After 34 years of Family General Practice and having done what I had wanted to do, the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol problems appeared to be getting worse, and in 1997 I started to work 10 hours a week in a Drug and Alcohol Clinic. Then in 2001 I opened my own Drug and Alcohol Clinic, “The Chemical Health Centre”. Since then I have been focussing intensively on helping individual people with Mental Health and Addiction issues to live normal happy lives. I have also been developing tools and systems to make Mental Health work much faster and more effective so that more people can be helped, and more people can help themselves. I feel strongly that we need to be able to make very efficient effective Mental Health Services and Self Help Aids available to everyone needing them, and to get rid of waiting lists in this field. Most Mental Health Professionals would say that that is an impossible dream and I would certainly agree that it has been impossible in the past. It is also still impossible using our present methods. However there are new technologies now available which we are not yet taking advantage of that would give us the level of efficiency and effectiveness required to provide everyone with the Mental Health Assessments and Treatments they need, without waiting lists.
Just to be normal and to have a normal life is all that most of the more Mentally and Drug and Alcohol Troubled people I see hope for and I believe it is in the whole Community’s best interests for these people to be able to do this – to be normal and to live a normal life. They should be helped to have this normal life from as early an age as possible, preferably before they start Self Medicating with Drugs or Alcohol.
I love and benefit greatly from my books, the best of which I often read twice when I first get them, and then again several times over the years e.g. Florey The Man Who Made Penicillin, Innovate Like Edison, 50 Success Classics, The Google Story, Made In America, The Brain That Changes Itself, 50 Great E Businesses And The Minds Behind Them, Think And Grow Rich, Leanne Preston and The Wild Child Story.
I also love my BMW, my CD’s and my iPhone and they, together with my books, inspire me to aim high in looking for better solutions for Mentally Sick and Injured people. As I move safely, comfortably, quickly from place to place in my car, enjoying wonderful music and able in less than a minute to speak to family members in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto or London, I often think about and ask myself questions about my work. One question I ask myself is “How much Mental Suffering Weakness and Dysfunction, how many Painful and Damaging Relationship and Family Breakdowns, how many Agonising and Destructive Addictions, and how much Waste of Public and Private Resources and Money could we prevent, if only we Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Doctors were as productive as the people are who make BMW’s, Recorded Music and Mobile Phones?”
I think that Doctors and Psychologists are most likely as intelligent as the people are who make BMW’s, Recorded Music and Mobile Phones and I don’t believe our task is any more difficult than theirs, although it is a much much more essential service. What needs to be done in Mental Health affects many people profoundly but is no more difficult than the amazing things people in some other branches of Medicine and in some other industries have already done or are doing. So why aren’t we getting it done like they are getting it done? What is stopping us from achieving results in our field comparable to their results in their fields? In the last 70 or 80 years why have Cars, Recorded Music and Communication Technology been improved so much that they satisfy consumers’ wishes beyond what they probably ever imagined was possible, while in the same period Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Medicine have made poor progress, apart from what the Pharmaceutical Companies have contributed. Why do we Mental Health workers produce insufficient services, which are also so often ineffective, inconvenient and/or unaffordable for many people?
Why do so many people live long periods of their life, or their whole life, with a Quality of Life of only 1 or 2 or 3 out of 10 because of unresolved Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol issues? Some people would say it is due to insufficient funding of Mental Health Services and certainly I agree that in the last 3 years the additional funding of Psychological Counselling in Australia through Medicare has been a very wonderful step forward and something that obviously needed to be done. However I regret to say that I think that Governments could pour large amounts of money into our present Mental Health Systems and not many more Mentally Sick, Injured or Drug or Alcohol Addicted people would be better off. We need new and much better methods and systems.
It has been said that if Abraham Lincoln came back today the method of diagnosing his depression would be little different from what it was 150 years ago. He would also probably find himself on a long waiting list. His treatment would be very much better today than it was 150 years ago, but that would nearly all be due to Pharmaceutical Industry advances rather than to improvements in other forms of Mental Health Treatment.
Psychologists, G.P.’s and Psychiatrists spend 6 to 12 or more years studying and training and usually work very hard in a stressful and sometimes nasty and dangerous field, so they do make a very substantial effort; but far too often their methods are very time consuming and too “Expert Intensive”, their results are very slow, only partial improvements are achieved and those improvements often don’t last; and this slowness and need for highly trained costly experts makes Mental Health Care unaffordable for most of the people who need it most.
We seem to be slipping further and further behind rather than getting on top of the Mental Health/Drug and Alcohol Problem. One major factor is that we spend so much time working on long neglected deeply ingrained Mental Health problems in people who have got so disturbed that they can’t be ignored any longer. We then have little time left for Prevention, Early Detection and Early Treatment, which are so much easier, quicker and more effective. Another major factor is that in Mental Health we have failed to take advantage of modern technology. Modern Technology could enable us to be much more effective and productive in our work and to help our patients to help themselves far more than they can at present. Another factor is that Mental Health is not a part of our Education System as Human Biology and Physical Education are; why not when Mental Health is so much more important?
