Massacre in Norway triggers lessons in bereavement, grief, trauma and mental health
The massacre in Norway raises many points about mental health, bereavement, grief and trauma.
Let’s look first at Anders Behring Breivik whose actions resulted in 76 people being killed or, as we write this, unaccounted for. While it might have been legally judicious for his lawyer to label Breivik “insane”, using that word says more about prejudice than it does about understanding mental health.
When people retreat from the norm – behaving anti-socially, whether by withdrawing from others or behaving inhumanely towards themselves or others – it is often because they feel out of kilter with the world, or misunderstood by it, or because they cannot manage their emotions. This is not a defence of Breivik’s behavour (clearly extreme and exceptional) but it is an example of what can happen if mental illnesses are not recognised, diagnosed or treated.
While the majority of our clients are well-informed and self-aware, mental illness remains a taboo. Talking about mental health issues with partners, family, friends – or with colleagues at work – is not something everyone has the chance or inclination to do. Keeping concerns private does not often lead to extremes of behaviour – but it can cause significant shifts in behaviour or personality, turning people in on themselves. And that could lead to self-harm, eating disorders, mis-using drugs or alcohol, an over-reliance on smoking; it could cause anxiety, panic, stress, phobias, sleep issues. It can also affect behaviour and performance at work and relationships. Anyone feeling they do not fit in, that others are against them, or that they cannot cope deserves support and encouragement. Yet, as our human instinct is often to shy away from exposing what we think of as private weaknesses or inadequacies, support is often hard to seek.
The Norwegian tragedy also shows how others can be affected, directly or indirectly.
We’ve heard about the guilt that some survivors of the incident feel – that they escaped his attention or were just of out range so they lived but others didn’t. There is anger at the police – for taking what the public considered too long to respond to the incident, and for not having the right means to get their fast. Many who witnessed the incident were immediately traumatised and may remain affected by the trauma for some time. Some parents felt relief on learning their child was safe, but their relief was tinged with sadness at others’ loss. We saw the tearful response of the King and Queen of Norway at the memorial service, shocked and saddened by the individual deaths and by what was the country’s biggest loss of life since the second world war. And we noted the stunned expression on the Norwegian prime minister’s face as he took control of the incident, balancing his emotions with his responsibilities to set a lead for the country and protect its reputation as a tourist destination.
Paramedics who reached the scene described the people they found as traumatised. Those paramedics are likely to have built up resilience that helps them manage their reactions to traumatic incidents but they might need continuing support to maintain that resilience.
And we’ve experienced our own reactions, at a distance from the incident, trying to make sense of it from our perspectives, with many of us reliving grief at lives lost years ago or recently.
All of these reactions are normal – grief is a complex emotion even when a death or loss occurs naturally and is expected. Sometimes it takes an extreme act for people to notice the extent of their own or others’ mental distress – and to give themselves permission to seek help to overcome it.
If this traumatic incident has triggered difficult emotions, changed behaviours, or reopened issues you thought were under control, do get in touch with us for professional, therapeutic support. We offer a range of therapies including EMDR (recognised by NICE as particularly effective for recovering from trauma), CBT, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and counselling - and often recommend a blend of therapies so each person receives the form of therapy that is best for them.
29/07/2011 | Posted in Psychotherapy, Psychodynamic therapy, Psychoanalytical therapy, Person-centred counselling, NLP, Integrative counselling, Hypnotherapy, Humanistic psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, Existential counselling, EMDR, EFT, Counselling, CBT, Sensorimotor psychotherapy,
CBT may help adults with generalised anxiety disorder
In the April issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the results of a controlled, randomised trial showed that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may help older adults with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD).
Only pilot studies were conducted in primary care, where late life adults often seek treatment for GAD. CBT has been shown to be effective in treating panic disorder in younger patients, GAD and both in addition to being effective for older patients suffering from depression. However, the treatment response rates and effect sizes were lower than for academic clinical trials.
