+WORDS FAILED ME. (A POST ABOUT ADJUST AND JUSTICE)

January 22, 2015January 22, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Thursday, January 22, 2015. I find it interesting to observe how my thinking changes sometimes when I think about one thing I want to write a post again feeling quite certain I know where the post is going to go, only to begin the post and find my thoughts are led off in a direction I never anticipated. This must be part of the living, breathing part of the writing process. It can be full of surprises.

I THOUGHT I was going to write a post about something I have seldom said anything about on this blog because I feel I know so little about it: Forgiveness. I did type that word into the blog’s search bar and some posts did show up. But never once have I felt assurance within as I think or write about forgiveness.

Because I often have a river of thought flowing near my consciousness lately about what resilience might mean to me (as I have mentioned the concept in some recent posts) I guess I am not surprised that this word appeared quickly alongside my morning thoughts about forgiveness. Even the word forgiveness showed up now only in connection to some thoughts yesterday about addictions.

Life doesn’t seem to be about untangling a big messed up ball of yarn, to use a simplistic image. It’s more like trying to separate thousands of these messed up balls from one another at the same time. Things are so complicated, so complex, so enmeshed and, yes, “cross-tangled.”

To give myself a break I go back again to one of my main thought currents. I don’t care how advanced any society on earth may think that it is at this juncture in the history of our species. The truth is we are ALL children! There is so much more we do not know about life than what we do know we would perhaps not only laugh at ourselves if we truly had an objective point of view – we would most likely giggle ourselves silly!

Yes, there is much, much suffering in the world. Many of us know suffering with every breath we take. Not necessarily so because life is so terrible for us today but because we carry great suffering within us from our earlier years, and because we are so sensitized to suffering we feel suffering for all who have suffered and for those who are suffering now.

But where are solutions in this mix? What can we KNOW and what does that tell us about what we do NOT know?

I will explain below why I am bringing THIS topic into my post right now. I consider these words to be the truth. I believe it is vital that every single person on earth investigate truth for their self. This is, in my beliefs, not only an absolute right given by the Creator to everyone but searching for our own truth is also our spiritual obligation: It is our road home.

One simple note before I post this. I have written several times on this post that “forgiveness” of my mother, my father, and for the entire ignoring public has been an extremely complicated process for me because of the unbelievable – let me see, I’ll say – SIZE of the abuse and neglect that was done to me from birth until I was able to escape at age 18. Minimally my mother “should” have received a jail term of 15,000 years JUST for the physical assaults she did against me.

The kind of psychotic abuse I endured is nearly beyond comprehension. No. What am I saying? It IS beyond comprehension.

The good news is? I DO NOT HAVE TO COMPREHEND IT!

I DO have to forgive EVERYONE involved.

Impossible to do? Well, it is anything but easy for me. It is taking my lifetime and I don’t think in this world there is any kind of completion to “forgiveness.” I think it is an organic life process that will last as long as I am alive on earth.

Now. For those interested this is the most profound and SENSIBLE piece of writing I have ever found on the subject of forgiveness. Why so? Because its truths sit right where they MUST be – connected intimately to – of all things – JUSTICE:

+THE RIGHT METHOD OF TREATING CRIMINALS

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Twelve hours have now passed since I began writing this post. I was interrupted – and continued to be interrupted – and now as I sit here hoping to be able to complete this in some kind of form resembling what I was aiming toward hours ago I know that I can’t.

The following information just arrived in my email, sent by one of my sisters who listened so closely to everything I discovered during my studies that began a decade ago into what I now know is Trauma Altered Development. She included this note: “This is SO important! You were so far ahead with your research on attachment.”

The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

Posted: 01/20/2015 3:20 pm EST Updated: 3 hours ago

By Johann Hari , Author of ‘Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’

This cannot all be simple coincidence. If you scroll down to see yesterday’s comments on this post — +A WORD ON TRAUMA TRIGGERS AND FALLING APART – you will see some discussion on sorrow, pain and suffering in the aftermath of early traumas that were so severe there is no end to the tears connected to them within us.

I noticed that the commenter mentioned he found the link to this post on an Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA) facebook page.

My inner response to this writer fed into my motivation and direction for this post as I began it this morning. I rarely remember any of my dreams but I woke from a dream this morning when my alarm went off within which I was crying. The subject of the dream was alcohol and drug use by so many people, so many people that I could find nobody left to form a friendship with who was not affected by addiction.

Now. This link sent by my sister.

Yet in THIS post I was going to talk about a word that came to me this morning as its appearance is linked in my thoughts to my struggle to find a word that makes more sense to me than “resilience” does.

My word this morning: ADJUST. This word has DIRECT links in its origins to JUST and to JUSTICE.

Origin of JUST: Middle English, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French juste, from Latin justus, from jus right, law; akin to Sanskrit yos welfare; First Known Use: 14^th century

Origin of JUSTICE: Middle English, from Anglo-French justise, from Latin justitia, from Justus – First Known Use: 12th century.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

More than this I cannot say right now. What I do know is that beginning with my reading of the commenter’s words yesterday (mentioned above) I must have let myself get too close to the precipice below which lies my own pain. I feel sad beyond words and am haunted at the moment by my unshed tears. No, I will not cry. I know it would not help me to “feel better.”

What happened to me, and to so many others, is TOO BIG for tears. What happened to us DEMANDED JUSTICE and justice was not there for us. Nor was it there for most of those who became perpetrators when they were little and needed it most.

Research, as it is revealing truths such as this one from the article link my sister sent me: “So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.”

I know too much. And I am not finished learning. Many times this is a taxing, wearing, very sad process for me. Yes, my own personal task is to forgive those who harmed me. BUT? What about the justice part? Justice will not come until a whole lot more people know what I do.

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Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

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Leave a Comment »

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+ARE PEOPLE OBJECTS?

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015. Big news for today? The grandson I care for weekdays turns 2 1/2 today! I have just a few quiet moments before he is dropped off here this morning. I am thinking about what he would be missing throughout his day if he were to go to a big daycare center rather than to my little apartment. He is learning to talk remarkably fast, and a big part of this process for him is that he has someone who loves him to LISTEN to what he says!

Although it can be totally exhausting to listen to a little one chatter nonstop all day long, and although his care continually interrupts my own thoughts all day long, and although this intense level of caring for little people involves important sacrifices of personal “wants,” I question how much is going to be changed for these new generations because so few adults are spending this kind of time with new little humans – at least in “mainstream” America today.

Relatively speaking he doesn’t yet have very many words, but that makes what words he does have at his command treasures beyond measure as he uses them to express his SELF to an attachment person as he “comes into the world.” I do a lot of filling in the blanks and reading between the lines — or between his words, actually. I can hear him tell me now what he is thinking about as thoughts come through his mind increasingly connected to words. I know enough about his personal life at home to make important connections.

He told me yesterday mommy covers him with a blanket when he goes to sleep at night.

He/we were able to share thoughts that communicated that Yogi the Bear eats sandwiches AND cake.

He told me he likes to play Candy Land with Mommy and that his daddy wears BIG socks and that he himself wears tiny socks because he has tiny feet.

These small interactions I have with my grandson happen in a grounded way as he follows me around doing what small things I can really accomplish here in this city small apartment in a day. He spends a lot of time in the room while I sew and I teach him all kinds of things through conversation and he teaches me in return.

