Reverse Thinking

Four main causes of depression - and what to do about them

The first month of 2011 has come and gone and the statistics show that January is the most 'depressing' month, in that more people will seek help for depression than at any other time of the year. As it happens, I have been more than usually busy with depressed clients since the New Year came on; a fact which prompts me to write this article.

First, lets be clear about what clinical depression really is.

In my view, many of the people who are diagnosed by their GP as having depression are not, in fact, clinically depressed at all. Instead, they could be sad, fed up with life, or unhappy. This is one reason why anti-depressants don't work for the majority. Anti-depressant drugs such as the SSRIs - which increase the amount of serotonin in circulation in the brain - will only work, obviously, if the patient has serotonin depletion, which will only be the case if they actually have clinical depression.

Whether you are depressed, sad, fed up, or unhappy, this article will still apply to you.

Here are the four main causes:

1. Prolonged anxiety caused by negative Headmind thinking.

I have covered this problem extensively in previous articles on this blog such as this one here. If you are a habitual worrier, perfectionist, or guilt-tripper then, on a daily basis, your body will become accustomed to very high anxiety levels. Since Bodymind cannot tolerate over-arousal for too long, it will seek to reduce the problem by damping down the system. Typically, this means reducing serotonin (which elevates mood), which leads to the symptoms of clinical depression. In this respect it has been estimated that over 70% of depressed people also have high anxiety levels.

The solution is to change the way Headmind works.

    You can find out how to eliminate worry here.

    You can find out how to eliminate perfectionism here.

    You can find out how to eliminate guilt here.

    You can also find out how to reduce anxiety, without drugs, here.

 2. The person has developed a 'hopeless' mind-set

This problem is typically developed by over-conscientious people who have not learnt how to say 'No' or recognise their limitations. The result is that they take on far too many burdens, obligations and responsibilities. Or else they forget to take time out for themselves and keep that crucial work-life balance. One result is burnout (see here for advice on what to do about burnout). 

Depression occurs when personal Headmind reacts to overload by just giving up (a slightly weird response, given that it was faulty thinking that gave rise to the problem in the first place). A common outcome is that the person turns into a victim of some kind.

The most common Headmind defect here is 'Failure thinking', which ignores realistic solutions on what to do about overload and, instead, magnifies problems, concludes that there is nothing that can be done about them, and triggers anxiety with the thought that disaster is inevitable. This leads to first anxiety and then to the 'damping down' response I described in the previous item.

The solution is to develop a solution-focused, or problem-solving approach to problems. I am in the middle of writing a series on this so please check back for articles on 'success thinking'.

3. The person has lost her passion for life.

People who have become disillusioned do so as a result of trauma of some kind: the death of someone close, break-up, or departure. Or betrayal, or rejection, by someone they once trusted. Or the usual disasters which befall all of us from time to time but which setbacks the ego will not accept.

In other cases, the depressed person has simply got confused and lost his way. This could be because he has become addicted to trivialities - newspapers, games, television,  the social round, internet-surfing, etc. Or is stuck in routine in which one day is more or less like the next, and which becomes a kind of living death. Once Bodymind sees what is happening here it starts to release copious amounts of the emotions known as boredom and frustration. But here is what is strange: when some people notice they are bored they don't do anything about it. Instead, they read boredom as another sign that life is hopeless. So they stagnate, more and more.

The solution is to reconnect to Bodymind and your passion. 

You can find out how to do that here by reading some of my previous articles on personal genius.

4. Headmind is blocking the release of strong emotions, such as anger and sadness.

I have touched on this problem in a previous article: Depression, the Brain, and Letting the Monster Out. A  build-up of unexpressed or unresolved emotion leads to a similar effect as chronic anxiety: a dangerous level of over-arousal. Once again, Bodymind tends to counter-act this problem by reducing serotonin. 

The solution is to find a way to release those emotions. 

You can find out more about developing emotional honesty here.

If you are not depressed right now but you think you might be going that way, then you can find out more about how to stay out of depression here.

Contrary to common belief many people do find a way to improve their mental health without needing to consult a psychotherapist and many of the articles on here show you how to do just that. But if you do need assistance then you can contact us over on the Reverse Therapy website.

Image by pinksherbet 

How Reverse Therapy became a cure for Psoriasis

I received this report from a regular reader of this blog the other week who would like to share his experience of Reverse Therapy with other readers:

"Everyone likes a scratch but on the evening of December 18^th 2008, my scratching became so bad my legs started to bleed.

