the health providers wanting to know more about resources for integrative models of effective care. “Integrative” implies that treatment programs are woven together from the most effective treatments available, including psychological, and spiritual—not just biochemical. You will find information in these pages in a language that is straightforward and accessible.
Readers interested in studying the history, philosophy and the practical applications of the spiritual side of mental health--please refer to Spiritism and Mental Health (2012). This groundbreaking book, a collaboration of health professionals in Brazil, the United States, and Britain, describes the way in which Brazilian Spiritists view the origin and treatment of mental health issues, as well as the way Spiritist treatments are used outside Brazil. The book you are now reading is a companion book—offering practical resources to a general audience.
Why is the phrase “extraordinary healing” in the title? Today, the most typical or “ordinary” treatment for mental disturbance in the USA today is psychiatric medication. The resources for healing that we describe here are out-of-the-ordinary treatments, primarily involving psychosocial and spiritual protocols, as well as nutritional supplementation and bioenergy work (e.g., acupuncture, Reiki). These are considered complementary to what conventional medicine offers, and they fit well into an integrative medical treatment plan. These treatments can help lead to complete remission of all symptoms of serious mental illness (aka recovery), and even an extraordinary life of being a healer or peer counselor for others. In contrast, psychiatric medication is often considered part of a life-long maintenance program that manages symptoms, that may be debilitating in the long run because of negative side effects, and that cannot heal mental illness.
An attractive, young woman, whom I’ll call “Gerry,” illustrates the need for this book. In her late 20s, when she was in graduate school, she became overly stressed out. She was working with teenagers at risk, and, as she wrote me, “I was taking on a lot of their stuff energetically.” She also had a knee injury that happened while she was in training for a marathon, and she was breaking up with a man whom she had been living with who was a heavy smoker of marijuana. (Gerry was consistently in rooms where he was smoking, but she did not smoke and drank alcohol only moderately.) The stresses in Gerry’s life threw her into an extreme state, in which she lost not only her inhibitions but her rational thinking. One night she walked alone in her pajamas through a city park in the middle of the night, interacting with people she found there. The police found her, and took her to a psychiatric ward. She was diagnosed as “psychotic,” given antipsychotic medication, and kept in the hospital for observation.
Gerry’s parents, terribly upset by the situation, tried to come to terms with Gerry’s condition. They were asking themselves: “Does she need hospitalization? Does she deserve the diagnostic label she was getting? Is she truly “psychotic,” “manic,” or “bipolar” as the psychiatrists led them to believe? What do those labels mean? Would she be this way for the rest of her life? What does she need? Will she be living with us for the rest of our lives, completely dependent on us, or need to be institutionalized?” These questions beset most parents in their situation.
As a consequence of her hospitalization and the psychiatric assessment, Gerry moved back home to live with her parents and began consulting a psychiatrist once a week. He advised her regarding the psychiatric drugs he thought she needed to take. He also noticed that she was having unusual experiences of a psychic nature. At times, he questioned if she needed antipsychotics all the time, or periodically. Gerry did not like the side effects of the drugs: weight gain, fatigue, lack of clear thinking, and lack of motivation. She was frightened to think about what she had done, and how she had upset her parents. Her self-confidence had plummeted around her hospitalization and the stigma of being “mentally ill,” but Gerry still expressed a desire to be pro-active and explore alternatives to treat her condition. Her parents also felt Gerry was not doing well on the antipsychotics, and they were open to other forms of treatment.
In 2007, I was called by Gerry’s parents to advise them. As a result, I was able to be with Gerry and participate in the healing she experienced in Brazil with Spiritist treatments and able to stay in touch with the work she received through an acupuncturist and an orthomolecular psychiatrist closer to her home in the USA after she returned from Brazil. Gerry had the courage to confront the depths of her illness, practice meditation and prayer, and make life style choices that would keep her out of harm’s way and support a more balanced life. She is now (mid-2011) managing life on her own in her own apartment, planning her wedding with her fiancé, and is on her way back to graduate school without the need of using any psychiatric medications. Gerry’s story in particular made me aware of the challenges patients and their families are now facing when given labels of serious mental illness and prognoses that are unduly negative.
In Gerry’s case, what made her ill were poor life-style choices, and a hyper-sensitivity to alcohol and recreational drugs—not unusual for people in their teens and twenties. Psychiatric drugs were not healing in the long term, but were helpful in the short term, when Gerry was especially disoriented and confused and needed rest. Her recovery was facilitated by empathy, encouragement, a caring family that took time with her to be supportive, health professionals who spent time with her (in addition to their techniques and assessments), a kind employer who allowed her time off for rehabilitation, and teachers who helped educate her about lifestyle choices. What Gerry needed from herself was a steady motivation to change, discipline with food intake, adequate rest, and choosing friends who could be positive influences in her life.
More details of Gerry’s story are woven throughout this book.
Mythologies and Cultural Biases
A problem that must be faced in a mental health crisis is our lack of understanding about the origin of mental illness. Ideas about the causes vary from culture to culture (Watters, 2010), but the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is gaining more influence throughout the world and is overriding the perspectives of other cultures—even when those other cultures have been more successful in treating serious mental disorders than we have been. The DSM tends to perceive serious mental illness as mainly a medical issue, with psychiatric drugs as the central treatment. This is regarded as superior to theories that mental illness has other roots—such as spiritual problems or previous trauma—and thus needs a different kind of treatment.
A 1992 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) notes that schizophrenic people in third-world countries who receive only modest amounts of psychiatric medications fare better than those with serious mental illness in developed countries treated primarily with psychiatric medications. Thoughtful people still wonder: are medications really helping us? And, what is the universal cause of serious mental illnesses that transcends cultural biases? We still don’t know for certain, as is readily admitted by top authorities in psychiatry. In his 1999 Mental Health Report, US Surgeon General Satcher wrote, “The precise causes [etiology] of mental disorders are not known.”
Yes, it is easy to understand that many emotional crises (i.e., not longer lasting imbalances) are set off by particular circumstances related to loss of a loved one, loss of health, a financial mishap, a break-up of a close relationship or trauma. This psycho-social understanding is true across all cultures. Most, if not all, people understand that what helps most in getting through these “high seas” is time to rest, re-evaluate, and re-map our plans for navigating life within a supportive network of close friends or family, and possibly a psychotherapist. In time, the high wave passes, the seas grow calmer, and navigation is less stressful. Short-term use of medication (for a few days), to ease sleeping or allay anxiety, can be especially useful during these situations.
But what about serious mental illnesses that have a longer course than emotional crises? North Americans treat
