Using martial arts to help with mood disturbances

When I was in the middle of my divorce, returning to MA was a huge benefit. Where else can you yell and hit people without getting in trouble? Plus, having a new group of friends, unrelated to the ex was nice too.

 

feels wrong being a regular at the doctor's surgery at my age

 

I had pretty bad PTSD after I got smashed up in Iraq. I was fighting anyone and everyone. All I felt was raw hate, to the point of wanting to shoot some guy who ****ed me off when we were practising on the rifle range. Getting back into martial arts after my recovery allowed me to re-focus and bring me back from the edge.

 

Cool. Mind you, I'm annoyed today, I go through this every so often- I've always wanted to serve my country as an infantryman and I seriously resent not being even allowed to try and make the grade.

 

I have recommended enrollment in martial art classes for several of my professional clients who suffered from extreme anger management issues. It doesn't always meet with quick approval by parents, caregivers or partners as they usually fear the person becoming more aggressive or angry. However this type of intervention has had reported efficacy in psychological circles as well as in my own experience.

There are many things that contribute to it's success such as good physical exercise, structured social interactions, the ability to act "aggressively" in a socially approved context, the group dynamic and over all discipline. Bottom line for me as a clinician is that it works and the "tough guys" usually are motivated to try it out. It's a Win/Win.

With regards to mood issues specifically any highly aerobic exercise will be of benefit, and if looking for an MA school try to find one where everyone leaves at the end of class dripping with sweat!

 

"This type of intervention has had reported efficacy in psychological circles"

Would you mind sharing a source for that please Robin? I'm not accusing you of making stuff up or anything, but my family has never wholly been happy with my doing martial arts and thinks it's why I'm so angry. The irony is that I'm so unebelievably much worse without martial arts. For people who insist martial arts is only meant for fighting and doesn't improve the person as well, i'd like to be able to offer them a study to shut them up

 

Dang it Hatamoto!!! I hoped I worded that effectively enough so that nobody would call me on that!! :whistleblower:

I am heading on vacation and don't have the time to do a full literature review right now. I do have access to online journals at the hospital and will do my best to send you the proper links when I return.

In the meantime, I can tell you that my supervising psychologists are in support of my recommendations to the clients I mentioned for the reasons stated.

P.S. Oh I should add that these recommendations are not made "carte-blanche" but are part of an overall behavioural assessment, taking into consideration the necessary personal and psychological variables, and finally approved by a registered psychologist.

 

One more quick thing....

I am aware of research being done by Dr. Brian Hill, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University called "The Effects of a Therapeutic Martial Arts Program on Youth in Residential Psychiatric Treatment."

In it there will be various citations of earlier research.

Hope that helps.

 

Close enough Ta muchly

 

I am a disabled vet with P.T.S.D. and anxiety issues. Man, I visualize hapkido techniques and tae kwon do patterns all the time to help me calm down. I can't sleep at night, too scary.

 

I am guessing doing tae kwon do probably does help me. It's hard to tell because I've been feeling down on and off but been training longer! All i know is if I stopped i probably would get extremely restless and fat probably.
Sometimes i have to drag myself to training, but always feel better afterwards so I guess there's your answer.
Although do you think being hit in the head too many times could affect your frontal lobes?

 

I have a simple philosophy when training. If I'm not physically injured to the point where I'd do more damage by training, the way I see it is, the less I feel like training, the more important it is that i go. I'm lazy when it comes to training at home (partially because I lack space to do things in as deep a stance as I like but I recognise that as an excuse, however reasonable ), so I know it's important to get to training. The less I feel like it, generally, the more I get out of it. I think it's a sign of a good teacher to be able to motivate me like that, and that motivation carries over into life away from the dojo, at least for a little while. I read a quote by a teacher who was asked what's the hardest part of your training? and he replied "getting in the car." There are lots of martial arts related quotes that remind me not to be such a loser lol

 

Ouch. Hope things get better.

 

I think using martial arts to help with anger problems is a horrible idea.

 

Why?

 

Hi again Hatamoto,

Seems gcollin hasn't responded yet so if you will allow me...

I myself would also against Martial Arts for anger management if the person in question has been diagnosed with any variant of an anti-social personality disorder. If it is part of their ongoing presentation that they show no victim empathy or remorse then I would certainly agree with gcollin.

Otherwise, if the person experiences trouble with regulating physiological arousal and/or relaxation (very common with anger management cases), is motivated to learn, and could benefit from some discipline in their life, then they are an excellent candidate for MA for anger management.

 

I should get some money and go back to karate then Haven't been for a while as I've run out of lolly.

 

Great post!
If it were not for Ma training I will not say where I could possibly be today. As many of you have posted on this thread it brings you (me) back-grounds you if you will-
Focus, concentration, meditation, breathing all mean so much when you really turn to them.
Forms are a great way to burn off excess stress, breathing deep and exhaling before reacting to a stressful situation (when you would normally just explode!) helps 'reboot', at least it does for me.
Lest we forget the physical release of smashing the he!! out of a heavy bag with whatever manner of strike comes out.

thanx for the post Knight_Errant

 

You're very much not alone.

The only thing that got me through a horrible work situation last year was the three hours a week I spent practicing taking back control over my self and my body. I had a horribly abusive boss. Karate kept me sane until the union could move me somewhere else.

And then there's just those days when you have to let out all that aggression, or you'll just 'splode I seriously want a punching bag for my basement.