Like many busy people stuck in Headmind I put off dealing with my health problems and hoped they would go away of their own accord. I left the next day for a two-week vacation in the Middle East but when I got back the itching had spread and my legs were covered in sores. I went to the GP who informed me that I had Psoriasis. I had heard of it but did not know much about it. He explained that it was caused by the body replacing the skin cells in days rather than weeks, leaving red sores and silvery skin flakes behind. He gave me a prescription for some cream but it was not effective and, over the next few months, the psoriasis spread to other parts of my body.

I went back to the doctor and explained that the condition was worse and he prescribed a stronger cream. Over the four months I had been unwell I had made some notes which I relayed on to him. I said: 'I notice that when I am barefoot at home at the weekends the problem is not as bad'. The GP said: 'Yes, try leaving your feet exposed to the fresh air'. I said:  'I also notice that using the sun bed helps'. He said:  'Yes, even though we normally don’t recommend use of sun beds in your case it could help'. I said: 'I also notice that when I exercise on a regular basis it tends to be less of a problem'. He said: 'Yes, exercise is a good idea'. I sat there for a few seconds and my first thought was: 'why is he just repeating my ideas back to me?' My second thought was: 'And if this is correct, then why didn't he tell me four months ago?'. At any rate, I paid no further visits to that quarter.

The new cream failed to work and, by now, the psoriasis was visible to other people. It showed on my hands, my arms, my upper body and even on my face. It was so bad I was having difficulty sleeping because it itched so much, and then it bled so badly that it became ugly to look at. It created piles of white, flakey, dust; the dead skin that was being shed at an ever-faster rate each day. I felt terrible about having this illness and it made me quite depressed. The worse it got the more worried I became and when I read reports on the internet about people who had had it all their lives I started to despair that I would never get rid of it.

I had been familiar with Reverse Therapy for a few years, as I had studied it under John Eaton in 2006, although I have never practiced. Neither had I connected my knowledge of Bodymind to the causes of my own condition. And nor had I realised that the cure had been in my own hands all the time.

A good friend of mine, a practitioner of Reverse Therapy, gave me the wake-up call, when she told me:

'Have you worked out, yet, what your body is trying to warn you about when it  creates those symptoms in your skin?'

In that moment, I instantly knew the answer to that question. But it was not an answer I particularly liked admitting to myself.

Two years before I formed a relationship with what I thought was a very sweet woman with a beautiful 2-year old daughter. I quickly fell in love with her and formed a very strong connection with the child.

My partner told me that she was separated and awaiting a divorce. Later on, I found out that this was not true; that her husband was, in fact, away working in the United States and she was in regular contact with him and there were no real plans to get a divorce. Later, I was told that he had 'not been nice to her' and had deserted her and the baby.

I was reluctant to get involved in such a complex situation but found myself drawn in. I felt great compassion for the woman and her little girl, who seemed to be the innocent parties in this, and set about helping them. Her economic situation was very bad, as she was effectively a single mother and had no job, with the additional burden of looking after a child on her own, without help or financial support from anyone. For a while we were happy and my partner and the little girl lived with with me for part of the week.

All this came to a sudden end when her husband came back from the United States and told her he wanted to resume the marriage. She decided to go back to him. The main reason, she told me, was that the little girl needed to be with her father. This was very distressing for me, as I learnt, also, that I would be unable to have contact with her daughter any more. I told her that, under those conditions, it was too painful for me to have any further contact with her and I should be left in peace to get on with my life. 

From there on, I received regular emails, texts and phone calls from her pleading for money. It turned out the husband was out of work (I discovered this had been the case for years) and was, in fact a kind of play-boy. She would beg me for money for food, gas, electricity, petrol, baby clothes and, even, spending money. Feeling sorry for her and the child, I regularly gave in although I knew, at some level, that much of that money was going into her husband's pockets.

During all the months that this went on my Psoriasis appeared. I had failed to connect to my emotions over the way in which I was being used, and my frustration at being caught in a trap: feeling responsible for the child and yet being manipulated.

The Psoriasis symptoms were my body's way of alerting me to the fact that I needed to disengage from the banana about having to be a martyr; re-assert the boundaries around me; and change the way in which I was helping the child. But my personal Headmind had ignored these emotions and possibilities because it was over-involved with the ego-position of 'powerful man' and 'helper' (I am an Enneagram 8 doing quite a lot of work on the 2 position).

Once I gave up communicating from the ego, relinquished the banana about having to be a saviour, and stopped being a victim, things started to change for the better. I told my ex-partner not to contact me any more. I told her I would pay for the child's nursery fees and this would come direct from my bank account. The money she saved on nursery fees she could use to feed and clothe her. But I would not be responsible for either her or her husband.

