done for you. It is very probable that you believe that you will remain as you are for years, even till the end of your life. These thoughts will appear so real to you to the extent that you will tend to believe them, and lose the hope to recover. You will hate your negative thoughts, and hate the fact that you have the disorder, and your determination to get over your disorder will deteriorate, and here is where the disorder will be more persistent and dominant over you. While these thoughts and beliefs appear to be so real, it is important to know that these are just not true. Getting past your disorder is possible, you just have to want this.

Our approach is based on experience, as well as intensive research. It is a result of personal experience, and real suffering that resulted into a set of healing techniques that proved to work on all people who had the will and the determination to succeed.

Wanting to heal is 'key' in our approach. When you set healing as a project, and you want to achieve it, and put it as a priority in life, you will get the results that you want.

When you have a mental disorder, you are very likely to suspect the material you are provided. Once, someone who got this material emailed me saying:

"How can I know that what you are providing will work? What if it is mind tricks that can drive me insane, or worsen my case?"

It is very normal to think this way while you have a mental disorder, and while I can have no answer except the effectiveness of the material that I provide and the techniques presented, you can always check with a mental health professional incase you have any suspicions in what is delivered to you in this website, and to check on the validity of these material.

To summarize, our approach is based on the below points.

1. Knowing and accepting that you have a disorder
2. Being well informed of the disorder you have, knowledge is power

3. Having the will to heal
4. Courage is “key” for success
5.It is a matter of training and not a magic pill

Mental Health & Mental Disorders:

Mental health had always been a taboo, and this fact alone had always contributed to preventing those who have mental or mood disorders from improving in the course of healing.

While healing is always possible, and most if not all mental and emotional disorders are very treatable, it is important to understand that the course of healing starts from acknowledging our illness, and confronting our fears and worries.

It is also important to understand and believe that having a mental disorder is never our fault, and while we always tend to blame ourselves for being weak and vulnerable, or even stupid, it is very important to know that these thoughts that come to our minds quite often are symptoms of our mental illness. This is how you are supposed to think when you have a mental illness.
In fact, mental disorders mostly target strong people who tend to blame themselves, and hold the whole responsibility over their shoulders thinking that they are stronger than others, and more able to handle things, and thus face the feelings of guilt and despair. For instance in a relationship, someone who suffers and does not react in fear of hurting the partner’s feelings has in his mind the preconceived idea that he is stronger, and more able to handle distress and pain. When this person admits that he is human, and he has the right to say NO, and to react as well as to live peacefully and happily, he definitely will have a better picture of his situation, and will be able to take the right decisions and avoid extreme negative feelings.

Mental disorders diverse into numerous categories and sub-categories, from mood disorders, to anxiety disorders, to other more or less complicated illnesses, yet, it is important to note that you can have one or more mental disorders at a time. For instance, it is very normal that one gets depressed as he suffers from anxiety. Usually, a person who has an anxiety disorder will be depressed as he sees where anxiety has led him. On the other hand, it is very normal that depressed people feel more anxious and worried, as the gloomy thoughts lead to a feeling of insecurity that generates anxiety.

Another important aspect related to mental illnesses is that they become part of our lives to the extent that we think they are us. While this is so hard to believe, yet, our mental disorder is not us, but they are something existing other than us. They tell us things, and we believe. 
Try to literally address them as something outside you, and you will know better what is meant by this. Label them, and give them a name. "Insecurities", "Worry", "Fear", "Black Thought", "Negative Thought", "Anxiety", etc… These are possible names that might or might not suit you. Actually, you may find it extremely hard to differentiate between yourself and your thoughts, but it is totally true that we are not our thoughts, but we can be what our thoughts tell us.

However, though it can be very hard, it is important to know and understand that mental disorders can be a great friend and teacher. After recovery, one will have a different and much better understanding of life.

Finally, many people think that intelligence plays a great role in healing. This is not true. In fact, people who have higher IQ's are in many times more prone to mental disorders than those who have lower IQ's. Mental disorders benefit from our intelligence to use very creative ways to fool our minds, and trick us and make us lost and confused.

Components of a Mental Illness:

In general, mental disorders are a matter of thoughts and beliefs.

"What you are is what you think about yourself".

A mental disorder can top a thought pattern and certain beliefs that are all inherited through different ways since early childhood.

A mental disorder is generally composed of one or several beliefs that are fed by numerous insignificant actions and events. These actions and events generate thoughts that we are not aware of most of the times due to our brain structure, which generates feelings of worry, anxiety, and sadness.

Examples:

1.     A person who has a belief that people do not like him. If any of his acquaintances does not talk to him for any simple reason will feed and increase his feeling of rejection, hence contributing to his depression.

2.     A person who has a belief that he has weak immunity will get extremely anxious as he sneezes.

3.     A person who has a belief that he is not capable of taking care of babies. Feeding his babies can turn to a total anxiety and distress as he fears he might have put poison by mistake.

