Images are from the Internet
However, most schools of psychology stay at the level of human explicit memory, that is, to find the reasons in the experiences remembered by the patients. The patients have many experiences that they have no memory, so they often cannot explain clearly what is the specific thing in the acquired environment that causes the patients to get sick.
And because mental disorders are medical concepts, opinions from the psychiatric medical community appear to be more authoritative and easier to be seen and accepted by the public. So now we search online, such as depression, bipolar disorder, and especially schizophrenia. The overwhelming information says that this is related to congenital factors and genetic factors, and many of them come from the authoritative experts of major hospitals.
Among the patients with these mental disorders, many people still leave the impression on the people around them even after receiving standardized psychiatric treatment - the symptoms are repeated and they are always unable to return to normal completely, and even taking medicine and receiving treatment for a long time seems to be unhealthy. Combined with the statements of mainstream psychiatrists, many people will attribute it to the fact that this disease has congenital factors, which are difficult to reverse.
So many patients' parents are very desperate. They cannot see the hope of their children's recovery. Some even fall into deep self-blame, believing that they have given the bad genes to their children.
, is the truth really true?
At least from the perspective of multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment (MDT), we don’t think so. From the perspective of our 's large-scale clinical psychological intervention practice , and from the theory of " mental stress " in medicine, common mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addictive diseases, the main causes of their acquired environment are acquired and are psychosocial factors . (Except for those that are obviously secondary to physical diseases, such as stroke , mental disorders caused by mental retardation, and hyperthyroidism hypothyroidism)
For example, our clinical psychological intervention practice has found, especially the practice of pathological memory repair technology (TPMIH) under deep hypnosis, which shows that the main cause of these mental disorders is the acquired pathological memory formed by individuals.
And these pathological memories have two characteristics.
First, some memories are stored in the patient's explicit memory level, that is, the patient can still remember, such as when and what happened and how I feel. But some are only stored in the implicit memory level, which patients can't remember at all, especially many events from childhood to adolescence.
For example, when they were young, they encountered some incidents that made them very sad and distorted their cognition, and were beaten and scolded by their parents, severely criticized by their teachers, etc. Later, as time went by, they could not remember it. But these events may still have a significant impact on their mental health. The second feature of
is that pathological memory is also divided into positive and negative. Positive pathological memory is the most common thing about adults' excessive praise and praise for their children, or the excitement caused by children when they engage in certain bad behaviors. We call this a "pathological positive emotional experience."
and negative pathological memory, in addition to the major mental trauma that is now well-known in the psychiatric and psychological circles, also has the superpositional minor psychological trauma we often call. These traumatic events may not be very serious, but are more likely to be small and easily overlooked by adults. For example, children are called "stupid" and "stupid" by their parents and teachers, deceived by their classmates, or even read some horrible and bloody books or films and TV works, which may become superimposed psychological trauma.
We use deep hypnosis in clinical practice to enter the patient's implicit memory level, and accurately find the pathological memory behind the symptoms.For example, patients are always inexplicably anxious and have chest tightness and . What are the superimposed psychological trauma behind it? Patients have addictive behaviors, or suddenly have a high mood during a certain period of time, blindly optimistic and excited, manifested as hypomanic attacks or manic attacks. What are the pathological positive emotional experiences behind it?
When the main pathological memory is repaired, the patient's corresponding symptoms will be greatly relieved and even eliminated.
In fact, our above discoveries from clinical psychological intervention seem very subversive and even incredible, but in fact they are similar to the "stress theory" in psychiatry. However, if we understand it from the perspective of pathological memory, it will be more in-depth and accurate.
The so-called mental stress is also translated as "stress", which means that an individual develops negative emotions and is in a state of anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, etc.
. Mental stress comes from " stressor ", which is actually an event in the acquired environment. For example, major stress events can easily lead to an individual in an acute stress state; while a series of setbacks and unsatisfactory events can easily lead to a chronic stress state.
