subconscious run amok?
May 31, 2010 10:17 AM Subscribe
Do you know the name for this psychotherapy technique: the symptoms come from some element in your routine which seems harmless but something in your subconscious freaks out about it. So you randomly omit items from your routine and if you are lucky you pick the right one for the first or second trial and your symptoms go poof. Also if there was an original inventor of the technique I would be interested in knowing that.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Response by poster: This blog post of mine contains details if my question seems too thin: Dionysius walked in.
posted by bukvich at 2:16 PM on May 31, 2010
posted by bukvich at 2:16 PM on May 31, 2010
Overall, I can't see this working very well for most stress-related issues. If you are stressed because of financial problems, health problems or relationship problems, minor changes in routine are not going to help. However, panic attacks could be a special case. In most cases, the first panic attack can be coincidental to the event that appears to trigger it. However, the brain learns to avoid danger so anything that reminds you of the perceived cause can trigger panic symptoms. Since this connection is both subconscious and only associative (in other words, the situation isn't actually dangerous, just similar to the context of a frightening event) it could possibly become tied to minor, routine activity. And no, I have never heard of this being used as a common psychiatric technique.
posted by metahawk at 2:52 PM on May 31, 2010
posted by metahawk at 2:52 PM on May 31, 2010
From your blog (my emphasis):
In December of 1996 the subject appeared in perfect health. His weight was 180 pounds and there did not appear to be a single centimeter of fat on his body. He played tennis (the locus of my acquaintance with him) or worked out in the gym daily. In the middle of December 1996 he had a panic attack in connection with a business presentation. (Pan is the Roman pantheon equivalent of Dionysius.) Over the course of the subsequent three months he lost all physical strength, all endurance, all power to concentrate, and 45 pounds of body weight. He believed himself to be dying.
He went to the doctor. The doctor did a complete physical examination. Nothing wrong with the subject. Doctor asked, "would you like some prozac?" Subject declined the pills but did go see a sequence of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, clergymen, bartenders looking for a cure. About the only thing he had the concentration power to do was read books. So he went to the Tulane University Medical School library, psychiatry shelf and started reading one book after another after another.
Somewhere in that massive stack he came upon an old formula. If you have a stress related ailment, you are doing something your subconscious wants you to stop doing. Make a list of everything you habitually do, try stopping them one at a time, and see if one of the stops brings relief for your symptoms. The other thing that jumped out at him was the predominance of automobile driving related events in the psychiatric case studies.
He stopped driving his car. He got better very quickly. None of the professionals he saw seemed to be very interested in the story.
From a webpage about carbon monoxide poisoning:
Persistent symptoms of CO poisoning include
* Fatigue
* Dizziness
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Confusion
* Convulsions
* Respiratory problems
* Rapid breathing
* Persistent cough
* Concentration problems
* Hallucinations
* Panic attacks
* Clumsiness
* Severe muscle pains
* Trembling
* Vision problems
posted by jamjam at 4:05 PM on May 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
In December of 1996 the subject appeared in perfect health. His weight was 180 pounds and there did not appear to be a single centimeter of fat on his body. He played tennis (the locus of my acquaintance with him) or worked out in the gym daily. In the middle of December 1996 he had a panic attack in connection with a business presentation. (Pan is the Roman pantheon equivalent of Dionysius.) Over the course of the subsequent three months he lost all physical strength, all endurance, all power to concentrate, and 45 pounds of body weight. He believed himself to be dying.
He went to the doctor. The doctor did a complete physical examination. Nothing wrong with the subject. Doctor asked, "would you like some prozac?" Subject declined the pills but did go see a sequence of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, clergymen, bartenders looking for a cure. About the only thing he had the concentration power to do was read books. So he went to the Tulane University Medical School library, psychiatry shelf and started reading one book after another after another.
Somewhere in that massive stack he came upon an old formula. If you have a stress related ailment, you are doing something your subconscious wants you to stop doing. Make a list of everything you habitually do, try stopping them one at a time, and see if one of the stops brings relief for your symptoms. The other thing that jumped out at him was the predominance of automobile driving related events in the psychiatric case studies.
He stopped driving his car. He got better very quickly. None of the professionals he saw seemed to be very interested in the story.
From a webpage about carbon monoxide poisoning:
Persistent symptoms of CO poisoning include
* Fatigue
* Dizziness
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Confusion
* Convulsions
* Respiratory problems
* Rapid breathing
* Persistent cough
* Concentration problems
* Hallucinations
* Panic attacks
* Clumsiness
* Severe muscle pains
* Trembling
* Vision problems
posted by jamjam at 4:05 PM on May 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
« Older Honey, I shrunk the property. | Help me make a get your butt swingin' dance music... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:37 AM on May 31, 2010