I Believe PTSD Is Curable - An Anonymous Source

[philostam]

Now there's the mistake! I can just repeat myself: the key is RELEARNING, REWRITING already mastered activities.

Mastering even the most complex drum beat doesn't help our problem. The very smartest man on earth couldn't come out of PTSD, no matter how much chess he'd play or I don't know (even if he'd play with both hands! :) ).

 

[philostam]

I can use a radical example: you're in love with a girl, you had saved her from the arms of a tiger or I don't know, you two had escaped side by side from the mafia, you're soulmates, you had lived through everything, you're so attracted to her, and now: you can't bear it anymore and you try to make love with her. Stripping her skirt, there's a penis what hits you in the face. - Now suddenly you have to reconsider your instinctive feelings about that person. (And it's very challenging, because you two really were soulmates.) It's a very powerful left-right brain conflict, and if the left wins, the guy can leave his "girlfriend" and maybe his PTSD (developed by the tiger) as well...

 

[Artista]

well... interesting analogy. I did get what you meant. Learning on the other hand you never use, is brand new and rewrites what you did know. Rewiring of sorts being done. Get it. Just why martial arts helped me because I it was very diverse from what I was used to and had me focus on another part of me that was awkward. I think quite honestly, anything new you can venture into that challenges your comfort zones would help you understand how to overcome the trauma situations and day to day things that pop up anew concerning PTSD!! I am unsure that it has to be something already mastered. Perhaps it would be more powerful but THAT would take a lot of guinea pigs to figure this out for absolute assurance. Or are there case studies....? I would think in many activities that are "new' it requires left brained activity over right depending on the task. Not completely convinced it's just specific to an activity but to a comfortability and awareness that you were used to "getting' easily. Dunno.. just thinking.

 

[James B.]

The web search - hemispheric brain training -

may also yield some interesting results. First read about this in the late '90's in relation to climbing. Artista, I got the same hunch about rock climbing as one (but only one) of the reasons it helped me: very ambidextrous.

Interesting stuff.

 

[Lauren]

This makes total sense to me. Your brain is actively engaged in relearning....wanting to go back to what it already knows to be "truth" in how to do whatever it is. If you throw in changing your thought patterns at the same time it makes sense that your brain would absorb it as the new/right way to think.

Hmmm...wonder if that in part is why riding helps me. Just being on my horse out in nature is a huge help in relaxing. I do know that having control of such a large, powerful animal is empowering in itself. The relationship part of my partnership with my horses is also empowering. Now I wonder if using the right brain/ left brain in the fact that I am using both hands (and both legs) to guide my horse has something to do with it. No....it is not relearning (though there are times when I am learning and teaching him a new signal to get him to do what I want,) but I am constantly using different combinations of hands and legs depending on what I need him to do. Some of it is instinctual and an learned understanding for both of us, some of it takes real thought and consideration. IDK just a thought ;o)

 

[AdamAnt]

This is an old thread, and I realize that things change, Does anyone have any info on any experimental developments attempted along the lines that Irs proposes here? Is there a reason to discount this theory?

It seems that the idea may be to find something that requires an ability (not necessarily a talent) that has already been learned that requires each hand to do a different action, and they must be synchronised with each other.

I get the feeling that this must be something earned the hard way, not a natural instinct. By switching the roles of the hands, maybe somehow the neural pathways become symetrical and symbiotic again rather than working against each other?

I know what it feels like to try and try to learn something like this and then finally the synapses align and what used to take supreme effort becomes second nature...it seems that in Irs case, the key was to re-learn the same thing that had been learned before, but to coax the different hemis of the brain to take on each others roles...walk a mile in each others shoes?

Irs could already play the banjo when his daimon directed him to switch hands and relearn. I doubt that the banjo has anything to do with it. I'd surmise that the "silver bullet" would be different for each individual. I'd think that if you're already proficient at crocheting, switch hands for 3 months and see what happens. Find YOUR thing that fits the criteria and try it, maybe there's something to really learn here if it's tried and chronicled as a collective?

