Glad To Be Here!

[aquabee65]

Any Canadians and specifically Atlantic Canadians on this site? I am open to chat from any and all, we all have a commonality, we have decided to grab PTSD and related conditions by the horns and deal with it. I just got out of a psychiatric ward today and I look at myself as being lucky. I can heal myself, others on the floor were trapped in diseases from which there is little hope.
I am a firm believer in alternative therapies. perspectives and exercises on the healing journey, and am trying to find as much as I can about neuroplasticity. I am relatively intelligent and as a writer, have a naturally inclination to dig for information. Anything fellow PSTDers can share I would be happy to accept. On the road....

 

[anthony]

Hi Deb, and welcome to the forum.

A little unsure why you are mentioning neuroplasticity and alternative medicine in the same breathe though! They have nothing to do with one another.

Neuroplasticity simply refers to what neuroscience has discovered about the brain itself, being the brain has a plasticity to regrow, reform, literally to change itself in both good and bad manners. For example, an amygdala can shrink due to trauma, yet through memory exercises, you can increase its size again, in another words, the damage is temporary and the brain has a plasticity to continually mould itself.

That is what neuroplasticity is about... has nothing to do with any type of therapy though. It is more a simple term stating... you can actually heal any trauma impact upon the brain.

 

[aquabee65]

Wow, as soon as I join a forum I get corrected by a moderator!

Where I live some people still look at anti-pressants as a sign of weak character or something you go on if alcohol didn't work. I consider alternative "medicine" as a means to heal naturally, through supplements, exercise, clean food and self-therapy. I mentioned the two, not in concert with each other necessarily. I was out of hospital three hours and felt a need to reach out to a supportive community so I joined. I guess if one's an "authority" on PTSD this gives one the right to adopt a condescending tone with a newby?

The therapy with neuroplasticity is just that, I have read about exercises specifically designed to do what you have outlined above. Call it what it is, a means to heal. If that is not therapeutic, then how do you define it? If it helps you become who or what you are meant to be, then doesn't it reflect some form of therapeutic benefit?

 

[Poppycocteau]

Hello, Deborah!

I don't think Anthony's post was meant to be condescending, just informative - please don't take it the wrong way and be discouraged - you're welcome here. It is daunting to post here at first.

I freely admit that I know nothing whatsoever about any of the therapies you mention, but I hope very much that you find this forum as helpful as I do, and that you can use the support here to heal.

xXx

 

[AngelaMarie]

There is a post on here where Anthony explains who he is. That will help you understand it's not personal. I have been corrected by a moderator because they want the forum to run efficiently. I hope you keep coming back and getting to know the site. It is very helpful to me and lots of others.

 

[anthony]

The therapy with neuroplasticity is just that, I have read about exercises specifically designed to do what you have outlined above. Call it what it is, a means to heal. If that is not therapeutic, then how do you define it? If it helps you become who or what you are meant to be, then doesn't it reflect some form of therapeutic benefit?

Hey Deb,

Firstly... as mentioned above, don't feel berated, I am merely direct.

Now... whilst I agree that therapies have benefits which promote things to occur within the brain, there is still no such thing as a therapy for neuroplasticity. If you have read such, then its from someone trying to use a scientific term in order to market some nonsense "power therapy" or such, claiming wonders. It doesn't work that way, and there is no therapy designed that can specifically target neuroplasticity. They are not related.

Neuroplasticity is purely, and I mean absolutely purely, a scientific term that refers to the brains ability to change via brain cell regrowth (malleable is the word associated with neuroplasticity). Brain cells can actually reform, etc... but they have nothing to do with therapy. Its like the old saying about smoking pot... your killing brain cells, and I believe it does from neuroscience's findings, however; stop smoking pot, and your brain cells can regenerate by doing nothing. You don't need to actually go and do a therapy to do a thing, your brain is merely like a plastic object is their point to neuroplasticity, and that just by stopping something bad, your brain actually will regenerate and repair itself. No help required.

When I refer to brain training exercises, that is due to trauma being inflicted upon the brain. Inflict more trauma, all that brain training could be as easily undone, suddenly your memory is shot to shit again.

Its like these twits who took Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), included the word Neuro, referring to the wonders to the brain, yet neuroscience has conclusively proven NLP actually has zero / next to zero impact on any specific regions of the brain in relation to trauma or memory processing, unlike its founder claimed. NLP is a fancy name to trick people, yet is a very effective seminar / self help based learning to learn how to communicate in a commercial environment better. It also incorporates stress management and relaxation into it... but the name makes people believe it does something it doesn't.

