Mental Health Symposium Started

The 'Mental Health Symposium' organized by Moodist Psychiatry and Neurology Hospital with Moodist Academy started. The opening speech of the symposium, which will be held with the participation of 44 scientists, was Prof. Dr. It was made by Kültegin Ögel.

Speaking at the awareness (mindfulness) conference at the symposium, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Kültegin Ögel gave important information about the use of elements of mindfulness therapy in psychotherapy. Stating that mindfulness therapy has become widespread in recent years, Prof. Dr. Kültegin Ögel said, “This is because it is beneficial in mental health problems. Mindfullness is actually an education area on its own. It is not an easily learned therapy method, but mindfulness is a way of life. Therefore, such a wide education is required. You have to implement this lifestyle in your own life so that it can pass on to other people, ”he said.

Turkey's leading mental health experts, Moodist Mental Health Symposium held online met on the first day. The symposium, which will last for 3 days, was held by Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. It started today with Kültegin Ögel's conference on awareness. Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Kültegin Ögel talked about the elements of mindfulness.

Emphasizing that although focusing on the present, lack of judgment, distancing, accepting and experiencing are not all elements of awareness, these 5 elements are methods used to facilitate understanding and understanding. Dr. Kültegin Ögel explained how each element is used in therapy, what it does, and how the skill of focusing on the present can be used in therapy.

Focus on the present

Focusing is actually focusing on that moment rather than concentrating it. I mean, it is not about washing dishes by saying that I will be distracted and my anxiety will be reduced. Paying attention to the dishes if you are washing the dishes, or paying attention to the tea if you are drinking tea. A receptive attention is focusing on the sensations that you feel where you are, not creating brand new sensations. Focusing on the present actually reduces the burden of the future and the past. Therefore, this is one of the most important reasons why it is good for mental problems. For example, we often see a lack of focus on the present in people who enjoy nothing, research shows this. For example, when sitting among the flowers in the garden, thinking about the meaning of this or tomorrow, thinking about the past, he cannot enjoy that moment. Or if you say “oh my dear, how will I go to work tomorrow” while watching a snowfall, then you cannot enjoy the snowfall. However, if you focus on that moment, what you see and feel during the snowfall, then you will start enjoying that moment. Also, the reason to constantly and repeatedly think about a thought is to live in the past and the future. In other words, those who have thoughts like I wish I did not do this, I wish it were like this are not very aware of what was happening at that moment. Focusing on the present is an important factor in stopping ruminative thoughts. Focusing on the present is useful in depression. Thoughts like will I get sick or die are thoughts for the future. Thoughts like I wish I didn't smoke but my lungs weren't like this are also thoughts of the past. However, there are many things to do at that time.

Lack of judgment

Non-judgment is also a very important factor for awareness. The source of pain is not the experiences themselves, but the attachment relationship established by experiences and guided by judgments. Judgment is one of the most important elements of mindfulness therapy. For example, in depression, it is negative thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes towards oneself. All this is the result of being judgmental. If we learn and teach about non-judgment in mindfulness therapy, then the probability of developing depression in our patient begins to decrease. Feelings of guilt, lack of self-confidence, hopelessness and pessimism are too high in depression. One of the factors that increase this is judgment. Thoughts such as why I did it this way, I wish I had not done it this way, in fact it should have been this way, are the result of judgment and judgment. When the person learns to be without judgment, these feelings of guilt and lack of self-confidence, anxiety and anxiety begin to decrease. Judgment increases anxiety, it can cause the thought that something bad will happen, I am having a heart attack. However, not every pain is a heart attack, it needs to be understood, for this, the person should be without judgment. As long as he judges himself, his situations, and his sensations, he can get into a much more negative mood. So if anxiety is not good or bad, anxiety is an emotion and if the person says that I can live with anxiety, then he / she has gained the symptom of non-judgment and this will reduce the damage done by anxiety to him / her.

