Emotional Flooding Research Articles

Validation of the Orbach & Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale (OMMP) on a drug addicted population

Recognizing the relevance of mental pain in drug addiction, this study aimed to adapt and validate the Portuguese translation of the Orbach & Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale (OMMP) on a drug addicted population and assess its psychometric properties. The study sample (N = 403) was collected from several outpatient treatment centres for drug addiction and in therapeutic communities located in the north of Portugal. The validation of the OMMP Scale followed the same method considered by the authors of the original scale. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed and did not confirm the structure of eight factors provided by the authors. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor model (labeled emptiness, irreversibility, emotional flooding, helplessness and confusion) leading to a reduction from 40 to 24 items. The OMMP-24-P showed acceptable levels for internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis indices supported the five-factor model. OMMP-24-P factors were positively correlated with measures of stress, anxiety and depression, negatively associated with quality of life, and showed small to moderate positive correlations with drug addiction severity, with exception of the helplessness factor. This study has shown the OMMP-24-P to be a valid and reliable scale for assessment and evaluation of mental pain among drug addicts. Further research should attempt to determine the contribution that mental pain can provide towards an understanding of drug addiction dynamics and other psychopathological syndromes, and thereby contribute to the development of more effective treatment programs.

Psychiatrist Crosses Finish Line Just Before Boston Blast

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Community NewsFull AccessPsychiatrist Crosses Finish Line Just Before Boston BlastMark MoranMark MoranSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:17 May 2013https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2013.5b10AbstractBrent Forester, M.D., says the Boston Marathon attack struck at an iconic city event that is not only about the runners, but about bringing the entire community together.Less than a minute after psychiatrist Brent Forester, M.D., crossed the finish line at Boston’s 117th Marathon—achieving his goal of running the race in under four hours—he heard the sound of what he knew had to be bad news. “It sounded just like a loud cannon, but I was close enough to see there was smoke and debris everywhere, and I knew this was not normal,” Forester said of the attack that killed three people and injured more than 250. “I thought possibly it was an accident, a gas main, or a furnace, but it was clearly an explosion. And I knew there would be many people dead or injured.”Forester, a geriatric psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in nearby Belmont and chair of the APA Council on Geriatric Psychiatry, was running his fourth Boston Marathon and raising money for the Alzheimer’s Association of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Brent Forester, M.D., is pictured before last month’s Boston Marathon.Brent Forester, M.D.This year he also raised money—some $3,500—for the Scholar’s Program sponsored by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) and the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation, which pairs medical students and psychiatry residents with mentors in the field and brings them to the AAGP annual meeting. Running for charity causes is a common feature of the race that has become emblematic of Boston, especially so among those who are not elite athletes, but who run for a meaningful cause and the thrill of crossing the finish line to the cheers of thousands. “The marathon, which is run on Patriots Day, is such a huge event for this city,” Forester said in an interview with Psychiatric News. “The Red Sox begin play at 11 a.m., with fans streaming out of Fenway into Kenmore Square to watch the vast majority of runners making their way to the finish line a mile away on Boylston Street. This event is not only about the runners and their individual stories, but also the hundreds of thousands of spectators lining the marathon course that make the Boston Marathon a true community spectacle from Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay. I cannot imagine running 26 miles in the middle of nowhere without the support and motivation that comes from the cheering crowds. It’s also amazing to consider that a regular runner can compete on the same course at the same time as the elite athletes from around the world, with support from the entire community. There’s an overwhelming flood of emotions when you finish.” Forester noted an especially chilling aspect of the attack that Monday: the bombs were timed to go off as those countless “regular-folk” runners were crossing the finish line, and when their family and friends were bound to be there to watch.After crossing the finish line, and after it became clear to all that something catastrophic had happened, Forester recalled a brief “stampede” of runners away from the scene. He spent the next two hours waiting to reconnect with his wife and daughter, who were driving a block from Copley Square at the time of the explosion, and two friends who had finished the marathon about 15 minutes before Forester. At the Boston Commons, he by chance spotted three residents from the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean psychiatry residency program with cell phones who helped him connect with his wife; they later made it safely out of the city and home. “Those residents were an incredibly welcome source of support and kindness amid the chaos and uncertainty of the moment,” Forester recalled.The next day in Boston was a scene of “eerie quiet,” he said, with a large section of the city being treated as a crime scene. “Local residents who live near the crime scene were not yet allowed back to their homes,” he told Psychiatric News. “I’ve never experienced something like this, and I’m not an expert in disaster psychiatry, but people here need to talk about what they have been through,” Forester emphasized. “I spoke with some of my medical students after the race, and they all wanted to do something to help. Boston’s citizens were being turned away from hospitals because they didn’t need blood at that time, though they will likely in the coming weeks. But I told the students that the injured, their families, and first responders all need a lot of emotional support.” ■ ISSUES NewArchived

The Impact of a Digital Recorder Intervention in Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for Couples: A Pilot Study to Assess Emotional Flooding

The present study explored the effectiveness of a unique intervention for couple therapy, the Canned Attitude Method (a technique developed by Brent Atkinson), which utilized a digital recorder in and between therapy sessions. Participant dyads were randomly assigned to the intervention group utilizing the digital recorders or the control group, in which Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for Couples (Atkinson in J Syst Ther 17:18–35, 1998) was conducted without the use of digital recorders. Both the intervention and the control groups were composed of five couples each for a total of 20 participants. This study hypothesized that the use of the Canned Attitude Method in couple therapy would produce a significant change in marital satisfaction, emotional flooding, and positive psychological tendencies associated with intimate relationships. Findings approached significance, demonstrating decreases in the experience of emotional flooding, gains in relationship satisfaction, and a shift towards positive attributes within the couples’ relationships.

A Flood of Emotions

A Flood of Emotions

Flood of emotions: emotional work and long-term disaster recovery

This paper uses concepts of emotion work and emotional labour to explore people’s experiences of the long-term disaster recovery process. It draws on data taken from two qualitative research projects which looked at adults’ and children’s recovery from the floods of June 2007 in Hull, UK. The paper argues that the emotional work of recovery cannot be separated from the physical and practical work of recovering the built environment. It shows that a focus on emotion work can lead to a more nuanced understanding of what recovery actually means and who is involved, leading to the identification of hidden vulnerabilities and a better understanding of the longer timescales involved in the process.

Childhood Sexual Abuse, Other Childhood Factors, and Pathways to Survivors’ Adult Relationship Quality

We were interested in understanding how the effects of childhood sexual abuse, in concert with other negative childhood experiences, were carried forward into adult romantic relationships. Data from 15,831 married or cohabitating individuals were gathered via the RELATE Questionnaire. Empirical research, attachment theory, and a general model of adult relationship quality suggested that the path from negative childhood events to adult relationship quality was mediated by a number of individual and relational affect-laden variables. Results showed that childhood abuse and other family-of-origin variables work primarily through the adult survivor’s perceptions of the events of his or her childhood. This “current impact” variable, along with the current level of depression, work through an emotion-laden relationship variable—level of emotional flooding during couple conflict—to influence the relationship quality outcome variable. Treatment implications are discussed.

Mental pain: a multidimensional operationalization and definition.

An operationalization of mental pain is presented in three studies. The first study describes the operationalization of mental pain and the factor structure of the items produced by a content analysis of self-reports yielding a scale with nine factors: the experience of irreversibility, loss of control, narcissistic wounds, emotional flooding, freezing, estrangement, confusion, social distancing, and emptiness. Study 2 tested the relationship between mental pain and depression and anxiety in a normal population. Study 3 focused on the relationship between mental pain and coping. Mental pain is conceptualized as a perception of negative changes in the self and its functions that are accompanied by negative feelings. It is suggested that it can be meaningfully applied to the study of different mental states, life conditions, and transitions in life.

Sudden Death In Disasters And Transportation Accidents: A Guide To Survival For Family Members And Friends

Revised and printed from an earlier version that is posted at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/johnweaver/ I am uncertain of the original author of the document upon which this has been based. Several years ago I received a copy of a similar document, but it had no author or source reference. After receiving it, I extensively edited and expanded it. I then shared it with survivors and with other mental health workers, many of whom are Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Services volunteer leaders. Based upon the feedback I received, major revisions were made and it is now in use in several places. To learn more about the American Red Cross or to donate to the Disaster Relief Fund, please call your local ARC chapter or this toll free number: 1-800-842-2200 Someone you love has died. It is an understatement to say that your life has been changed forever. Your pain and perhaps anger are deep and it will be a very long time until you can resolve the strong mix of feelings you are now experiencing. Getting from where you are now to a point of resolution about your loss will take a great deal of hard work and determination on your part, as well as the support of one or more caring listeners. Right now, there is a flood of thoughts, emotions, and reminders of the person(s) you lost. You should expect to have crying spells, mood swings, sleep difficulties, and troubling memories and dreams. This painful array of feelings and reactions is often so intense that people may wonder whether they are losing their minds. All of this is actually a normal part of coming to terms with a traumatic loss like this one. You may have had a previous experience like this earlier in your life, having suddenly lost someone close to you. If so, you will be able to use what you learned from that experience to help you handle this one. Each of us must ultimately resolve these horrendous life experiences in our own way. THE MOST COMMON FEELINGS OF GRIEF The process of mourning the loss and healing the emotional wounds from such an event generally takes at least one year and, in most cases, it will continue for several more years. It can require even more time if mourning is complicated and delayed by the stress associated with any related issues (e.g., lawsuits or criminal trials). The following information is offered to help you better understand some reactions you may be having now and learn a bit about the reactions you may face in the future. Much of this may not make sense to you right now, but keep it handy and refer to it whenever times are tough. The messages will gradually become clearer as you experience typical stages in the healing process.

