A new article published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being finds that times of crisis often result in a shattered sense of self and relational challenges that can complicate crisis care. The authors suggest recovery might be better supported with an approach to crisis care that emphasizes safety and the connection of mind and body.
As more individuals seek help in hospital emergency departments for emotional and mental distress, it is essential to understand the complexities of mental health crises and how to respond effectively. While recent perspectives have framed mental health crises as inherently harmful and linked to psychiatric diagnoses, a new study challenges this view, reframing crises as both disruptive and transformativeāan approach that can foster greater empathy and hope. In their new phenomenological study, Helena Roennfeldt and her colleagues from the University of Melbourne explore the lived experiences of mental health crises. They write:
āThis study has emphasized the meaningfulness of the sensory experiences associated with a crisis. The emotional, physical, and cognitive elements were significant and in parallel to loss of self and feeling disconnected. These feelings were entwined and experienced as overwhelming, resulting in feelings of suicide. Given the centrality of overwhelming emotions to the crisis experience, crisis services that provide physical and emotional safety through therapeutic connection and somatic approaches may better support recovery. Similarly, holistic approaches that see a crisis as a meaningful experience and as something to be acknowledged and explored may also offer longer-term benefits by letting people discover meaning and opportunities to reconstruct their sense of self and place in the world.ā
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“A new article…finds that times of crisis often result in a shattered sense of self and relational challenges…The authors suggest recovery might be better supported with an approach to crisis care that emphasizes safety and the connection of mind and body.” I see. So the crisis ridden world is falling apart and you have an approach that emphasizes safety. That’s a recipe for delusion and duality. I’ll just walk around with a saucepan on my head saying “everything is fine” while prostitutes are throwing up in doorways, children are jacking up on the sidewalk, and nuclear warheads are heading over from Pyongyang. Give me a break lady. And a connection between mind and body is probably not what you really want when there is starvation in America because the country has descended into civil war and only those with guns and Christian white nationalist right-wing tendencies get to eat. If I were you I’d vacuum pack my brain and and let us keep it for when armageddon strikes so at least one poor bugger can have a nutritious meal. We’ll tell them it’s chicken brains.
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