When we are in a stressed state, if we find it difficult to face and respond rationally and scientifically, and lack scientific guidance from others, it is easy to produce strong negative emotions and distorted cognition, resulting in major psychological trauma, or superimposed psychological trauma.
The picture is from the Internet
Therefore, acute and severe stress can easily lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you suffer from mild to moderate stress for a long time and it is difficult to change, individuals are prone to depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, etc.
Of course, if an individual has good stress resistance, high reversal quotient, or family members and peers can provide better support and guidance, even if they encounter stress events and develop a stress state in the short term, they may not necessarily cause psychological trauma in the future and will be avoided from PTSD or the above mental disorders.
Some people may ask, Dr. He, do you mean diseases such as depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction, which have nothing to do with inheritance? Is it all caused by acquired environmental factors?
I hope everyone will not understand this way. We believe that acquired environment, especially psychosocial factors, are the main causes, but not all. Since common mental disorders have obvious family aggregation, the influence of genetic factors cannot be ruled out.
However, in this regard, is now more and more scientific researchers have discovered that the inheritance of mental disorders is actually an epigenetic factor of .
We have written articles before to explain this "epigenetic factor". Briefly speaking, epigenetic factors are actually caused by acquired environments, such as the climate, diet, schedule, psychological stress, etc. of individuals living, which may cause changes in the expression of gene , and this change may be passed on to the next generation.
But similarly, if the acquired environment of the next generation lives is different from that of their parents, the gene expression they originally inherited from their parents will also change. Good can become bad, and bad can become good.
So in the final analysis, if we must talk about genetic factors, in mental disorders, they mainly refer to epigenetic factors, and emphasize acquired environmental factors.
02. Children’s growth environment is the same, why are their personalities and psychology different?
When you see this, some people may still have questions:
If mental disorders are mainly caused by acquired environment, then some children were born in the same family and went to the same school. The family, school and social environment are the same. Why do their personalities are completely different? Some get sick, while others don’t get sick? There are many examples of
in clinical practice. Some patients have brothers and sisters. The eldest child is mentally healthy overall, and has always been excellent, mature and rational. However, the second child suffers from depression, bipolar disorder, and is sensitive and irritable.
Many parents are puzzled. The two of them are obviously from the same womb, and their education methods are the same. Why is the difference so big?
In fact, what many people see, the so-called "acquired environment is the same", is very superficial, and more refers to the same physical environment, such as living in the same family and going to the same school. But if you go deep into the family education method and psychological activities, the feelings between brothers and sisters in the same family will be very different.
Images are from the Internet
For example, the order of birth, that is, the age order of children in the family, and the genders are different, which means that their status and roles in the minds of their parents are different in different periods and in the minds of their parents.
For example, many parents always say, "You are the eldest, you have to give in to your younger brother and sister"; or the eldest has enjoyed the full care of your parents for several years, and your mind and body are basically healthy, but the second and third brothers are born one after another. At this time, the second brothers and third brothers are easily ignored to a certain extent, and their mental state is often different from that of the eldest brothers and third brothers. Brothers and sisters are prone to compete for their parents' attention, and in severe cases, it will form " competition barriers for compatriots ".
Moreover, children in the same family meet different teachers and classmates after going to school, have different campus experiences, and the social information they come into contact with is not exactly the same. Our country has developed rapidly in the past decade. Even if the two children are only a few years apart, the information and things they come into contact with may be hugely different, and of course the impact on their psychology is different.
Even if it is a single-egg twin with the same gene, the physical age gap is very small, and often goes to the same school or the same class. It seems that the acquired environment will always be the same, but in fact, there may be a big difference.
For example, the most common one is that although the twin brothers are only ten minutes apart from birth, adults will still distinguish their brothers and younger brothers, and their attitudes towards them will also be different.
When you arrive at school, the twins are prone to attract everyone's attention. Then teachers and classmates will also distinguish them into brothers and younger brothers, and unconsciously compare their appearance, grades, behaviors, and personalities.
Sometimes people around you just joke unintentionally, "You are twins, and you are still brothers, why are your grades not as good as your younger brother?" This will also invisibly bring psychological pressure to the two, especially the older brother, and may cause some superimposed psychological trauma.