Within days the pain had gone and, slowly, my skin went back to normal; without any medication whatever. But, just as I was thinking I was over the worse, a test of my new-found integrity came the following week when my ex-partner called to ask if she could borrow my car as she wanted to take her husband on holiday. I refused point blank.

Seven days after that the psoriasis disappeared completely. My close family and friends were astounded at the speed at which it disappeared knowing, as they did, the history of my condition and how I was using an alternative to medicine to treat it.

If it were not for Reverse Therapy I would still be suffering from this terrible disease. It is possible that my personal Bodymind might have used yet more symptoms in order to force me to change. In looking back at the temporary relief I experienced when I used the cream or the sun-bed I now realise that this was the equivalent of painting over a crack in the ceiling when water was gushing in from upstairs. It was only when I addressed the deeper cause, saw through the Headmind camouflage about my motives, dared to connect to my emotions, and acted on the symptom-message that I achieved the break-through. In doing so I felt, intuitively, that Bodymind was relieved that I had 'gotten it' and, with one small exception (see below) I have not received any further symptoms over the past two years.

Post Script.

A few weeks ago I again ran into my ex-partner by chance in the street. I was polite and chatty and must have given her the wrong impression as she started texting me again, giving out heavy hints that she would soon be needing more 'help'. A few days after digesting these messages, I noticed that my legs had started itching again: a signal for me to tell her (politely) not to text me any more. Bodymind is ever vigilant and will be quick to remind me to protect myself against people who seek to take advantage of my generosity. Naturally, this experience has taught me a lot more about how Bodymind works, and how Headmind and the Ego lead me astray. I am very fortunate that Reverse Therapy saved me from years of pain and I tell this story in order to help other people avoid the same fate."

Recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

This is a reprise of an email session I held with a client two years ago. I have edited some details to preserve anonymity. She had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for six years and is well now.

The aim is to give anyone with M.E/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome some thoughts on how to get well. And, of course, any of our clients in Reverse Therapy out there can learn from this too.

Client: During my second appointment with you last month I had difficulties in saying what I needed which you helped me to overcome by teaching me how to put things into words. I told you I was confused with what you were telling me and that I did not understand. You told me to establish contact with my Bodymind and I felt relieved. I think there is a lot of fear inside me. Fear of staying ill, fear of not being able to succeed with Reverse Therapy.

My comment: It is important to distinguish between Headmind worry and Bodymind fear. Bodymind sends you a fear emotion when it notices that you are vulnerable in some way – in order to encourage you to express your need for help and support, and take small steps to raise your confidence in that situation. Your Headmind worries about not being able to get well and not being able to do Reverse Therapy. This is natural but unhelpful. It is important not to give any time to these worries. Instead, do something like this:

• Go into your Body
• Remind yourself that you know how to be well
• Spend a little time in your body deciding what feels good to do next about your messages and go and do that straight away

Client: This is all Headmind stuff, I know, but fear is somewhere stuck deep in my cells. One day, soon after my first Reverse Therapy session I was in a meditation group – and we were guided to recall our most important event over the summer. I “went” to my first session with you while I was in a deep state of contemplation and I felt – very strongly and clearly – how something was “melting down inside” as tears were rolling down my face and this was helping my recovery. I was impressed when this “something” that I was feeling so clearly deep inside me came out as “fear”. That fear I felt at that time when I was recalling the first RT session was deep in my body and the whole process of retrieving that RT session while in a meditative state was helping a lot in letting it go.

My comment: This is good work! You may indeed have become vulnerable and your Body created fear to remind you to be gentle on yourself and take good care. There is no need to let go of fear – just honour it and act on it.

Client: Is this fear – which I’m not generally aware of – a fear that my Bodymind developed when I was under a lot of stress, specially when I had glandular fever and I kept working under stress, without resting? Is this fear misinterpreted by Headmind and leads me to be afraid of not being able to recover?

My comment: See above. But Headmind stuff will be worry rather than fear.

Client: One of my concerns is my need – I guess a Headmind demand to “understand”. Which probably comes from a need to control. So I spend too much time in my Head. Although I am learning that when I am living in the moment, in Bodymind, I feel at peace. But the thing is that I live in a world that is run by Headminds!

My comment: Yes – it is about ‘unlearning’ the Headmind habits and conditioning you received through unbalanced education. Reverse Therapy is a discipline (like meditation) which needs to be practiced every day until it becomes more natural to stay in the moment and let go of Headmind’s need to explain, worry and control. We have to acknowledge that the world is mostly run by ‘Headminds’ but that doesn’t mean we have to play that game any more

Client: Getting onto the more practical aspects of doing Reverse Therapy, I am not keeping the journal up to date. Nor am I planning activities. I have never been good at organizing my time. And having spent 4 years without working has not helped me much in that.