He is BECOMING a person!

Not a system.

People. Are we “objects?” Are we part object and part something else? How do we learn WHAT we are beginning from our birth? WHO we are?

In modern mainstream life we are breaking natural bonds that connect us to one another and hence to our self as we break our bonds with the natural world we are a part of. I learned so much in the seven years I lived among the “poor” people along the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona. Children were raised most of the time by older children, yet adults were continually around to interact in loving ways with all of them. They showed me what being a part of a social species is REALLY about.

In contrast among families with so many working mothers children are up in the morning and out the door from the time they are born, placed for “care” in what I still call “day orphanages” while parents are working. Night brings a frantic scurrying rush of pick-the-kids-up, race home, maybe eat a meal, have “loving times” and then off to bed. Weekends? No less frantic.

Where are the ongoing moment-to-moment meaningful interactions between little people and ANY ONE?

Where is the loving, consistent and continual CARE giving to these blossoming little ones? Who notices them? Who sees and listens to them and then gives back to them in their real-time instants of life what they need to become fully social beings?

I bring all of this up this morning not only because of what I am anticipating for my day, but also because of an article I spent a little time with last night. It would take me being able to print this article (I do not have a printer) and at least two hours of concentrated thinking for me to more fully understand the parameters of what this research is about, but what thoughts I do have from a cursory consideration of its contents is that there is both a connection and a separation between these two activities in the human brain: empathizing and systematizing.

Regional Gray Matter Volume Is Associated with Empathizing and Systemizing in Young Adults

And, yes, autism is mentioned in this article – a seemingly “mysterious” condition whose increase in prevalence should VASTLY concern everyone. This information begs the question within me, “How do we know the difference between an object and a person?

(I just saw another bed bug racing toward me at 8 am this morning as I sat at this computer. I am so NOT a happy camper!! As I see it I am paying a very high price to be here in this place doing what I am doing right now. I am eager to leave come the end of August no matter HOW much I am going to miss my family! I have my limits and they are being tested!)

A decade ago when I began my study of developmental neuroscience (thanks to the internet!) I read articles that stated human mirror neurons are not involved in empathy processes. I am not going to thoroughly scour the newest research for what “they” are finding out now, although this article contains some of that information. I am thinking intuitively, and that kind of thinking for all of us is LIVING thinking that comes from our WHOLE self, not just from some intellectually (supposedly) informed “logical” part of our brain.

Little people especially under the age of five are not designed by nature to grow into whole (empathizing) people by being immersed in a universe of their same-age peers. In mainstream culture when children are packed off to daycare during most of their waking early life they are being treated as objects that could just as well be packed into a suitcase and delivered somewhere — like a suit of clothes. Children are MORE than the clothes they are wearing?

Are we more than what our mirror neurons SEE in the world as they activate matching “systems” thinking inside our heads? Are little people more than “objects” to be hauled here and there, put here and there, and hauled back again?

Those kinds of actions relate to “systems” thinking. Which adults actually CARE or even KNOW how their little people FEEL about the lives they are being forced to live long before they have any language to TALK about themselves in the world? Who is taking the time to LISTEN to them even when their words begin to appear?

Along the border all the children comingled with one another, the older taking care of the younger because that’s what, in their universe, people do. They are in community. All ages. Adults nearby. When the older children are at school the adults spend their days together, as well. They have VERY little money. That part of their system is only marginally important. They are important to one another.

What a concept.

My grandson just arrived. I need to go pay attention….

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

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Leave a Comment »

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+PRACTICAL PRACTICE (there are times when warriors have to rest)

January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Sunday, January 18, 2015.. Since my completion of my earlier post today, +DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA – RESEARCH REVEALS NEW LEVELS OF POWERFUL TRUTHS, I have made the decision to take a break from my studies related to the articles I cited in that post. I see other “writing on the wall” that I must take a pause to consider. The new research about critical stages of early development and what can both constitute and cause trauma altered development is coming out fast and furiously. HOWEVER I also believe that it will take a minimum of five years for the new information streaming from the most prestigious learning and research centers on the planet to catch up with “practice.”

I actually do not see how it will be possible for very many current professionals, be they psychiatrists, psychologists, child and family therapists or educators to be able to retrain themselves based on this new information.

It may actually take at least a full generation yet to come for those people – the next generation of professionals – to become completely trained within the new contexts for humanity that new research is so profoundly elucidating now.

We are at the stage when an entirely new paradigm is appearing. No quantum leap is really practical on the practical level of “mental health” or even medical practice. There are many children being born who are suffering in ways that are not necessary, and whose suffering has created and will continue to create “symptoms” in their lives of a very serious nature that nobody WITHOUT the new information to fully inform their thinking and approach to “treatment” will be able to adequately address.

This is a tragedy that I am so excruciatingly aware of, yet I really can do nothing to change what is happening on the bigger-picture levels. New terminology such as “trauma informed care” are appearing, but at the same time there are only a very few who are aware of what researchers are discovering about what trauma really is when it comes to what most affects the earliest development of humans as it triggers cascading changes that nobody at present knows how to “fix” or repair. Recognizing these things is a very necessary and helpful step.

Until we become clear about what causes trauma altered development – and I mean really clear from the top professionals down to the mass public – we will not recognize how to prevent these changes from happening in the first place.

On a personal level I give myself the sign for “good enough” and take a bow. I must, I choose to, focus on whatever means I have available to me to down-regulate my distress. I practice piano and drum, and this learning is a kind of welcome active meditation for me. I sew. A lot. I am building up my “craft” inventory for any summer shows I can sell at next summer as I try to accumulate money for my move south.

I care well for a little one. I try to eat well and to find more peaceful channels to let my thoughts flow through.

I can’t “force the river” of changes outside of myself. I will prepare for my return move south toward the end of this coming summer. I have even gone a number of days without seeing a bed bug in this tiny apartment, although I still have no confidence that they are really gone from my life. That has been a horrible and very stressful experience for me to go through, as I have mentioned in earlier posts.

Northern winters are hard on me although this current one has been a welcome marvel, and I am grateful for its gentleness. I have learned a lot during this time of my life and I am not finished learning, but I also can feel a shift within myself this evening as if I have climbed to the top of a very high hill with great difficulty and have now crested the hill and am heading down the other side.

That is good.

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

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+DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA – RESEARCH REVEALS NEW LEVELS OF POWERFUL TRUTHS

January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Sunday, January 18, 2015. I am yet again having my gift (that at the same time feels so much like a curse) for being able to inwardly see “the writing on the wall” ahead of scientific research that I can locate and use to confirm my suspicions — confirmed. Such processes as are explicated in the research paper I am referring to in this post existed to me in my “gut thinking” nearly from the start of my exploration a decade ago to discover what happened to me that so changed my life due to my exposure to the severe, consistent and psychotic abuse I endured from my mother from the moment I was born.

I “knew” and still know that it is genetically programmed into human beings from their beginnings at conception to anticipate in a profoundly EXPECTANT manner on all levels of their developing physiology to be born into a WONDERFUL world. Our species would not have endured and survived if momentary bouts of optimal conditions surrounding our birth and development had not periodically occurred.

