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What Are The 3 Main Kinds Of Treatment For Mental Disorders
Mental health disorders, such as PTSD, Schizophrenia, chronic depression, or anxiety, affect how we think, feel, and behave. There are more than 200 types of mental illnesses. Symptoms of mental health disorders usually improve with treatment, which may include medication, psychotherapy, alternative therapies, hypnotherapy, or brain stimulation therapy.
A large percentage of Mental Health issues are easily cured and are only a temporary condition with the correct assessment, treatment, and support. Others are far more complex conditions stemming from traumatic events and can take years to work through. And some are incurable, where with the correct medications and treatment plans, they can be managed to a level that allows the person to live a relatively normal life.
What Conditions Are Best Treated With Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can be helpful in treating most mental health problems, including:
- Anxiety disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Phobias
- Panic disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Multiple Personality disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Chronic depression
What Can An Occupational Therapist Do For Mental Health
Occupational therapists provide strengths-based, behavioural-oriented, and goal-directed services to improve mental health and well-being. They can help people access personally relevant and valued roles in life.
Can Occupational Therapists Diagnose Mental Illness
The short answer is, No. Occupational Therapists are not qualified to diagnose individuals with conditions. Doctors and psychologists can diagnose individuals with conditions such as depression, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, Autism, ADHD, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc.
Occupational Therapists predominantly help their clients with implementing Mental Health Treatment Plans in the workplace.
NDIS Australia has Mental Health Occupational Therapists working with clients who have a diverse range of special needs.
Why Does Music Therapy Help With Mental Health
Music therapy is proven to help improve cognitive function, social communication skills, motor skills, emotional development, and overall quality of life. For those living with mental health illnesses, there is strong evidence supporting the benefits of music therapy as a treatment for depression, Alzheimer’s, and anxiety. Music is the universal language and has the potential to access and unlock regions of the brain other therapies cannot access. Music has the ability to heal and reduce stress and alter levels of depression instantly. The power of music on the brain is still in its infancy but shows unlimited promise for the future of Mental Health for everyone as an alternative therapy option.
Music therapy is the clinical use of music to accomplish individual goals like reducing stress, improving mood and self-expression, and accessing and tapping into repressed or forgotten memories. It is an evidence-based therapy well-established in the health community.
Music therapy experiences may include listening, singing, playing instruments, or composing music. Musical skills or talents are not required to participate. Even the most musically challenged person can appreciate the beauty of music and its ability to transcend all barriers. Music therapy helps everyone, even those without mental health issues, psychologically, emotionally, physically, spiritually, cognitively, and socially. However, its impact can be clearly seen for the benefits it possesses in those suffering from a Mental Health condition.
What To Know About Animal Therapy For Mental Health
Animal therapy, often called pet therapy, refers to the practice of using animals to help people with specific physical or mental health conditions. Animals may be trained to provide comfort, alert others if someone is about to enter a medical emergency situation, or is in danger, perform direct actions to help a person’s condition, and provide a sense of comfort and security when needed. It is a type of complementary or alternative therapy employed in conjunction with more traditional methods or as an alternative to traditional therapies. Ideally, pet therapy enhances other therapy treatments.
The type of animals used in pet therapy can vary greatly depending on the needs and conditions the person has, the type of animal chosen, and what kind of therapy assistance they provide. Animal-assisted therapy aims to alleviate or help people cope and live autonomous lives with challenging conditions. Everything from assisting the blind with service Guide Dogs to working with ex-war veterans suffering from PTSD and anxiety disorders.
Pet therapy is also used to treat children and adults born with chromosome abnormalities such as Cerebral Palsy, Mental handicaps. The program has had tremendous success working to assist with healing childhood trauma and physical abuse forced on innocent victims.
Animal therapy builds on the concept of forming a human-animal bond, embodying the desire to interact with and relate to the pet therapy animal. For many people, interacting with a friendly animal can form a loving and caring bond that allows them to nurture the animal and express their love and compassion without being judged, ridiculed, or abused.
This form of bonding might not be available to them with other people as a result of a past traumatic experience at the hands and will of other people, forced upon them. Being able to express their love, compassion, and kindness with their companion animal has a two-fold benefit. The animal is well taken care of and loved deeply. The person has a living entity in their life they can trust and care for. That removes the barrier of pain, loneliness, and isolation that comes from not being part of society in what is considered a normal manner.
What Are The Top 3 Animals Used As Therapy Animals
- Dogs are the most common therapy animal.
- Horses come in second.
- Guinea pigs, fish, cats, and rabbits also play a lesser but equally impactful role.
Therapy animals are not the same as service animals like Guide Dogs or Physical Assistance Dogs, although service animals by nature do embody the same effects and benefits received in pet therapy.
The major difference between the two therapies is that Service dogs are owned by the people they provide the service for. Pet therapy is exposure to the pet therapy animals, but people may not, for a range of reasons, be able to take of or keep pets on a full-time basis through a range of factors like financial restrictions and lack of suitable housing for the animal of choice. Anyone who has ever owned a horse knows that they eat a lot, poop a lot, and cost a lot to maintain and move.
Positive Benefits Of Pet Therapy
- Less agitation and reduced volatility
- Reduced levels of depression and anxiety
- Lower levels of loneliness and boredom
- Improved moods and positive outlook on their life and situation
- Improved cognitive function and mental flexibility
- Improved interactions with other people
- Establishes routines and consistency
Does Yoga Help In Improving Mental Disorders
Any form of exercise has positive mental health benefits and effects. Movement and physical motion force the brain to focus on the exercise to a large degree, and that focus stops the individual from dwelling on anything but the task. Some exercises are better for reducing pent-up anger and energy, while others focus on the mind, breathing, and relaxation. Yoga is one practice that has been shown to improve mental health and dates back thousands of years as a practice across the globe and in multiple cultures in some format.
Yoga’s incorporation of meditation and deep breathing improves a person’s mental well-being and allows them to open their chakras. Routinely practised yoga, or meditation alone, creates mental clarity and calmness, quiets an overthinking mind, and increases body and spiritual awareness. It has also been proven to reduce and remove chronic stress.
Another benefit of yoga and meditation is opening the crown chakra, allowing for heightened intuition and self-acceptance, and opening the portal for individual psychic abilities to manifest.
Yoga is quite a complex system and requires a good instructor to set you up with the right techniques and exercises to perform. The range of yoga positions is best left to the experts. Click on the hyperlink for a more detailed overview of what yoga poses might help you with your mental health. Finding your instructor to teach them to you is another matter!
