Hi, Most of the people I interviewed were prescribed medication by their psychiatrist. One person’s prescriber was an advanced nurse practitioner. No, I am not a medical doctor. I do not prescribe medication.
Hi Jolly Roger,
Sorry for any misunderstandings about how people were recruited to participate in my study. I contacted peer-led, peer supported groups asking for people who were interested in sharing their personal experiences with any medication/spiritual interactions. I also published a blog on MIA seeking volunteers. The goal of a qualitative study like mine is to understand how someone else is experiencing the world in regards to a particular topic. So I only asked people about experiences they had, I didn’t try to induce any particular experiences. Thank you for your comments and expanding the conversation.
Lynne
Thank you for your comment. Intrigued by the phrase ‘something greater than mere recovery’. Will keep up the work!
Lynne
Hi Jolly Roger, Thanks for your thoughts. My work doesn’t resonate with you. Ok.
Lynne
Hi Stephen,
I appreciate your comment because it points to what I found most surprising. When I started the project I presumed only that medication had been hindering to spirituality. The first person I interviewed told me the opposite, and I wasn’t prepared for it. thank you. Lynne
Great links Gretchen, thank you!
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your post, and expanding the conversation further. Something Clarissa Pinkola Estes once said came to mind as I read your comment, she said wisdom is what works…a thought which works for me. All my best to you both.
Lynne
Hi Gretchen,
I like hearing about your experience, the work you and your husband do, and the positive outcomes for people you know. Stories interest me, I need to look up Straight Ahead Ministries. Good things are on the move in small pockets. The community health center I work at is an amazing place where people get the unique care and support they desire. Thanks for sharing.
Good luck to you from me. things are getting better from what you say. thanks for your post.
I find this article encouraging, particularly the call for a new paradigm. You can pay someone to write a prescription, or do talk therapy, but you can’t pay someone to care.The most important thing you could give someone is your attention. You dont’ even have to understand them, you just have to care about what they’re saying. Relationships make the best medicine.
This is really wonderful–the melody and the message stays with you. I particularly like the harp playing! If you open mic in the Berkshires, it would be great to catch this live.
I just ordered a copy of this book and cant wait to read it. Lombard is wrestling with really interesting questions. I like that even as a neuroscientist, he says that what you find when you drill down and deconstruct suffering, is like sand slipping through your fingers. You cannot find pain’s meaning in its molecules, in its biological correlates… the meaning of suffering should be determined by the individual and is found in one’s narrative.
Hi Piers,
Thanks very much for your comments and your interest. Please forgive the delayed response. I had no idea about the history of dual diagnosis…good golly, to put it gently. The policies, politics and profits that shape our mental health system are at times, as backwards as the imagination can conceive…and then some. I support and value the work you are doing.
Best,
Lynne
Hi Kindredspirit,
I’m really grateful to hear about your experience, thank you for posting it.
Lynne
Hi JanCarol,
I really appreciate what you shared of your experiences in your post, The power of your descriptions and the way you explain things reaches deep, as does the entire conversation, and each perspective.
Thank you.
Lynne
Hi Matt,
Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply, as well as thank you to all of the comments. This is what my goal was, to include spirituality in the conversation around psychopharmacology.
MIA is central to it for me, because the idea to research this phenomenon was inspired by hearing Robert Whitaker speak in 2012, and reading Anatomy of an Epidemic.
You did not digress- all of your thoughts seem to relate to what I’ve been learning/researching. Some researchers see spirituality as a possible form or correlate of the placebo response…that they involve the same neural systems, and facilitate the same ‘top-down’ effects. Changes in our bodily and emotional states, invoked by what you call personal feelings/conceptions of medication. Kirsch’s work has really influenced my understandings.
What you write about beliefs, delusions, this resonates deeply with the findings of my study. ‘Explanatory frameworks’ was the term i employed to describe as a key mediating factor in the medication/spirituality relationship. As a qualitative researcher, I am narrowly interested in just this–lived experience, and how what people perceive and believe, shapes experience. Personally I am fascinated by the powers we have to self-heal…whether it’s provably true or not, believing certain things (there is a God up there intervening in our lives, we are not alone, a pill will cure me, etc.) can be deeply soothing to our bodies and minds.
I remember an old boyfriend, with serious depression, reminding me of the same thing, that his perceptions were more realistic than my own optimistic ones…at the time, how I longed to for him to be wrong, but nowadays…I’m more open to this.
Again, thank you.
Hello and thank you for your comments, I share your interests.
David,
Thank you for sharing your experiences, your good wishes and the link. I am grateful for and enriched by your thoughts here.
I will continue to think about the questions and ideas you have raised.