Anyone who tries putting neuroplasticity into a therapy treatment.... RUN, because its all bullshit. There is a vast difference between memory and brain cell regeneration... hence why I ask, what does any type of alternative therapy have to do with neuroplasticity... because you are literally referring to brain cell regeneration abilities of the brain.

You stated your a firm believer in alternative therapies, yet most alternative therapies have absolutely zero therapeutic or chemical effect upon the body. Acupuncture, massage, absolutely proven and back with scientific evidence, along with other naturopathic treatments... no doubt about it. EFT, NLP and a long long list of alternative therapies, all proven zero effectiveness with science, concluded to the placebo effect only.

The same can then be said about pharmaceuticals... most are marketing ploys or do more damage than good, abuse of over-prescribing, the list goes on. Then there are those pharmaceutics which save lives, do make significant difference to actual chemical compositions within the body, and another long list.

I sit equally on the fence myself when it comes to alternative vs. conventional therapies... but none really have a great deal to do directly with neuroplasticity of the brain, other than the brain is now proven to be able to self regenerate all by itself, and if we perform some basic exercises based against whether an issue is present or not... but science is quite clear that there are no definitive results or evidence to back any type of therapy in relation to neuroplasticity (brain cell regeneration).

No... I'm not having a dig at you or any such thing... I am curious as to what you are reviewing when you mention those two things together, when they have no validity for a specific therapeutic benefit. Having PTSD does not mean you have killed brain cells... far far from it. PTSD and brain cells dieing aren't even on the table, hence my curiosity towards therapies and neuroplasticity.

 

[aquabee65]

I have been looking around more Anthony, and I do value your input and information. I was a bit twitchy, coming out of hospital, which in this province, involves saying you have plans to do bodily harm to fast track seeing anyone, had me on the defensive. Every visit makes me more informed about how uninformed some so called psychiatric practitioners are. So therapy is an overused buzz term that is loosely applied to non-applicables, I was lazy and used the term in a broad sweep.

Yes neuroplasticity is the science connected to cellular regrowth. I don't equate PTSD with dead brain cells, pot smoking yes. I have friends who smoke dope to slow their brains down, they are self medicating and killing brain cells. I don't consider some marijuana anymore damaging than some of the crap I was put on that, in retrospect, was ineffectual. I was being treated like may are, scrap the top of the issues, see what they create, oh a depressed or manic or mixed state psychiatric patient. Push pills for bipolar patient who never was one.

Reading your response indicated I am a newby to certain areas of the available "therapies." I define therapy as something that takes me from dysfunctional mental or physically depleted state, swimming is therapy, a nap, therapy, having a laugh, therapy. If there was a recipe that worked for everyone, perhaps this site would not exist. The thing is we, as a group, can talk about similar or the same event/trauma/abuse inflicted, but our personalities, upbringing and environment are all factors that can determine how effective or consistent our coping program is. I am looking into the Linden Program, the reason why I feel it may be effective, is its simplicity. I want to keep the process of re-framing, re-processing basic. Charles Linden was a patient in a system that treated side effects, not the issues themselves. He isn't a doctor, he went through it. That makes it more appealing, plus I tend to complicate and over- analyze things. I want to stop that.

I don't talk about being fixed, because nothing is broken. Our souls/spirits are bruised and battered, but we need to reach out and find something that seems workable, applicable and practical to our own version of life to this point. The whole thing is, being well is SIMPLE. I am beyond trying to complicate an exercise that in it's pure form needs reframing, refocusing and reprocessing of shit that went on.

Plus we aren't alone in the world. We can blame parents, mentors, grandparents for a lack of boundary setting, abuses, neglect and trauma. As a toddler and younger child was subjected bullying, sexual abuse, emotional detachment, lack of parental supervision, overeating (my mother decided when I was nine to go on a grapefruit diet, because she said you are fat). This comes back to the idea that we are more willing to treat the effects then dig far enough down to determine why someone is fat (or gambles, drinks, drives too fast, has unsafe sex, does drugs).

So you have provided me with a clearer picture with neuroplasticity. Additionally alternative therapies are perhaps not so anymore. I have been assigned a new therapist and now I am going to stick with the idea I am worth it, and it's work to get to that point where you don't slide back into the same self sabotaging behaviours. That is what I need to do, I can't change the past, what's done is done, how we live today, authentically is work to get to the version of yourself that feel genuine.

Thanks Anthony. Your information and input is valued.

 

[aquabee65]

It's called The Linden Method not program. Anyone out there had any success with it?