This is tied in my deepest understandings of human life to the fact that what goes most rightly for humans happens because we are biologically not only created to EXPECT a wonderful life, but we are created to be able to adapt in ways that change “how we come out” if anything less than optimal exists in the world we are being created for and born into.

Always it is the biological hope that “best times” will return to our species that individuals are designed to adapt and change their development to help continue ongoing life for the species with the HOPE that optimal, good times will return. Someday. To someone. At some time in the future.

As the brief article excerpts below discuss, there are “critical windows” in human development during which developmental processes pass through that once completed cannot be returned to again. Yes, the question of what can be “restored” when degrees of change in response to less-than optimal and even downright horribly traumatic experiences have taken place once a critical window has closed are being increasingly examined to restore both hope and healing where it is needed most, gaining a true understanding of the processes involved takes the WORK of serious study.

Truth is, doing this kind of exploratory study is exhausting to me on every level of my self-hood I can imagine. Truth is, I am tired. Where exactly is the line between the “work” that belongs to one generation and the “work” that belongs to the next and proceeding generations? I am not officially OLD at 63, but the degree of trauma from birth I survived until I left home at 18 COST me so, so dearly. I am worn out.

Yet I fight on. Something within me FORCES me to continue to look for the CONTEXT within which developmental trauma happens and heals.

My inner “writing on the wall” self knows the bigger picture. Little old regular me? I DON’T want to know. I don’t want ANY of this to be relevant in my life.

But it is relevant. How much of the task life has seemed to assign to me can I actually DO? What would be the end-point? How will I know what I have contributed to the ongoing search for what trauma does to people has been “good enough?” When I fall down in my traces and cannot get up?

Or do I simply be kinder to myself until other aspects of my current existence change to be more in my favor?

Truth is, most of what has sustained me over the years of my studies existed in the place I call home along the Mexican-American border in southeastern Arizona. I am HOMESICK in every possible. I cannot replenish my self where I am currently living. The conditions here are hostile to my nature. I want to and need to go home.

But, I have also made an inner commitment to remain here caring full-time weekdays for my youngest grandson until he turns 3 the end of this coming July. I am working with him to irrevocably help him establish his self-hood. The current stage’s development has to do with my helping him not only learn how to talk in words, but how to recognize his thoughts, the life of his mind, and how to pursue and foster his innate love of learning.

By the end of this coming August I plan to find a way to leave here and GO HOME. This by itself presents a huge challenge to me considering my continued poverty and trauma-changes related disabilities.

On the other side of the coin of my own personal challenges, I learned an important new term today, the one I have been waiting for as it rests above what I knew before I could find the science to back me up: EXPERIENCE EXPECTANCY

“In addition to the experience-dependent adaptation there is the often-overlooked concept of experience-expectant development, which was established by Greenough et al. (1987). According to this concept distinct developmental time periods exist, during which the brain expects and “waits” to interact with the environment, that is, only if the brain is exposed to a certain amount of experience its functions can be adapted and optimized. Joseph applied this concept to describe the environmental influences on neuronal development and its consequences for emotional development and attachment (Joseph, 1999).”

“Since a major hallmark of experience-dependent as well as experience-expectant development is the existence of developmental time windows, the behavioral outcome of perinatal adverse experience should be a function of the timing and duration of the stress exposure (Andersen, 2003; Andersen and Teicher,2008).”

These statements are included in this extremely important 2014 article:

Full article free online

Front Neurosci. 2014 Feb 5;8:11. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00011. eCollection 2014.

Perinatal programming of emotional brain circuits: an integrative view from systems to molecules.

Bock J¹, Rether K², Gröger N³, Xie L², Braun K⁴.

From this article

“Environmental influences such as perinatal stress have been shown to program the developing organism to adapt brain and behavioral functions to cope with daily life challenges. Evidence is now accumulating that the specific and individual effects of early life adversity on the functional development of brain and behavior emerge as a function of the type, intensity, timing and the duration of the adverse environment, and that early life stress (ELS) is a major risk factor for developing behavioral dysfunctions and mental disorders. Results from clinical as well as experimental studies in animal models support the hypothesis that ELS can induce functional “scars” in prefrontal and limbic brain areas, regions that are essential for emotional control, learning and memory functions. On the other hand, the concept of “stress inoculation” is emerging from more recent research, which revealed positive functional adaptations in response to ELS resulting in resilience against stress and other adversities later in life. Moreover, recent studies indicate that early life experiences and the resulting behavioral consequences can be transmitted to the next generation, leading to a transgenerational cycle of adverse or positive adaptations of brain function and behavior. In this review we propose a unifying view of stress vulnerability and resilience by connecting genetic predisposition and programming sensitivity to the context of experience-expectancy and transgenerational epigenetic traits. The adaptive maturation of stress responsive neural and endocrine systems requires environmental challenges to optimize their functions. Repeated environmental challenges can be viewed within the framework of the match/mismatch hypothesis, the outcome, psychopathology or resilience, depends on the respective predisposition and on the context later in life.” (Bock, Rether, Gröger, Xie & Braun, 2014).

“…during perinatal sensitive periods the environment exerts a critical impact on the maturation of brain structure and function (Weinstock, 2008; Korosi and Baram, 2009; Fox et al., 2010; Loman and Gunnar, 2010; Lucassen et al., 2013). Structural abnormalities related to early adverse experience are mostly found in brain regions that are involved in the control and mediation of emotionality, providing a direct link between childhood adversity and psychopathological behavior in adulthood (McCrory et al., 2010). Moreover, the outcome of stress exposure depends on the maturational status of a given brain region, e.g., disorders arising from exposure to adversity at times of frontal cortex development should differ from those of the hippocampus or the amygdala. The experience-dependent synaptic reorganization can be viewed as a general principle of perinatal brain development, where a genetic predisposition interacts with environmental and psychological “epigenetic” factors. As a consequence, synaptic circuitries adapt or maladapt to an adverse environment such as socio-emotional neglect, abuse and traumatic experience. This can result in dysfunctional neuronal systems, which might trigger the emergence of mental disorders later in life (Furukawa et al., 1999; Agid et al., 2000; Van Den Bergh et al., 2006; Cirulli et al., 2009).”

+++++++++++++++++

Now it seems that the spigot has been opened full bore and there is so much new information appearing that I feel I will be sucked into it and never again appear as my “ordinary” kind of self.

Here is just one more example of what I have found today in my search for sources of information:

“The goal of the current review is to illustrate how the circuitry of the developing PFC can be sculpted by a wide range of pre- and postnatal factors. We begin with an overview of prefrontal functioning and development, and we conclude with a consideration of how early experiences influence prefrontal development and behavior.” (Kolba, Mychasiuka, Muhammada, Lia, Frost, & Gibb, 2012)

“It is now clear that even fairly innocuous-looking experiences can profoundly affect brain development and that the range of experiences that can alter brain development is much larger than had once been believed. In addition, although it has been known for some time that sensory cortical regions are very responsive to early experiences, it has only recently been shown that the PFC is at least as sensitive to a wide range of stimuli (Table 1).”

