Wednesday evening, self-care evening at NPO3. First the first part of Murder pills? looked. Dionne Slagter, podcast maker and YouTuber, examines her ADHD diagnosis and associated medication use. She calls the three-part series a documentary, I saw a video report of a search for herself – who is she if she takes her ADHD medication not swallows. “What would be left of me without those pills.” It is also an exploration of what others have to say about it. People with and without ADHD, the recreational user also comes along, the student who occasionally takes a pill of Ritalin to study concentrated for an evening.
But actually the others’ story distracts from what I think are the main questions: does medication ‘help’ Dionne Slagter or does medication allow her to function at a level that she may not actually be able to handle? Would she do better if she could be “herself” – dreamy, chaotic and always at a loss? Do the pills make it easier for her to fit in with what society demands of her, and what benefit does it benefit her?
With 5 milligrams of dexamphetamine twice a day, Dionne Slagter experiences more energy, is less bothered by the noise in her head and can continue working. However, how can we explain why she successively went blind in one eye – it turned out to be a serious migraine variant. Fainted – and hit her head against the wall. Ran into a steel pin – hole in her head. Then she crashed her car. That seems like something to find out, yes. In the next episode we go with her to the psychiatrist.
Intimacy
Then it started Therapy, and there we started with the care provider in the treatment room. In this first of four parts we saw three therapists working with real clients. The clients are not on screen, their voices are recorded by actors and filming is done with unmanned cameras so as not to disrupt the conversations. At first it seemed like a forced affair, but it turned out to be so lifelike that it fascinated and even touched me.
Dafna Zwarts, psychotherapist specialized in youth and trauma, has the first session with Dina (21). Her best friend committed suicide. She doesn’t feel guilty, she says. Not at all. No not at all. Cocky Drost is a relationship therapist and discusses their problems with intimacy with Gerben (61) and Ellie (57). He likes to cuddle a lot, she feels jumped on by him. Imane El Boujdaini, a mental health psychologist, is treating Sanae. The girl was unceremoniously thrown out of the house by her mother after the holidays. She slept in her car for two nights, she has now found shelter with an aunt, but she has lost her job due to all the fuss.
What struck me most is how well these three therapists listen. Really listen. You can see in their eyes that they are touched by what their client says. “I’m speechless,” says El Boujdaini when Sanae says that her mother doesn’t care whether she goes to school or not, that she doesn’t care whether there is food in the house, as long as there are cigarettes, coffee and joints in the house. are. She has hardly seen her father since she was eleven. The therapist asks whether she ever has suicidal thoughts. Yes, says Sanae. “When I was young, 19 or so.” She’s 20 now. She made an effort. “I slept two days in a row.” And when she woke up, it turned out that no one at home had noticed anything.
We also go home with the therapists. We see Dafna Zwarts making pottery, Cocky Drost talks about the four children she had in four years and we see Imane El Boujdaini with her husband and son on the beach. What purpose does that serve? The series is called anyway Therapy and not Therapist?
You can talk about suicide on the national helpline 113 Suicide Prevention. Telephone 0800-0113 or www.113.nl.