Hi, Most of the people I interviewed were prescribed medication by their psychiatrist. One person’s prescriber was an advanced nurse practitioner. No, I am not a medical doctor. I do not prescribe medication.
Hi Jolly Roger,
Sorry for any misunderstandings about how people were recruited to participate in my study. I contacted peer-led, peer supported groups asking for people who were interested in sharing their personal experiences with any medication/spiritual interactions. I also published a blog on MIA seeking volunteers. The goal of a qualitative study like mine is to understand how someone else is experiencing the world in regards to a particular topic. So I only asked people about experiences they had, I didn’t try to induce any particular experiences. Thank you for your comments and expanding the conversation.
Lynne
Thank you for your comment. Intrigued by the phrase ‘something greater than mere recovery’. Will keep up the work!
Lynne
Hi Jolly Roger, Thanks for your thoughts. My work doesn’t resonate with you. Ok.
Lynne
Hi Stephen,
I appreciate your comment because it points to what I found most surprising. When I started the project I presumed only that medication had been hindering to spirituality. The first person I interviewed told me the opposite, and I wasn’t prepared for it. thank you. Lynne
Great links Gretchen, thank you!
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your post, and expanding the conversation further. Something Clarissa Pinkola Estes once said came to mind as I read your comment, she said wisdom is what works…a thought which works for me. All my best to you both.
Lynne
Hi Gretchen,
I like hearing about your experience, the work you and your husband do, and the positive outcomes for people you know. Stories interest me, I need to look up Straight Ahead Ministries. Good things are on the move in small pockets. The community health center I work at is an amazing place where people get the unique care and support they desire. Thanks for sharing.
Good luck to you from me. things are getting better from what you say. thanks for your post.
I find this article encouraging, particularly the call for a new paradigm. You can pay someone to write a prescription, or do talk therapy, but you can’t pay someone to care.The most important thing you could give someone is your attention. You dont’ even have to understand them, you just have to care about what they’re saying. Relationships make the best medicine.
This is really wonderful–the melody and the message stays with you. I particularly like the harp playing! If you open mic in the Berkshires, it would be great to catch this live.
I just ordered a copy of this book and cant wait to read it. Lombard is wrestling with really interesting questions. I like that even as a neuroscientist, he says that what you find when you drill down and deconstruct suffering, is like sand slipping through your fingers. You cannot find pain’s meaning in its molecules, in its biological correlates… the meaning of suffering should be determined by the individual and is found in one’s narrative.
Hi Piers,
Thanks very much for your comments and your interest. Please forgive the delayed response. I had no idea about the history of dual diagnosis…good golly, to put it gently. The policies, politics and profits that shape our mental health system are at times, as backwards as the imagination can conceive…and then some. I support and value the work you are doing.
Best,
Lynne
Hi Kindredspirit,
I’m really grateful to hear about your experience, thank you for posting it.
Lynne
Hi JanCarol,
I really appreciate what you shared of your experiences in your post, The power of your descriptions and the way you explain things reaches deep, as does the entire conversation, and each perspective.
Thank you.
Lynne
Hi Matt,
Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply, as well as thank you to all of the comments. This is what my goal was, to include spirituality in the conversation around psychopharmacology.
MIA is central to it for me, because the idea to research this phenomenon was inspired by hearing Robert Whitaker speak in 2012, and reading Anatomy of an Epidemic.
You did not digress- all of your thoughts seem to relate to what I’ve been learning/researching. Some researchers see spirituality as a possible form or correlate of the placebo response…that they involve the same neural systems, and facilitate the same ‘top-down’ effects. Changes in our bodily and emotional states, invoked by what you call personal feelings/conceptions of medication. Kirsch’s work has really influenced my understandings.
What you write about beliefs, delusions, this resonates deeply with the findings of my study. ‘Explanatory frameworks’ was the term i employed to describe as a key mediating factor in the medication/spirituality relationship. As a qualitative researcher, I am narrowly interested in just this–lived experience, and how what people perceive and believe, shapes experience. Personally I am fascinated by the powers we have to self-heal…whether it’s provably true or not, believing certain things (there is a God up there intervening in our lives, we are not alone, a pill will cure me, etc.) can be deeply soothing to our bodies and minds.
I remember an old boyfriend, with serious depression, reminding me of the same thing, that his perceptions were more realistic than my own optimistic ones…at the time, how I longed to for him to be wrong, but nowadays…I’m more open to this.
Again, thank you.
Hello and thank you for your comments, I share your interests.
David,
Thank you for sharing your experiences, your good wishes and the link. I am grateful for and enriched by your thoughts here.
I will continue to think about the questions and ideas you have raised.
Warm Regards,
Lynne