HealthDay/BusinessWeek reported a survey from the American Psychiatric Association that found: “More than 40 percent of the 1,129 respondents said their employer was supportive or extremely supportive of their workers seeking care for health concerns. However, the online survey also found that barriers persist for workers who said their workplace is unsupportive of employees seeking treatment, especially for mental health concerns.” Among those surveyed, 76 percent felt their work status would be damaged if they sought treatment for drug addiction, compared to “73 percent (who felt that way) for alcoholism, and 62 percent for depression, compared with 55 percent who thought seeking care for diabetes would affect their work status and 54 percent for heart disease” (Preidt, 1/31).
The problem, as I see it is a general public bias against those who seek help for mental health issues. I don’t see a quick fix for that.
One “work-around” -
For those providing therapy, I recommend telling clients/patients who come for sessions that they tell their friends and especially co-workers that they are doing “job enhancement” or “personal development” or “performance enhancement” work with a specialist or coach.
This is called a “reframe”. And it’s the truth!
To wit:
Whatever a client comes in for – whether depression, anxiety, addiction, abuse, whatever other negative issue – refer to the treatment of it as “personal development” or “performance enhancement” or some other kind of personal improvement program. It’s the truth – so why not call it that? Even though the client is coming in for “therapy” to correct a problem they are experiencing in their life, if that person is referred by an employer or by an employee assistance program, help the client out by giving them a reframe for the non-therapeutic “fallout” they will inevitably experience when they return to work.
Mainstream medicine is based on the principle of normative negativity (my term) in that the best one can hope for – and treat to achieve – is normalcy (zero abnormality). Basically, for every human medical condition there is a range of “normalcy” that western medicine seeks to achieve in their patients. For example, a patient may be diagnosed with depression because they are outside a range of behaviors considered “normal” – in a negative direction, say to a -50 for the sake of this discussion. Treatment is all about bringing that -50 up to as near zero as possible – but most are satisfied if they can reach -20 or so (mildly depressed but functional). In that tradition there is no .1 or 2. The top of the scale is zero – “normal” or “neutral” – not outside the “just okay” range.
Rapid Eye Technology (RET) is and always has been about assisting people to find their joy and passion – beyond being “just okay” or “normal”.
Example:
A woman finds herself feeling like her job is not providing any joy or enjoyment for her? She feels depressed. So she goes to her physician and her physician diagnoses her with anxiety and depression, prescribes a drug to shift her internal chemistry and maybe bring it back into the “zone” of normalcy; then suggests she see a psychiatrist for further evaluation (a fairly common occurrence). Taking the physician’s advice the woman sees the psychiatrist who confirms the diagnosis and the treatment. So far, so good it would seem. But, remember, the whole intent and structure of this endeavor is to bring the person up to “normalcy” – just “okay” – rather than to advance them any further.
When the woman goes back to work and finds that others in her work environment start to treat her “differently” – maybe not assigning challenging tasks to her or withholding job advancements because “she might not be up to it…” etc. – she discovers the mental health bias at work at her workplace. The same treatment would have been given her in the 1950s had this woman been a person of color. Prejudice is still prejudice.
Now, let’s turn this story a different direction – this time the woman seeks out a Rapid Eye Technology (RET) technician in addition to her physician. She might discover a totally different “come from” in her RET sessions – one based on the underlying belief that she is not defective – she’s not -50! She is 100% who she is right now. And that she can excel far beyond “normal” – beyond just being “okay”. She might discover that RET is less about treating a person with a problem than in enhancing the person’s overall value (to themselves and their community), less about healing an issue than in strengthening the person’s mental and emotional resilience (far beyond “just normalcy”). Because the person saw a RET technician about their depression, when she returns to work, she can truthfully report that she worked with a specialist to enhance her job performance – making her a much better worker – more capable, more skillful, more able to advance and make a positive contribution.No stigma! No bias! No prejudice invoked!!! Why? A simple REFRAME!!!
Summary -
Therapists of all kinds – No matter what reason people come to you – whatever negative diagnosis they may have given themselves or were given by you or others – tell them you are providing them “personal development” work (rather than “treatment” – which is part of that normative negativity stuff). In the process of them “recovering from” whatever negative issue they are dealing with – from anxiety to stopping smoking – they are also becoming more than they thought they were before.
Clients/patients – go to a therapist for assistance – you deserve to be healed and whole. It doesn’t matter at all what kind of therapist you see so long as what they provide you is effective for you. When it’s time to get back to work, tell your co-workers that you’ve been busy doing “personal development” or “job enhancement” work with a specialist. It’s the truth – so tell them the truth.
Doing the RET process along with Skills for Life training, for example, offers clients more than 100% normalcy – in most cases clients achieve FAR MORE. That’s not the same as “desensitizing” or “treating” or “healing” – it’s BLESSING.
What do you think?
I like this. Seems more fitting to “reframe” the reason for skipping out on work when it is afterall, enhancing one’s personal self.
Maybe it could help people open up the possibilty of actually enhancing, rather then “treating” by saying it to someone else… making it even that much more real for the individual seeking the help.