My comment: OK – let’s not make the Journal into a burden for you. It is only used to help you remember the discipline of noticing your symptoms, acting on the messages, and noticing what happens to the symptoms. But if it has become another Headmind chore for you then let’s drop it for now.

Client: I am now trying to do more things I enjoy – like visiting friends, arranging dinner-parties, shopping, and the like. And I have had fun, and people who knew me before the illness have mentioned to me how much more energy I have. It shows in the way I talk, in how I am with people, and in the joy I have in doing things. Just as an illustration, the other day, over a dinner with a group of friends, I told a joke – a long one! And I realized when I was about to start that it was the first time I had done that for more than 4 years! 

My comment: Very good! Please do more of this as your Body clearly enjoys being with your friends. Interestingly, it has been established that laughter is a sure way to enable Bodymind to release endorphins, which both reduce symptoms and confirm that you are on the right path towards recovery.

Client: Yet a couple of hours before we all met for dinner I had symptoms. My energy level was very low, I was feeling sick and I just wanted to lie down. There was kind of a “fight” inside me and finally I won through the faith I have in you. My Headmind could not get that something other than lying down could help me in that situation. But I trusted Reverse Therapy and I did what I was told to do in these situations. I regained confidence and energy started to come back. The problem was my partner was late getting back from work and we were going to be late for dinner. After getting into Bodymind and reading the message I started to act with serenity and coped with the situation. The dinner went great!

My comment: Excellent! You really let go of that Headmind trap there!

Client: Next day, we had a lunch at home with a friend. I woke up very tired and thinking I could not be able to manage it. I was feeling sick again. Headmind telling me it was because I had done too much the day before (although I didn’t believe it). We normally do things at the last minute and my Body was probably telling me to slow down. After reading my message I calmed down and I decided to take it easy and got on with other things. It was like I was expressing my needs to myself. It worked well. We both enjoyed having lunch with our friend and we had a wonderful time.

My comment. Hmmmm. Might be an idea to get together with your partner and look at some ways for you both to have more time to get ready.

Client: One of the things that concerns me a lot is my sleep. I seem to need to sleep forever. As a student, I always stayed up until late during exams and woke up late in the morning. When I was working, I always tended to stay late to do tasks that required more concentration. What is happening now is that, in the absence of any activity that requires me to be somewhere early, I tend to wake up very late in the morning, which gets me very restful but feeling quite useless.

My comment: I am afraid it does take time for your Body clock to get back to normal. It is important not to stay in bed too long but get on with activities you have planned for that day. Please also ensure that each week has a balance of early nights and late nights. Remember, your Body might be using morning fatigue to warn you that there is not much enjoyment available. Finally, watch out for Headmind and its yada-yada-yada about your being ‘useless’ because you have symptoms.

Client: The other main concern is about my poor skills in planning and organizing. As I told you, I have never been good at that, but now it’s even worse. Over the week I have few fixed activities, but I still struggle to get to them in time. And I have not yet learnt how to fill the gaps in between, unless I improve, which does not take me very far. I simply do not know how to design an activity schedule. I feel quite frustrated and helpless about that, especially now that I realized how important it is for my recovery,

My comment: Can you not get your partner or a friend to help you do this? Otherwise we can work on it together when you next see me.

Client: Something else I wish to tell you is that I have put my hopes in Reverse Therapy and that I trust you. I think you are a very talented person and I feel very thankful to be able to get Reverse Therapy from you. I also get lots of confidence from reading the testimonials of people who have undertaken Reverse Therapy and have recovered. But my Headmind –here it is again – keeps damaging my hopes with doubts. One of them has to do with the apparent simplicity of the method. If Reverse Therapy is so simple then I think that what I have suffered during these years was “only in my mind”. I fought a lot during these years against the doctors who had no idea about this illness and who have even told me that I had nothing wrong with me. And when I asked them why I was feeling so ill they would shrug.

My comment. Your symptoms were certainly not all in your mind! Reverse Therapy is simple (although not always easy) but Headmind always wants it to be more complicated because it demands ‘explanations’ and intellectual control.

Client. Am I fearing recovery? Am I fearing that this is an underlying process that I cannot understand? I trust you, and I just want to be very honest with myself and to you, so I can help you to help me.

