Alternative mental health therapy can be an invaluable addition to your treatment plan, both alone or combined with medication or talk therapy. Not only can alternative therapies help alleviate symptoms like anxiety or depression, they may also assist in alleviating them altogether.
Recent national survey findings demonstrated that complementary and alternative therapies were more often utilized by those experiencing self-described anxiety attacks or severe depression than conventional treatments, with similar proportions finding these therapies very helpful as those who reported using traditional therapies.
Light therapy
Light therapy is an alternative mental health therapy which uses bright visible light (approximately 10,000 lux) to alleviate depression symptoms. You are exposed to this light daily for 30 minutes, typically early morning, usually for at least a month at a time – most commonly to help combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Light therapy may be used on its own or combined with antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for maximum effectiveness.
Light therapy uses light to reset circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycle, helping improve mood while stimulating production of serotonin, an hormone linked with improved mood and reduced feelings of depression. However, light therapy should not be seen as a standalone cure and professional advice should always be sought before commencing with any such treatments.
Hallucinogen-assisted therapy (HAT) is an unconventional mental health approach which utilizes psychoactive substances, such as psilocybin, MDMA or Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Ecstasy), to enhance traditional therapy techniques. Though HAT may not be widely available or easily accessible, it can be an invaluable asset when treating depression and other mental illnesses.
Alternative to Meds Center is a holistic treatment facility offering various alternative therapies, such as light therapy and EMDR. Compared to traditional talk therapy, these alternative approaches tend to be less costly with few side effects compared to their counterparts; many therapies can even be performed from home so no additional travel needs to take place.
Finding an alternative therapy solution tailored to you depends on many factors, including personal preferences, lifestyle choices and overall health concerns. You may wish to explore one or more therapies based on the nature and severity of your symptoms.
Find more information about alternative mental health therapies at your local library, bookstore or natural health food store. It is wise to do your research prior to beginning any treatments; not all have been proven effective or safe for everyone. In most instances, alternative therapies work better when combined with conventional mental health treatment methods like talk therapy and medication.
Hallucinogen-assisted therapy
Psychoedelic use has seen a steady increase in recent years, and clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy for treating mental disorders. Compared to traditional medications that require regular follow-up visits and can have adverse side effects, psychedelics offer many potential advantages over the usual approach in terms of introspection, emotional processing and perception shifts compared to their counterparts – with many users even benefiting from long-term healing of trauma by taking these drugs; their long history includes helping victims of trauma recover. Mental health professionals increasingly use them in treating conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); among these treatments is one called psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy which combines hallucinogen use alongside therapy techniques in order to achieve results faster.
Psychodrugs-assisted psychotherapy entails giving pharmaceutical-grade MDMA, psilocybin, LSD or ibogaine in a therapeutic setting administered by trained clinicians and followed up by individual psychotherapy sessions tailored specifically for their experience. A trained therapist guides their client through what may be an emotionally intense drug experience that may trigger memories or feelings they had forgotten or suppressed altogether.
Not everyone should undergo this form of therapy. Before you decide to try ketamine-assisted therapy for instance, ensure you undergo screening from a medical provider and undergo an in-depth safety assessment. Furthermore, ensure the therapist you choose is fully trained in using this approach (for instance if interested in this kind of approach find someone affiliated with American Society of Ketamine Physicians Psychotherapists and Practitioners (ASKP3)).
Psilocybin and ketamine may not yet be FDA-approved medications, but their promise in treating depression remains. A single dose of psilocybin has even been found to cause complete remission among patients suffering severe depression. While research is encouraging, it will take time for these therapies to become practical treatments.
Experts SELF spoke with estimated that it may take 4-10 years for these drugs to receive FDA approval, so until then the best way to experiment with these substances is through clinical trials – this ensures your safety while making sure you gain as much from your experience as possible. Self-administered versions may cause adverse side effects.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
TMS therapy is a noninvasive and safe form of brain stimulation that has proven successful at treating various mental health conditions, including depression and bipolar disorder. TMS targets specific areas in the brain associated with specific conditions; in addition to changing nerve cell activity which could improve both mood and cognitive performance.
At each session, a physician will position a coil over the brain and administer pulses of magnetic energy, stimulating brain cortexes to influence neural circuits responsible for mood regulation. Once activated, frequency and intensity adjustments of magnetic pulses will optimize treatment outcomes; after each session patients will feel relief from symptoms. TMS therapy boasts an impressive success rate while having minimal side effects; sessions last only minutes at most with some experiencing mild headaches or lightheadedness lasting only briefly following therapy – these side effects often fade quickly following their respective sessions.
TMS has proven itself as a safe and effective treatment for depression as well as other mental health conditions like anxiety or OCD. Its therapeutic benefit extends to patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression. TMS may also help alleviate PTSD symptoms or Tinnitus while improving motor dysfunction from neurological conditions like Parkinson’s Disease or Multiple Sclerosis.
Research surrounding TMS has demonstrated its effect on neuroplasticity – or the brain’s capacity for change – through different TMS treatments protocols that target different regions. For instance, depression-specific TMS often targets dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region which regulates mood. TMS treatments can be used alone or combined with other therapies. It can even be administered at home using simple devices approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulators (CESs).
TMS has been subjected to multiple clinical trials and is now used as an effective therapy to treat many mental conditions, including major depressive disorder and migraine headaches. Furthermore, it has proven itself an effective remedy for auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia, reducing cravings for addictive substances like nicotine while managing chronic pain more effectively than ever before.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy technique designed to help individuals work through difficult memories or experiences more easily, including traumatizing ones. Due to its proven efficacy, it has become popular as an alternative mental health therapy treatment option for conditions and disorders including anxiety and depression. EMDR works by connecting one’s body and mind physiology so they can process trauma while lessening negative emotions more efficiently.
An EMDR session starts by asking you to recall any positive and negative beliefs about yourself and your experience, themes you want to focus on during reprocessing, physical responses that occur when recalling these memories, as well as any physical and emotional responses they elicit in you. Your healthcare provider may then encourage you to pay attention to how your physical body responds.
At this phase, your healthcare provider will ask you to recall the traumatic memory and its accompanying emotions, describe more fully what transpired during the incident, and express what beliefs about yourself you wish to hold going forward. While your healthcare provider moves their hands from side to side in front of your face focusing on that memory; lights or auditory cues may also be used for bilateral stimulation.
After several minutes have passed, your healthcare provider will ask you to track any changes in your thoughts or emotions to assess whether the memory was successfully processed. After this comes the installation phase wherein you focus on developing positive beliefs for moving forward.
As is natural when recalling trauma-inducing memories, emotions can arise during EMDR sessions. Your therapist should expect these reactions and will give you tools to manage them if necessary. Studies have proven EMDR effective at treating PTSD symptoms as well as alleviating other mental health conditions; one small study on Syrian refugees with PTSD found that after receiving EMDR therapy 61 percent no longer met criteria for the disorder.