With Mental Health I learn best by watching and listening very carefully to the troubled people who consult with me, by doing a limited amount of good quality reading, and by then further clarifying my observations, experiences and results by writing about them. When still a General Family Doctor in the 1970’s I started to write a book called “Simple Psychiatry” and learned a great deal from doing this; but I didn’t ever get to the bottom of Mental Health. In 1980 I did a 4 weeks intensive residential course at the Western Institute for Group and Family Therapy in California, with some benefit and some added confusion. I couldn’t seem to get a simple clear handle on Mental Health and couldn’t find anyone else who had a simple clear handle on Mental Health that I could learn from. It was all very complicated and I gave up writing “Simple Psychiatry” after about the 10th draft at Easter 1988 feeling as though I was never going to see clearly through what seemed to be an endless highly complicated jungle.
Drug and Alcohol Clinics are full of people with Multiple Mental Health Disorders so I began to learn a great deal more when I started to work in the Drug and Alcohol Clinic in 1997. I then learned an invaluable new way of looking at Brain Function and Mental Health Disorders at a 4 day intensive workshop on EEG Biofeedback in Brisbane in 1999. The Brain works through Electricity as well as through Chemistry and our neglect of “The Electricity Factor” has substantially lessened our ability to Assess and Treat People with Nervous Disorders.
After opening The Chemical Health Centre in May 2001 we quickly became very busy and I did my best to diagnose and treat the Mental Health Disorders and Addictions of 736 new patients in the 2002 calendar year, an average of 3 new patients every day plus many ongoing patients. These patients were mostly addicted to Heroin but there was also a fair sprinkling of everything else including Morphine, Speed, Ice, Marijuana, Benzodiazepines, Alcohol, 60 Cigarettes a day, Ecstasy and some Cocaine. We found that in approximately 60% of cases Heroin addictions were mainly secondary to underlying Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD the “Addictive Brain Disorder”) and that the ADD was nearly always untreated and undiagnosed. In the other 40% of Heroin cases the main underlying problem was usually Major Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Post Traumatic Disorders, Insomnia or Schizophrenia. But we found that regardless of which was the main problem every patient had 2, 3 or more of the other Mental Health Disorders as well, and that to get truly better all of those Disorders had to be diagnosed and successfully treated.
As I diagnosed, treated and carefully observed the progress of this great variety of troubled people my understanding of Brain Functioning, Mental Health Disorders, Chemical Cravings and Addictions grew rapidly. Also my understanding of Mental Health became much simpler and clearer. I realised that Mental Ill Health is mainly a matter of Mental Discomforts and Mental Dysfunctions. I was no longer bluffed by big Psych Words and complicated Theories. It was simple. If you have no Mental Discomforts, Distress or Pain and you are able to do all of the Mental Tasks you need to do to have a good life, then you are Mentally Healthy. Mental Ill Health is when you are troubled by Mental Discomforts, Distress or Pain, and you have Mental Dysfunctions that stop you from performing some of the Mental Functions that you need to be able to perform to have a good life e.g. to Focus and Concentrate Well, to Stay on Task and Finish Things, to Remember Things, to Make Wise Decisions, to Talk, to Laugh, to Cry, to Relax, to Sleep, to be comfortable in Crowded Places and on Public Transport, to Communicate, to have Good Relationships, to Discover the Silver Lining in every Cloud, to be Positive and to take Positive Action in Negative Circumstances.
The excellent results I now achieve daily, often with very disturbed people, give me confidence that my understanding of Mental Health is realistic. If my understanding of Nervous Disorders and Addictions was not accurate my Assessments and Treatments would not be working as well as they are and we would still be having many mystery cases which we couldn’t understand, as well as unpleasant surprises and failures, which we now seldom have.
This Blog is part of a comprehensive E Program through which I want to make available the benefits of all that I have learned from all of my past Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol patients; from many associated experiences; and from what I continue to learn through the Diagnostic Assessments, Treatments and Progress Reassessments involved in my on-going work with troubled people. I want to help anyone anywhere in the world at any time convenient to them who has access to the Internet and who has a desire to become “Mentally Healthy and Addiction Free”. I want to help troubled people to be very clear about what the Mental Discomforts/Dysfunctions are that are spoiling their life; to help them to learn to be fast learners; to help them to develop a simple clear understanding of any of the “Big 7” Common Nervous Disorders and any of the “Big 8” Commonest Addictive Drugs that trouble them; and to help them to overcome their problems in those areas so that they can live normal happy lives.
For more information go to:
www.DrBecksChecklists.com , www.ADDselfhelp.com and www.DrNeilBeck.com
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