THE ANOIKSIS EXPERIMENT
ANOIKSIS...BECAUSE OUR MINDS MATTER...
FOR (SELF)EMPAT
IMAGINE
WE ARE NOT ALONE
OUR STORIES MATTER
WHAT STORY ARE WE TELLING OURSELVES NOW?
CHANGE IS NEEDED
BRIDGING THE EMPATHY GAP
EXPERIMENT?
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
JOIN THE EXPERIMENT
Okay, I'm Curious
WHAT IS ANOIKSIS?
MEANING
Psychosis may be seen as the most extreme condition of distress
We are working towards a new premise for psychosis that is inspired by Anoiksis. In which we take data from lived experiences as crucial. Anoiksis is important because it moves beyond a diagnosis, challenging us to look at what it may feel like to be in Anoiksis.
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A SUMMARY OF THE ANOIKSIS THEORY
AND HOW TO USE IT
THE ANOIKSIS THEORY consists of five exploration themes or 'Five Pillars of Consideration'. By identifying these themes and how they are related, we can recognize and shift the system. When we learn to navigate the map that this theory represents, the state of Anoiksis provides clues for deeper, fundamental needs. By identifying and serving those needs, it’s possible to move through disruptive and transformative states. There is no set process or a specific order in which to explore these themes. Depending on the situation, it may be more relevant to first look at: ‘what is needed’ or ‘what has happened?’
WHAT IS EXPERIENCED?
The key: Identify how senses and perceptions are altered in an experience of Anoiksis.
In (Deep) Anoiksis our sense-perceptions alter more extremely - they can become hypersensitive or hypo sensitive.
EXAMPLE: Early recognition may be in experiences of colors changing. They may become more vivid or they may seem dull and off. Background noises may come to the foreground. We may experience time running faster or slower. We may become thin-skinned. Emotions or words may hit us very hard.
TIP: Think of it as suddenly being sensitive to sunlight. The light of the sun has not changed, the sensitivity to the light has changed.
WHAT MEANING IS MADE?
The key: Discover the link between sensory experience and the story created and distinguish metaphorical significance from literal sense-making.
We rely so heavily on our senses that it does not occur to us to question them. Instead, we create stories, even if that story seems unusual because it supports our experience. In this stage, we can learn to distinguish metaphorical significance from what may feel like a literal truth.
EXAMPLE: Prevention can be found in understanding the play between the senses and the metaphorical and literal (underlying) meaning that is created. See a literal thought that “someone is poisoning me” as potentially born from a heightened sense of taste. Investigate personal significance: feeling unsafe? Alone or abandoned? Recognize the underlying need and act on it
TIP: Think of it as ‘WAKING DREAMING’ in which all associations can be experienced as literal or metaphorical realities.
WHAT DISRUPTION HAPPENED?
The key: identify high impact life events and discover links between these events, sensory experiences, and meaning created.
In a model of Anoiksis, we enter the altered sense state of waking-dreaming in reaction to a disruption in our spiritual/mental/physical/emotional stories. A series of high-impact life events may instigate such a disruption.
EXAMPLE: Being in love. Deep loneliness. Significant loss or death. Not fitting in. A broken heart, love-sickness, a messy divorce. Moving away from loved ones, forced migration, moving to a strange city, or a trip abroad.
TIP: Positive high-impact life events can be just as impactful
WHAT VULNERABILITIES?
The key: identify how certain internal and external bio-psycho-social triggers influence altered sense-perception and meaning-making. Discover links between triggers and high-impact events.
In an Anoiksis Model, there are several major risk factors that (speculatively) influence the evolution of high-impact life events.
EXAMPLE: Sleep disruption, chronic stress, hormonal disruptions (puberty, menopause, pregnancy) nutritional disruption (vitamin deficiency), intergenerational trauma, fetus development, medicine, recreational drugs, poor nutrition, vitamin deficiency.
TIP: Think of Anoiksis as a system, imagine a knot of string. Pull-on one loop and all the others may follow…they are interconnected and often feedback on each other. Focus on the system, on the phenomena, and how they relate. Don't focus solely on symptoms.
WHAT NEEDS?
The Key: Identify the deeper, core needs by piecing together information from all five themes. Create ways to practically serve those needs.
