Interesting links for PSTD, "happy childhood" module ideas

[belle99]

Memory access to our earliest influences

"Excess dyssynchrony or insufficient dyssynchrony can create serious consequences for the infant through the lifespan. An example of excess dyssynchrony is that interactions between depressed mothers and their infants have a greater frequency of dyssynchrony and conflict, and less frequent repair than with nondepressed mothers (Tronick & Gianino, 1986). In these relationships, the infants and young children take on the burdensome responsibility for repairing dyssynchronies (Pound, 1982). These particular children are also predisposed to overdeveloped empathy and concern for others, as well as guilt and shame (Zahn-Waxler & RadkeYarrow, 1990). Thus the child develops a hypervigilance for cues from others, and a style of relating that Bowlby (1980) referred to as "compulsive caregiving." The child's vigilance to the subjective experience of others may lead to neglect or invalidation of her own subjective experience and the tendency to rely on external confirmation to maintain self-esteem and the sense of identity (de Groot & Rodin, 1994).

...

"In summary, studies of the behavior of the human fetus indicate that the beginnings of mind predate birth (Hepper & Shahidullah, 1994). Areas of prenatal behavioral development include movement; auditory and visual sensory ability; and learning, including habituation, familiarity, generalization and classical conditioning. And what the fetus learns, it believes; its beliefs filter its perception of the world for its lifespan.

The programmers might want to take a look at this article http://socialworkoflife.googlepages....alBehavior.pdf. This article discusses the role of oxytocin, vasopressin, and cortisol in disorders that affect social behavior.

[future pather]

Interesting.

I remember from Dr. Bruce Lipton's work as well that a cell in a state of "protection" can not be in a state of "growth."

For people living around violence, they are often in "protection" all the time, because they can not predict when the next bout of violence will occur.

XO Jessica

[belle99]

Yes, I am intrigued by the idea of instructions similar to some from Cellular Repair module and the Mood Enhancing module that will instruct the hypothalamus to make the right peptides and teach the DNA in one's cells to receive the right information.

It is possible that a mother who lived with constant learned fear, anxiety, and depression would have a child whose cells are programmed with hungry fear-peptide receptors, thus setting up the child for emotional limitations.

Thus, inborn emotional traits and the conditioning of life set up a symbiotic reinforcement to constantly live, eat, and breathe fear.

Book: Control Mechanisms of Stress and Emotion
Control Mechanisms of Stress and Emotion - Elsevier

Article: "Immune to Fear"
American Scientist Online - Immune to Fear

Article about same mice study, and the difference between learned fear and innate fear to a natural threat:
Research Reports

Possible receptor involved in fear:
Method for treating conditions associated with fear memory - Patent 20060233711

Seminar transcript that explains things pretty well, quotes Candace Pert:
Anne Baring's Website

[belle99]

Article: Toxic Brain Theory
Biology of Kundalini - A Science and Protocol of Spiritual Alchemy

"Our brain falls into patterns of cyclic neurotoxicity as a result of emotional repression of the fight/flight mechanism during early trauma, social stress, abandonment or deprivation of needs during our infancy...."

[belle99]

Article:

Chronic stress or generalized anxiety can cause changes in the HPA axis and in the 5-HT receptors. Chronic stress may be worse than a panic attack, in its chemical effects on the brain.

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbp/v29s1/en_a02v20s1.pdf

[belle99]

So if a person has suffered from an altered brain chemistry, whether it is due to altered DNA, in utero, or in early childhood, it is possible to change the present condition on the biochemical level (repairing the chemical messages, instructions to release the right peptides, instruct cells to receive the right peptides not the wrong ones) or to simply change the past.

Instructions to change the past, along the lines of the delayed choice experiment in quantum physics, would be another angle for treatment.
Delayed choice quantum eraser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theoretically, if the traumatic events or faulty DNA were chosen at one point, the healthy DNA or positive experiences chosen now would retroactively change the past. The choice now is outside linear time....

This has a lot of potential. If one could only imagine what life would have been like had the traumatic event not colored everything from that point forward, and hold onto that feeling, it might actually change the past.

[belle99]

Regions of the brain associated with various emotions:
From THE AMYGDALA AND THE EMOTIONS
"The amygdala does seem to be closely associated with the feeling of fear, but removal of the amygdala seems to disinhibit feelings of lust and curiosity. Hunger and thirst are feelings centered more in the hypothalamus, whereas pure pleasure seems to be concentrated in the nucleus accumbens and the septal nuclei. Stimulation of the globus pallidus can produce an experience of joy. Interests qualify as feelings also, and are likely associated with the cingulate cortex. Guilt, anxiety and paranoia may be associated with the orbitofrontal cortex. Neurophysiology still has little to say about boredom, hope, jealousy, love and sadness, but it wouldn't surprise me if these emotions were found in different neural structures.

The amygdala itself is a highly complex collection of nuclei, so it could conceivably support different emotions in different areas -- as it does appear to do in the case of fear & anger. Nonetheless, just as the processing of visual information has moved from the tectum in amphibians to the occipital lobe of species with a more developed cerebral cortex, emotional experience in humans may not have remained entirely sub-cerebral, as indicated by the right/left brain dichotomy and by the emotional effects of prefrontal lobotomy. The evidence indicates multiple centers of feeling in the brain, associated with various aspects of self (self-image, conscience, will, etc.). Locating all brain functions related to feeling & self in a single "circuit" not only entails the fallacy of the homunculus, it doesn't leave much for the rest of the brain to do."

[belle99]

What is the "neurocompetitive advantage?"

