I love this. Thank you so much for writing this essay! I'm a mental health writer by profession, and I often come across mindfulness as the Ultimate Solution to all mental illnesses. It frustrated me so much. Do I have to meditate every morning to feel normal when I leave the house? Is that it? Is that the solution that will help me overcome all my social and environmental disabilities so that I can, just like my friends, blend in everywhere and be normal and be okay? Nobody really talks about mindfulness as something that's uncomfortable. Being mindful is uncomfortable; it's not an escape from reality like I imagined, and I learnt that today. I hope people stop pushing mindfulness and acceptance as the only solution and instead present the idea with more nuance like you have done here. Thanks again!
Please be aware that some of us experienced DBT as violent and traumatic forced treatment akin to ABA in the Autism world. I know ABA has helped some people but many people feel it is unethical and harmful.
More and more people forced into DBT are writing about the deeply invalidating and iatrogenic nature of this treatment. It’s “success” like ABA is mostly based on studies of behavioral changes that make friends and family lives easier, not the service user’s quality of life.
Again, if it’s something someone chooses freely and finds helpful, than more power to them. But like most behavioral “therapies”, it’s very concerning in its goals and who it serves.
(Also ML’s misunderstanding of dialectics is so bad it’s practically an abuse of the term, which is a shame because it’s an incredibly useful concept. It’s like she misread a cliff notes edition of Marx’s Hegel…)
Thanks for your comment. I know DBT has been forcibly imposed on a lot of people with personality disorder diagnoses, too, often with very similar goals in mind -- forcing compliance and downplaying of the patients' emotions. Like CBT, DBT can be dangerous for people who are already primed by society to discount their own feelings.
This essay hit me in the gut. I really appreciate all that you share already Devon but this piece hit a very deep nerve. Perhaps because I’m reconciling still a late adult diagnosis of ADHD… I’m unsure how to integrate that, as I also navigate my biggest burnout/physical and mental breakdown and realise how much I’ve struggled with my mental health over my adult life (twenties so far). I resonate with parts of your experience of the world deeply. The world is so overwhelming for me too. And the present moment is hard to occupy. I learned to disassociate to be in my own world and imagination very young (a trauma response to the volatile environment I grew up in, also) and I have lived most of my life cerebrally vs embodied. Your essay moved me. Thank you for your writing and for your work.
Wow, just wow, I have never related to a blog so much until now, thank you for talking about mindfulness in this manner, it is so much better than what I’ve been taught.
I love this. Thank you so much for writing this essay! I'm a mental health writer by profession, and I often come across mindfulness as the Ultimate Solution to all mental illnesses. It frustrated me so much. Do I have to meditate every morning to feel normal when I leave the house? Is that it? Is that the solution that will help me overcome all my social and environmental disabilities so that I can, just like my friends, blend in everywhere and be normal and be okay? Nobody really talks about mindfulness as something that's uncomfortable. Being mindful is uncomfortable; it's not an escape from reality like I imagined, and I learnt that today. I hope people stop pushing mindfulness and acceptance as the only solution and instead present the idea with more nuance like you have done here. Thanks again!
I’m glad it helped you.
Please be aware that some of us experienced DBT as violent and traumatic forced treatment akin to ABA in the Autism world. I know ABA has helped some people but many people feel it is unethical and harmful.
More and more people forced into DBT are writing about the deeply invalidating and iatrogenic nature of this treatment. It’s “success” like ABA is mostly based on studies of behavioral changes that make friends and family lives easier, not the service user’s quality of life.
Again, if it’s something someone chooses freely and finds helpful, than more power to them. But like most behavioral “therapies”, it’s very concerning in its goals and who it serves.
(Also ML’s misunderstanding of dialectics is so bad it’s practically an abuse of the term, which is a shame because it’s an incredibly useful concept. It’s like she misread a cliff notes edition of Marx’s Hegel…)
Thanks for your comment. I know DBT has been forcibly imposed on a lot of people with personality disorder diagnoses, too, often with very similar goals in mind -- forcing compliance and downplaying of the patients' emotions. Like CBT, DBT can be dangerous for people who are already primed by society to discount their own feelings.
This essay hit me in the gut. I really appreciate all that you share already Devon but this piece hit a very deep nerve. Perhaps because I’m reconciling still a late adult diagnosis of ADHD… I’m unsure how to integrate that, as I also navigate my biggest burnout/physical and mental breakdown and realise how much I’ve struggled with my mental health over my adult life (twenties so far). I resonate with parts of your experience of the world deeply. The world is so overwhelming for me too. And the present moment is hard to occupy. I learned to disassociate to be in my own world and imagination very young (a trauma response to the volatile environment I grew up in, also) and I have lived most of my life cerebrally vs embodied. Your essay moved me. Thank you for your writing and for your work.
Thank you for sharing your process.
Wow, just wow, I have never related to a blog so much until now, thank you for talking about mindfulness in this manner, it is so much better than what I’ve been taught.