 

[anthony]

I have been assigned a new therapist and now I am going to stick with the idea I am worth it, and it's work to get to that point where you don't slide back into the same self sabotaging behaviours. That is what I need to do, I can't change the past, what's done is done, how we live today, authentically is work to get to the version of yourself that feel genuine.

That is very well put Deb... trauma knocks the hell out of a persons self esteem. Rebuilding that, letting go of the old you and working towards what you want to be, becoming what you want to be... all valid attributes for healing trauma.

Relapse is part and parcel of PTSD, yet the more you practice and implement assertive behaviours, the more confident you become, the faster you recover from relapse and as time passes, you continually get better and better at it.

Well done for researching things out for yourself though... it becomes very frustrating when people only want to see one side of things because someone like a therapist told them so... believing they have the answers, yet often their wrong or misguided, don't remain current on information, etc. There are two sides to every fence... and you must look at both and sit in the middle, using the best of both worlds, even at times leaning towards one side or the other based on what works best.

Example. I had surgery years ago on my ankle after breaking it in a fight. It has a plate and screws in it. Now the scar tissue formed, all normal... the doctors said it would go away by using physiotherapy. No probs... attended all that, did everything, it went down little. My ankle was twice the size of the other. Their next theory... we'll do more micro-surgery to remove the scar tissue. Away they went, ankle scar tissue overall decreased very little. My ex-wife happened to mention this to her acupuncturist, who luckily happened to be like a guru at it... studied and practiced in China for most of his career, even though he was Australian born. So... went and seen him, within 6 - 8 sessions using acupuncture, he decreased it around 70% and simply stated, it won't get much better than that. End result though, both ankles are nearly identical again... noticeable if you look closely, but not noticeable like it was prior at twice the size. Alternative therapy was the better alternative than conventional medicine, which created the problem in the first place.

Moral... one is not always better than the other, yet sometimes they are. If I had a heart attack, I would not be looking towards alternative medicine to keep me alive, I would be jumping off the fence to modern medicine in that case.

Mental health is the same. There are a lot of nutjobs on both sides (alternative and modern mental health), claiming things and making statements usually to create a name for themselves, or to profit from others misfortune. If you research though, and typically stick with the overwhelming majority, then optimal results are heightened for yourself.

The Linden Method

In a nutshell, this is stress inoculation therapy. I think they stretched their marketing a little claiming to remove PTSD from your life. Stress inoculation by itself, will not stop PTSD. It promotes how to manage stress, what it is, what to do with it, how to approach things, strategies, etc... and whilst right at this second, it is valid to say PTSD is an anxiety disorder, the DSM V has moved PTSD out and into being a traumatic disorder, because treating the anxiety does not provide any type of longevity result. Mental Health have been doing this for decades now, and realized it isn't working. Its the trauma that must be treated, not the symptoms. The Linden Method treats symptoms, not trauma...

Could it help you with stress management and lowering anxiety with PTSD? Yes...

Will it do as advertised to remove your PTSD from your life? Not a chance in hell... because PTSD is not anxiety, it is trauma based. Trauma is the cause... and no one method can treat trauma, because trauma is literally so individual to each persons individually and traumatic memories stored. Stand two people side by side facing the same traumatic event, one's most significant issue due to PTSD will be the traumatic event, the others may be the bullying they got during childhood... the event only topped off existing trauma they endured in their life, yet they don't find the latest event overtly detrimental... instead, it raised an earlier event which they now find most traumatic in their life.

This is where every method so far created has failed to treat PTSD, because it really is so literally individual and based on trauma, not anxiety. Even the APA now recognise this by shifting PTSD to be a traumatic disorder, not anxiety disorder.

 

[Maleigh]

Deborah,

Having had great trauma to the brain, surgeries and doctors trying medications up the ying yang. I have learned that research and alternate methods do help. I have found with any Neuro disorder or damage that one is susceptible to the power of suggestion. It was only through research that I found this out and found many of my decisions and actions were because of this. Because of knowledge of this I now analyze things when the power of suggestion is given me and try to make a different type of choice not only based on their suggestion, but research you are going the right way I think.

 

[Maleigh]

Anthony,

In reading much on the brain and with my PTSD after my accidents and multiple surgeries and so forth that, that this rebuilding of the brain cells a natural process happens quickly like in weeks or months when in facts trauma to the brain along with surgery to the brain in fact takes years of natural healing to even hope to get back to hopefully normal function. So far out I am not back and it has been years I am still hoping however, but as it is natural and where certain areas of the brain that are traumatized cannot be regrown your brain readjusts and so like you said in your caution above one should be very careful of anyone offering alternative medication or therapies that claim otherwise. Also PTSD is so very different than having killed brain cells. From one who is living and battling with it daily.