Anthony put his stamp on this thread by starting it, You have before you a possible CURE. It really doesn't take a university to do an experiment of this sort. I doubt there are any liabilities involved, (yet I DID notice Irs covered that base in his intro...hehehee

I'd be really mad at myself 5 years from now if some newscast said "PTSD Cured! Banjo Involved!" and I hadn't itterated right now in time just how much I think you people are in a perfect place for organizing an experiment....

 

[philostam]

Very well said. I think we have nothing to lose, so we should try it. But it needs strong determination: I'm doing it with guitar for a few days and it's not so rewarding at the beginning, it's very slow and hard. You have to be a baby again who discovers his movements, and it's not simple if your old PTSD-self watches your every step like a spider to catch any sign of healing. But if we carry on for months, we may get out of the spider web.

 

[anni]

Sorry to butt in. I sort of jumped on this thread since it's one of many which discusses cures and it's generally a good discussion. This is an old thread-I'd never seen it before.

I'm not at all a science/bio brain, but am fascinated with the whole neuro-pathways field, and hope to keep peeking in at the progress you all will ( hopefull :) ) report in the future? :) That would be a polite 'please'? I know PTSD basicaly causes re-wiring, and am not sure if this approach says on become 'wired correctly' again, or re-re-wired to possibly function 'better'. I'm an aging past art major so do not have the technical terms and am making up my own here, please excuse.

For what it's worth, I was born ambi-dextrous. It's not as interesting as it sounds, either and a huge pain in the neck.WELL before PTSD became a life-long buddy, the confusion of what the heck hand one's head was telling me to use has alwaysssss been a 'challenge'. There were no diagnosis of children in those days- one just did the best they could. I think only someone else born like that can explain what it's like. Hardly what you'd describe as suffering, of course, but really- a big pain in the #ss.Think about being the kid up to bat as the pitcher is rolling the ball to you at kickball, and at the last minute your brain is arguing about what foot you should use to kick it? Both did equally well, so in the end you missed the dam ball. :)Your sense of 'right/left' is all screwed up, also, which feels like the same problem internally.Who can tell, perhaps even an excercize like this might help plug something in there correctly?

At any rate, I do hope to see what comes of this experiment. If there ever is a cure for PTSD, fo course it's going to have to involve getting the dam circuitry back to where it should be. It's just rather fascinatng to 'watch', so hope to hear more.

Thanks in advance for letting me sit on the bleachers.

Anni

 

[philostam]

I suspect that the conflict (not "imbalance") between the hemispheres causes the anxiety related symptoms, the problems of SELF-CONTROL. What Anni experiences with the ball, PTSD sufferers experience constantly with the resembles of the trauma, feelings, thoughts, impulses, without a final decision. They totally lose control over themselves.

For example if you've been raped, when it happened, while it happened, your right brain fired the commands to your body to fight of flight at all costs, while the left brain simply saw that there's no chance to escape or fight, because the abuser was stronger, he'd have killed you, he's your father etc. That conflict can't be resolved, until you gain cognitive power over your rightish, strong instincts. You have to accept that the possibility of being raped is real.

If you don't accept it, you have to pay the price: the hemispheric conflict may cause anxiety problems (uncontrollable fear, panic, thoughts, feelings etc.), autism, ADHD, stuttering, ticking, epilepsy, ambidexterity, left-handedness, addictions etc. etc. etc. - because your natural brain functioning is upset, and you can't do important activities properly (stutterers for example use their right hemisphere to speak!).

That's why it helped LRS gaining leftish control over a previously rightish activity.

 

[James B.]

Am having an emotional reaction to reading this, my right brain feels like it's hurting...wow.

Got several jobs due to my hand sketching (drawing) skills (self taught). Maybe I could teach myself to do this at my old standard with my left?

 

[Jline]

I painted last night and used my left hand...it was frustrating at first but I kept at it for a couple of hours. I also used my left hand to drink and eat. Feel great today. I am going to start a new painting and use only my left hand....

 

[Artista]

VERY cool J... can't wait to try this too. It may even loosen me up more if I let it! This is quite intriguing and has lots of therapeutic promise!!!!! Hope we all give it a go and see what happens. : )