Review of Expressing emotion: Myths, realities, and therapeutic strategies.

EILEEN KENNEDY MOORE and JEANNE C. WATSON Expressing Emotion: Myths, Realities, and Therapeutic Strategies New York: The Guilford Press, 1999, 365 pp. (ISBN 1-57230-473-1, US$40, Hardcover) Reviewed by SUSAN M. JOHNSON This book is a timely exposition of the theory, research, and clinical techniques associated with emotion and the expression of emotion. It is a particularly relevant text for clinical psychology in the context of recent discussions of emotional intelligence and the limitations of purely behavioural or cognitive perspectives on human functioning and therapeutic change. It deals with the myths about emotional expression that have permeated the field, such as that emotion is dangerous and to be avoided in therapy, or that the cathartic ventilation of emotion drains negativity much like lancing a wound. This book provides a rich contrast to such simplistic, all or nothing positions on emotion that have so often dominated psychological thinking, especially in the literature on psychotherapy. The book begins with a process model of expression/nonexpression that explicates the various levels of expressiveness and the variables, such as negative attitudes towards emotion that operate at various points in the process. It also discusses the various components of emotion and key themes such as the interplay between cognition and emotion. The second part of the book focuses upon intrapersonal emotional processes. Here, as elsewhere in the book, the authors intersperse clear discussion and argument with relevant research findings and cogent clinical examples. The authors discuss the concept of catharsis and the positive and negative possibilities in the expression of anger, crying, and the expression of pain arising from trauma. They acknowledge the complexities of dealing with emotion: that it is, for example, a sign of and a way of coping with distress. They point out that expression can prolong and intensify negative emotions or expression can change negative emotions. On the positive side, the expression of emotion such as anger can foster cognitive reinterpretation, the creation of new meanings, and interpersonal changes such as more assertive behaviours. The authors point out the costs of denying and inhibiting emotions as well as the costs of emotional flooding. In general, the ability to be aware and voice one's emotions while keeping them within manageable limits provides new insight and a new sense of direction to individuals and can be essential in regulating their social relationships. The authors suggest that emotion is like an internal compass directing us towards adaptive coping efforts and the achievement of life goals. The third part of the book deals with interpersonal processes including how emotional behaviour is socialized in the family context and the influence of attachment on emotional expression. It then goes on to focus on the expression of love and offers a very balanced perspective of the differences between men and women in this area, concluding that they are more similar than different. In general, the authors conclusions are intriguing and pertinent. For example, they conclude that it may be more important for relationship satisfaction that partners agree on a style of relating than that they reach some specific level of communication skills. Similarity in skill level may be more important than high levels of skill. …

The Emotional Transition to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

AFTER 20 YEARS AS AN OPERATING ROOM NURSE, I WAS ready for a change. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was an area of practice that I had always been interested in. The NICU at my hospital had expanded and was willing to train someone with no previous experience, and I was eager to learn. I was prepared to become a novice again, to wrestle with the frustrations and struggles of starting over in a new field. What I was not prepared for was the flood of emotions that I was to experience.

The Meaning of Life-threatening Disease in the Area of the Head and Neck

The revelation that one has a life-threatening disease creates a sentient flood of emotions that infuse the patient with fear, confusion and depression. It contains the spectrum of pain, suffering, deterioration of life-style, crippling and possible annihilation. This burden falls first on the patient and his family, and then on his doctor. The drama is a dilemma of cure or palliation wrapped about the emotional core of that person with science, drugs, technology, mysticism and hope. The ongoing process is the most dynamic encounter of being alive, and before it is finished will have used and drained a large percentage of the vulnerable emotions that identify our humanness. An overview of these involvements as they relate to the area of the head and neck shows how complex the process has become, the remoteness of its solution and the truth of its experience.

Emotional Flooding. New Directions in Psychotherapy, Vol. I

Emotional Flooding. New Directions in Psychotherapy, Vol. I