Many people believe that the best course of action for those suffering from any sort of mental illness is to seek help from a psychologist or psychiatrist, or at the very least see a therapist. This may not be the case for all people though.
Traditionally, the reason people seek professional help is because they feel they have a mental problem that they cannot correct on their own, or others that know or love them see problems and suggest that professional help may be advisable. In these cases, people feel they have little recourse, so they do what they feel is expected of them, rather than what they think they should do.
As more and more information becomes available, however, more and more people are finding that there are alternatives available to them that aren’t generally made known.
One of these alternatives is home therapy, which is not really therapy at all; it’s more of a strategy for dealing with a mental illness, rather than trying to solve the problem through traditional therapies or medication. Home therapy is actually a very simple technique that has been shown to be effective for people with a bi-polar disorder, those with schizophrenia, functional autistics, and particularly with those suffering from dissociative disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD). In essence home therapy is where the person suffering from the mental illness is kept at home, pretty much around the clock, which in many cases necessitates a fulltime caregiver, which quite often is a family member. The person is urged to develop a set schedule whereby things are done in the same ways every day at the same time. The goal is to build a world around the affected person where nothing changes except minor things, such as which television shows are watched on which days. In addition, it has been shown that this type of structure only works if the affected person has someone they trust in the home with them, and preferably someone that loves them and vice versa. In many cases, when the care giver is actually the wife or girlfriend of the affected person, the results have been dramatic.
Other alternatives to traditional psychological help include homeopathic remedies, culturally specific therapies such as yoga or tai chi, and therapies that affected people use on their own, such as modifying their diet, exercise and their environment.
The truth is, very little of what is practiced by mental health professionals has been proven to be effective in treating mental illnesses, and quite often the goal is alleviating symptoms rather than treating the actual illness; thus, it is no wonder that so many alternative to professional help work as well if not better for people seeking relief.
