Holistic Residential Treatment

To understand the current dominant paradigm of mental illness and psychiatric well-being, it is necessary to look back in history – way back in history, all the way to the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth century. It was the era of the Enlightenment that science and math as we know them today really got their start. The Enlightenment was a much-needed break from the superstition that ruled what passed as “science”. Advances made during that time relied upon thinkers such as Newton and Descartes.

It is from Descartes and his contemporaries that the concept of “reductionism” first begins to emerge in the early seventeenth century. A reductionist view holds that all things are nothing more than the sum of its parts. The reductionist view turned out to be very useful, and it was gradually used as a way to explain more and more phenomena.

Eventually, reductionism was used to explain even the most complex phenomenon of all: human consciousness. In some ways this was good; psychiatry got away from the idea that mental illnesses were caused by “demonic possession” and instead looked for biological and neurological causes.

Are We Using Too Many Drugs?

The downside of the reductionist, biology-only view of the human mind is that it has resulted in the use of medication to treat nearly all psychological issues, even when recent evidence is showing that therapy – specifically cognitive therapies – are as effective, if not more, than anti-depressant medication (Source: DeRubeis et al. in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, October 2008). The doctors behind this study were able to show that therapy not only had many of the same (and better) benefits on the depressed person as the medication, the therapy also prevented relapses.

The majority of modern psychiatrists have been deeply influenced by the reductionistic view of the human mind, and as a result tend to approach psychological disorders from a strictly biological perspective, believing all problems can be solved with the right combination of drugs. By contrast, holistic psychological treatment relies upon a number of different therapies to help patients address the underlying causes of their depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and similar mood disorders. It is a long-established fact in psychiatry that personal experiences and traumas, rather than chemistry alone, has a great deal to do with the triggering and continuation of mood disorders.

Holistic Residential Treatment for Mood Disorders

At a place such as Bridges To Recovery Treatment Center , which is an intensive holistic treatment center with residential option, psychiatric drugs are kept to a minimum, with the main emphasis placed on individual and group therapy, along with supplemental therapies such as art therapy, music therapy, meditation, massage, and yoga.

It’s only recently that mood disorders were treated in comfortable, residential treatment facilities. Typically, individuals with mood disorders either attended an outpatient program of therapy once or twice per week, or faced hospitalization in a psychiatric ward with very disturbed individuals. The outpatient model was not enough to facilitate healing, while the hospitalization model was too severe and traumatic for individuals who were not suffering from severe mental illnesses.

A holistic treatment center with Residential Option like Bridges To Recovery enables clients to receive the comprehensive treatment they need, rather than a reductionistic, medication only approach.”