Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article points out a helpful method for combating the rising levels of mental illness in our young people: giving them the tools they need to handle it, as soon as possible.
I studied psychology in college, and one of the many things it taught me was that the many and varied forms of psychotherapy available to the public... mostly didn't work. We learned roughly a dozen schools of thought regarding the understanding and healing of the human mind. They ranged from charmingly idealistic to deeply cynical.
Of that dozen, only two stood the test of scientific rigor. The human mind is a complex and difficult thing, but these two schools of thought showed in study after study, that they reliably helped people process, understand, and move beyond their traumas and life events.
Cognitive psychology was one. It focuses on changing how you think about yourself, your life, and people and events around you. It gives you mental tools to wield against the stresses and traumas of your life. By changing the way you view situations and people, you can identify toxic situations, stress points, and self-care options. That knowledge can let you better your life and how you handle your life.
Behavior psychology was the other. It's had a few sub-schools of thought, but essentially, rather than focusing on the mind, it focuses on the behavior that springs from the mind. It teaches you how to modify your behavior, regardless of your thoughts. Training good habits, like regular hygiene, or speaking a certain way, are part of this school of thought. Getting rid of bad habits is another part. Predicting behavior within systems (like your workplace or home) is still another.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the inevitable combination of those two schools of thought. Once it was known that both worked, it was a very short logical leap to assume both should be tried at once. The results bear this out.
The normal pattern with psychotherapy is that a person tends to ignore the option of psychological help until they reach a breaking point, after which they get help and hopefully recover. This is fine, except for the fact that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Thus, the idea of teaching CBT techniques to children who are likely to need them. Obviously, some of the ideas have to be made simpler for children to grasp, and some ideas simply have to wait until some cognitive functions have developed. Still, giving at-risk children any of these tools before they develop severe depression, anxiety, and systemic chronic stress, would be invaluable to their development and health.
Y'know what this study doesn't mention? The benefits of having children educated in mental health issues. Say an autistic child is trained in how to recognize and handle depression. That child will do better in their personal fight against depression, but they may also notice when friends show similar symptoms, and be able to offer practical and useful advice to those friends. On the whole, you get healthier schools and healthier children. Those children become healthier adults. Everyone wins.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article points out a helpful method for combating the rising levels of mental illness in our young people: giving them the tools they need to handle it, as soon as possible.
I studied psychology in college, and one of the many things it taught me was that the many and varied forms of psychotherapy available to the public... mostly didn't work. We learned roughly a dozen schools of thought regarding the understanding and healing of the human mind. They ranged from charmingly idealistic to deeply cynical.
Of that dozen, only two stood the test of scientific rigor. The human mind is a complex and difficult thing, but these two schools of thought showed in study after study, that they reliably helped people process, understand, and move beyond their traumas and life events.
Cognitive psychology was one. It focuses on changing how you think about yourself, your life, and people and events around you. It gives you mental tools to wield against the stresses and traumas of your life. By changing the way you view situations and people, you can identify toxic situations, stress points, and self-care options. That knowledge can let you better your life and how you handle your life.
Behavior psychology was the other. It's had a few sub-schools of thought, but essentially, rather than focusing on the mind, it focuses on the behavior that springs from the mind. It teaches you how to modify your behavior, regardless of your thoughts. Training good habits, like regular hygiene, or speaking a certain way, are part of this school of thought. Getting rid of bad habits is another part. Predicting behavior within systems (like your workplace or home) is still another.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the inevitable combination of those two schools of thought. Once it was known that both worked, it was a very short logical leap to assume both should be tried at once. The results bear this out.
The normal pattern with psychotherapy is that a person tends to ignore the option of psychological help until they reach a breaking point, after which they get help and hopefully recover. This is fine, except for the fact that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Thus, the idea of teaching CBT techniques to children who are likely to need them. Obviously, some of the ideas have to be made simpler for children to grasp, and some ideas simply have to wait until some cognitive functions have developed. Still, giving at-risk children any of these tools before they develop severe depression, anxiety, and systemic chronic stress, would be invaluable to their development and health.
Y'know what this study doesn't mention? The benefits of having children educated in mental health issues. Say an autistic child is trained in how to recognize and handle depression. That child will do better in their personal fight against depression, but they may also notice when friends show similar symptoms, and be able to offer practical and useful advice to those friends. On the whole, you get healthier schools and healthier children. Those children become healthier adults. Everyone wins.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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