Then in the social environment, even if you are twins, the two have different experiences, different work and emotional experiences, and the difference is even greater.
That is to say, to a certain extent, there is no situation where the acquired environment of two people is exactly the same. The subtle differences between parents, teachers and peers treat us, and various information in this society will form different environmental factors on each person and have different impacts.
So I hope parents will not blindly compare their children with other people's children. If you want to compare, you should also compare the specific differences between their children and other people's children's growth environment, and then pay more attention to starting from the environment to change.
03. Want to help your child recover faster? Parents change this environment first
Since the family environment, study environment, and social environment will have a decisive impact on the children's mental health and whether they will suffer from mental disorders, which environment has the greatest impact? What is the most important thing to pay attention to as a parent?
There is a saying on the Internet that parents may all hear the ear calluses: parents are the children's first teachers, and families are the children's first school. Although the sentence
is a bit old-fashioned, it does reflect the important influence of parents and original families on children. For children, whether it is the social environment, study environment, or the impact of the general environment or the middle environment, it has a lot to do with the small environment of " native family ".
And in this small environment, the most important are two relationships: The husband-wife relationship between parents , The parent-child relationship between parents and children .
Image source from the Internet
Many teenage patients we have treated have witnessed since childhood that their parents often quarreled, angry, belittled and insulted each other. Some parents even fought, leaving huge psychological harm to their children.
And many patients have suffered psychological harm caused by their parents when they are 1 or 2 years old, or even earlier than this infancy.
For example, when a child does not do as required by his parents, his parents will be too excited and criticize and scold. If it happens repeatedly, it is easy to cause superimposed psychological trauma to the child, and over time, some personality weaknesses, such as being sensitive and introverted, timid and afraid of things, etc.
When we reach the study environment, although we cannot fully influence how teachers and classmates treat our children, when children encounter interpersonal conflicts or even encounter campus bullying , the different ways of responding to parents will have a significant impact on the children's mental health and personality.
Some parents lack the awareness and ability of self-reflection themselves, and do not know how to guide children to rationally reflect on themselves and comprehensively attribute to . As long as the child encounters conflicts outside, parents will either blindly blame the child or blame the school, teachers, and classmates. Such children are also prone to lack the awareness and ability of self-reflection, and problems occur in attribution patterns, which will affect mental health and have a high risk of suffering from mental disorders.
is also the case in the social environment. Why do many people respond differently to the same social event or encounter, or even completely opposite? This is often because they treat society differently.
If parents always complain and blame society and understand social phenomena from a negative perspective, children will be subtly susceptible to negative factors in the social environment, and will find it difficult to adapt to society well, and habitually push all responsibilities to the outside world and society.
Therefore, the objective impact of the study environment and social environment on children is certainly significant, but more importantly, what is the mentality of the children to face these objective environmental impacts. If the mentality is relatively rational, positive and peaceful, the negative impact will be smaller, otherwise the greater the effect. The difference in this mentality often comes from the parenting style and the original family environment.
Many parents may still not understand:
Doctor He, you said that our educational methods have caused superimposed psychological trauma to children, which is an important reason for their illness. But when I was a child, I was beaten and scolded by many parents, and my psychological trauma was even greater. Why didn’t I get depression?
I hope these parents will think deeply about how different the background of our birth and growth is from the current children!
Many parents were poor when they were young, and their psychological needs were not met. Moreover, the information was blocked at that time, and our understanding of family education mainly came from the sayings of people around us. At that time, almost everyone said, "My parents beat you for your own good!"
At that time, we had brothers and sisters comforted each other, and our friends around us were beaten by their parents a lot. Compared with each other, everyone was almost the same. In this environment, it is easy to rationalize the beatings and scolding we suffered at that time.
But now children are exposed to a lot of information. Soon I found that online people say that parents should respect and understand their children. Many classmates’ parents are both open-minded and democratic. So why do my parents always beat and scold me and deny me? Why are my parents not "other people's parents"?