Experience and the developing prefrontal cortex

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Bryan Kolba, Richelle Mychasiuk, Arif Muhammad, Yilin Lia, Douglas O. Frost, and Robbin Gibb

Edited by Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved July 20, 2012 (received for review February 13, 2012)

++++++++++++++++++

Please see next post:

+PRACTICAL PRACTICE (there are times when warriors have to rest)

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

++++

+MOTHERING. WHO SAYS IT MATTERS?

January 15, 2015January 15, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Thursday, January 15, 2015. Perhaps it would be more helpful to me if I looked at some things I care deeply about from the perspective of why I care rather than why so many in our society do not care. What is it about me that makes me KNOW that there are times when mothering well requires sacrifice and suffering, a most unpopular notion among so many women in today’s world.

Am I being forced by mass thinking that surrounds me to accept the idea that I am simply “old school,” out-of-step and out-of-synch with what “everyone else” knows to be NEW school, and therefore correct? I am not really even allowed to add “and proper” at the end of the sentence I just wrote because that word and the concepts it pertains to – proper – is itself an “old school” value. Is, then, essential mothering itself obsolete?

Oh no, oh no, OH NO! From my point of view, from my perspective, from my knowledge base, we as a society built from the people that society contains and is built by, are in DEEP trouble if what I “suspect” proves to actually be true!

If I broaden my own thinking so that I can ponder how millennia of evolution built our species to NEED certain events to happen at certain critical stages of our individual growth and develop such that evolution has given the fulfillment of those needs to the same women – mothers – who conceive and carry into their birthing their children – and if those same mothers are en masse perfectly FINE now with abandoning the care of their infants at or very near birth to other people so that mommy can “go to work outside the home” is there ANY price being paid by these offspring?

If so, what is that price?

We can think as a society that “advancements” have given us so many choices that “old” ways of “doing things” are no longer necessary, or even appropriate. We simply now “know better” now.

This process includes not feeling afraid of things that scared people in the past. Of course this process relies on resources that are available some places in the world and not in others. Clean water and air, adequate food and shelter from the elements, medical care and protection from predators are among the resources that baseline societal well-being relies upon.

The quality of mothering, which rests at the heart of any society, is directly impacted by the availability of vital resources within the society she lives within. I don’t mean to be redundant here, but the need for resources to meet basic human needs lie densely, compactly, inescapably at a center around which human need fulfillment or deprivation swirl. We might think we can think our way away from this center without dire consequence, but can we?

As long as we THINK we are immune from harmful consequence we will continue to act in ways our thinking fosters – until? Until the dire consequences present themselves in a way that cannot be ignored.

I cannot ignore my concerns about the well-being of America’s infants and children NOW. But, then, I am “old school” and who gives a damn about anything we ole foggies might have to say?

I see no way that nature designed humans as they need to complete critical stages in their earliest development that will impact the body these little ones will live with for the rest of their lifespan to be “dropped” off to be cared for by strangers during the earliest months in their life when evolution has designated that an infant MUST have its mother’s intense care and attention.

We KNOW what the earliest developmental stages involve, what needs to be present for these stages to be optimally accomplished and we know what happens when conditions that are not optimal force a little person to develop along a malevolent, unsafe and insecure attachment trajectory.

Yes, obviously, strangers care take care of babies. Less obvious is that the focused attention of a mother on the optimal care for her infant creates an optimal human being under all ordinary conditions (barring present ill health in offspring that require additional care).

Even in large families where infant care is handled by older children and by other related adults those conditions are not mirrored within today’s narrow-range of dense children’s peer groups tended by adults in a minimally acceptable – dictated purely by financial concerns – ratio.

In today’s “modern” world the idea that a mother who brings a baby into the world is the one nature has designed to be its primary caregiver especially during the first year of life is an intensely unpopular – and strongly challenged and condemned if not completely ignored – idea. How DARE anyone suggest such a thing!!

How could building safe and secure attachment through all waking hours of a baby’s life so that its social-emotional rapidly forming right brain, with its connection to all operations of the entire brain and nervous system (including stress-calm response system and immune system) matters more than making money? Who cares that building an optimal body-brain, which lays the foundational circuitry in the baby toward the development of self in relation to others within a member of a completely social species, is altered (and in my thinking damaged) by abandonment of mother in the first year of an infant’s life?

Harsh.

Let the little ones pay the price. After all, it’s not like babies can TALK about their suffering and sacrifices.

And if any adult actually does speak up on behalf of the needs and losses of these little ones?

Ostracize them. Shun them. Ignore them.

“Socially isolate” them. Funny. That is what the growing body-brain of an infant having its fundamental needs ignored by its mother feels like. That is how the BODY-brain interprets rejection, abandonment and the “ignoring” of a mother who is not paying adequate attention to her young infant.

What constitutes adequate attention in today’s “modern” world? What percentage of a little person’s waking life is “good enough” mothering required for optimal infant development?

I know someone who is at this moment in the midst of a week-long training at the national center of one of our nation’s most prominent program to improve the quality of parenting of children: Parents as Teachers. I asked this person, who is herself a full-time working mother of young children, if this program ever mentions nature’s design for mothers to be the primary attachment person – during the waking hours — of her infant’s life. The answer was no. With this qualifier: Society does not provide the necessary in infrastructure for mothers to accomplish this task.

So? Don’t mention it.

Why pay attention to something we en masse CHOOSE to ignore and do nothing about?

Dr. Allan N. Schore is among the hosts of scientists who are telling us the truth:

Attachment and the Regulation of the Right Brain

THE EFFECTS OF EARLY RELATIONAL TRAUMA RIGHT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT, AFFECT REGULATION, AND INFANT MENTAL HEALTH

Relational trauma and the developing right brain: The neurobiology of broken attachment bonds

Modern Attachment Theory: The Central Role of Affect Regulation in Development and Treatment

And we move on in our thinking to the developmental needs of children over the age of one? What about the needs of preschoolers? Try the knowledge of Dr. Gordon Neufeld for the truth:

Gordon Neufeld: The Importance of Attachment – YouTube

Dr. Gordon Neufeld- What Makes a Child Easy to Parent?

Gordon Neufeld: Kids Need Us More Than Friends – YouTube

Book: Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers

In the REALLY old days as humans were being designed through evolution in certain ways to not only survive but to ensure at least some representatives of our species developed in the best way possible, it was always the quality of the life surrounding mothers that determined the quality of development little ones could achieve.

The lack of adequate resources in a family, tribe, culture, society was reflected in the hardships mothers faced in caring for their young. Optimal resources = optimal mothers = optimal mothering = optimal offspring development. When this pattern was not possible someone ALWAYS paid the price.

In “the old times” when survival was extremely difficult REALLY difficult choices needed to be made: Who survives? A mother already having reached childbearing years could reproduce to “carry forward the line” obviously much more quickly when times became good-enough again than could a small person.

Who would be taken care of and who was required to sacrifice?

For whatever reasons and in whatever ways our current societies perspectives are clouded – if not completely twisted. We can be gentle in our assessment of so many current mothering practices and say it doesn’t really matter WHO cares for babies. We do this as we either forget the truth or as we ignore it. NOTHING is going to improve for generations at the rate we are going in America now where making “the almighty buck” and giving in to women’s RIGHT to go out and work – to escape the kind of sacrifice and suffering she would most often need to go through should she choose to stay at home and care for her own young infants and children. Because, yes, societal conditions DO NOT meet the personal needs of most mothers who stay at home.