Distance

Distance is also an item that is widely used in mindfulness therapy. The main point here is that mindfullness deals with the thought itself, not the content of the thought. So thought is thought. It does not investigate where this thought came from, how it came about, whether it came from childhood or as a result of feelings and thoughts. So we are dealing more with the thought or emotion itself, not with the content of the thought. This also provides distance from our own feelings and thoughts. You may wonder why I think so for hours, and there is no correct answer to this. Or there are 100 answers, these 100 answers are all right, they could all be wrong. In mindfulness therapy, we teach you to distance yourself from feelings and thoughts. Thus, the person begins to learn that his feelings and thoughts are not himself. Mindfulness does not change negative thoughts, but makes the person more aware. Therefore, the person realizes that he can change his thinking. Our brain generates many emotions and thoughts a day. We are unaware of most of them, but the more we realize, the worse we feel. We realize through mindfulness that these thoughts are the production of our mind, and learn to cope with them and learn to live together. It is necessary to understand that anxiety is not one's own. In other words, anxiety is not a part of me, it should be thought of as an element standing by me. If I am anxiety it is very difficult for me to do anything; but I can do something with my anxiety. So that's what we call distance. Distinguishing between self and my anxiety, realizing that that emotion is not us, reduces the effects of anxiety on a person's life. When we get into the event / stress, we cannot notice the event or stress very much, we are very stressed, but it is easier to cope with stress when we can look from the outside.

Accommodating to

Acceptance is also an important element of awareness. By accepting I mean accepting things that we cannot change. If there are things that can change, of course it should be worked out, but when you think that it is raining, why it is raining every day, you feel bad. But when you realize that you cannot change it and accept it or focus on that moment, it doesn't affect your life. The transformative power of acceptance comes from experiencing, accepting and seeing life as it is. When we accept life, we have the chance to cope more comfortably with the stresses that life gives us that we cannot change. People have a belief like this; If I feel pleasant, these pains will also disappear. That's why people always try to feel good. They wonder if I am fine today, how enjoyable I am. However, mindfullness is the opposite from the point of view. If a person opens himself to pain, he begins to enjoy pleasure. So if we accept our pains and troubles, yes I am troubled today, if we say okay, then our rate of pleasure will increase. Acceptance is a factor that changes the character of a person's mental state. If the thought is that I will be fine, I must be well, then the pain will continue for much longer. Acceptance makes depression change. Yes, if we say that I had mistakes in the past, rumination will also stop, and stopping rumination is a factor that will stop depression. Accepting it alone reduces the emergence of depressive thoughts. Avoiding anxiety always leads to increased anxiety. This causes anxiety to become a disease, a disorder. Not avoiding anxiety and accepting anxiety without judgment will reduce the power of anxiety and prevent it from becoming a disorder.

Experience

Experiencing is linked to the other four elements. Negative experience is not pushed and turned into an enemy, it is learning to live with that experience. Suppressing experience, escaping, pushing is hostility. If you have an enemy, there is also a war. By recognizing, allowing them to be, and experiencing them directly, instead of making enemies, we can eliminate the negative side that these experiences bring to us. So let this be what we live in; When you say let me see it, watch it and experience it directly, we start not to experience the negativity of the experience. We call this learning from experience or relating to experience. Many experiences teach us a lot, but the important thing is to be able to experience this experience and to establish a relationship with it. These bring a lot to people. Depression teaches a lot, but if you are open to learning from depression, you do. But depression is so bad, if you say the enemy then you don't learn anything from depression. This can cause the depression to recur. Experiencing is not running away. To experience is to face mental situations. Another feature that experience brings is reducing cognitive reactivity, reducing automatic responses and responsiveness. Angry and hitting the wall is a cognitive reactivity. But if I experienced that anger and learned to stay with it, I won't hit my hand against the wall. Another example is if you feel bad while walking down the street, oh why do you feel bad? However, if you experience that feeling at that moment and do not think why I feel this way, this feeling will not go further. Experience requires all mindfullness skills such as non-judgment, distance, acceptance, and focus on the present.