My attempt to look at mental health, through the Seven Rivers Model, When you or someone you love is in distress
Time limits are essential to using Susun Weeds Seven Rivers model safely. Neither delay treatment nor push ahead to more severe treatments if they are unneeded. Many people involved in caring for their own health delay whilst people involved in going to doctors are rushed into harmfull diagnostic tests and unneeded treatments. The time limit will help you resist being pushed.
Please note this is simply my take on this area utilising this model to understand potentials....
First river : embrace emptiness, do nothing, rest.
*Been stressed and/or sleep deprived? Even one day of rest can be nourishing. If your mind is too active, listen to low level soothing music, a guided meditation, or muscle relaxation routine, to keep it busy so your body can catch up. Take a day, or three, to get some quality rest. Sleep disturbances can cause confused, or disordered thinking. You may not be able to sleep, but you can rest.
*Turn off that button that says look after everyone elses needs first.
*If you have been using recreational drugs, try taking a break. They can distort reality, which is why we love em so, but its a chicken and egg type cycle. If you have been using heavily for some time make sure you’re safe to do so, as sudden stopping after long term use can have risks. If you’ve recently reduced or stopped psyche drugs talk to someone you trust about it, the effects of sudden withdrawal can be similar.
*Reduce stimulation and input, go quietly a while. If that doesn’t work as your minds too active, distraction might. Get into natural environments, plant your feet on the earth. Take meandering walks, spend time in gardens or wild spaces. Harvest herbs. Give over to daydreams, watching kid-eos, altar arranging, walking meditation, dream analysis, journaling.
Second River: Investigate options, from sources with little advertising and no bias.
*Empower yourself with information and choices in treatment. Consider massage, movement therapy, gardening...What naturally draws you in? What has your system responded to before? Who supports your healing processes? Are you in this alone, or do you have an ally/allies?
*Don’t let anyone whack a diagnosis on you from one experience / episode, you are free to get a second opinion. You need to respect your allies in healing. If you do have a diagnosis remember that you are not your symptoms. You can also have a disability, and still be healthy.
*Disturbed mental states can be closely related to retriggering old traumas in the now, do you know your triggers? Journal, draw, dance, find someone to talk to if you can, and be aware it can take time to work trauma through enough that you no longer suffer intrusive thoughts/voices/moods. Take it slow, and get support.
*Contact community organisations that specialise in mental health issues, often they’re in the front of phone books.
* Take a look at the research of Christina and Stanislav Grof on ‘spiritual emergency’, now an official section in the DSMV diagnostics book for psychiatrists. They explore the differences and similarities, between these experiences, and disordered ways of thinking.
*Cealiac disease, gluten intolerance, can mimic extreme disordered thinkings, even to the point of hallucinations. Try leaving wheat and other gluten containing foods for a couple of weeks and see if it helps.
*Take a look at the close relationship between the wise ways of many traditions, creativity and ‘madness’, try abstaining from judgement for a time. Terence McKenna is interesting on this stuff and has talks on utube, which can be easier to approach if your minds unable to concentrate on reading anything but short spurts.
Third river: restore energetic connections
* Flower essences can do great work with emotions, some of those developed after dr bachs, like the Australian bush or californian flower essences are designed to work with the isssues of the times we live in, dr bach himself predicted this!
*Reiki can be particularly healing for those of us with abuse in our past, or bodily held trauma, as there need not be physical contact. It is a form where the practitioner merely channels universal healing energies through their hands, often felt as buzzing or heat, that can be done at close range or distance too.
*Prayer, is another fine way to restore energetic connections that we can engage with and do for ourselves even in moments of crisis. Have you got personal affirmations, or mantras, that work for you?
*Music is an amazing tool for healing. Experiment with what sounds bring relief, ground or allows a rockin’ vent.
*As the chakras awaken, and intense energies flow through them, in a ‘kundalini’ awakening there can be intense experiences. Check out grounding strategies.
Fourth river : nourish and tonify
*Nettle leaf infusion nourishes, and subtly shifts, our entire systems. Full of green vegetable goodness.
*Oatstraw is the nourishing infusion to build a powerfull nervous system and keep us flexible.