Who wants to sacrifice and suffer? If THAT is what our society offers to families, is it not logically better to make the ones who cannot voice their truth — because they cannot physiologically do so — pay the price?

I remain unclear as to how things are ever going to get better that way. I believe it is fundamentally misogyny that is at the root of the current pattern of mothers rejecting the primary nature of the job nature dictates they agree to when they birth a child.

Who wants to talk about how we live in a society that basically HATES women? Women are DONE WITH THAT hatred. The biggest tragedy is the suffering at the heart of our culture BECAUSE it just so happens that —— women ARE the mothers of our species.

NOTE: Under optimal conditions mothering is not designed to necessarily involve suffering, and perhaps not sacrifice – but that is a topic for another post….

++++

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Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

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+RESILIENT: MY RANT ABOUT THIS CONCEPT

January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Tuesday, January 13, 2015. Those of us who “sallied forth” into our life here on earth under horrific conditions of unsafe and insecure attachment were MADE INTO a different kind of people than those who did not. We “adjusted” in our physiology THEN in ways that need to be understood. Until they are, the concept of “resiliency” is most likely to be mis-applied to us.

I have been thinking lately about this word as it seems to be rising to the top of the proverbial pop-culture heap as it is being bandied about in regard to – WHAT, exactly? Experiences of trauma? I am not clear about what the actual meaning of this word even is. I am not even sure the word itself is clear about itself! (As if the word has any say in the matter….)

As I look at the following definitions I am feeling no less confused by what I read than I was before I took a look at dear ole Webster’s online dictionary. How can a NOUN simply repeat the definition of an ADJECTIVE and – a bit like a Winnie the Pooh diddle – turn around and come back again upon itself so that the ADJECTIVE simply repeats the meaning of the NOUN?

I BOLD and UNDERLINE some of the key word concepts that greatly trouble me in the following definitions as I try to think my way through any “conversation” I may have within my own thoughts or any conversation I may have with another person about —— well, take a look —–

NOUN – Full Definition of RESILIENCE First Known Use: 1824

1: the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

2: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

“quick” definition of RESILIENCE:

:the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

: the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.

What about RESLIENT? First Known Use: 1674

ADJECTIVE – Origin of RESILIENT

Latin resilient-, resiliens, present participle of resilire to jump back, recoil, from re- + salire to leap — more at sally

Full Definition of RESILIENT

: characterized or marked by resilience: as

a: capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture

b: tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

— re·sil·ient·ly adverb

“quick” definition of RESILENT:

: able to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

: able to return to an original shape after being pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.

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I know better. I HATE it that I do, but I know better. My mother’s horrendous literally psychotic abuse of me began at my birth. I was robbed of ANY chance to grow and develop a body-brain in this world post-birth that was NOT trauma-altered. What, exactly, within me is available to me as a human being “to return to” that was NOT trauma changed in its development?

I am among the fortunate, however, because my mother was physically very healthy as I developed in her womb. Her psychotic break happened during her difficult birthing of breech-me. There are so MANY born who did not even have the first 9 months of their life NOT influenced by some kind of trauma-connected developmental changes.

WHAT ABOUT US? WHAT ABOUT ME?

I cringe when I hear someone “in the know” use any word related to “resilient” because I know deeply that I am LEFT OUT of whatever they are talking about. Nobody can assume that they know what anybody else’s background has been. They cannot assume that “resilient” as it is being commonly used applies one bit to someone else.

Those of us with severe trauma in our early beginnings were BUILT by, within and for a world where “something bad happens” ALL OF THE TIME! That was our environment that our development was forced to adapt to at the start of our life – and nearly ALL of the trauma-related developmental changes that happened to us are PERMANENT.

Otherwise? We would have been PERMANENTLY DEAD a long, long time ago.

The way these words are being used “out there” makes them POWER-based words. Everyone needs to realize the truth of this fact and PAY ATTENTION to what that concept is really saying. Those who DID NOT experience horrendous early trauma “get to” bludgeon those of us who DID experience horrendous early trauma with shame-based, ignorant-of-the-facts ridicule no matter how well-intentioned “they” may be. The underlying yet blatant power differential comes across even in such “innocent” thoughts as “Gee whiz, what a SHAME you suffered what I did not!”

These resilient-related words are the wrong words to apply to people “across the board” – equally! I think they are in the same nonorganic, mechanistic category as words used to describe humans and their relationships such as “dysfunctional.” I am NOT a pencil sharpener! I am NOT a piece of elastic or a rubber band!

This power-based word divides the “haves” from the “have nots” at the same time it slyly APPEARS to be addressing concerns by the “haves” for the suffering of the “have nots.” This is a dangerous coupling, NOT for those who might actually be of the more safe and securely attached and therefore more privileged levels of society, but for those at or near “the bottom of the heap” who were and may continue to be unjustly neglected, abused and traumatized without protection or redress.

Nobody can “get back” or “recover” or “return to” something that was brutally stolen from them at the start of their life!

This is a BASELINE concept to understand when approaching any topic having to do with “helping” severe early trauma survivors.

If someone wishes to take a look at the research on very high ACE scores (see Centers for Disease Control’s Adverse Childhood Experiences research) with thoughts about how to HELP, they MUST understand that any concept regarding “resiliency” that they may be attempting to bring into the mix for survivors’ improved well-being is only BARELY accurately relevant because of this small area covered in definition of the words: adjust easily to misfortune or change

HOWEVER!!! My word of strong caution remains even here!! The “easy adjustment” that took place in order for me and others with severely traumatic early beginnings happened on the CELLULAR (molecular) level. It involved changes that had to be made to our physiology to keep us alive and moving forward – the best that we could – in a fundamentally dangerous, MALEVOLENT environment.

Down the road? The FIX is in the PREVENTION of conditions that create these kinds of truly MALEVOLENT environments that so change the physiological development of newly forming human beings so that “resiliency” as the word is defined has been STOLEN from them!!!

I remember this “anti-paradox” as I first began to be aware of it 35 years ago. AA says that a person can be “restored to sanity.” I knew deeply when I was first introduced to this idea that I had NEVER known sanity in my life and therefore could NOT be restored to it. My treatment therapists and other AA people told me I was “resisting my treatment” and that I was “using the defenses” of “rationalizing” and “intellectualizing” rather than facing my problems. They “bludgeoned” me through shame and guilt into “accepting” what they believed and into denying my own truth, my own knowledge, my own reality.

NOT ANY MORE, folks! I know a rat when I see one now – dead or alive! I cannot magically “get back” what I was never “allowed” to keep or to build from the start of my life, therefore resiliency is not the useful concept when applied to me that others would seem to think that it “should” be.

This is a logical kind of fact based on natural, organic, necessary kinds of “tools” available to keep little people alive in the worst of situations through changing their physiological development! This process reflects ABILITIES we used THEN to stay alive. Yes, we were able to adapt on these kinds of levels, and that process has CHANGED us so that any ordinary thinking-concept about resiliency ceased to really apply to us a LONG time ago! We do not live with the same kind of body-nervous system/brain that non-trauma changed people do.

