For those who have followed my Holistic Updates over time, you may have noticed a pattern where I switch from the biochemistry of medication withdrawal to the psychotherapeutics of well-being. I've noticed that some people only read the biochemistry of medication withdrawal and skip the articles that support mental well-being through positive attitudes and beliefs.
Through my empirical experiences as a holistic psychiatrist, my perspective has changed about the importance of psychotherapy in helping my patients have a successful withdrawal. In fact, I now understand that the psychotherapeutics of well-being can make or break a medication withdrawal process. I hope today's article will help to clarify the reasons why both aspects—psychotherapy and biochemistry—are important for a successful withdrawal process. Enjoy!
What Does Psychotherapy Have to Do With Withdrawal?
Beyond the biochemistry of medication withdrawal
Generally, psychiatrists are taught to focus on the biochemistry of healing mental health. At the more integrative training centers, psychotherapy is also taught in classrooms, and psychiatry residents come to understand the mysterious subconscious and psychodynamic processes.
Unfortunately, these two perspectives are always taught as distinctly different and separate approaches, with little to connect them together into one holistic and cohesive healing approach. As a holistic psychiatrist, however, I have come to think of these two approaches as the yin and yang of healing. One is nothing without the other.
Recently, I was fooled into assuming that a patient had addressed her past traumas so completely that all I had to do was manage the biochemistry of healing. She told me that she had spent years working with an energy healer and had resolved her past psychological issues.
She tested well when I did my energy evaluation, and she did very well through her entire medication withdrawal. I did very little psychotherapy work with her given her assurance that she had little to work on.
Unfortunately, she decompensated after we stopped her antipsychotic medication and lowered her anxiolytic medication. Her deterioration was due to flashbacks from traumas that had been completely dissociated from her consciousness.
The medications had suppressed her dissociated memories and hid them from her awareness, like a lid over a boiling pot. When the medications were taken away, her repressed and dissociated memories returned, as did her need to deal with relevant psychotherapeutic issues.
Her biology correlated with the fearful state when experiencing those traumas. Since her biology was reacting to past traumas that were not happening in the present, she seemed "psychotic" and "delusional" to those around her and was put back on her medications.
On the other hand, a young man in his 20's, who encountered a traumatic experience during his adolescence, isolated himself for many years in his grandmother's basement, feeling deeply depressed and anxious. He had a psychotherapist who provided the typical talk therapy and support that helped him greatly but didn't result in his recovery.
I started working with him and added some supplements, then we did EET + Logosynthesis and Ask and Receive therapeutic techniques to resolve his trauma. Within four months, he was a totally different person. He was out and about, making social connections and earning money at a part-time job. His depression and anxiety had completely resolved.
I have found that using energy medicine psychotherapeutic approaches is consistently more effective in helping resolve past traumas than regular talk therapy. In the case of the young man, energy medicine plus his psychotherapy sessions gave him the healing tools he needed to overcome his trauma.
The way I explain it to my patients is that when we encounter painful stimuli, whether it is emotional or physical, we automatically try to block it from hurting us. In energy medicine, the blocking of these painful pathways leads to blockages in other energies that need those pathways to deliver energy.
When a lot of blockages or one huge blockage occurs, access to Life Energy becomes limited. When we use energy medicine techniques to unblock the flow of energy, we access pathways of energy that heal our bodies like an ongoing flow of nutritional supplements.
As a holistic psychiatrist, I am always working on both fronts—biochemistry and psychotherapy—because I know that each aspect is important for my patients' successful withdrawal process. I hope that in your medication withdrawal, you will create a balanced approach that respects the need for healing on both fronts. By doing so, your ability to have a successful medication withdrawal will be greatly enhanced. Have a great week!