fleurette
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
3282 Posts Gratitude: 292
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Posted - 09/05/2014 : 08:48:31
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I am taking part in this study to see if Megnacognitive Therapy can help with the symptoms of my diagnosis. So far we are learning Attibution Styles, Blame Game, Facial expression reading, and other topics that I cannot remember right now. I am doubtful that it will help with my symptoms but I am learning to deal with my illness using these techniques. Some of the classes are more appropriate for me since I often fear people are laughing at me and sometimes I feel stressed out after sharing in the class because even though we are not supposed to share what others have shared outside the class I get paranoid that they will laugh about my problems behind my back.
There are 6 more weeks to the class then they will do a midterm assessment to see if it has helped my working memory and other verbal fluency testing.
Cheers,
fleurette |
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fleurette
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
3282 Posts Gratitude: 292
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Posted - 09/13/2014 : 13:14:45
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This past lesson we learned about empathizing.
Studies show that many people with psychiatric problems (especially psychosis) have problem with 1. difficulties detecting and evaluation the facial expression of others 2. Difficulties deducing the motives or future activities of other people from ongoing behaviour.
My notes says that: How problems with recognizing emotions promote misinterpretations during psychosis- examples: Feelings of anxiety and panic prevent an objective assessment of other people of situations
For example: encouraging words from your friends are not believed.
Understanding smile of the doctor is perceived as a grimace.
A nervous face of a commuter on the bus is misinterpreted to be a warning (e.g. coming assault)
So for our learning Objectives:
1. We should only draw firm conclusions about another person if you know the person well or if you have watched the person closely.
2. Facial expression and gesture are important clues to what a person feels but can be misleading at times.
When evaluating complex situations, it is crucial to consider all available information.
The more information that is considered , the more likely a correct judgement.
For my homework, I have to think of three examples where there where situations and or body language that I may have misinterpreted.
For me 1. My brother signs all the time and I misinterpret that is his frustration towards me. But it is actually his own frustrations.
2. At the gym, I mis-read that someone was scowling at me, now that I look back at the situation , I realize that she was just nonchalantly looking around the room when she was bored.
The third example I won't share with you all but I have done my home work.
Hopes this helps some of you understand what Metacognitive Training is like.
Cheers,
fleurette |
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fleurette
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
3282 Posts Gratitude: 292
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Posted - 10/02/2014 : 16:25:37
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Hi everyone,
Today we learned about how to empathize...
For those of us with sz we may have difficulties detecting and evaluating the facial expressions of others or deducing the motives/future activities of other people from ongoing behaviour.
I notice that this is true of me because no matter how supportive and caring my mom and brother are I question their motives and wonder if they are talking about me behind my back. I just cannot always trust that their motives are pure.
Examples of anxiety and panic and how it can prevent an objective assessment of people or situations are that encouraging words from your friends are not believed. Sometimes we may see the doctors understanding smile as a grimace.
I know I have told my pdoc not to empathize so much with me because I cannot tolerate his facial expression of concern. It just looks so fake to me.
Another example of this is when a nervous face of a commuter on the bus is misinterpreted to be a unfriendly gesture.
We had one lady share in our group that once, she left the bus because a guy was smiling at her and she was so creeped out that she left at the next stop.
At other times we overvalue the body language of others. When I was really psychotic I would read into the body language of each person walking by. I could almost feel like I could tell that they didn't like me although each person was just doing their own thing with nothing outstanding about their body language. It was all in my mind.
So to conclude what I learned was that you should only base your firm conclusion if you know the person well or if you have watched them closely.
The more information that is considered the more likely a correct judgement is made.
That's all I can think of to summerize todays lesson.
Sorry I haven't been posting about each class. I need some time to absorb the information then type it out again for you to read.
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fleurette
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
3282 Posts Gratitude: 292
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Posted - 10/16/2014 : 21:24:51
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Today in class, I learned about how people with our diagnosis show thinking distortions that may promote depression. They claim that these thinking distortions can be changed through intensive and continuous thinking.
Difficult and traumatic life events can promote a negative self-image in us. But they say that depression is not an irreversible fate.
Thus we use cognitive restructuring regularly over and over a longer time period to change the negative self-image and negative thoughts will take place less often.
Some examples that were used in the class were of exaggerated generalizations and we were to find our own examples.
For example: 1. Once I did not know a foreign word that everybody else knew.
2. The depressive appraisal is that I am really stupid.
3. The helpful appraisal is I know other things the others are more familiar with the topic, because they are constantly dealing with it.
The Learning Objectives from this last class is that there is a difference between how I judge myself and how others judge me. If I consider myself worthless, ugly etc, others do not necessarily share this view. They explained that there are often multiple opinions/judgments/preferences. Others may not agree, with my understanding of intelligence or looks,etc.
An example of Catastrophic thinking is: 1. A friend of mind did not call on the arranged date.
2. The depressive appraisal is "He does not like me any longer, he would not treat other friends the same way."
3. The helpful evaluation is maybe something has come up; sometimes I also forget things.
The class thought us that every evening a practical thing to do to increase self esteem and decrease negative thinking thus depressive thoughts is to note a few things that were positive on the day and then go through these things in your mind.
Accept compliments and write them down to use these resources when times are tough.
Another thing you can do is to visualize and remember situations in which you felt really goot, try to remember these with all your senses (visual, feeling , smelling...) Perhaps with the help of a photo album.
Do things with others when you are depressed helps. E.g. movies or go to a café. Lastly to deal with depression, exercise at least 20 minutes a day- if you are really depressed even a walk around the block is a first step.
And also listening to your favorite music which we share on this community can alleviate depression.
Those are the main points that I took away from todays lesson on Self-Esteem and Mood.
Nothing really new but to have it all in one place reminds me to do these self care techniques and I have a tool to use when I get really depressed or am starting to get depressed.
Thanks for reading.
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