How do you like the following definition of neuroses - "psychogenic functional disorders of the central nervous system"? But this is the most precise definition that psychotherapy gives in neuroses. Having analyzed this definition, we will be able to find a method of treatment.
So, "psychogenic" means external, not caused by biological or chemical influences (that is, you were not poisoned to drive mad). So, something annoys us outside.
"Functional" disorders - means that the problem is not in any organ (you do not have traumas or brain defects), but in its functions. Moreover, the organs are healthy, and for some reason the functions are performed incorrectly. It's like a mechanism. Like all the details in place, but the mechanism does not work.
That is, neuroses are a frustrated CNS work. And since there is no damage to the organs themselves, the cells, then psychotherapy presupposes the treatment of neuroses.
Why does neurosis arise?
Our psyche is very stable and regulated, like an expensive and high-quality apparatus. But if during the adjustment (childhood) something went wrong (children's fears, stresses , prejudices and attitudes), then the work of the mechanism, sooner or later, will fail, under the influence of strong psychological factors. On this, by the way, psychotherapy of children's neuroses is also based. In other words, neurosis arises from the soil of some kind of defect in childhood, but always as a result of severe shocks at the present time.
Manifestations of neuroses
Neuroses can manifest themselves in different borderline states of personality:
- obsessions;
- panic;
- phobia;
- neurasthenia;
- stool disorders;
- spasms in the throat, leading to a "lack" of air;
- anorexia.
The most frequent cases in psychotherapy are associated with obsessive states with neurosis.
Treatment of compulsive fears
With neuroses with concomitant manifestations, a person can not cope with his own problem. Moreover, the use of antidepressants and sedatives will not help him, since, in this case, they will make it possible to forget about the problem only for a while, and without the "magic tablet" fear, the next time, will be even stronger.
The only way to treat is group and individual psychotherapy of neuroses both in children and adults.
Since neurosis is a conflict of desires (a person experiences several desires at the same time, which he considers incompatible and unacceptable), the therapist, first of all, helps to realize their presence and will teach them how to express themselves correctly.
To overcome neuroses, the patient will need to rethink the negative experience that led to the onset of neurosis and begin to perceive life in a completely different way. This is by no means a one-day process, and the longer the neurosis lasts, the longer the recovery of the psyche will last.