Archive for October, 2009

I can’t recall the last time that I consistently remembered my dreams. I recently started using nasal strips when I sleep. My breathing is noticeably better while wearing them. It seems that lately I remember most of my dreams. Does wearing the nasal strips cause me to get better quality sleep which leads to the ability to recall dreams?

do you remember that dream you had about someone railing your mom, and it wasn’t your dad? well it wasnt a dream, it was me. stick that in your nose and sniff it, your mom did

I’m not fat im 5′3 114lbs.,but if i don’t stop eating when I’m depressed i will become fat. I see a psychologist for depression and anxiety I also take meds. I can’t stop my emotional eating. What are some ways that I can stop?

I know what you mean. Emotional eating comes up when you don’t know what else to do or feel helpless, so your body looks for something to occupy your mind to keep it away from thinking about the stress. A lot of times that comes in the form of eating, which becomes a form of entertainment, since it occupies a lot of your senses (taste, smell, touch) and more than anything, triggers the satisfaction hormone produced by the pituitary gland.

What do I do? I didn’t really eat a lot but I ate unhealthy foods.

I watched anime and read manga. lol.

But the point here is to find something else your mind can go to to take off the stress. It might be puzzles or mind games, addicting games, but those aren’t really good either. Puzzles are, but not pc/video games. Just find something you could love to do. The top things that I find occupying:

–biking
–anime/manga, but those become very very addicting
–gardening
–BOOKS! find a book or novel series to love
–keep a journal
–art/drawing….even if your art is a bit…abstract…
-especially patterns, drawing repetitive things such as checkers or stars or vines and then coloring them in in alternating colors is very satisfying, especially when i finish. That’s me though.
–make videos and post them on youtube, a live blog
–writing stories/poetry
other things you love to do

Most of the critiques of Freud one reads nowadays are from people who
favor a reductionistic view that equates mind and brain and views
phenomenological exploration of the inner life of human beings as
inherently unscientific.

Evidence in favour of Freud comes from the field of
Neuropsychoanalysis:

Neuropsychoanalysis and benefits of the usage of reconstruction as an
intervention (Mitchell Slutzky, PhD, Geriatric Psychologist)

