Cause and Effect: Beyond the Symptom

 

An individual’s mental health is experienced in the present but is influenced by the past, and informs future behaviour.

Analytical approaches to psychotherapy view the symptoms as an outward expression of past behaviour. The symptoms are what is happening in the present, but are reflections of past experiences and the effect they had on the individual.

When we approach understanding mental health in this way, we accept that symptoms are not the root cause of the problem. They are a response to difficulties that mirror their experience.

It Works For Both Positive And Negative Causes and Effects

The person who experienced disrupted caregiving during their early years may not have had the opportunity to learn what stable and consistent care/love looks and feels like. In later life, they may find it difficult to form long-lasting and meaningful relationships or develop anxiety in social settings. These symptoms are a reaction to those early years.

Alternatively, imagine if a child's formative years were carefully managed to prevent distress. Caregivers shield them from the typical emotional upheaval of growing up, ensuring that the child experiences little if any challenge. In later life, the adult finds it difficult to cope with life changes and daily hassles; they have little experience to fall back on. The distress they feel as an adult from a lack of coping skills is a reaction to the over-protective caregiving they experienced.

It also works for positive mental health behaviours. Imagine, in the first example, the child had a more consistent experience of relationships from either their primary caregiver or an appropriate substitute. They will carry this through into their adult selves. Their positive mental health will also be a reflection of their experience.

Likewise, in the second example, imagine the child who was allowed to experience the normal distress and confusion that come with growing, while guided and supported through reassurance. They are acquiring the skills but more importantly, the belief that they can cope. They are learning that distress can be lived through and things will be different. They are learning how to regulate and understand their emotions. In later life, that adult is going to have that positive grounding in their psychology. Their past positive experience has informed and influenced their present self.

The gain to the mind by developing symptoms, is the bottled-up, un-understood, emotional experiences from the past have an outlet. The symptoms are a pressure value for past unprocessed distress.

Why Is This So Important?

Firstly, understanding the origins of our behaviour is freeing. Now, you may say that I do understand the origins of my behaviour, but in psychotherapy, I am referring to the depth of understanding. Understanding our present behaviour requires us to examine how we interpreted the originating experiences at the time and the emotions that were created.

Can you see now why depth of understanding is so important?

It is also important to remember that thinking about mental health in this way, is not denying the importance or distress that is being caused by the symptoms. The symptoms can and should be eased where possible, but I’d argue, as a means of all greater understanding of the originating behaviours.

Calm an anxious person through whatever means available (biological and/or psychological methods), but this does not mean they have dealt with what happened to make them develop that unhelpful way of responding to the world.

Teach the panic sufferer coping skills to manage the panic when it happens, but they are no closer to understanding why they panic and someone else does not. They have not acquired an emotional understanding of what formed the panic response originally.

Explain to the depressed person how their faulty thinking contributes to their mood being flattened. We could encourage them to challenge their negative outlook, but they would still lack the emotional understanding of why they developed depressive behaviours.

In all three of those examples, I would argue that only the symptom has been addressed. The anxiety in the first is a symptom, and so too are the panic attacks in the second. The depression in the third is also a symptom, a reaction, to something else from their past.

Why Is Emotional Understanding So Important?

Emotional understanding involves recognising how we felt about events at the time regardless of how we may interpret them now. Thinking through (processing) and releasing the bottled-up emotion from the time, gives the person insight into why they developed their symptoms.

With that insight, the symptoms are redundant. The mind does not need to use the symptoms as an outlet anymore. The individual is free to be able to establish more helpful ways of responding to the world.

It’s asking: What happened to lead you to this point, rather than focusing only on what’s wrong with you now?

Hypnoanalysis combines psychotherapy and hypnotherapy helping a person process events from their life. Using Hypnosis makes it easier to remember events, the unhelpful interpretations made at the time and the emotions they created. The cathartic effect of thinking through past experiences reduces the intensity of the stored emotions. Events are re-interpreted with the benefit of hindsight, and the anxiety created is resolved.


David is a Hypnotherapist and Hypnoanalyst in Northamptonshire. Find out more at www.ketteringhypnotherapy.com