Alternatives healing methods to medicine

[vivek]

Hello all,

I suffer from ocd,post traumatic disorder and some say bipolar disorder and/or borderline personailty.

My question is if any of the alternative methods of healing are effective and real.

I have been on medicine and tradtional therapy for years and frankly I want to do these things and fix myself but have no idea of the validity of these modalties or approaches to mental health, please help.

Hypnotherapy / NLP / Thoughtfield / EMDR / EFT

Motivational cds / subliminal cds

Color an sound therapies

Inner child work / rebirth / past life regression

Shamanistic soul retrieval / journeying

Meditation / Mindfullness / zen

Tai chi / chi kung / yoga / pilates

Herbs / Bach Remedies / Ayurveda / Amino acids

Spirituality / centering Prayer / chanting / relax response

lay on hands therapies= reiki, energy work etc.

body psychotherapies = craniosacral, feldenkrais, rubenfeld, alxander technique, bio energetics, etc.

Acupuncture / shiatsu / tuina

I know it's alot but through my research these keep coming up in healing from mental illness.

Please help, I dont want to waste money and due to my illness I can be naive I guess.

My mothers theory is they all have one thing in common and that is belief and it is I who can heal myself with the power of my mind, meds and psychotherapy, but I have been trying that for years...I am about to give up at this point.

How does everyone here proceed to treat someone like me?

[tBeck]

Some of these things might work - some of them might not work. Your guess is as good as anyones.

The reason why noone can really say if they "work" or not is because of hte lack of scientific data to say whether or not these things work.

It is also worth it to note that practitioners of alternative, or new age treatments are often not licensed by a state board, not accountable to anyone, and you will have no recourse if the treatment goes wrong.

This is not to say you shouldnt try something. It is to say that you should do an awful lot of research before you try things. When I say research I mean look for both the potential benefits, and the potential harmful effects before you make your decision.

You should also ask yourself - What is the worst possible reaction I might have to this treatment I am thinking about?

Once you have that answer you can look out for negative outcomes in yourself - anticipate them before they get out of hand. You can also make a more qualified decision when you have as much info as possible.