These beliefs are either inherited from childhood, or learnt later on through the course of life. But the good news is that all these thoughts and beliefs can be altered and conquered for good.

In the course of treatment, some people might expect not experiencing anxiety, sadness, and distress at all in the latest stage of healing.

It is important to note here that sadness, anxiety, or any other feelings are part of our human nature. Without them, one cannot live life normally. Fear and worry is part of our structure, part of our building. Nature has designed us this way to be able to escape dangers. We are designed to experience sadness, so we know happiness later on. Yet, when these feelings become frequent and persistent, and a response to unrealistic dangers or stimulants, then this is a sign that we have a disorder, and we are in a position to treat it and move on in the course of healing to lead a normal life.

Biological Factors & Our Brain Chemistry:

Science shows that that there are biological factors that contribute to various mental disorders. Scientists suggest that there is a chemical imbalance in the brains of depressed people as well as those who have anxiety disorders. Yet, it is not really known if the chemical imbalance has caused the disorder, or it happened after the disorder took place.

However, it is clinically proven that sports and diets based on fruits, vegetables, fish, and water; in addition to changes in life style highly contribute in the process of recovery. Hence, the biological factors that are related to our mental disorders whether cause or result can be altered and improved through sports and diets. It is worth noting here that sports and diets alone are capable of improving our mental health without using any thought techniques and skills.

Science shows that our brain has two hemispheres, one is mainly for emotions, and the other is for logical thinking. Many recent studies are focusing on the role of nasal breathing in our mental wellbeing. Nasal breathing is proved to be the feeder of the brain, and each opening in our nose is responsible of feeding a hemisphere in our brain that is opposite to it. So the right nasal opening is responsible of feeding the left brain hemisphere and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to know that we can highly improve our mental state through regularly breathing from the nose, and this can highly enhance our mood and relieve our anxiety.

Moreover, relaxation and breathing skills will boost our mental state through providing high levels of oxygen that our body and brain needs. (Learn more about breathing skills in the relevant section.)

Environmental Factors, Family Factors, & Though Patterns:

It is highly believed that mental disorders can run in families. Children are very exposed to thought patters that make them learn to think in a certain way that affects their approach to things in life including stressors. This thing makes children inherit the thought patterns from their parents, in addition to other environmental factors that play a great role in our mental disorders.

Examples:

1.     A child who travels a lot during childhood, accompanied by stressors applied by the parents and their way of handling the instability of life, can lead to an anxiety disorder later on in life, as all the events and results are magnified inside the inexperienced child.

2.     A child who always hear from his mother how hard and sad life is, and sees nothing but sadness can have a mood disorder later on as his thought patterns are inherited from the way he learnt to see life from his parents.

3.     Someone who had a lot of stressors during his life is more probable to have a negative view to life compared to other people who suffered fewer stressors.

Yet, it is important to know that beliefs and thoughts, and that play a great role in our mental disorders, can change through determination, courage, and patience. While you are reading this now, you are probably miles away from such words, yet, act as if you have them, and surprisingly you will have them there in you with time.

Our Thoughts:

Research shows that thoughts have a great role in our mental disorders. Yet, we should be able to differentiate between Thoughts and Awareness. While Awareness is all about knowing and sensing the existence of things, Thoughts are judgmental and they generate feelings.

In mental disorders, thoughts become part of the symptoms, yet, it becomes very hard to notice this. We tend to think that thoughts are true, and it becomes extremely hard to notice them, or disbelieve them.

"Thoughts are thoughts; they NEVER explain the reality as they are judgmental."

Let us imagine the chain below. We will work now to differentiate between awareness, thoughts, and feelings.

1.     I am fat à Awareness

2.     No one will love me à Thought

3.     Depressed à Generated Feeling

We usually do not notice "2" which is the Thought. We think it, but we do not notice it. This thought is the thing that generated sadness because it is judgmental.

Thoughts of the anxious or depressed people tend to be focused on expectations or facts rather than solutions. While it is so important to analyze the facts and have certain expectations, it is also worth noting that these remain thoughts, and they can change nothing and they have no affect except on our wellbeing. In fact, they have only one role: Make us sad or anxious.

"The only valid thoughts are those that generate solutions."

Arguing with Negative Thoughts is Erroneous:

Many of us mistakenly think that arguing with negative thoughts positively carries a solution to our distress. While this is so hard to believe, yet, it is important to know that even positive arguing with thoughts is an admission that the thoughts are valid. Hence, you will still be inside the same circle of thoughts. When your mood is good and relaxed, you will tend to think positively about your problems and worries. And when you are anxious or distressed, you will think negatively about them. Your main task that is worth practicing is how to make your awareness notice that these are thoughts. These are nothing but thoughts. You should go courageous to the thoughts that generate worried and despair rather than waiting for the worries and distress to come, and trying to argue with them. You should confront your fears, worries, and stressors, and practice to disregard the negative thoughts that come along.