This fact is NOT our fault! Evaluations, even the most well-intentioned ones, coming from outside of a person do not necessarily match another person’s reality! It is not healthy or helpful to “assume” that they do. In fact it can be very, very damning and damaging to others who have suffered more than most people can begin to imagine – and from extremely early ages.

Whatever FIX anyone tries to apply to survivors way down the road of their life – by definition of the resilient-based words – has virtually next to NOTHING to do with our reality! (For an example, click here – a webpage I ran across this week: Psychological Trauma and the Brain ,)

There must be another word, a different concept that would actually apply to people like me and other severe early trauma survivors. I admit it. I am still at a loss for what such a word to cover such a concept might actually be.

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Is everyone free to define any word any way they want to?

A lay definition:

http://www.resiliencescale.com/

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The International Resilience Project (2003-2005)

++++

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Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

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+AN EXPRESSION OF PUREST JOY!

January 2, 2015January 2, 2015 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Friday, January 2, 2015. I cannot find this video posted anywhere other than on facebook – so I hope readers can find a way to access it!

¡Que bien se lo pasa!

This is the sweetest, clearest image of what absolute SAFE AND SECURE ATTACHMENT for a little one FEELS LIKE!

Absolute pure playful JOY!

When we say the words “Happy New Year” this is the feeling I think we are hoping for!

May we all find ways to genuinely feel this feeling during this coming year! Thanks for sharing this, Sandy!

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+THE SOCIAL BONDING HORMONE – OXYTOCIN (central to attachment)

December 31, 2014December 31, 2014 alchemynow2 Comments

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December 31, 2014. I continue on my hunt. I will not stop at the moment to “translate” any of what I am including here, but I assure you for anyone with a truly traumatic infancy and childhood — including many who were not abused or neglected but suffered greatly from “birth trauma,” the following information is a must read. All of us who have insecure attachment disorders have some form of emotional-social trauma altered development. Oxytocin is a preventative biochemical working FOR healthy attachment and AGAINST hurtful actions in relationships.

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Early life stress modulates amygdala-prefrontal functional connectivity: Implications for oxytocin effects

Yan Fan, Ana Lucia Herrera-Melendez, Karin Pestke, Melanie Feeser, Sabine Aust, Christian Otte, Jens C. Pruessner, Heinz Böker, Malek Bajbouj, and Simone Grimm

Human Brain Mapping

Article first published online: 26 MAY 2014

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that early life stress (ELS) changes stress reactivity via reduced resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) between amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Oxytocin (OXT) modulates amygdala connectivity and attenuates [reduces] responses to psychosocial stress, but its effect appears to be moderated by ELS. Here we first investigate the effect of ELS on amygdala-prefrontal rs-FC, and examine whether ELS-associated changes of rs-FC in this neural circuit predict its response to psychosocial stress. Secondly, we explore the joint effect of OXT and ELS on the amygdala-prefrontal circuit. Eighteen healthy young males participated in a resting-state fMRI study of OXT effects using a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover design. We measured the rs-FC to bilateral amygdalae and subsequently assessed changes of state anxiety and prefrontal responses to psychosocial stress. Multiple linear regressions showed that ELS, specifically emotional abuse, predicted reduced rs-FC between the right amygdala and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), which in turn predicted elevated state anxiety after psychosocial stress. In subjects with lower ELS scores, stronger pgACC-amygdala rs-FC predicted stronger pgACC deactivation during the psychosocial stress task, and this rest-task interaction was attenuated by OXT. In subjects with higher ELS scores however, the rest-task interaction was altered and OXT showed no significant effect. These findings highlight that ELS reduces pgACC-amygdala rs-FC and alters how rs-FC of this circuit predicts its stress responsiveness. Such changes in pgACC-amygdala functional dynamics may underlie the altered sensitivity to the effects of OXT after ELS. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5328–5339, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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SCIENCE WATCH

The two faces of oxytocin

Why does the ‘tend and befriend’ hormone come into play at the best and worst of times?

By Tori DeAngelis, February 2008, Vol 39, No. 2, print version page 30

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PRIORITY COMMUNICATION-BRIEF REPORT: Oxytocin Increases Gaze to the Eye Region of Human Faces

Adam J. Guastella, Philip B. Mitchell, and Mark R. Dadds

BIOL PSYCHIATRY 2008;63:3–5

Background: In nonhuman mammals, oxytocin has a critical role in peer recognition and social approach behavior. In humans, oxytocin has been found to enhance trust and the ability to interpret the emotions of others. It has been suggested that oxytocin may enhance facial processing by increasing focus on the eye region of human faces. Methods: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we tracked the eye movements of 52 healthy male volunteers who were presented with 24 neutral human faces after intranasal administration of 24 IU oxytocin or placebo. Results: Participants given oxytocin showed an increased number of fixations and total gaze time toward the eye region compared with placebo participants. Conclusions: Oxytocin increases gaze specifically toward the eye region of human faces. This may be one mechanism by which oxytocin enhances emotion recognition, interpersonal communication, and social approach behavior in humans. Findings suggest a possible role for oxytocin in the treatment of disorders characterized by eye-gaze avoidance and facial processing deficits.

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Website: OXYTOCIN CENTRAL

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oxytocin bonding

oxytocin bonding in relationships

oxytocin bonding mother and child

oxytocin bonding with baby

what secretes oxytocin

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I copied this information into this blog post “for educational purposes only.”

‘Love Hormone’ Oxytocin May Play Key Role in Kids’ Social Skills

http://consumer.healthday.com/cognitive-health-information-26/autism-news-51/oxytocin-levels-predict-strength-of-social-skills-in-children-study-finds-690445.html

While looking for possible link to autism, researchers found hormone affected all kids

MONDAY, Aug. 4, 2014 (HealthDay News) — The “love hormone” oxytocin has a tremendous effect on kids’ ability to function socially, Stanford University researchers report.

Children blessed with naturally high levels of oxytocin are more savvy at communicating with others and interpreting social signals or situations, said study author Karen Parker, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford

“The higher your oxytocin [levels], the better your social functioning,” Parker said.

The findings also showed that oxytocin levels are highly inheritable.

Oxytocin is released during most activities that cause people to bond to one another — sex, hugging, kissing, holding hands, giving birth and breast-feeding, among them.

The researchers noted that the original intent of their study was to determine whether children with autism had lower levels of oxytocin than children without the disorder.

For years, impaired oxytocin function has been suspected as an underlying cause of autism, the researchers explained.

Autism is a developmental disorder that causes significant difficulties in social interaction. It affects one out of every 68 children in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While oxytocin levels in the children with autism were similar to those of their unaffected siblings and children without autism in the study, the researchers did find that increasing oxytocin levels improved social functioning in all three groups.

Oxytocin has such a powerful effect on social skills that the hormone could prove a very useful treatment for some people with autism, said Rob Ring, chief science officer for the advocacy and research organization Autism Speaks.

“If oxytocin has a general pro-social effect on individuals, it still very much argues for engaging the oxytocin system for therapeutic reasons,” Ring said. “This research shows in people with autism that if you have increasing levels of oxytocin, you have increasing ability in social behavior. That is valuable knowledge.”

In their study, the Stanford researchers examined 79 children with autism, 52 of their unaffected siblings and 62 unrelated children without autism. All of the children were between the ages of 3 and 12.

