curious, treating symptoms by doing less goal-directed activity?

[maryiscontrary]

Okay, so I think I’m starting to get what you’re saying. I think you’ve said that you’ve used ayahuasca in the past and experienced some short term benefits from that viz your symptoms?

This article on using psychadelics might interest you, insofar as it talks

So, um, I think a lot of people would divide this into Recreation (which isn’t necessarily goal-directed, it’s enjoyment-driven) and Relaxation. 2 seperate things.

One of my first CBT courses we covered dividing up your time so that there was a healthy balance between the different areas of your life (can’t remember them all but like: work, family, recreation, relaxation, etc). Some of those areas are going to overlap (eg, you might find a yoga session both fun and relaxing), and the time isn’t necessary an equal split minute for minute between sections. And everyone is going to have differences in their ideal healthy balance.

Other people refer to body, mind & spirit fulfilment (and there are therapy models that follow that).

ACT talks a lot about doing less goal-oriented stuff in favour of more value driven stuff (eg. You’re going to run into issues feeling content, fulfilled, or like you have a meaningful life if you think your job is a complete waste of time.

So, instead of going from one extreme to another, most therapy modalities seem to recommend “balance” in one way or another.

Staring at a wall to combat your burnout from overwork? I think therapists call that ‘decompensating’, and the consensus from the different therapy modalities seems to be that there are more effective ways of treating, and then managing (long-term) the consequences of professional burnout.

There’s a whole heap of middle ground between manic work habits and doing absolutely zip. One extreme to the other sounds more like a mental breakdown than a coping strategy.

I think you misunderstand me. It's not necessarily about sitting and staring at a wall. It's about not engaging executive functioning when doing activities, thus possibly allowing damaged circuits in the frontal lobe to reconstruct themselves.
this may not be the same for everyone, but for anyone who has work themselves so hard did they have burn themselves out, doing whatever, it may be a solution. Like I said before, if you work the same muscle like a madman everyday, you will destroy that muscle, and not make it stronger.

 

[Sideways]

Where is your theory that you’ve ‘damaged’ frontal lobe circuits coming from? And how would simply not using them help?

When we stop using neurotransmitters in our brain, it takes a shitload of work to get them to start firing again.

What you’re describing is pretty typical burnout from a lousy work/life balance. I don’t quite get why you’re introducing all this stuff about ‘damaged circuits’, or somehow using executive functions of your brain too much os what has damaged them. Burnout is burnout. Physically and mentally exhausted. The solution is better balance - looking after yourself.

You don’t have to put your executive function to sleep to do that. Use it differently? Sure. Use it not at all? Recipe for disaster.

You’re taking an incredibly common part of ptsd, and throwing an entirely bizarre theory at it. Which seems a whole lot like an avoidance strategy to me. Which would also be a very normal part of ptsd.

Perhaps also take a look at whether there’s some black and white thinking going on for you. You have issues with your ego, and your proposed solution is to kill it entirely. You’re physically exhausted, so your solution is ‘no executive functioning at all’.... There’s big areas of middle ground that seem to have been missed.

Black and white thinking? Super duper common with us ptsd’ers.

 

[maryiscontrary]

First off, I would appreciate just a little bit more respect. I don't didn't want to bring this up , but I do have a PhD in human physiology and Neuroscience so I'm not exactly talking out my rectum whole :-).
Now, what I am speaking of in this realm it's not really Theory , I'm sure you can pick out a couple hundred articles in this basic PubMed search.

ptsd frontal lobe - PubMed - NCBI

The relationship between elevated cortisol and frontal lobe and even possibly shrinkage has been well-established for at least 20 years. Because the frontal lobe has a dampening effect on the amygdala, damage to both the circuits and the will function explain a lot of terrible symptoms that we suffer, including emotional dysregulation, invasive thoughts, Behavioral dysregulation, including addictions, and so forth. This is really no big secret. I'm not here to irritate you, I'm here to be your friend. Blessings I hope this helps.

This is an extremely important topic to me. in fact , I think that this is a very important topic for Humanity. Bless you my friend, I really understand where you're coming from. I've been there. we are all in this together.

 

[Ronin]

I'm not here to irritate you, I'm here to be your friend.

Bit of a mind reading, no? :)

IMHO Sideways was not disrespectful at all... in simply asking for a source of opinion on a matter and remarking things do not have to be so extreme polarized when seeking solutions, or that some solutions do not even enter the discussion, for other measures would do. Far better. Lots of clinical experience. Lots of availability. Why take the hassle with something extremely experimental when something else is way more useful, reachable, and with the desired result?

Ditto, reading emotional mindstate into a fairly neutral post is just that. Reading things into a post.

Edited: By making public offers on a public forum, yeah, you are promoting yourself.

<mod edit: self-promotion has been removed, reference (above) stricken.>

 

[Sideways]

This is an extremely important topic to me. in fact

Absolutely hearing that.

Have also been trying to keep up with the experience that you’ve wracked up over the years (from shamans to PhD’s and quantum physics, it’s a pretty long CV you’ve amassed).

I don’t have any qualifications in medicine, pharmacology, psychology or biochemistry. I’m happy to put that out there and be the relatively uneducated person in the conversation.

Been hanging around here for a while though, and been in treatment for a long time (and yeah, my pdoc did, just this week, suggest TMS, but that was to stimulate areas in my frontal lobe rather than shut them down). Spent a long time in hospital spending waaaaaaay more time than is healthy with people with diagnosed mental illness.

So what I can tell you is you seem to be going to extraordinary lengths to redefine your symptoms as something other, despite them really sounding very similar to the kind of symptoms that are common around here with ptsd.

You seem to be going to extraordinary lengths to find extreme (and unevidenced) ways to treat these reasonably common symptoms, despite there being some really good evidence-supported approaches that have worked well for a lot of folks around here.

I’m picking up what I think you’re putting down...you don’t like common, you aren’t common, and you’re happy to go the untraveled route and see where it goes.

If you want to experiment on yourself? No one here can stop you. And I have no intention on trying. But when there seems to be some obvious, super common cognitive distortions going on, I’ve done enough treatment of my own to see them. When there seems to be super common denial and avoidance going on, I sometimes point that out.

If you genuinely think that you’ve damaged circuitry in your frontal lobe, you may be right. Tonne of really common ways to do that (anything from playing certain sports to having a stroke in your sleep to degenerative disease to certain mental illnesses and even some of those plant remedies you’ve used in the past).

But if you’re genuine about that, the smart thing to do would be to book an appointment with a neuropsych and get a good clear picture of exactly what parts of your brain are damaged, and to what extent, yeah? Because damage to your frontal lobe? That’s not a small thing.

Based on what you’ve written, the damage to your brain circuitry is theoretical.

Your proposed treatment for this theoretical damage is also theoretical.

If that doesn’t concern you? Knock yourself out.

But maybe, just maybe, what’s going on here is textbook ptsd: avoiding the reality of your situation, avoiding the hard work of evidence-based treatment approaches, and cognitive distortions about the way you have interpreted your situation and the appropriate remedy.