The 'Lasso' Effect
Do you remember those cowboys’ movies where the young and handsome man shows off in front of her sweetheart during a rodeo? He would be riding his beautiful, powerful horse and moving up in the air his lasso. Suddenly focuses on the animal he is chasing, throws his lasso and, if successful, jumps off the horse to quickly rope the calf. The animal will lay on the ground, his legs tightly bound and becoming eminently trapped and, momentarily, defenseless as it will be unable to move. I will call it the Lasso Effect.
The cowboy wins, the calf loses......
What does this really mean?
In this case I have allowed myself to use this 'image' in order to introduce a concept that, some time ago, came up in a conversation with a patient who, in the session, said that at the time he felt that he was somehow paralysed, very anxious and trapped in a situation that he thought he was unable to change. His level of 'inner resources' seemed to be barely sufficient to enable him to cope with the day to day.
This made it difficult for him to see, and connect emotionally with, the world around him. He described his emotional situation as one of being unable to move, of despair and having difficulty regulating his emotions. In his own words, he said 'I feel like I'm lying on the ground, tied up and immobilised, just like those poor steers they use in rodeos'. We elaborated on the meaning of this image and decided to refer to this harsh and painful emotional state as 'The Lasso Effect'.
Perhaps it is a good opportunity for me to mention the fact that, in the therapeutic process, I enjoy using as well as fostering, client’s creativity. Mental pictures have the power to help the internal world to somehow reveal itself into a visible form that may result as a metaphor for difficult situations, emotions as well as conflicts the client may be experiencing. Symbolic images are a good starting point to explore deep and painful issues that are too complex to be explained with just words. The process in itself can be associated with one of the aspects of the healing journey.
A bit more on this...
Let’s elaborate further on the idea of the ‘Lasso Effect’. Sometimes the building up of stress at work, home, relationships etc…may lead to a point where you simply cannot cope with everything else, i.e. you have too much ‘on your plate’. In other words, you are having a ‘rough ride’…....
You feel like a heavy load has been put on your shoulders and you find it difficult to endure the conflicting emotions these situations are putting you in. The calf in the rodeo feels overwhelmed by anxiety and fear, knowing it is trapped in this ring, running left and right to try, in vain, to escape. In our case, however, we feel that we are stuck in an inner dialogue (the ‘closed ring’) and feeling emotionally beaten.
The latter may spread rapidly affecting and distorting other ideas, situations, or events, distinct from the ones with which it was originally associated to.
The emotional response will feed the distortion and vice-versa, creating a dysfunctional vicious cycle. Falling into these ‘dark places’ is quite common but how we cope and manage to get out of these, is particular to each individual’s process.
Do these feelings sound familiar to you?
Conscious of the fact that this topic is closely related to depression and anxiety, I am deliberately avoiding the use of 'technical' terminology so that I can concentrate specifically on the lived experience. Clarifying a condition is certainly useful and important when making a plan for its treatment. Unfortunately, however, on many occasions the diagnosis tends to be interpreted by the patient as a 'label' that is etched in their mind, so much so that they may feel that their current condition defines them entirely.
This complete identification makes them say things like ‘I am a depressed person’ or ‘I am an anxious person’, rather than saying “I suffer from depression’ or ‘I suffer from anxiety’. Sadly, the former way of expression shows no differentiation between the person and the condition. But they are indeed totally different!
How can therapy help in the 'recovery' process?
Each client brings to therapy his or her own story and struggles, identity, relationships with significant others and the external world, his place in the wider society, his past, present and future. The combination of all the above makes the therapeutic process particular and unique to each individual.
When people are somehow 'stuck' in such a painful and dysfunctional vicious circle as the one described above, in my opinion the work of the therapist should be carried out in stages, i.e. discovering, analysing and elaborating the symptomatology and its causes.
Intense symptoms can be very disruptive, distractive and draining for the individual, eventually leading to neither the desire nor gathering the energy required to explore the conflict itself and its roots. Working with symptom relief helps lessen this intensity, thus opening a space in therapy to work at a deeper level.
The 'Symptomatic Relief'
This is addressed through cognitive processes and the management of behavioural strategies that bring about conscious change, such as:
- Registration of, and attention to the stimulus produced by anxiety, fear, stress or depressive feelings.
- Identifying their degree (depth and span), trying to manage or containing the distortions.
- Initiating a response and ‘cope’ through the use of certain mechanisms, to which I will refer to more in detail in a future article.
The individual's ability to recognise the benefits of the exploration of unconscious processes and the eventual existence of an 'internal conflict' is essential for the effectiveness of the therapeutic process with a psychodynamic approach. Identification, together with a deeper search for the causes of their problems, establishes a solid basis for reflection and, eventually, the discovery of alternative paths to follow during the 'recovery' process.
The therapist, through the therapeutic relationship, enables and encourages the client to get in touch with that inner conflict which, sometimes, may be experienced as ‘unthinkable', 'unspeakable' and even 'incommunicable’.
The conflict and repressed feelings in general, feed distortions which in turn, feed resistance and so on… This creates a dysfunctional vicious cycle of pain and depression.
Sometimes small alterations in our perception or level of awareness of a situation can help to bring about or induce change from a vicious to a virtuous cycle, triggering the onset of 'recovery'.
The Process
This gradual process helps us to explore, and questions, distortions through the articulation of thoughts and emotions in relation to our existence, the world around us, and our inner world. Getting in touch with, and expressing, these emotions helps to give this experience a different meaning both cognitively and emotionally. When the words are able to connect differently to the conflicting experience, they will have a different meaning, so the emotional response to the experience will also change. A sense of wholeness is achieved when the cognitive and emotional aspects of an experience, which has been repressed deep in our inner world, are brought together.
The process of examining, understanding and focusing on what needs repairing, sorting and discarding, protecting and/or nurturing, helps changing our internal structures. This change, that can be achieved through working on the enhancement of the emotional ‘repertoire’ as well as on the avoidance of repeating old dysfunctional patterns helps us, in a healthier way, to deal and come to terms with the fact that life, life as beautiful as it may be, it can be just as unfair.
The healing process takes time, courage, faith and hope. Jerome Frank stated that
Hopelessness can delay recovery or even hasten death, while mobilization of hope plays an important part in many forms of healing. Hope, it seems, is essential to life and is therefore a fundamental human need. Without hope, despair and depression take hold with devastating effects. But what is hope? One simpler definition is that hope is a confident expectation of a good future. Without a belief that good things and good experiences are still available to us, hope is lost and despair sets in.
Do not hesitate to contact me in order to help you understand depression therapy. Whichever form this disorder presents itself in, you deserve relief.