"[...] I want to distinguish between new models that reject the
importance of unconscious factors from those that continue to hold
these forces central to the change process. [...] as a whole,
psychoanalysis is losing effectiveness when it denies unconscious
motivations.
One of the most striking omissions from current psychoanalysis,
including problems with relational treatment models, is the omission
of the use of reconstructions in interpreting what could have
potentially occurred during preverbal phases of development, or which
have been "forgotten" after a severe trauma. To support this
assertion, I refer to the development of the brain from birth through
age 5 as having a developmental sequence that his just now becoming
fairly well understood. In addition, I will describe the effects of
trauma on the memory centers of the brain. Finally, I will
demonstrate the value of reconstruction, especially when memories are
not encoded or retrievable from the hippocampus. For this I will draw
upon my own clinical experience in treating patients with dementia
using a neuro-psychoanalytic approach.
At birth, an infant has a fully functioning amygdala and
hypothalamus, with most processing going upwards from the amygdala to
the right frontal lobe. The amygdala stores information in
fragmentary forms that have emotional valence indicating whether a
perception is of something safe, dangerous, appetizing, etc. This
knowledge, more emotional than cognitive, continues to play an active
role throughout human development. Next online, beginning at
approximately 3 months, is the hippocampus, a structure necessary for
more factual-based knowledge. Even so, it relies extensively upon
feedback from the amygdala which provides the emotional significance
to the fact. It should be noted that the hippocampus does not rely
upon verbal processing until much later, around the age of 12 months,
although precursors of this can be found much earlier in that infants
can respond to their names at somewhat earlier ages. Until about five
years of age, the right hemisphere remains the dominant hemisphere
for most processes. It is only after that time that the left
hemisphere — particularly the left temporal lobe — matures
sufficiently to allow for finer discriminations of language. From
this point forward, he left hemisphere becomes the seat of our
conscious thought while the right frontal lobe seems to play an
active role in whether thoughts and feelings are acknowledged or
repressed.
One more feature of brain processing needs to be elaborated at this
point. When undergoing a severe trauma, a person may respond by
activating the fight-flight response, corresponding to an increase in
cortisol, a naturally occurring steroid that allows for a sustained
release of energy. Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to cortisol has
deleterious effects on the hippocampus, destroying its overall
functioning. This effect does not become noticeable until senescence.
Another normally occurring substance, beta-endorphin, is released
when the person is so overwhelmed that he/she could neither fight nor
flee. Beta-endorphin dulls physical pain while erasing memory of the
event from the hippocampus. Nevertheless, the emotional, fragmentary
memory remains stored in the amygdala.
In individuals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, flashbacks occur
when some fragmentary memories are triggered. Cortisol becomes hyper-
secreted in a moderate traumatic recollection. Beta-endorphin becomes
hyper-secreted in more severe traumas, leading to dissociative states
and even to dissociative identity disorder, a condition in which the
recall of the trauma is split off into fragmentary selves who are
often completely unaware of the existence of each other.
From the above discussion, it is clear that there seems to be some
correlation between Freud’s psychosexual stages, and the sequence of
brain maturation. I want to add that these dates are very general,
and have not been referenced for this entry. Nevertheless, I refer
you to the works of Allan N. Schore, a developmental psychoanalyst
who has had an extensive impact on the analytic community by
demonstrating the relationship between normal brain development and
emotional development, as well as ways in which the brain develops
poorly in response to trauma and non-optimal attachment
relationships. Dr. Schore is currently researching the effects of
affect regulation actual brain structures and function. His work
clarifies many of the brain connections summarized here. He is a true
pioneer in the field of neuro-psychoanalysis. My work in dementia has
been greatly influenced by his theories. In contrast to Schore,
however,my own work focuses more on the limbic structures than it
does on the right frontal lobe. What I’m presenting here is my own
theory, in turn influenced by Schore, Joseph LeDoux, Antonio Damasio,
and Rhawn Joseph, among many others.
Since much of what can go wrong in human development takes place
prior to verbal encoding, and since trauma often leads to an erasure
of memory, or prevents the conscious memory formation from occurring
in the first place, it often becomes necessary to rely upon the
fragmentary memories stored within the amygdala in order to
reconstruct the traumatic events.
I myself rely very strongly on reconstruction, perhaps more than most
others in the field need to, because I specialize in the treatment of
people with dementia. In my clinical experience, there are many
people with dementia who have a relatively intact the amygdala with a
relatively damaged hippocampus. Their frontal and outer-temporal
lobes tend to be relatively well preserved, so they can talk about
their experience and use reason to improve their understanding of
their feelings. Performing the role of an auxiliary hippocampus, I
help my patients take fragmentary emotional responses and
recollections, assemble them into a whole, and repeat this over time,
so that it gets into long-term memory despite the poorly functioning
hippocampus. Usually, these individuals have had severe traumas in
their lives, which led to hypervigilance and an over-active danger
alarm. I teach my patience to contain the intensity of the emotional
response while retaining the reconstructed memory, which is in turn
paired to a more adaptive emotional response.
From the above description of my technique, summarized and over-
simplified, it may be difficult to see how my work connects to
psychoanalysis. That may be because I’m leaving out the content of
the traumas, which typically have psychodynamic significance. In
fact, I find that the perception of what happened matters more than
the veridical truth. (Of course, this opens up the issue of screen
memories, a subject for a whole book on psychoanalysis and the nature
of memory itself.) It is through exploration of these unconscious
conflicts that the fragmentary recall emerges. It is through the
reconstructions that trauma can begin to be recalled in a safer
light. While the dementia is not reversed, excess disability is
diminished. These patients become less depressed or anxious, and have
improved cognitive functioning. What was unacceptable becomes more
acceptable. Using Freud’s tripartite terminology, where formerly
these memories were contained in the id, they are now able to be
transformed through the ego.
In this brief summary, I am omitting many other brain structures, as
well as over-simplifying and over-generalizing the roles and
interconnectedness of those that I have addressed directly. I just
wanted to give readers of this forum a viewpoint from one who
practices psychotherapy employing an integration of neuroscience and
psychoanalysis. I hope you see that there may be benefits to such
integration, not just in expanding technique, but in validating and
building upon some of Freud’s brilliant observations. His model is
gaining greater support as more is known about the function of the
brain. In this way, neuro-psychoanalysis represents the best way
forward, infusing the most comprehensive system of the mind with
empirical neuroscientific support. This enables the widening scope of
psychoanalysis to treat a greater number of disorders while
simultaneously enabling the therapist to make greater conscious
choices as to what therapeutic intervention would be most useful for
which patient. While this posting focused on the neuropsychology of
reconstruction, it obviously has much broader implications in this
emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis."