We will learn more about this thought, and learn how to apply to our cases, and how to deal with thoughts in the relevant self-help guides in Depression and Anxiety disorders sections.

The Thought and the Thought Cloud:

This is a very hard thing to notice. It needs a lot of concentration to be able to differentiate the thought from the thought cloud. Yet, believe it or not, if you focus on your thoughts, you will notice that it is like a current covered by a cloud. The cloud is like a thought with no details. It just leads a certain track or scenario, without getting into the exact details of the thought.

Later on through the course of the disorder, the patient will not get anymore in the details of the thoughts. He will rather get the feelings whether sadness, worry, or anxiety, without knowing the details and the exact track of the thoughts that lead to these feelings. That is why some people tend to feel it extremely difficult to get over their distress, or overcome anxiety as the cloud makes it extremely difficult to notice the thoughts itself. The clouds will take the role of transferring the events and circumstances from one point to another without us even being able to know the exact details of the thought, and whether it is realistic or not.

The good news is that we will be able to detect our thoughts with some concentration, and an inside look to our minds.

This task is never an easy task. It is difficult but totally applicable. All what it needs is determination, and belief that it can be applied.

It is important to know that our mind is built to worry and get sad or anxious. Worry is a learnt process through years of life experience. As we learn from childhood to worry for the exams in order to study and do well, it becomes a thought pattern that rules our thinking, and a way our mind leads to save us, for as we worry, we will be thinking that we are preventing something bad to happen. So worry is a normal thing to do, yet, and in anxiety and mood disorders, there is a case of over usage of this tool in a way that affects our life.

Breathing:

Through breathing, we are ensuring that our body and brain are receiving enough oxygen. When the body receives enough oxygen, it will be more able to relax hence affecting the brain in return. The less oxygen we receive, the more our body will react through tension asking for more oxygen supply.

And as mentioned above, it is proven that the brain gets its oxygen supplies through the nasal cavities. Each nasal opening feeds a hemisphere in the brain whether the one responsible for emotions, or that responsible for logic.

Practicing breathing skills will play a great role in improving our mental state. You can practice these skills whenever you can, but it is recommended that you make them on daily basis, once at least. The correct way to breathe is through the nose deep into the abdomen (Not to the upper lungs only). You will feel that your abdomen is increasing in size. After no more air can be inhaled, the exhaling process starts. It should be done smoothly and slowly. Some people erroneously inhale quickly and with tense, and exhale with their lips tight or ringed. It is extremely important to know that this breathing process is to be made while we are totally relaxed including every part of our body, or else we will not get the needed results. Note the process below.

State:

·         Body relaxed

·         Eyes closed

·         Mind focused on counting breaths.

1.     Deeply inhale through your nose, very slowly

2.     Keep inhaling until your feel your lungs are full, and your abdomen and chest are full as well

3.     Slowly exhale from your mouth with relaxed lips and chest

4.     Do this for 10 to 20 times once a day, and whenever you feel there is a need to

Practicing this breathing skill can give wonderful results when practiced in nature, or while stretching.

Music, Bathing, & Massage:

It is proven that music and massage play a great role in boosting our mental state. You can always find time to listen to good music, or go for a massage whether applied by your partner, friend, or a specialist.

The choice of music is very important. It is highly believed that listening to classical music for one to two hours is extremely efficient in relieving anxiety.

Bathing plays a great role as well in relieving feelings of distress, worry, and anxiety. Try a hot bath two to three hours before you sleep for a better sleep, and for a relaxed mind and body.

Medication (Very Optional):

Pills are believed to be beneficial in relieving mood and anxiety disorders. Yet, it is important to note that these are very optional. The benefits of pills lie in providing the ability for some people who have severe cases of depression or anxiety to be able to confront their fears and worries, and help them shift their mood in order to be able to better apply psychotherapies.

Medications are very optional. It is never necessary to take pills, and solutions are always available without the need of getting into medications and facing their side effects.

Recent studies proved that the Placebo Effect plays the biggest role in the effectiveness of anti-depressant medications rather than the effect of the medicine itself. That is patients feel better as they think that the medicine will make them better, rather than getting the benefit from the medicine itself.

Important Note:

Mental disorders affect our way of thinking to an extent that they make us doubt or suspect almost everything we read. As you were reading the previous and the following text, it is very possible that you suspect or have doubts. While this is very normal, you can always get the opinion of a professional to stand on the validity of the material you are getting.

However, it is also worth noting that the strength lying in what you are receiving now is in the fact that it is an outcome of years of experience and suffering empowered by a lot of research that resulted into these documents for your support and emotional wellbeing.