The team checked levels of oxytocin in the children’s blood, and used a series of diagnostic tools to test for autism spectrum disorders and overall social ability.

All children with autism have social deficits, but in the study these deficits were worst in those with the lowest blood oxytocin levels and mildest in those with the highest oxytocin levels.

But the social skills of the kids without autism also corresponded to their oxytocin levels, the researchers found.

“Oxytocin appears to be a universal regulator of social functioning in humans,” Parker said. “That encompasses both typically developing children as well as those with the severe social deficits we see in children with autism.”

Comparisons between siblings with and without autism revealed that oxytocin levels in the blood are more than 85 percent heritable, the study authors noted.

Oxytocin levels are influenced by inheritance to about the same degree as adult height, which is often described as being strongly influenced by genetics, the researchers added.

“We found that social functioning was similar between related siblings, and oxytocin levels were way more similar between siblings,” Parker said.

The researchers did not completely rule out a possible link between oxytocin levels and autism. They noted that they only checked oxytocin in the blood, and that levels of the hormone may be different in the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes and protects the brain.

In the meantime, oxytocin therapy may prove helpful for children with autism and adults whose levels of the hormone are low, Parker and Ring said.

“It may be there’s a subpopulation of people with low oxytocin levels, and they may be the best responders to oxytocin treatment,” Parker said. “This may help us handpick the people we think are going to benefit most from this therapy.”

The findings are published online Aug. 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

Visit the American Psychological Association for more on oxytocin.

SOURCES: Karen Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor, psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif.; Rob Ring, Ph.D., chief science officer, Autism Speaks; Aug. 4, 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Last Updated: Aug 4, 2014

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Here is another article about these findings:

Blood-oxytocin levels in normal range in children with autism, study finds

Blood levels of oxytocin correlate with social performance regardless of whether children have autism, according to a new study.

Regulator of social functioning

“Oxytocin appears to be a universal regulator of social functioning in humans,” said Karen Parker, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the lead author of the study. “That encompasses both typically developing children as well as those with the severe social deficits we see in children with autism.”

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects 1 of every 68 children in the United States. It is characterized by social and communication deficits, repetitive behaviors and sensory problems. The new study included 79 children with autism, 52 of their unaffected siblings and 62 unrelated children without autism. All of the children were between the ages of 3 and 12.

“It didn’t matter if you were a typically developing child, a sibling or an individual with autism: Your social ability was related to a certain extent to your oxytocin levels, which is very different from what people have speculated,” said Antonio Hardan, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the study’s senior author. Hardan is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who treats children with autism at the hospital.

Information about ongoing Stanford research in oxytocin therapy for children with autism is available athttp://med.stanford.edu/clinicaltrials/trials/NCT01624194. More information about related research can be found at https://web.stanford.edu/group/autism.

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Here is yet another take on this research:

Dysregulated Oxytocin Not Unique to Autism

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A comment about the research design:

“Major Shortcoming”

Angela Sirigu, PhD, of the Institute of Cognitive Science, Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, Lyon, France, told Medscape Medical News these new findings are “interesting” and are in line with findings her team published in 2012 in Cerebral Cortex.

The study in 30 healthy adults showed a correlation between the level of plasma oxytocin and the level of sociability, measured with a score of extraversion. “That is, subjects with higher levels of plasma oxytocin were more sociable and enjoyed being with others compared to those having a low level of oxytocin and poor social skills,” Dr. Sirigu said.

However, she added that in her view, a “major problem” with the article in Proceedings is use of enzyme immunoassay to measure oxytocin levels. This method, “even with extraction, has been highly criticized because of low sensitivity to detect OXT. In other words, what they measured is OXT but also other multiple immunoreactive products present in addition to oxytocin. This is a major shortcoming we need to consider,” said Dr. Sirigu.

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This is the link to the abstract for the research. The article is not available free online.

Plasma oxytocin concentrations and OXTR polymorphisms predict social impairments in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

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Oxytocin and socioemotional aging: Current knowledge and future trends

Natalie C. Ebner1, Gabriela M. Maura, Kai MacDonald, Lars Westberg and Håkan Fischer

Swedish – ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Front. Hum. Neurosci., 28 August 2013 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00487

“…there is an increasing body of research suggesting a significant role of OT in the context of various disorders characterized by socioemotional dysfunction such as social-bonding deficits or related to social anxiety and stress (Zetzsche et al., 1996; Heinrichs et al., 2003; Taylor et al., 2006; see MacDonald and Feifel, 2012, for an overview), deficits with great relevance in an aging context. Thus, future research toward implementation of pharmacological neuropeptide treatments with the potential to decrease emotional and social stress, anxiety, and depression (Arletti and Bertolini, 1987; Carter and Altemus, 1997) will be important. These interventions may consequently promote positive social interaction and willingness to engage in more frequently rewarding social risks (Heinrichs et al., 2003; Kosfeld et al., 2005), improving health and life quality up until late in life.”

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

++++

+WORKING AHEAD OF THE CURVE

December 31, 2014December 31, 2014 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Another calendar year is ending. I find myself yet again immersed in an online research loop that is taking me around and around through advancements in neurobiological science that are ever more clearly elucidating more and more specific information about how our “attachment” circuitry and processes — which determine the development of our nervous system, brain and body’s reactions to self, others and all life around us from the beginning of our life at conception to our death — takes place through interactional processes designed to make sure we are “built” to adapt to the conditions of the “world” we are born into .

There are no shortcuts. What HAPPENS is interpreted by our body in every way as THE TRUTH. The body cannot be fooled. There is no fooling the systems that combine their efforts to make sure we have the best chance possible to survive to a child-bearing age.

When “push comes to shove” the biology of life does not care one HOOT about the quality of a person’s life. Not really.

It wasn’t that long ago that the scientific community held its baited breath awaiting the decoding of the human genome which was completed in 2003.

All About The Human Genome Project (HGP)

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history – an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes – together known as the genome – of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in April 2003, the HGP gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being.

In this section, you will find access to a wealth of information on the history of the HGP, its progress, cast of characters and future.

If you do an online search for these terms — human genome project epigenetics — you will see that within the mystery of the genome there exists an entirely new set of critically important processes that influence what happens to us in ways that could not be foreseen even a decade ago.

What this means to me is that we are virtually SITTING DUCKS for suffering when conditions within our environment are less than optimal. We WILL and DO pay a very high price for having the ability to adapt to conditions that are less than we need to have the best quality of life possible.

Not only that, but epigenetic factors and forces that are brought into play to keep ONE person alive are very likely to be directly passed down to offspring — easily so for generations yet to come — even when the same levels of trauma DO NOT exist in the environment of descendants.

We need to pay attention. We need to overcome our ignorance by becoming informed. We need to CARE. We need to notice the truth of what is going on around and within us. We need to REACT appropriately by using all of the truthful facts to our personal AND collective advantage. We need to apply remedies and solutions — sooner rather than later!

But, in seemingly typical human ways we seem perfectly content to let our proverbial house fall apart and collapse over our heads as it crashes through the basement on a downward spiral that will take us — pretty literally — straight to hell if we don’t wake up, PAY ATTENTION and apply not only solutions from the past as they exist (for a little more time?) in instinct, folk wisdom and common sense AND as they exist in the plethora of individually distinct but not yet collectively accumulated knowledge from science.