Deeply ingrained in the stories of our minds, bodies, and spirits lay our cultural metaphorical and literal influences in relation to our needs. The clues we have gathered from the previous themes - how our senses change, the stories we create, what disruption events happened, and our triggers - can help us discover what we need.
EXAMPLE: Needs can be basic such as financial security, healthy nutrition, safe shelter, or loving connections. When we are followed by the FBI, we may hold a need to feel safe. How to help a person feel safe? Needs are diverse. Some need to suppress experiences. Some need to make art. It is the job of ourselves, and our carers to listen to those needs and act.
TIP: Engage in authentic Deep Listening. Under a symbolic need is a need, is a need. Ask the same question 5 x and you will get a different answer.
Are you ready to deep dive into understanding psychosis?
"This is really good [...] So clear and so important. I don't think I remember reading something so comprehensive about the experience of psychosis. I felt it was really connected to my own experiences, and also deeply resonates with the theories I found myself more connected to. I really hope you get this published. [...] I think there are very few clinicians that understand the experience of psychosis... [...] your work is priceless." - Renana
WHY THE ANOIKSIS MAP?
BREAKING OUTDATED MYTHS ABOUT PSYCHOSIS
When we can’t understand it's harder to connect. When we don’t connect, we’re left to our own assumptions, fears, and outdated myths. Like these:
MYTH: Psychosis as only a destructive phenomenon, one that should be avoided at all costs, as deteriorating the brain each time someone enters into this state.
TO: Psychosis is not to be feared, it is the coolest thing our brain does to protect us. Our brain is not our enemy, it is our biggest ally, but if we don't listen, we will suffer.
MYTH: Psychosis as a disorder of symptoms, with no meaning or value - a misfiring of neurons, a chemical imbalance. Any thought, idea, sense, experience in this state is seen as nonsense and ignored.
TO: Psychosis is a collection of phenomena, full of meaning and valuable information about our needs, and how to address those needs. Needs can be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
MYTH: Psychosis as a binary state - there is no spectrum with which it exists, making it incredibly hard to identify early sensory experiences.
TO: Psychosis as a spectrum state - recognizing a descent into psychosis is not only possible, it can be a choice.
MYTH: Psychosis as a biomedical disorder - treatment primarily consists of medicine and research/treatment methods are narrowly focused on this area.
TO: Psychosis as a transformative system collapse - Support is system focussed, Deep Listening to underlying needs, and addressing multiple areas at the same time. Sleep patterns, nutrition, thought patterns, inflammation, etc.
MYTH: Psychosis as solely a problem of the client - discounts the value of context (life experience, relationships) on the experience.
TO: Psychosis as a social systems problem - taking into account the value of context to an individual, as well as a social system
The lack of understanding results in a lack of action with missed windows for prevention and early detection, unnecessary emotional suffering, physical and emotional escalation.
UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOSIS IS HARD
We know that understanding what it is like to experience psychotic phenomena is difficult. Those of us who have experience with it find it hard to describe, and those of us who do not have that experience find it hard to envision. We know the pain and struggle of this confusion. After all, We are family members, mental healthcare practitioners, and people with our own lived experience of psychosis.
CRACKING THE CODE OF PSYCHOSIS
We have dedicated the last 14 years to researching, developing, building, and helping people learn about what it is like to be in psychosis. We worked with over 60+ stakeholders, among many with experiences of psychosis, to capture the breadth and richness of this phenomena and place it into a model that helps us to make sense.
THE ANOIKSIS MAP VALUE
A comprehensive framework to navigate the complexity of psychosis for empathy early recognition and prevention. THE ANOIKSIS MAP helps with the following:
• Brings clarity - The Anoiksis Map appreciates the diversity of subjective experience but identifies patterns and structures that bring an overall framework to a variety of subjective stories. The map holds space for a range of subjective experiences, both glorious and terrifying, both exaggerated and subdued.
• Helps with early recognition & prevention - This map helps us to recognize early signs ahead of time and process these experiences before they escalate. When psychosis is recognized on time it can be dimmed, subdued, or even prevented (if desired). But also better navigated and channeled.
• Improves care & understanding - This map provides a frame to understand the subjective experiences of psychosis. This map helps us distinguish subjective reality from literal truth - when we can look at someone’s subjective experiences from a distance, we have the potential to learn more.
• Builds empathy skills - This map puts psychosis on a spectrum of experience and creates bridges between psychosis and other human experiences.
