Not enough by the fact that people with a mental disorder have to endure the symptoms of their illness - often they also make self -reproaches or torture themselves with the feeling of having failed because they have a mental illness. Psychologists describe this as "internalized", that is, internalized shame. It often ensures that those affected withdraw from friends and family, seek less frequently professional help and that therapy strikes them worse. An Australian research team has therefore dealt with the question of whether the internalized shame has to be used with special exercises.
The research group led by Susanne Norder from Macquarie University in Sydney summarized the results of 16 previously published studies. The interventions examined were all aimed at the sense of shame of the mentally ill test subjects. This was measured using a questionnaire that included statements such as "Compared to other people, I feel like I'm not good enough" or "I think people look down on me."
Since there is still no established treatment for internalized shame, the therapeutic approaches used were very different: they included between 2 and 16 sessions, both individual and group therapy, and is based on a variety of techniques. Acceptance and commitment therapy was most commonly used, which is based, among other things, on the concept of mindfulness. In addition, there were exercises to increase self -help, education about the development of feelings of shame in mental illnesses or art therapeutic approaches.
In 12 of the 16 studies, those affected had less self-shaming thoughts and feelings after the treatment. In addition, 7 out of 10 studies showed that people in a treatment group fared better than subjects under control conditions (there was no such group comparison in the remaining studies).
Internal shame can therefore be improved by various interventions with different theoretical approaches, according to the researchers. However, the observed effect thickness was usually classified as a "small to medium". Your overview also does not allow a direct comparison of the effectiveness of different approaches. In addition, there have been no treatment strategies so far that relate to the knowledge of emotion psychology to the emergence of feelings of shame.