I am a bit puzzled how my posting to a user group on neuro-psychoanalysis got onto yahoo! answers as a question. I suppose that means people are reading the board it was posted on. It was not intended to answer a simple question about scientific support for Freud’s theory. It was more of a mini paper.

Saying it simply: the field of neuroscience has many studies in support of Freud on many levels. No longer can we say that there is no such thing as "the unconscious". fMRI’s, SPECT and other brain measurement of regional cerebral blood flow have yielded an enormous wealth of data on how information is processed unconsciously milliseconds before it is consciously recognized. And the information is repressed by the right frontal orbital lobe (the front right outer-part of the brain under the forehead) if deemed by that part of the brain to be too unacceptable to acknowledge. That suggests that Freud was right to see repression as a common psychological defense.

I could say more, but I have already been told I was too technical in the "question" within which I was so lengthily quoted. Wait for the articles and the book.

MS

Does anyone know some good Stress Relief songs? I am really stressed with exams in school.

Thanks!

Brian Eno.

Bulimia also called bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is a very dangerous weight loss strategy. Anorexia nervosa is one type of eating disorder. It is also a psychological disorder. Bulimia is characterized by episodes of secretive excessive eating (bingeing) followed by inappropriate methods of weight control, such as self-induced vomiting (purging), abuse of laxatives and diuretics, or excessive exercise. Anorexia is a condition that goes beyond out-of-control dieting. A person with anorexia initially begins dieting to lose weight. Over time, the weight loss becomes a sign of mastery and control. Bulimia is estimated to affect between 3% of all women in the U.S. at some point in their lifetime. About 6% of teen girls and 5% of college-aged females are believed to suffer from bulimia.

Most bulimics know that their eating patterns are not normal, but they feel unable to change their behavior. Approximately 10% of identified bulimic patients are men. Bulimics are also susceptible to other compulsions, affective disorders, or addictions. Some people use food as a way to cope with emotional ups and downs or low self esteem. People with bulimia can look perfectly normal. Most of them are of normal weight, and some may be overweight. Women with bulimia tend to be high achievers. Many experts consider people for whom thinness is especially desirable, or a professional requirement (such as athletes, models, dancers, and actors) to be at risk for eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Vomiting is a common source of problems. When a person vomits, he or she brings up partially digested food and stomach acid.

People with anorexia nervosa see themselves as overweight even though they are dangerously thin. Bingers eat when they are not hungry. They eat quickly. Binge eaters eat when they feel anxious, lonely and/or depressed. Anorexia eating disorders symptoms include thinning hair, dry, flaky skin and cracked or broken nails. Woman with anorexia eating disorders symptoms often stop menstruating. Another sign of anorexia eating disorder symptoms is the tendency to exercise obsessively – well beyond what is needed to maintain good health. Individuals with anorexia eating disorder also weigh themselves frequently. They often restrict not only food, also relationships, social activities and pleasure.

Causes of Compulsive Eating Disorder

1.Neurological or medical conditions.

2.Rigors of dieting.

3.Biological and genetic factors.( neurotransmitter serotonin ).

4.Poor body image.

5.Psychological factors (depression and anxiety ).

Symptoms of Compulsive Eating Disorder

1.Weakness

2.Vomiting blood

3.Fatigue.

4.Exhaustion

5.Heart burn.

Treatment of Compulsive Eating Disorder

Different kinds of psychological therapy have been employed to treat people with anorexia. Cognitive behavior therapy, group therapy, and family therapy have all been successful in treatment of anorexia. Bulimia can sometimes be treated with a self-help manual with occasional guidance from a therapist. Antidepressant medications (citalopram,escitalopram oxalate ,fluvoxamine maleate (Luvox) ,paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat, Aropax), fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline )have been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of bulimia. Marital therapy, or couples therapy, helps to strengthen the relationship between life partners and helps to resolve communication problems. Support groups are led by trained volunteers or health professionals. To decide if a self-help support group will be effective in your binge eating treatment plan.

Juliet Cohen
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/compulsive-eating-disorder-causes-symptoms-and-treatment-152934.html