William Thomas

About

The myth I would like to retire is that relaxation techniques are the answer here. People are handed breathing exercises and told to practice them, and when that does not work they conclude the problem is them rather than the prescription. The prescription was wrong. Hypervigilance is not a habit of tension that can be undone by relaxing on purpose. It is a setting adjusted upward for good reason, and it comes down only when the reason is addressed. We work on the reason. Relaxation may well be pleasant along the way, and it was never going to be sufficient on its own. I trained inside community mental health, where I met a great many people who had been given a leaflet and considered treated. A leaflet is not treatment. If breathing exercises did not fix it, that is not a failure on your part.