My comment. No – this is your Headmind daring not to believe that you can be totally well. Because all it has ever known for the last six years is pain, exhaustion and worry. The more days you have when your energy comes back and your symptoms go, then the easier it will be for Headmind to let go of the idea that you cannot get well.

Client: I feel good that I can share with you my inner concerns, and what I believe is Headmind resistance to the process. It is like if my Head wants to know “the secret of RT”. Also, I think there is some reasoning going on like “if it is so easy to overcome the symptoms that have got me to a completely disabled life, I must be an idiot”.

My comment: This is something many of our clients tell us. We always say to them: ‘It is not your fault that you became ill.’ As for the simplicity of the method, it is only ‘easy’ once someone has shown you the solution. Like one of those psychological puzzles when people can’t ‘see’ the face of the old woman/young girl in the drawing. But once someone shows you it is easy to see it. Surely, the real idiots are the people in the medical and psychological professions who have spent years studying the illness without coming up with any answers?

Client: It is not easy for me to write down what I have just said but I know you are not judging me, so I should not judge myself and I should feel confident in expressing my thoughts, no matter how distorted they might seem, even to me. So, being honest to you, John, it has been because I have faith and confidence in you and in Reverse Therapy that I do the assignments, not because I understand what I am doing. And this brings humility – the realization that the answers come from somewhere that is far beyond my head, and far deeper inside me.

Why Chronic Fatigue Syndrome isn't in the mind and yet it is curable too

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2010 AT 01:21PM

Ever since I finished developing the Reverse Therapy method in 2002 I regularly get abusive emails from people who don't want to learn anything about Reverse Therapy, or hear the truth about ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - ie that they are the same problem and have the same solution. My readers might be surprised by the foul-mouthed names I get called. They might be even more surprised by the fact that some of these people have enough energy to spend hours on the internet abusing me.....

Please let me hasten to add that I and my colleagues have, over the last 8 years, worked with thousands of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who a) were seriously ill; b) were open-minded; c) got well by adopting a different approach to the one that many people have been spoon-fed by the medical establishment.

The reason I bring up this subject again is because I have just caught sight of an excellent video which summarises the current state of play on this very difficult subject. It is by Dr Anthony Komaroff, who is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

You can catch that video here: CFIDS Talk 

What I like about this item is that Professor Komaroff:

a) sympathises with people who suffer from this terrible illness

b) is extremely learned about the subject

c) is open-minded about the potential causes of the problem

d) makes a number of important points which support Reverse Therapy (which I summarise below):

1. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not 'all in the mind'; it is a neurological illness

2. In CFS the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis is compromised

3. The Sympathetic Nervous System swings from over to under activity

4. Serotonin release (a mood hormone) in the brain changes

5. Yet CFS has little in common with either Depression or Anxiety

6. The Immune system becomes inefficient following continual over-activity

Dr Komaroff also says that although many cases of CFS begin with a viral infection no single virus has ever been identified as the cause of the illness. He also says (as we do in Reverse Therapy) that it may be that prolonged viral problems in CFS are prompted by a breakdown in the Immune system. The same applies to the XMRV retrovirus.

It is clear, also, that there is a genetic component in CFS. Identical twins are far more likely to get this illness than the average and researchers have identified 22 genes that behave differently in CFS, But let's be clear on this: genes don't cause illness on their own. If that were true ALL identical twins would contract the same illnesses in the same way at the same time. Genetics interact with the person's environment in the same way that they are in dialogue with your emotions, your behaviour, your thoughts, your diet, your physical activities and the people you hang out with.

Indeed, the picture I can see emerging from Dr Komaroff's presentation is something like this:

Some people are more at risk of getting CFS than others, in the same way that other people are at risk for heart disease, allergies or breast cancer,

The majority of people with CFS (but not all) suffer from viral problems early on in the illness, although here, I am arguing that this is because the immune system is compromised by the brain disorder known as CFS. It is, however, possible that certain viruses complicate and compound the disorder.

There is now extremely strong evidence that both the emotional and thinking centres in the brain demonstrate abnormal activity, exactly as Reverse Therapy suggests.

The illness is maintained, as I have argued in my books, through interactions between the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the adrenal glands, the sympathetic nervous system, and the immune system.

Dr Komaroff has also stated elsewhere that he believes that therapy - cognitive-behavioural therapy - can be of help in that it teaches sufferers how to change thinking patterns and behaviours that maintain the problem. My only dispute with Dr Komaroff here is that therapy - Reverse Therapy - can go on to teach people how to control the symptoms themselves.

Reverse Therapy can cure you even if you were hit by the Tsunami and went to Oxford

Today I am publishing an excellent letter from Sarah (not her real name) who recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome using Reverse Therapy.

