We are privileged that acclaimed author Sharon McGovern has agreed to contribute a monthly blog for us. Sharon will cover a variety of subjects, as she sees them. Once again, we implore you to read her book “Afraid”. In all good bookstores.
After spending most of my life trying to find peace within myself, I went through many years of therapy and psychiatric help. It disturbed me to see the way people were labelled so easily, many of those people misdiagnosed and in fact their problems widening due to the labels put on them.
Mental health is a minefield, the patients involved have many difficulties in accepting where they are in society, but the thing that both shocked and surprised me is that the medical profession, albeit doing a difficult job, seemed blind to the complexities of the individuals problems. Self harmers, alcoholics, drug addicts, dysfunctional parents, and many other labelled patients were getting the help for that symptom, yet really, the root of the problem was not being dealt with, THE PAST.
Many of these patients, myself included, see our problems stem from childhood trauma’s, abuse, neglect, psychological harm, mostly stemming from our upbringing, so the effects of that trauma are treated, not the actual trauma itself.
To rid ourselves of the effects of our trauma, the trauma itself has to be discovered and dealt with, digging into to the root of the problem, then the effect is minimised, all the time I was in mental health, the labels I carried were depressing me even further and at times I could see no end to the therapy and assesments i had to undergo, i beleived what i was told.
Eighty per cent of mental health patients, such as those mentioned above, will go through their lives labelled, believing they have mental health issues, when many are really suffering from the effects of childhood trauma, like a tree with diseased branches, the roots must be cleansed to stop the disease, because everytime we chop off a branch another grows and the problems remains.
Let’s look at why alcoholics are drinking, why people find solace in hurting themselves and why drug addicts and dysfunctional individuals want to leave reality: what happened to them to make this happen? Once we heal that part of their life, the rest falls into place, and with the help and support of like-minded people, they can find their way out of the box they have been put into, and there will be hope for their future.
REMEMBERING THAT DRUGS ONLY MASK THE PROBLEM, ITS STILL THERE WHEN THE PRESCRIPTION IS STOPPED.
