This year, the latest "2022 National Depression Blue Book" pointed out that the survey found that patients with depression under the age of 18 accounted for 30% of the total number. Children and adolescents need to be vigilant especially for mental and psychological problems.
"In the past month, the department has accepted nearly 20 patients with depression or have been diagnosed with depression , none of whom are over 18 years old." Associate Professor Xu Hongbing, an intermediate psychotherapist, international hypnologist, and director of the psychology department of Shenzhen Hang Seng Hospital, said that some patients have even taken the medicine for three years. "Traditional drug treatment can relieve symptoms, but they have the characteristics of long-term medication and large adverse reactions. For teenage patients, we recommend that children be intervene through 'sleep image' psychological treatment first." Xu Hongbing said.
not Explore the reasons in "reality"
Sleep Image In " Solve " Psychological dilemma
"There is a red ladder, very dirty." "There are eyes everywhere, and there are also on the hands, like mother's eyes", "It's a porcelain doll, and there are snakes and rats, which is very scary"... When Associate Professor Xu Hongbing guided the patient's "sleep image" treatment, he carefully recorded the image scenes that the patient "sees" unconsciously with a pen.
Xu Hongbing said that in the past month, some of the patients received by the department have been diagnosed with moderate depression before seeking medical treatment, and some have even harmed their bodies. After entering the "sleep artistic conception", they described many terrible signals to Xu Hongbing, which was manifested as they were unable to solve the current dilemma. "Many parents hope that we can help patients find the cause of the disease when seeking medical treatment, but as psychotherapists, what I need to do is not to guide children to say 'why', because based on years of experience, guiding them in reality will greatly deepen their children's impression of bad things, and it is very likely to cause secondary harm."
Xu Hongbing explained that "sleep imagery" is a non-drug pure psychological therapy. He began to conduct clinical research on this method in 1994. In years of psychotherapy practice, he has continuously absorbed the essence of Chinese and Western philosophy, psychoanalysis, hypnosis therapy, image dialogue, yin and yang and five elements theory of traditional Chinese medicine, mortal image theory, Morita therapy, humanistic , cognitive therapy and other methods, and used different stages of sleep to guide patients into the depths of unconsciousness. Through the "image dialogue" with patients, he guided patients to mobilize their self-improvement mechanisms to find and solve the crux of the problem.
What can parents do after children develop depression symptoms?
Xu Hongbing said that image guidance requires psychologists to guide patients to solve problems in images from the perspective of "truth, goodness and beauty" without the patient's consciousness. For example, encourage patients to discover more sources in images and gradually leave the terrible elements. When it cannot solve the confusion in front of them, guide them to continue walking forward...
Xu Hongbing told reporters that patients generally need to receive 3-4 "image" treatments, and more serious patients may need 7-8 times. Doctors use each "image dialogue" to determine whether the patient can gradually learn to open the knot in his heart. In order to verify whether the patient is developing in a good direction, Xu Hongbing will recommend that patients stop taking the medicine before undergoing "sleep image" treatment. "Some parents told me that after two communications with the doctor, the child is willing to chat with his parents and take the initiative to talk about his study plan." Xu Hongbing said that there was a child who impressed him. During the first treatment, he found that the child's hands were covered with scars left after hurting him, and his face was expressionless. After two treatments, he found that the child had a smile on his face when he was in the hospital.
Study, family, communication... Among all the problems, any of them may be a roadblock to mental health and a factor that induces depression. What can parents do after their children develop depression symptoms? Xu Hongbing said that first of all, don’t be jealous of the doctor, and parents should send their children to professional psychiatry or psychological departments for treatment in a timely manner. Second, after the child is diagnosed with depression, he or she does not need to rush to take medication, and he or she can first take psychological treatment to intervene. Third, fully respect and attach importance to the child's pain, and do not try to let the child find the reasons for it themselves.Fourth, if the child shows a trend of improvement during the treatment period, parents should not let the child stop the treatment in order to rush to resume school.