Interesting blogger here: Neurocompetitive Advantage. Brain Waves: The field of neurotechnology, the focus of this blog, encompasses advances in brain science (neurons), information technology (bits) and bioengineering (genes). Up for discussion and analysis: the political, e

Has anybody heard of this dude?

[belle99]

Praying about the past may go back into time and change the events:
http://integral-inquiry.com/docs/649/wellness.pdf

[belle99]

The role of the hypothalamus in anxiety and panic:

The Main Areas Involved with Emotions

This structure has ample connections with the other prosencephalic areas and the mesencephalus. Lesions of the hypothalamic nuclei interfere with several vegetative functions and some of the so-called motivated behaviors, like thermal regulation, sexuality, combativeness, hunger and thirst. The hypothalamus is also believed to play a role in emotion. Specifically, its lateral parts seem to be involved with pleasure and rage, while the median part is like to be involved with aversion, displeasure and a tendency to uncontrollable and loud laughing. However, in general terms, the hypothalamus has more to do with the expression (symptomatic manifestations) of emotions than with the genesis of the affective states. When the physical symptoms of emotion appear, the threat they pose returns, via hypothalamus, to the limbic centers and, thence, to the pre-frontal nuclei, increasing anxiety. This negative feed-back mechanism can be so strong as to generate a situation of panic. As it will be seen later on, the knowledge of this phenomenon is very important, for clinical and therapeutic reasons.

Another interesting thing noted by the above-linked web page is the role of dopamine receptor deficiency in addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or even sweets:

In the ventral tegmental area, located in the mesencephalic part of the brain stem, there is a compact group of dopamine-secreting neurons whose axons end in the nucleus accumbens (mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway). The spontaneous firing or the electrical stimulation of neurons belonging to that region produce pleasurable sensations, some of them similar to orgasm. Many people who, for a genetic error, have a reduction of D2 (dopamine) receptors in the accumbens nucleus, become, sooner or later, incapable to obtain gratification from the common pleasures of life. Thus, they seek atypical and noxious "pleasurable" alternatives, like alcoholism, cocaine addiction, impulsive gambling and compulsion for sweet foods. Certain brainstem structures, like the nuclei of the cranial nerves, stimulated by impulses coming from the cortex and the striatum (a subcortical formation), are responsible for the physiognomic : expressions of anger, joy, sadness, tenderness, etc.

Along the lines of information presented by Candace Pert, Bruce Lipton, etc...it is possible that the reduction of D2 dopamine receptors could be due to life experiences, and not solely due to a genetic deficiency. This of course, presents another "chicken or egg" dilemma.

[belle99]

Here's an interesting abstract of a paper discussing levels of different peptides in people with PSTD: Endocrine and Cardiovascular Responses to Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone in Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Role for Atrial Natriuretic Peptide?

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) may be an explanatory link in the neuroendocrine pathophysiology of the disorder, since it is a neuromodulator with antianxiety effects that inhibits HPA activity at multiple levels....Basal ANP levels were significantly lower in PTSD patients in comparison with normal controls, but the response to CRH was undistinguishable....Further studies to assess ANP secretion in PTSD patients and to clarify its pathophysiological impact are needed.

The connection to high blood pressure does not interest me, but the discussion of a particular peptide involved in PSTD is very interesting....

[belle99]

Can a person be born with PTSD?
Blackwell Synergy - Ann NY Acad Sci, Volume 1071 PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER A Decade of Progress Page 454-458, July 2006 (Article Abstract)

Apparently someone studied the cortisol levels of babies whose mothers were very close to the 9/11 attacks. The mothers themselves had PTSD during pregnancy. Once born, the babies were less tolerant of loud noises and new people.

[belle99]

Here is a fascinating article describing the "negative feedback loop" in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis caused by chronic stress, and the simple ways that the "negative feedback loop" can be broken, by telling the body-mind that everything is going to be okay.

Although EFT isn't my thing, it is just one method among many to change the physical through the emotional, since the emotional was the source of altering the physical in the first place. I would imagine that PATHS is a hundred times more effective and efficient than EFT because it bypasses the "I feel silly doing this" thing.

That said, here's the article: Technical article: Influencing peptides with EFT

[belle99]

Now this is a fascinating article about emotions in persons with borderline personality disorder. Etiology (Causes) of Borderline Personality Disorder - ABANDONMENT - From the Inside Out

Not all emotional problems rise to the level of a personality disorder; a diagnosis of BPD requires that certain criteria be met. That means, crazier than anybody here on this forum. Even me.

But the basic patterns of these disorders--narcissism, BPD, etc., are almost our spectrum of modern personality types. I mean, emotional addiction, as dramatized in What the Bleep, is epidemic.

Think of all the people living lives of "quiet desperation" who are taking medications that they do not need, that do not actually target the unproductive or painful emotions going on inside them. They could start or stop the medication, perhaps get a numbing effect, or a mild euphoria, living slightly stoned, but still in a dark night of the soul.

The article describes a fairly extreme situation but in a way describes the universal soul problem today, of children born to unhappy people and raised in the context of divorce, abuse, or addiction.

What this article describes most elegantly is how the neurological pathways of unproductive emotions and painful relationships can be re-wired through choice and without the need for medication. I imagine the author's formula for such choices is easier said than done without the aid of technology such as PATHS.

[belle99]

Additional research on how chemical abnormalities manifesting as depression in the mother can adversely affect the child's ability to respond to stress and form normal human attachments, whether the child is exposed to the depression in utero or during infancy Parental Depression: Animal Models of an Adverse Life Event -- Newport et al. 159 (8): 1265 -- Am J Psychiatry