I think the letter speaks for itself. It is also a moving, personal story.

The Tsunami

I applied to Oxford University and was invited to interview.  My family flew to Thailand the week before my interview so I got myself down there on my own, interviewed, got myself home and then travelled to Thailand to meet up with them.  We were on a beach on Boxing Day when the Tsunami hit.  Luckily we all survived but my sisters and I (they were 8 and 10 at the time) were separated from my parents and brother for some time, and had to run for our lives without them, not knowing where they were – I thought they were dead, until we found them again a while later.  We returned to England, where I found three letters had been posted to us; one to let me know I had got into Oxford on condition of 3 'A's at A level, and the other two from newspapers asking us for our story.  I returned to college to complete my A levels – it wasn't going very well and around three weeks before my exams 3 of my teachers independently advised me to defer for a year as they did not think I would get three As, so I sorted my head out as best I could and managed to do it.

Oxford

That October I started at Oxford.  I was never really truly happy there.  I'm a bit of an unusual combination of characteristics and traits; my friends have always been the people who dropped out of school although were wonderfully interesting, humorous and accepting of other people, but I was never totally satisfied with that life because my brain was never stretched enough.  When I got to Oxford my brain was certainly stretched and I loved being around people who were career-minded, ambitious and energetic, but the other side of my life was missing there; there was very little, if any, empathy, it was cut throat and cold blooded; people who fell behind were left behind, and lots of them did including many lovely people with personal issues like clinical depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, to name a few.  There was no help there for anyone, and their peers turned their backs on them as soon as they fell behind – it was as though it was so stressful that no one had any time for any one else at all.  This really bothered me; I struggled to cope with the fact that some of my friends were so cold and uncaring.  The terms were only 8 weeks long and then we had to go home for 6-8 weeks and the transition between Oxford and home was especially hard – I would have a head ache for a week after I left, and it would always be terrible in the car on the way back.

In my first year there, it was hard to deal with leaving my sisters behind, and the atmosphere made this worse because it was so alien to me.  At first I would leave to visit my friends in Liverpool at the weekends, but I would feel so terrible when I returned that I made the conscious decision to give up that lifestyle until I had finished my degree.

In the second year I got very involved with sport and extra-curricular things – I trained six days a week, organised a black tie event, and gave a speech in front of some Law Lords, which was the most incredible experience (I love public speaking and debating – I was a member of the National Squad when I was 17 – but I gave that up when I went to Oxford because the other people who did it were generally the very worst sort of Oxford student, in my opinion, so they reminded me of all the things I disliked about the place and I suppose it was too hard for me to deal with).

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Halfway through second year I got ill, and just didn't recover.  6 months later they found out that it was Glandular fever.  After a year or so they diagnosed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Despite everything I completed my degree on time and obtained a 2.1.  Every medical official and academic I had spoken to in this 18 month time period had told me that I would not be able to do it – apparently I was a very severe case and they expected me to be ill for years.  The National Health Service offered me nothing – for the first 6-12 months - they simply didn't care, then they started to offer me anti-depressants without even asking me whether I felt depressed!  I refused on every occasion, explaining that I wasn't depressed I was pissed off and frustrated, and that was a normal reaction to my situation.  I lost my ability to communicate and my fitness – I couldn't walk 50 yards without blacking out. This lead to a loss in confidence (something I had never experienced before!).  I was devastated and began to lose hope as there just didn't seem to be a way out - I hate sitting around waiting for things.

Reverse Therapy

After finishing my degree in summer 2008, I came home.  I had improved a lot at this point.  My Mum thought that there was something that still wasn't quite right in me, and she contacted Dawn, who had been recommended to us by a former client of hers.  I didn't want to go, because I didn't want to go over everything yet again (I had seen over 15 different medical people and not one of them had really helped me), but I went because my mum wanted me to.  I thought it sounded a bit fuzzy and daft from what my mum told me, and decided not to look into it because I knew I (or the bit of me that I now know to be my Headmind) would dismiss it.  As soon as Dawn explained it to me I was sold; well, my Bodymind was – Headmind was still a little hesitant, but I chose to give it a go because it was the first thing that anyone had said to me that made sense, and it gave me permission to go for a run instead of a boring walk, which was something I desperately wanted and needed.

