291 -Transtheoretical and Transdiagnostic Approaches to Recovery | Journey to Recovery 2nd Edition

Summary: This podcast episode is based on Journey to Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide to Recovery from Mental Health and Addiction Issues by Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes  Read it for free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes Executive Director, AllCEUs Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox & Happiness isn’t Brain Surgery Author: Journey to Recovery (2015) & Happiness Isn’t Brain Surgery (2017) To get on the pre-release list for Journey to Recovery 2nd Edition and a 50% discount on the digital version, please email support@allceus.com. Publication is expected at the end of October. Objectives ~ Identify the common symptoms for anxiety and depression-based disorders ~ Learn how a positive change in one area or symptom can have positive effects on all symptoms or areas. ~ Explore ~ The function of each of those symptoms ~ The potential causes of each of those symptoms ~ Interventions for each of those symptoms Review ~ Everything you feel, sense, think and do is caused by communication between your nerves with the help of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. ~ “Higher order” thinking is able to over-ride sensory input and tell us there is a threat when none exists, or that there isn’t a threat when there really is. ~ Think of your brain as a computer processor. It simply does what it is told, based on the information that it has. What are symptoms ~ Symptoms are your physical and emotional reactions to a threat. ~ Symptoms are designed to protect you. ~ They are not bad or good. They just are. ~ Instead of trying to make the symptom go away, it may help to: ~ Understand the function of them ~ Identify alternate, more helpful, ways to deal with the threat Transtheoretical and Transdiagnostic ~ Transtheoretical means approaching a person’s presenting issues/symptoms and considering emotional, cognitive, physical, interpersonal and environmental explanations for it. ~ Transdiagnostic means that many symptoms are common to multiple issues such as sleep changes, appetite changes, irritability, fatigue and lack of pleasure. ~ By examining the WHOLE person and not getting stuck on treating a particular diagnosis we are freed up to really address the individual’s issues Case ~ Sally is a 27 year old mother of 2 and presenting with ~ Lack of pleasure/apathy “blah” ~ Fatigue ~ Irritability ~ Weight gain ~ Sleeping difficulties (waking up a lot) ~ Feelings of guilt ~ Inability to concentrate and indecisiveness ~ Diagnosis Possibilities (some) ~ Depression ~ Anxiety ~ PTSD ~ PCOS ~ Hypothyroid ~ “Stress” (relationship or job) Lack of Pleasure ~ Form/Symptom ~ Lack of pleasure in most things, most days for a period of at least 2 weeks. ~ Cause ~ Neurochemical imbalance (insufficient dopamine, norepinephrine?) caused by: ~ Lack of sleep ~ Excessive stress ~ Drug or medication use ~ Hormone imbalances including thyroid problems Lack of Pleasure ~ Causes ~ HPA-Axis ~ Cortisol ~ Increased norepinepherine and glutamate ~ Reductions in ~ Estrogen ~ Testosterone ~ Serotonin ~ Increased anxiety and depression ~ Reduced melatonin ~ Impaired sleep Lack of Pleasure ~ Function ~ This is your body's way of ~ Signaling that there may be a problem ~ Conserving excitatory neurotransmitters for a “real” crisis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3182008/pdf/DialoguesClinNeurosci-13-263.pdf Post-traumatic stress disorder: the neurobiological impact of psychological trauma ~ Forcing you to address it. After all, nobody wants to be depressed for very long. Lack of Pleasure ~ How You Cope ~ Think back over a few times when you have been depressed, even if it was just for a few hours. ~ What did you do to help yourself feel better? ~ What makes the depression/lack of pleasure worse? ~ What can you do to prevent triggering your depression/lack of pleasure? ~ What changed this time that triggered the depression? Lack of Pleasure ~ Simple-ish Interventions ~ Don’t expect exhilaration, but try to do some things that make you mildly happy. ~ Get