*Motherwort is the ‘in the pocket’ remedy for the ‘fear of things that didn’t happen’, that locked down anxious state. She takes us into her arms and lets us sit on her lap. Try 5 – 10 drops of tincture, rest a while and then if shes not kicking in repeat the dose. In this way you will learn the effective dose for your individual constitution for next time.
*Passionflower leaf infusion is an aid to mental health.
*Hypericum has been shown to be as/more effective than antidepressant medications. Tablet forms can interact with pharmaceuticals.
*Omega fatty acids, especially Omega 3’s are brain food. They are found in fish like salmon, sardines and herrings, seeds,nuts and whole grains.
*Orange juice can help with clearing psychic mud.
River 5 incite strong responses
*Sedation and stimulation are often a combo, so you might sedate with alcohol one night and then need caffeine in the morning to wake up, with a hangover. If we use one it seems, we tend to need to balance with the other in some way. Its chicken and egg again. Most antipsychotic medications are sedating (most antidepressants stimulating ) and therefore usually taken at night, but if you are taking them during the day rather than reach for a stimulants like coffee and cigarettes, why not try nourishing infusions to build your system up from the roots. This may take some time.
*Psychological processing can have dramatic times where you are stricken telling your story, make sure you are working with someone safe who gives you strategies for self care at such times. It might feel great for a counsellor to see you getting deep, but they need to realise they walk away from the session and continue their day, while you can be left shaken and disturbed. Have a handy list of gentle nurturing activities to engage with on days like this.
*Sometimes family members and once close friends will find mental illness so confronting they walk away, it illicits strong responses in self (we may walk away) and others. Try not to personalise this by realising its only partially about you, mostly its a fear of their own ‘stuff’(we all got it) rising up and overwhelming them too.
River Six : Take Pills
* You may find you need to take psyche meds in the shorter term to insulate yourself enough, without harm, to work through what has happened in your life, some of us have to long term. This stuff can be beyond our control, we may have inherited tendencies to breakdown, or it can be the result of things like viral infections in the womb. We really know so little about the human mind.
*Medicating one area of the brain has to effect others. If you’re on meds be proactive consulting about doses. How feels? Are you able to do what you want to/ achieve goals physically? Energetically? Is each day a rollercoaster? Do you have naps/rests to recharge? What other stimulants or sedatives are you using?
*Orthomolecular medicine/ psychiatry works, rather than with pharmaceuticals, by eliminating all allergy triggering foods and replacing the lost ‘nutrients’ with supplements and vitamins. Unfortunately, this can be expensive and therefore impractical.
River Seven: Destroy Obstacles
*Electro Convulsive Treatment is a full on choice for treatment, it has improved mood for the severely depressed but has unpredictable effects, especially on memory.
*Meds for psyche disorders certainly get rid of symptoms for many but are they simply suppressed, ie still going on for the client internally, but no one else has to see/feel/deal with it. They can cause diabetes, weight gain, tardive diskenesia, psychosis and depression. In many cases of crisis however, they are a lesser evil than the suffering that epitomises mental illness.
*Legal detainment, or being put on a community treatment order enforces taking meds with official backup, the client has to comply. This is part of the ‘duty of care’ that’s meant to ethically underly the whole psychiatric system, if someone is in danger of harming themselves or others then they can be detained by law. Mental illness is the only health issue where such force exists. It can be terrifying and invasive for the person at the rough end of police and nurses, but mostly they try and keep folks in their own homes, if they have one.
*Suicide attempts, or talking about wanting to self harm have no steadfast methods to predict outcomes. Some people say if someone’s talking about it they wont do it, personally Id say the risk is too great to feel comfortable in that. Some say it’s just attention seeking behaviour, and? Of course it is, this whole process is about the parts of a human being that hurt reaching out for attention and acknowledgement. Better to get someone talking about it, if you can emotionally deal with that, than let them churn the idea around in their brain. Keep a support person around as much as possible, but realise at some point the sufferer will have to be left alone and work towards that point.
If you enjoyed this post, or found it helpfull, you might also like the recent post at opalessence " A Shaman and a Schizophrenic were walking down the road...some ponderings.."To get there simply click on the Earth Pentacle in the top right hand corner of this blog.