Reverse Therapy truly and utterly reversed me; it took away all the excess baggage that had built up over the years as a result of my insecurities, fears and losses and gave me my zest for life back that I had lost along the way.  Today, after just a couple of sessions I feel like the person I was four years ago, and I love it!  Reverse therapy sounds like a miracle, but it isn't, it is the most logical approach to Chronic Fatigue that I have come across; in fact the only logical approach.  When I was ill doctors would look at me, some with pity, some with disbelief and some with irritation, and ask me what I wanted them to do for me. Every time I replied 'I want to get better, I want to know why this happened, and I want to know how to stop it happening again'.  None of them could ever give me an answer.  The best they could do was tell me to slow down and wait to get better.  Even holistic medical practitioners couldn't explain it – they would tell me that I had pushed myself too far, that I needed to 'slow down' and listen to my body more, but they never explained how to do this.  This served to confuse and frustrate me, in my opinion a healthy 20 year old should be able to train six days a week, do a degree and have a social life, and I was super healthy – I ate organic, home-cooked food, didn't drink or smoke and exercised regularly.  Reverse therapy has answered these questions – I now know why I got sick, I have already made myself better, and I know how to stop it happening again.  Now I know how to listen to my body; actually hear what it is saying and to interpret it.  Reverse therapy may be logical but it is a truly revolutionary way of thinking for the modern medical profession, and the most academically brilliant thing I have ever come across – it explains and allows for the link between body and mind which I think is the keystone that modern medicine is missing.

Reverse Therapy

For those of you who would like to read the newsletter from Reverse Therapy that came out to celebrate our 5th Anniversary a few weeks ago.

Here it is. Download Newsletter.pdf

Reverse Therapy in Melbourne

If any of my readers are in Melbourne next month then you are very welcome to hear me talk about Reverse Therapy on 17th November.

I will be talking about how it works and why it works. How the method is based on brain research and the interconnections between the limbic system, the glands and the nervous system. How de-pression of the emotions leads to symptoms of various disorders.

We are seeing more and more interest in Reverse Therapy in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne and I am told that tickets are selling fast!

Watch the video

Here’s another video interview with Alex Williamson, who recently recovered from a serious illness with Reverse Therapy.

Click here to watch.

How the body thinks

Reverse Therapy is part of a 21st century movement in which we are revising the very idea of what it means to 'think'. We argue that thinking doesn't just take place in the head but in the body too. In a way we are only redressing a wrong turn that was taken with Descartes and other seventeenth century writers who argued that only Headmind, or 'Reason', can think. Intelligence, for people like Descartes and philosophers like him, means thinking with concepts.

But our new take on intelligence is that it is shared by all forms of life and that it is much, much wider than thinking with thoughts.

An intelligent response occurs when a) information is received, b) the information is evaluated, c) an appropriate response is emitted d) the results are monitored and learning occurs. Even a single-cell creature like an amoeba is intelligent as it can change the direction in which it swims according to the information it receives about the amount of food in the area. A dolphin, going much higher up the scale, can not only change direction but communicate its reasons for doing that to other dolphins in the school. And amoebas and dolphins, like humans, make the vast majority of their decisions without any involvement at all from mental intelligence. Those decisions are taken by what we call Bodymind.

Here are some examples of the way in which Bodymind 'thinks'.

• The body can 'read' other people and simulate an emotion that person is having so that you or I can empathize with them. In that way a mother can quickly tell what mood her child is in. This is also the basis for the human quality of compassion for others, even animals. Our intuitions about other people work in a similar way. Using sensory information, the brain picks up signals from the other person's body language and - using a process that works in less than a tenth of a second - pattern-matches those signals against information stored from past experiences. That is why we can have a gut feeling that someone is not trustworthy within two minutes of meeting her without knowing why. The body is using coded signals to alert us to a potential problem.
• In collaboration with the thinking centers the brain can decide what is important or not important. If something is important to us we might get an adrenalin rush. If it is not we will feel nothing at all. Research into people with damage to the frontal areas of the brain (which decode emotion) show that they are unable to make decisions because they don't have a good or bad feeling that tells them the right decision to make. Knowing what is important also helps Bodymind conserve energy. We can go without sleep if we are trying to achieve something really important. Conversely, if there is little for us to do, Bodymind can send us to sleep early. Or it could turn on the emotion of boredom to signal that it's time to do something more interesting.
• The body can strengthen a relationship by creating emotions connected to love. Sometimes this is automatic, as when a a child is born. Sometimes it comes with time as we learn more about the other person. The emotions of love are, as almost all of us know, powerful and sometimes overwhelming.
• The brain uses sleep time to organize memories from the day just gone. It stores what is important and deletes the rest. It also creates dreaming states in order to work through the emotions that come with different experiences. This is one reason why insomniacs have poor concentration - they are overloaded with undigested experiences.
• Bodymind grounds us to life. It does this firstly through our moods. At any given moment the body is monitoring where we are, who we are with and what we are doing, and providing us with a running commentary on our relationship with the environment. Moods aren't emotions but they are feeling states which work closely with our thoughts. The most well-known mood is the depressed state, which goes with discouragement and sadness. But others include exhilaration, calm, determination, discontent and the feeling of being 'under pressure'. Most often, moods are hardly noticeable and form a kind of background hum which is constantly shifting as we go through the flow of the day.
• Another way the body grounds us to life is through the sense of awe: we are connected to nature, to the divine, and to life itself by the unspeakable sense that we are serving a purpose higher than ourselves. In that way Bodymind intelligently motivates us to make the best we can of our abilities and to serve others.