The study took 134 older adults split into two groups, one treated with CBT and one with enhance usual care (EUC). CBT included cognitive therapy, motivational interviews, relaxation training and problem solving training. EUC included biweekly telephone calls and minimal support. The patients were evaluated at the start, after the three months treatment and followed up at six, nine, 12 and 15 months. When compared with EUC, CBT showed significant reductions in the severity levels of worry and in symptoms of depression, as well as improvement in general mental health. The study authors concluded:
"Compared with EUC, CBT resulted in greater improvement in worry severity, depressive symptoms, and general mental health for older patients with GAD in primary care. However, a measure of GAD severity did not indicate greater improvement with CBT ... CBT is useful for older adults with GAD in primary care."
07/05/2009 | Posted in CBT,
Hypnotherapy at London Zoo
London Zoo has been offering help to arachnophobes through its Friendly Spider programme. The programme uses hypnotherapy and information to help cure those afraid of spiders in just one session. A fear of spiders is one of the most common phobias in the UK.
Dave Clarke, the zoo's head keeper of insects, said:" "The Friendly Spider programme is a great course for anyone with a fear of spiders. Every year we help more and more people to conquer their phobias, and every year we receive really positive feedback from those who are pleasantly shocked by how much it changes their lives".Hypnotherapy for fear of spiders, and many other phobias, works in just one session and is one of the reasons that hypnotherapy became so well known. After just one session, most clients go home searching for spiders in their bathroom or house to discover that they are no longer bothered by them - and are able to move them by themselves without the usual feeling of panic or fear.
03/05/2009 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
Chicken nugget addiction cured with hypnotherapy
After an amazing 18 years of eating only chicken nuggets and chips, student Carla Laban has a healthy diet at least, thanks to hypnosis. When Carla was two, chicken nuggets were the only good that did not make Carla throw up violently. From that point on, Carla would skip breakfast every day and have nuggets for both dinner and lunch. This meant she was eating around 30 nuggets daily, at an average cost of £5 per day. Thanks to hypnotherapy, Carla is now starting to eat pasta and vegetables. Carla said:
"I can remember having chicken nuggets and chips for the first and thinking, 'I can eat this without being sick. Before that, I couldn't eat anything without having a panic attack and my throat tightening up. I couldn't even stand the smell of other food. I used to get ill quite a lot. While classmates would have a cold for a week, I'd have one for four. People thought I was being fussy. They didn't understand that I physically couldn't eat anything else."Despite exercise to combat the unhealthy diet, Carla was still ill. When Coventry-based Carla was preparing for university her family arranged for her to see a hypnotherapist to wean her off the chicken nuggets. Thanks to hypnosis, she now eats more varieties of food and is still improving. The hypnotherapist started by helping Carla to make a small shift from nuggets to chicken goujons. Next, she moved to chicken pizza and slowly onto other food types. All sorts of phobias can be cured with hypnotherapy, including food phobias, however, each person is different.
02/09/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
Eva Mendes had hypnotherapy to cure her spider phobia
Since a young age, Hollywood actress Eva Mendes suffered from a panic fear of spiders. The actress said:
“Ever since I was a little girl I had this problem. When I would see a spider, some sort of psychological blockade would activate, and my reactions were indescribable fear and I would go crazy. I would call somebody to kill it, and after that I would have to see the dead spider in order to believe that it was no longer there. When I would see a spider at night, and I could not call anybody to kill it, I could not sleep all night. In those situations, I was psychologically lost."A fear of spiders is incredibly common and is otherwise known as arachnophobia. Eva decided to give hypnotherapy a try. Eva added:
“I do not know exactly what they did, but it definitely helped. Now when I see a spider, it does not bother me at all. My life is a lot easier.”Eva found hypnosis very relaxing and after a few hours of hypnosis, she was cured. Eva said of the hypnotherapy:
“You lay down, relax, and then go through a few different kinds of relaxation. When you finish, you have the feeling that the whole process took three minutes, but in reality it lasted an hour.”This description of hypnotherapy is pretty typical of most hypnosis clients. Hypnosis is a state of relaxation and hypnotherapy is when a hypnotherapist talks to you whilst you are in hypnosis to help you for some therapeutic purpose.
22/08/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
