I just read about this…it isn’t launched yet but the idea seems great. I hope it is successful! http://www.mindset.care
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Thanks, hope4us. This Psychology Today article has links to a “Feeling Safe” program in England that targets persecutory delusions. It uses a basic CBT approach that gives people the choice of tacking the various “maintenance” factors believed to keep persecutory delusions active (e.g. poor sleep, low self esteem, worry thoughts) and it did very well in an initial trial with 11 patients, most of whom had long-standing persecutory delusions despite years of treatment.
The lead author (Freeman) also did a very interesting study using virtual reality (VR) plus cognitive therapy versus VR plus exposure treatment alone to help people with persecutory delusions face feared situations. The VR/CT group did significantly better than the VR exposure only group in facing real world situations, although both groups showed decreased belief in/distress by the delusions after treatment.
Seems like most of the ground-breaking behavioral/cognitive behavioral work for schizophrenia/thought disorder is coming out of England.
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Thank you for these posts. It is always uplifting to find something that is hopeful for a good outcome. My daughter was going to quit going to her psychologist because she didn’t like “to talk”. I asked her to go one more time and to state that she wanted to stop coming. But somehow the psychologist got her to stay the full 40 minutes last time and to rebook again. The more tools available, the better, I think.
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Isn’t it wonderful. So hopeful. The FSP has such a ring of truth and real possiblities that apply to everyone and anyone, with or without a diagnosis. Told my therapist about this and he was going to look into it. Spreading the good stuff that actually works is one way of creating change in a system where people are no longer accepting a drug companies symptom relief med with numerable adverse side affects. Thank you for spreading the good good news.
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I can remember reading one of the head researcher’s papers on his theory of paranoia when my husband first started having symptoms seven years ago.
I can remember really liking the way he viewed paranoia, which was as a continuum from the low-level paranoid thoughts that most humans have at times to the more extreme levels experienced by those with persistent persecutory delusions. It made a lot of sense to me, and was very humanizing and normalizing.
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