Dr. Robert Scaer on trauma and Brain State Technologies

Self-Medication, Traumatic Reenactment, and Somatic Expression in Bulimic and Self-Mutilating by Sharon Klayman Farber, Ph.D., B.C.D.

A psychoanalytic framework provided direction for research on the association between binge-purging (bulimic) and self-mutilating behaviors, comparing them for similarities and differences. The similarities in the multiple functions and psychosomatic processes served by these behaviors are presented, as well as the phenomenon of symptom substitution. Both behaviors tend to be practiced by those with severe personality and dissociative disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder. Both serve ego-compensatory needs in the absence of the adequate ability to regulate and modulate emotions, moods, and tensions. They may serve as compensatory attempts to differentiate self and object, define and differentiate body boundaries, master severe childhood trauma by means of psychophysiological addictive reenactments, and to express emotion.
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People who binge and purge and those who self-mutilate embody the theme of the 1995 conference, Mind, Memories, and Metaphors. Paradoxically, these apparently self-destructive behaviors have the capacity to alleviate psychic pain in some individuals, and serve other restorative, redemptive, cleansing and healing functions (Farber, 1995a). Lacking the ability to use metaphor or symbol to express emotion or unspeakable pain, their acts of self-harm may serve to narrate that which their minds cannot remember and their words cannot say. The author has come to know this from her years of clinical practice and from her research on the association between binge-purge behavior and self-mutilating behavior, a study which compares binge-purging behavior and self-mutilating behavior for similarities and differences (Farber, 1995a). The similarities in the multiple psychic functions and psychosomatic processes served by these behaviors will be presented, along with their implications for assessment, engagement, and countertransference.

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Via: BDP Sanctuary 

When Trauma and Psychosis Mix: A Cognitive Therapy Approach to Treatment and Recovery

When people in the US are diagnosed with "schizophrenia" or another "psychotic disorder" they are typically told that the problem is simply something gone wrong with their brain, and that it has nothing to do with what anyone did to them or with any decision they made. Yet a great deal of scientific evidence indicates the opposite: that trauma, and decisions to react to trauma in specific ways, are often key causes of later psychosis. In this video, Ron Unger LCSW describes some of the relationships between psychosis and trauma and the critical importance of addressing this relationship in mental health treatment. 

Living with Traumatic Brain Injury

People with traumatic brain injuries may experience physical, cognitive or personality changes that affect their work and relationships. In this program from the University of Washington, hear stories of people who are rebuilding their lives and readjusting to family, careers and everyday life.




Via: University of Washington

Child Abuse Permanently Modifies Stress Genes in Brains of Suicide Victims

The trauma of child abuse can last a lifetime, leading to a higher risk of anxiety, depression and suicide further down the line. This link seems obvious, but a group of Canadian scientists have found that it has a genetic basis.

By studying the brains of suicide victims, Patrick McGowan from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that child abuse modifies a gene called NR3C1 that affects a person's ability to deal with stress. The changes it wrought were "epigenetic", meaning that the gene's DNA sequence wasn't altered but it's structure was modified to make it less active. These types of changes are very long-lasting, which strongly suggests that the trauma of child abuse could be permanently inscribed onto a person's genes.  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading.

Via: Not Exactly Rocket Science

Destabilizing Old Memories With Novel Information

What if one day we could disrupt unwanted consolidated memories like those of old traumatic experiences or even unforgettable heartbreaks and replace them with novel and more pleasant ones? Sounds like a tagline from the 2004 Oscar-winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind doesn't it?

Published in this month's issue of Learning & Memory, a study by Winters, Tucci, and DaCosta-Furtado over at the University of Guelph, Canada have managed to bring us one step closer to making this seeminly far-fetched idea a reality...Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  Science Blog

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event.

When that trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which damage the person's ability to adequately cope with stress.
A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks, years, even decades, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances. Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. There is frequently a violation of the person's familiar ideas about the world and of their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity. This is also seen when people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray or disillusion the person in some unforeseen way. Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia