From the biological point of view, depression is cause by the neurotransmitters in the brain. The chemicals in the brain such as, Serotonin, Norepinephrine and Dopamine become imbalanced. A biologist would treat this by giving prescription drugs however the drugs will not cure the depression they can only balance out the hormones.
Psychotropic medications are used to change the levels of the neurochemistry in the brain such as Tranquilizers, antidepressants; Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, these are Looking at humanistic approach they would treat depression in a very different way.
Depression-Guide.com says humanistic therapists are "genuine, non-judgmental, and empathic, and use open-ended responses, reflective listening, and tentative interpretations to promote client self-understanding, acceptance and actualization." .
The humanistic approach would help an individual by building their self-esteem.
A humanist would say that an individual may be depressed because they are not reaching the right level of needs. They use a person centred approach. They would use counselling sessions to help the individual find their own way out of the depression. The Humanistic approach states that depression is caused by stresses from life and it stops people from fulfilling their full potential. Humanist believes that someone with depression needs support and someone to be there for them and listen. The therapist would encourage them to be optimistic on life because humanists believe that all people can achieve anything if they want to.
I am now going to look at another illness, looking again at the similarities and differences each approach has on it.
Cancer…. is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body according to
The biological and the humanist approach would deal with this illness in total opposite ways, Treatment such as chemotherapy would be used to treat cancer, the patient with cancer would need medical treatment because of the impact of cancer on the body, in some cases the biological approach would be the only way to deal with cancer, to keep the individual alive.
The humanistic approach would be beneficial alongside the medical treatment because the individual may be feeling very low after all the treatment and the change of life cancer may have had on the person. A humanist could help the person feel themselves and build their self-esteem back up after the shock of having cancer.
The last illness I am going to look at is Drug addiction… I’m going consider a person who is addicted to heroin.
Heroin… This is supplied in a powder form and is injected in the veins. When this has been performed the chemicals in the brain changes, making the person who is doing this feel really good. This is because of the increase of certain chemicals. The more the individual uses the drugs the less the body will naturally be able to produce these chemicals such as dopamine; therefore the person will feel extremely low. The individual then has a craving to do the drug again and again so they can feel this good feeling. The person then has an addiction and can only relate feeling good to taking drugs.
The biological approach would use methadone to help a person addicted to heroin to help them get their lives back together. Methadone is a substitute for the heroin, this will block out cravings the person may get and helps with withdrawal symptoms. Taking substitute medication does not always work though as some people relapse and go back on to the drugs.
The humanist approach adopts a different method in helping addicts to stop using heroin, this includes, Group therapy and counselling; they would help the individual to help themselves. Overtime this way could stop the addiction without medical treatment.
By using the humanistic approach, the councillor may help the patient to look at their actual self and how they are at the time and then talk to them about their ideal self by talking to them about what person they would like to be. The councillor could then help the person get to where they want to be.
There are rehab centres that an addict could go to and some of these centres use the biological approach and the humanistic approach together to help their patients; they would give medication to help the person cope with the withdrawal symptoms at first so it wouldn’t be too much of a shock to the body when stopping the addiction. Then after a few months when the body get use to not having the drugs anymore the medication can gradually be reduced and then that’s when the humanistic approach comes in. The persons self-esteem will be very low at this time as they may have lost a lot of friends through the addiction and maybe there home. The individual may have lost everything; this will place the person at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy meaning his basic needs are not met. The individual would be feeling unhappy at this point and not feeling very good about themself.
Abraham Maslow believes that we are all looking to become the best we can be, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically, calling this self-actualisation. His theory to humanism is known as the hierarchy of needs. Maslow states that in order to reach actualisation we need to have progressed through five stages. He said that all our psychological needs must to be met at each stage to move on up to the next step. When all our basic needs are met like living comfortably, being fed well, we can move up to the next step which is feeling safe and secure. When this stage is met we would move up to the next step which would be our emotional needs, like being loved and the need to belong, again once this stage is met we would move up to the next step with is receiving respect from others and respecting yourself, this stage is where you feel really good about yourself. When these stages are met on the hierarchy finally the person can reach actualisation.
As shown, throughout this essay, the humanistic and the biological approach are totally different and aim to provide different ways of treating conditions although they can work very well together when applied to a person’s health needs.
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www.mhra.gov.uk/.../Selectiveserotoninre-uptakeinhibitors/index.ht...