• Improves treatment strategies - We can help discover the significant metaphorical meaning coming through the experience - if the experience is arising for a reason, we may even benefit from why it arises in the first place. We can connect subjective sensory experiences to wisdom about oneself, his/her relationships, and the broader world.
THE ANOIKSIS MAP shows the experience as a reaction to a wide range of mental, physical, and or spiritual high-impact life events. By taking a holistic frame to this experience, we can begin to take a collective and systemic approach to recovery.
WHY THE ANOIKSIS MAP?
UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOSIS IS HARD
We know that understanding what it is like to experience psychotic phenomena is difficult. Those of us who have experience with it find it hard to describe, and those of us who do not have that experience find it hard to envision. We know the pain and struggle of this confusion. After all, We are family members, mental healthcare practitioners, and people with our own lived experience of psychosis.
CRACKING THE CODE OF PSYCHOSIS
We have dedicated the last 14 years to researching, developing, building, and helping people learn about what it is like to be in psychosis. We worked with over 60+ stakeholders, among many with experiences of psychosis, to capture the breadth and richness of this phenomena and place it into a model that helps us to make sense.
THE ANOIKSIS MAP VALUE
A comprehensive framework to navigate the complexity of psychosis for empathy early recognition and prevention. THE ANOIKSIS MAP helps with the following:
• Brings clarity - The Anoiksis Map appreciates the diversity of subjective experience but identifies patterns and structures that bring an overall framework to a variety of subjective stories. The map holds space for a range of subjective experiences, both glorious and terrifying, both exaggerated and subdued.
• Helps with early recognition & prevention - This map helps us to recognize early signs ahead of time and process these experiences before they escalate. When psychosis is recognized on time it can be dimmed, subdued, or even prevented (if desired). But also better navigated and channeled.
• Improves care & understanding - This map provides a frame to understand the subjective experiences of psychosis. This map helps us distinguish subjective reality from literal truth - when we can look at someone’s subjective experiences from a distance, we have the potential to learn more.
• Builds empathy skills - This map puts psychosis on a spectrum of experience and creates bridges between psychosis and other human experiences.
• Improves treatment strategies - We can help discover the significant metaphorical meaning coming through the experience - if the experience is arising for a reason, we may even benefit from why it arises in the first place. We can connect subjective sensory experiences to wisdom about oneself, his/her relationships, and the broader world.
THE ANOIKSIS MAP shows the experience as a reaction to a wide range of mental, physical, and or spiritual high-impact life events. By taking a holistic frame to this experience, we can begin to take a collective and systemic approach to recovery.
BREAKING OUTDATED MYTHS ABOUT PSYCHOSIS
When we can’t understand it's harder to connect. When we don’t connect, we’re left to our own assumptions, fears, and outdated myths. Like these:
MYTH: Psychosis as only a destructive phenomenon, one that should be avoided at all costs, as deteriorating the brain each time someone enters into this state.
TO: Psychosis is not to be feared, it is the coolest thing our brain does to protect us. Our brain is not our enemy, it is our biggest ally, but if we don't listen, we will suffer.
MYTH: Psychosis as a disorder of symptoms, with no meaning or value - a misfiring of neurons, a chemical imbalance. Any thought, idea, sense, experience in this state is seen as nonsense and ignored.
TO: Psychosis is a collection of phenomena, full of meaning and valuable information about our needs, and how to address those needs. Needs can be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
MYTH: Psychosis as a binary state - there is no spectrum with which it exists, making it incredibly hard to identify early sensory experiences.
TO: Psychosis as a spectrum state - recognizing a descent into psychosis is not only possible, it can be a choice.
MYTH: Psychosis as a biomedical disorder - treatment primarily consists of medicine and research/treatment methods are narrowly focused on this area.
TO: Psychosis as a transformative system collapse - Support is system focussed, Deep Listening to underlying needs, and addressing multiple areas at the same time. Sleep patterns, nutrition, thought patterns, inflammation, etc.
MYTH: Psychosis as solely a problem of the client - discounts the value of context (life experience, relationships) on the experience.
TO: Psychosis as a social systems problem - taking into account the value of context to an individual, as well as a social system
The lack of understanding results in a lack of action with missed windows for prevention and early detection, unnecessary emotional suffering, physical and emotional escalation.
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