Humans? We are best designed to become safely, securely, happily and healthily attached to others of our species. We are, however, also designed to compete for resources if we choose not to cooperate in their just and wise use.

Very simply put, all of our personal biology is designed to assess conditions of the world we are born into and then to look around in our “genetic interactional toolbox” to find whatever it is we need to survive in that world so that we can put it all to good use. Good in this context can mean “have a really good cooperative life” versus “have a life designed to compete in every possible way for survival,” or “have a life of suffering for a very short or long time and then move on to the next one.”

Every single one of these options HAS to involve epigenetic processes because that is what life on this plane is about: Adapt or die ASAP.

I am speaking in generalities right now because I am not giving myself permission to speak of the specific details related to my current research study which at present remains personal. Right now “the story” about what I am working on behind the scenes over here is too big, too complicated, too close, too sad and not well enough understood to speak about clearly or objectively at this time. This story does not belong to me. It does belong to someone I love very, very much who I am trying to help move forward through life in the best way possible — given certain difficulties that I can’t help but see as being ones that could very possibly have been avoided — IF!

What is needed is up-to-date factual scientific information that I can backup with specific research studies that “prove” my points. I need to create not only a “report” related to “this story” but also corresponding “talking points” that can be used to convince “professionals” of truth they don’t know but are not going to WANT to know they don’t know.

I am working to target as exactly as possible what problems (many perhaps preventable way back when) exist in this situation, how they (probably) came into being, what their source REALLY is, and what can be done to alleviate suffering and if possible HEAL what amounts to injuries that are currently hidden except for expression through difficult behaviors.

In other words, I am fighting on the side of LIFE! I am fighting on the side of QUALITY OF LIFE.

I really do feel I am working at least a century ahead of the curve. That would be IF society and civilization were to move forward in anything like a relatively sane way. Humans are capable of unimaginable advancement and goodness! We just have a ways to go yet to get closer to who we really are as a species.

There will be a time in the future when EVERY person matters equally, when quality of life for all is ensured in every possible way from the beginning to the end of life on this planet (this “first life”). The right information, that is THE TRUTH, will be collectively put together so ALL pieces fit into the picture of the whole regarding every concern so that solutions can be applied that WORK while prevention of all possible problems is a top priority.

In the meantime……..

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

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+YOU DON’T FIND THIS INFO EVERY DAY!! Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence

December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 alchemynowLeave a comment

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Tuesday, December 30, 2014. I have encountered an unusual research report in my current studies:

Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain : Behavioral and Neural Evidence

Nathan DeWall, Geoff MacDonald, Gregory D. Webster, Carrie L. Masten, Roy F. Baumeister, Caitlin Powell, David, Combs, David R. Schurtz, Tyler F. Stillman, Dianne M. Tice and Naomi I. Eisenberger

Reprints and permission:sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0956797610374741

Abstract

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

These authors are NOT KIDDING! TYLENOL helps ease the pain of social isolation, loss, grief….. The pain of attachment trauma? This very interesting article is worth a read. I couldn’t believe it!

So, I tried this solution tonight. I wanted to attend a small gathering tonight with people I know, but nothing I do anymore that involves other people is easy or not stressful for me. So I took my 1000 mg dosage of Acetaminophen before I left and I made it through the whole gathering without escalating anxiety. Very interesting. I would NEVER have thought of this as being any kind of solution for my anxiety related to my insecure attachment disorder and other trauma related difficulties.

The authors state:

Social exclusion is a common part of life, which underscores the implications of our findings. People can feel ostracized at work, snubbed by friends, or excluded by close partners. For some, social exclusion is an inescapable and frequent experience (Williams, 2001). Our findings suggest that an over-the-counter painkiller normally used to relieve physical aches and pains can also at least temporarily mitigate social-pain-related distress.

Furthermore, many studies have shown that being rejected can trigger aggressive and antisocial behavior, which could lead to further complications in social life (DeWall, Twenge, Gitter, & Baumeister, 2009; Warburton, Williams, & Cairns, 2006). If acetaminophen reduces the distress of rejection, the behavioral consequences of rejection, such as antisocial behavior, may be reduced as well. Indeed, our fMRI results showed that acetaminophen diminished reactivity in the dACC and amygdala, brain regions that have been linked to aggression (Denson, Pedersen, Ronquillo, & Nandy, 2009; Eisenberger, Way, Taylor, Welch, & Lieberman, 2007). It would therefore be worthwhile to explore whether acetaminophen reduces the aggressive consequences of social rejection. Our findings do not warrant the widespread use of acetaminophen to cope with all personal problems. Future research is needed to verify the potential benefits of acetaminophen in reducing emotional and antisocial responses to social rejection.

The current investigation provides novel insight into the close relationship between social and physical pain, by exploring one surprising consequence of the hypothesis that physical and social pain rely on shared neurobiological substrates. We have shown for the first time that acetaminophen, an over-the-counter medication commonly used to reduce physical pain, also reduces the pain of social rejection, at both neural and behavioral levels.

I think there’s more to THIS story than has been written yet!

++++

Source Naturals Theanine Serene with Relora

Contains the amino acids L-theanine, to support relaxing brain wave activity
Contains taurine to ease tension, as well as the calming neurotransmitter GABA
Features magnesium to support muscle and nerve relaxation
Contains calming holy basil leaf extract and Relora®to gently soothe away the tension in your body
2 tablets daily, or as recommended by your health care professional

++++

Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –

Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?

It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge. Reviews for the book on the Amazon.com site are welcome.

++++

Leave a Comment »

++++

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Stop the Storm

The most important work we can do, individually and globally, is the healing and prevention of traumas so that we don't pass them down to future generations. This blog is a working tool to contribute to this good work.

Category: Child Abuse

+WORDS FAILED ME. (A POST ABOUT ADJUST AND JUSTICE)

+ARE PEOPLE OBJECTS?

Regional Gray Matter Volume Is Associated with Empathizing and Systemizing in Young Adults

+PRACTICAL PRACTICE (there are times when warriors have to rest)

+DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA – RESEARCH REVEALS NEW LEVELS OF POWERFUL TRUTHS

Perinatal programming of emotional brain circuits: an integrative view from systems to molecules.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

+PRACTICAL PRACTICE (there are times when warriors have to rest)

+MOTHERING. WHO SAYS IT MATTERS?

Gordon Neufeld: The Importance of Attachment – YouTube

Dr. Gordon Neufeld- What Makes a Child Easy to Parent?

Gordon Neufeld: Kids Need Us More Than Friends – YouTube

Book: Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers

+RESILIENT: MY RANT ABOUT THIS CONCEPT

ADJECTIVE – Origin of RESILIENT

The International Resilience Project (2003-2005)

+AN EXPRESSION OF PUREST JOY!

+THE SOCIAL BONDING HORMONE – OXYTOCIN (central to attachment)

Human Brain Mapping

Abstract

Plasma oxytocin concentrations and OXTR polymorphisms predict social impairments in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

+WORKING AHEAD OF THE CURVE

All About The Human Genome Project (HGP)

+YOU DON’T FIND THIS INFO EVERY DAY!! Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

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ADJECTIVE – Origin of RESILIENT

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Human Brain Mapping

Abstract

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