"Recession victims to be offered government backed psychological therapy"
"Fears of an anxiety epidemic caused by the recession are forcing the government to offer psychological help to millions of people facing unemployment, debt and breakdown. Sufferers will be referred to psychotherapists for expert counselling via an advice network linking Job Centres, doctors' surgeries and a new NHS Hotline. Under the plan, which will involve training 3600 more therapists and hundreds more specialist nurses, psychotherapy centres will be established in every primary care trust by the end of next year."
Observer, 8th March 2009
Most clinical psychologists are reluctant to give advice. If it turns out to be wrong, it's bad for the professional reputation; if it turns out to be correct, people stop thinking for themselves and come back for more. But, for the readers of People Matters, I am going to make an exception and come straight out with it: If, recently, you have been unfortunate enough to have lost your job, home, or savings, think twice before taking up the offer of "expert" counselling. Although a well-meaning counsellor is unlikely to do any harm, he or she probably won't be of much benefit either. At best your feelings will be reflected, and you will become more emotionally articulate. You may even feel understood and supported. But you can get those things from your friends. No matter how expert the counsellor, he or she will not be able to give you what you really want, viz. what you lost: your job, your savings and financial security.
Another problem with the "anxiety epidemic" idea is that it assumes that the British public lack emotional resilience. In the face of loss it is to be expected that we would feel angry and upset; indeed, most of us would be suspicious of anyone who had lost their life's savings and claimed to be feeling otherwise. But grief, guilt, anxiety and pain are part of life. For a very small number of people, such difficult feelings do not resolve spontaneously and they need help to get their lives back on track. For the vast majority though, such feelings are accepted as temporary states of mind that will resolve without the help of professionals.
If you have lost your shirt and really feel the need to talk, you are probably better off meeting up with a friend who, like you, has also lost either job, home, or both, and knows from bitter experience exactly what you are going through. There is quite a lot of research that shows that people who suffer from PTSD derive considerable benefit from leaderless support groups. Only those who were in the ship at the time it was sinking know exactly what it was like to be there. The rest of us can only imagine how it felt. Personally, I would prefer to spend my time with someone who was with me on the boat, rather than with the so-called "expert" who was safe on shore.
In the absence of a support group, my advice to anyone in dire financial straits would be to read Aesop's Fables, where you will find good, old-fashioned common sense. To whet your appetite, here are some selected stories:
"A hungry fox tried to reach some clusters of grapes that he saw hanging from a vine trained on a tree, but they were too high. So he went off and comforted himself by saying, "They weren't ripe anyhow."
This story reminds us of our tendency to use little lies to avoid facing painful reality. The fox wants the grapes but they are unobtainable, so they are denigrated. In the short term, at least, he avoids the pain and frustration of not getting what he wants. He does not face his loss, nor does he pause to think about how he could overcome his problem. This is a clear example of that well-known defence mechanism, rationalisation. The snag is that while such a mechanism temporarily keeps the psychological pain at bay, it doesn't solve things. A smart fox would have spent a bit more time thinking about how he could have got hold of those grapes. So Step 1 as regards dealing with the recession is to avoid those little lies that cover up the problem. Instead, engage one's brain in a bit more thinking, understanding and problem solving. Who knows, it may result in an offer of a job or a new career.
Here's another story, which reminds us to think and act for ourselves. For "Athena" substitute "expert counsellor"...
"A rich Athenian was on a voyage with other passengers, when a violent storm blew up and capsized the ship. All the rest tried to swim ashore, but the Athenian kept calling on Athena and promising her lavish offerings if he escaped. One of his shipwrecked companions, as he swam past, shouted to him, "Don't leave it all to Athena, use your arms as well."
And yet another tale that illustrates why experts should be ignored...
"A fortune-teller was sitting in the market place and doing good business. Suddenly a man came and told him that the door of his house had been wrenched from its hinges and all his possessions carried off. He jumped up and with a cry of consternation ran to see what had happened. A bystander who was watching him said: 'You profess to foretell what is going to befall other people, but you did not foresee your own misfortune'"
So, if you avoid the expert counselling, what do you have left? Again, Aesop to the rescue:
"Zeus packed all good things of life in a jar, put a lid on it, and left it in the care of a certain man. Itching to know what was inside, the man lifted the lid. The contents immediately flew into the air and departed from earth to heaven. Only Hope remained - for she was shut in when he clapped the lid on again."
But if you have lost everything, including hope, then you might find comfort in Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. Written in 1930, long before self-help books flooded the bookshops, it is a cracking read. Here are some selected quotes:
"When some misfortune threatens, consider seriously and deliberately what is the very worst that could possibly happen." (p. 50)
Cognitive behaviour therapists kidnapped this idea, and will almost certainly ask you the same question if you tell them about your troubles.
Russell has an uncanny way of putting things into perspective:
"One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man I would prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important." (p.48)
And for those readers who have been forced to change their jobs, Russell has this to say:
"...I think that where it is possible to do work that is satisfactory to a man's constructive impulses without entirely starving, he will be well advised from the point of view of his own happiness if he chooses it in preference to work much more highly paid but not seeming to him worth doing of its own account. Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect." (p. 153)
Apart from anything else, my hope would be that by the end of 2010, when those 3600 psychotherapists are supposed to be up and running, the worst of the recession will be behind us and we'll be on the up again. Wouldn't it be ironic if all those counsellors were made redundant?
References
Aesop (Fables of Aesop Penguin London (1987 edition)
Russell B The Conquest of Happiness Routledge London (2006 edition)