Hi, It's me again. As the SSRI, SNRI and tricyclic (old ones-nasty side effects), anti-depressants are now classified as no better than a placebo, (sugar pill), and `shock treatment', despite what the bio-psychiatrists say, is widely known to cause permanent brain damage, for very few, if any, positive effects beyond a month, depression is going back to where it belongs, in the emotions rack. Fortunately the role of non-medical treatments for non-medical problems i.e. depression, is burgeoning even after the enthusiastic embrace by the psychiatric profession for `medical' respectability tilted the scales and effectively cut off treatment options thatWORK. Mind you there are many psychiatrist who deplore the sell-out to Big Pharma and bio-psychiatry and many of them are your countrymen.(see below) I was a psychotherapist a long time ago and, as depression is perhaps the most common source of psychic pain, I saw a lot of depressed people. My experience then and my belief still is that there is always a cause/a trigger if you like. I think you look for it, you find it, you ask, `why now', and with professional help, you trash it. You may find things like, having certain habits, ways of seeing the world, adaptive measures that have held itall together or most of your life have failed you. So, what changed? It might be, say, growing older. Somewhere underneath, you might be saying, or screaming, `but I haven't finished being young'-or; I don't/do want to be like my Dad, my Mum; or it could be a loss of direction; it could be anything. Often there are things people have hidden away, consciously or not that are unfinished business. My point is that there are ways to `bring him back'. However I do know how painful depression can be. I have been there and it can be a long hard road but it will get better. Your role is what you are doing, love him even when he doesn't believe he is loveable. You can sit down with him as you look for the right person/group for him. His involvement in his own `help' plans is, I believe, very important for him to believe he is worth it. Remind him that there is no evidence anywhere that shows depression is a `disease' of the brain. Sometimes life becomes hard to navigate for a time and can overwhelm you, you are NOT A DISEASED PERSON. If there are any kind of physical brain problems see a neurologist. I totally agree with `inquisitive' about on-line CBT. Sounds like a scam to me.
CBT has its limitations anyway.
Names - publications - books - programs Some of these names might lead to a suitable program for your husband.
Peter Kinderman - Professor of Clinical Psychology, Uni Liverpool
Phil Hickey - `An alternative perspective on mental disorder
Lucy Johnstone- Professor Psychology UK
Angela Gilchrist - Professor of Pychology UK
Peter Lehmann - Alternatives beyond psychiatry US I think?
Rufus May - `Emancipatory approaches to community building and wellbeing. UK
Jay Haley - a US psychotherapist - www. haley-therapies - Problem solving Therapy US
These are UK psychiatrists for the `New Psychiatry':
Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm
Pat Bracken, MD, MRCPsych, PhD, Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery, Bantry General Hospital, Bantry, Ireland; Philip Thomas, MPhil, FRCPsych, MD, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK; Sami Timimi, FRCPsych, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Child and Family Services Horizons Centre, Lincoln, UK; Eia Asen, MD, FRCPsych, Marlborough Family Service, Central and North West London Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK; Graham Behr, MRCPsych, Central and North West London Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK; Carl Beuster, MRCPsych, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Seth Bhunnoo, MA, MPhil, MRCPsych, The Halliwick Centre, Haringey Complex Care Team, St Ann’s Hospital, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK; Ivor Browne, FRCPI, FRCPsych, MSc (Harv), DPM, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Navjyoat Chhina, MA (Oxon), MSc, MRCPsych, Early Intervention Team, Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Penrith, UK; Duncan Double, MA, MRCPsych, Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich, UK; Simon Downer, MRCPsych, Severn Deanery School of Psychiatry, Bristol, UK; Chris Evans, MRCPsych, MSc, MinstGA, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK; Suman Fernando, FRCPsych, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities, London Metropolitan University, London, UK; Malcolm R. Garland, MD, MRCPI, MRCPsych, St Ita’s Hospital, Portrane, Ireland; William Hopkins, FRCpsych, Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK; Rhodri Huws, FRCPsych, Eastglade Community Health Centre, Sheffield, UK; Bob Johnson, MRCPsych, MRCGP, MA, PhD, Rivington House Clinic, UK; Brian Martindale, FRCP FRCPsych, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Hugh Middleton, MD, MRCP, FRCPsych, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK; Daniel Moldavsky, Specialist Associate RCPsych, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK; Joanna Moncrieff, MRCPsych, Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London, London, UK; Simon Mullins, MRCPych, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK; Julia Nelki, FRCPsych, Chester Eating Disorders Service, Chester, UK; Matteo Pizzo, PGDip, MRCPsych, St Ann’s Hospital, London, UK; James Rodger, MRCPsych, South Devon CAMHS, Devon Partnership NHS Trust, Exeter, UK; Marcellino Smyth, MRCPsych, MMedSci, MD, Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery, Bantry, Ireland; Derek Summerfield, MRCPsych, CASCAID, Maudsley Hospital, London, UK; Jeremy Wallace, MSc, MRCPsych, HUS (Helsinki University Sairaala) Peijas, Vantaa, Finland; David Yeomans, MMedSc MRCPsych, Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds, UK
Correspondence: Pat Bracken, MD, MRCPsych, PhD, Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery, Bantry General Hospital, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland. Email: Pat.Bracken@hse.ie
PS I don't know why my posts are having a format breakdown?