And because of the hard living conditions at that time, many parents had a particularly strong motivation to fight in order to change their destiny.When we have ambitious goals, the psychological pressure we suffer will easily be transformed into motivation, and when we grow up, we will indeed achieve certain results, and the suffering we suffered in the past will be easier to rationalize.
But now children are rich in material things as soon as they are born, and parents do not have the consciousness to guide them to set lofty and spiritual life goals. They lack real motivation. When parents force their children to work hard again, psychological trauma can easily occur.
There is also, I hope parents don’t take it lightly. Some parents don’t suffer from depression now, but it doesn’t mean they won’t suffer from it in the future. Many successful people never thought that they would fall into depression before they got sick, and some eventually committed suicide, shocking the workplace!
In fact, after many parents find that their children are sick and difficult to recover, they are on the verge of collapse, and they have even reached the level of anxiety and depression.
Even if these parents do not suffer from depression, it does not mean that they do not have other mental and psychological disorders. In clinical psychological intervention, we found that many parents have abnormal personality and even reached the level of personality disorder.
For example, some parents are overly pursuing perfection and nitpicking about their families, and have compulsive personality changes; or they are sensitive and suspicious, very paranoid, self-righteous, and even arrogant, and have serious paranoid personality disorder. If these parents do not strengthen self-reflection, change and improve, and the family environment is not improved, it will be more difficult for children to recover.
I hope parents will realize their major responsibilities as soon as possible. Since their children are sick because of the environment, we will start from the environment, especially to improve the "small environment" of the "family" as soon as possible.
This is why we have always emphasized that if the child suffers from depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addictive diseases, etc., parents should reflect on themselves, change and improve their family relationships as soon as possible and improve their family relationships and parent-child relationships. This is equivalent to effective self-family treatment and is even better than general psychological counseling/psychotherapy.
When the parent-child relationship is significantly improved, we will guide children to face the impact of the study environment and social environment more rationally and maturely, and try to minimize the psychological harm caused by negative factors. If this can be done, the child's recovery will be smoother and more stable.
Image is from the Internet
However, speaking of this, I also want to remind the majority of teenage patients. Many patients may be very frustrated, angry, or even angry when they see this, thinking that their illness is caused by the external environment, especially the wrong education methods of their parents, and think that they are victims.
In fact, this understanding is also irrational. In fact, the negative impact of the original family environment is often passed down from generation to generation. Parents who have brought a lot of psychological trauma to their children have also suffered a lot of superimposed psychological trauma when they were young. The parents’ personality, emotions, and educational methods are also related to their experiences.
If we see this in depth and blindly think that we are a victim, and only hope that our parents and environment will change, but we are unwilling to change, or even choose to lie down directly, this will not only be of no benefit to our recovery, but we must also be responsible for this.
We already have an independent consciousness and were born in the "digital planet" era. Compared with our parents' generation, we have a particularly strong ability to search and absorb information, and it is easier to break through " Information Cocoon " to obtain truly scientific and efficient spiritual psychology knowledge.
Then we should take advantage of the times and our own advantages, give full play to our subjective initiative, learn to help ourselves, understand the psychological roots of our illness in depth and rationally, and find a way to recover that suits us.
When we create a high-resistance quotient that is more courageous and more courageous, and set a positive and clear life goal, even if we encounter stressful events again in the future, it will not be easy to cause psychological trauma.
From this perspective, although everyone cannot completely avoid the influence from the environment after they are born, especially before adulthood. If we have psychological problems or even suffer from mental disorders, then this is largely a shaping of the environment.
However, when we have the awareness of autonomy and consciously learn scientific and efficient spiritual psychology knowledge, we have the ability to reflect on ourselves, change and improve, and help ourselves to recover.
By the same token, parents can also exert their subjective initiative, strive to reflect on themselves, change and improve their weaknesses and family education methods, and change the family environment, thereby changing the development of their children's mental state and helping them recover as soon as possible!
#World Mental Health Day# #Depression# #Biopolar Disorder#
