Primal Scream Therapy... Options

[Randy]

I'm tempted to try it...could use a good dose of screaming.

Think they'll let me bring my kids in so I can have someone to scream at?

Okay...I'm just being silly.

[meem]

If you're serious (not about the kids, duhhhh), I'd sure look into it carefully, and talk with your tdoc about it. It could trigger stuff you're not ready for.

[Rosebud]

I had a therapist recommend this, but when I said I wouldn't do it, she said you can do it "silently" and still have the same relief with it. It works.

[Randy]

I had a therapist recommend this, but when I said I wouldn't do it, she said you can do it "silently" and still have the same relief with it. It works.

How can you silently scream? Maybe if you're a bunny?? Looks like it's time to change my avatar again!!

[meem]

well, actually, I developed quite the talent for silent screaming when I was little. I couldn't let anyone in the family know my pain, but had to express it. I don't know how or if it helped me at all. I certainly fooled them, though. they thought I was too emotional, imaginative [in a negative way] and opinionated, but they didn't know more than the tip of the iceberg. More often I was the cute delightful child in public, family and otherwise.

I sure remember silent screaming. I guess, on further reflection, it did help. I suspect that my feelings were too strong to cope with otherwise, and shame was well-entrenched by about age 6.

I have tried a version of Primal Scream therapy for several years, not with the guidance of a tdoc. It was incredibly powerful, but I was too emotionally fragile to cope with the stuff that came up as a result. I suspect it did more harm than good. I thought I was finding the real me but further confused myself and reinforced some fundamental denials I'm now struggling to sort out.

I just think a good tdoc whom you trust should be in the picture when you undertake such intense therapy.

On a lighter note, I LOVE your avatar! It's just so....you....Randy.

[forDeeperRoots]

primal scream therapy? never heard of it. by the name i assumed it meant just screaming to let off steam but after reading the posts.. it sounds like there is more to it.. correct me if i'm wrong?

[Randy]

No, it's much more formalized than that. The belief is that mental illness is caused by suppressing out emotional reaction to childhood trauma. In Primal Scream Therapy, you try to relive that trauma, only this time instead of suppressing it, you scream through the pain and "let it out". It's very intense. (No, I never tried it...)

[forDeeperRoots]

i could see the truth in that statement... for borderline personality its the belief that you percieve things differently than the way they were or are..... *shrug* so i guess its like things seemed bigger than they were and so i could have been traumatized by what i percieved to be true and suppressed the emotional reaction.. which i did..

[meem]

I used to believe in that kind of therapeutic release of emotions. Very much so.

But now I've found that there's a huge iceburg under my efforts and beliefs and Know that I'm not ready for the stark face-to-face with the traumatic past. My tdoc says that they used to do psychotherapy that way and found that ppl were being re-traumatized without the emotional skills to handle it.

I think that a well-trained experienced tdoc needs to guide us through some of our issues.