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Old 02-19-2013, 07:55 AM   #29
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
United_States
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Re: depression, has practicing Aikido helped in any way?

Quote:
Alex Mitchell wrote: View Post
The reason I also asked as the first place I went to (not an Aikido dojo) emphasized me coming off medication altogether. Was that wise to encourage any student to do that? And why,why did it matter so much to that instuctor or particular dojo? The only reason I paid any attention to this instructor was the fact he also told me he was an A+E nurse. In retrospect I think what he said was reckless and ill-informed and that pressure should not have been put on me in first place. But as I said, that dojo was not an Aikido dojo.
This is a bit of a blind guess, but here in the US, many martial arts schools promote their teachings as not only promoting fitness and enabling you to protect yourself from Crack-Crazed Urban Street Scum(tm,), but also as a comprehensive self-help program that reduces stress and improves mental focus and promotes self-control and yahda yahda yahda. It's all a large steaming pile of manure, but the public is uninformed and many are gullible as well, and so it succeeds in pulling in students. As part of this whole self-help claptrap, some schools get in their students' business to some degree, particularly in kids' programs - for example, requiring kids to bring in their report card. One wonders exactly what they'll do if the kids' grades are unsatisfactory. People who are tired or lazy or overwhelmed or at a loss as to how to make things better in their lives (or their kids'), are ready to hand it over to someone else. Never mind that common sense says you gotta do it yourself. This "encouraging students to get off medication" may be of a piece with that, or it may just be some individual quirk of the instructor, who knows? I suppose it doesn't really matter why. It's silly and inappropriate.
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