Why Cognitive Behavior Therapy doesn’t work

Many people with M.E. will know that they are continually being pushed towards Cognitive Behavior Therapy as the treatment. You may even have been told: ‘nothing else works’ or ‘this is the only thing that has any scientific evidence going for it’.

Er…well, the problem is that there is no real scientific evidence that CBT works for anything. There have been about three worthwhile studies on CBT for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome published in the UK and only one of those produced any evidence at all that CBT could be effective in reducing symptoms. Yet even that one study compared CBT with relaxation techniques which (as anyone with CFS will tell you) are practically useless. I wonder how CBT will look when it finally goes head to head with a really effective contender like Reverse Therapy?

Cognitive Therapy, as I never tire of reminding people, was developed to treat Depression. Since M.E. is not depression why should anyone assume that it will work for that condition? Cognitive Therapy works on changing peoples’ thoughts, beliefs and expectations. But since Chronic Fatigue symptoms are not created in the head there is no reason to believe the belief that changing beliefs will make any difference.

In fact, about twenty years ago it was realized that changing thoughts doesn’t make much difference to Depression either. Or Anxiety. Or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Or anything else. That was why Cognitive Therapy was merged with Behavior Therapy - because it began to dawn on one or two minds that getting someone to change their thoughts about their problems isn’t going to make any difference until they do something about them. The truth of the matter is that it is probably the ‘B’ part of the process that is effective for a few people, not the ‘C’ part.

Unfortunately for the moguls that run the National Health Service there is no evidence that CBT is effective for anything else either. In one recent study in Scotland over 1000 patients who had received CBT years before were followed up. Of the 489 who could be bothered to talk about the therapy (were the rest too ill to come to the phone?) over half of them were still unwell and 30% of them still had severe symptoms. That means – in plain terms – that less than 10% of the original number were reporting any benefit at all. If you were a taxi-driver and only managed to get 1 out of 10  passengers to their destination you’d soon be out of business. Yet the current Government wants to spend £600 million pushing CBT on the rest of us. With the absurd claim that it has all been scientifically proven.

So why is Cognitive-Behavior Therapy the number one most used therapy in the UK and the United States? Well, folks, the main reason is that it is promoted by the Psychology industry, which is now well-embedded in the universities, the health services, in business, government and the press. And because it fits in with what the powers-that-be think people should be like: rational, reasonable, normal workers who can control their thoughts, act sensibly and not get over-emotional. In that sense what someone who goes in for CBT is really getting is an indoctrination in mainstream psychology. Don’t forget, nearly all the research that has so far been carried out on CBT has been organized by – you’ve guessed it – other psychologists. This is one reason why most of the research is unbelievably biased.

Here are a few reasons why Cognitive-Behavior Therapy won’t work for M.E.

1. No evidence exists that CBT can eliminate symptoms, only that it can reduce them.

2. CBT has a high initial drop out rate. Over 20% of people with M.E. do not go back after their first session.

3. M.E. symptoms are not created by thoughts so changing thoughts won’t make any difference.

4. Sufferers who have headaches, fatigue, muscle pain, IBS, sleeping problems, etc feel insulted by the suggestion that they can get better through positive thinking. Another reason they are unlikely to go back.

5. Forms. CBT makes people fill out endless forms, questionnaires and journals. Doing which not only creates frustration but triggers brain fog too

6. Since symptoms are created in the brain, glands and nervous system only an approach – like Reverse Therapy – that recognizes and works with Bodymind has any chance of reversing the condition.

7. This in turn means recognizing that the symptoms are created because the organism – the body – is in crisis. And that we have to address the organic cause, rather than the negative beliefs that people have developed after becoming ill.

8. When CBT does help in reducing symptoms it is not because CBT is effective but because it is accidentally – and without realizing what is happening – encouraging the client to try new activities that reduce Bodymind’s need to create symptoms as a warning call. But Reverse Therapy does that anyway.