Posted by Pfinstegg on April 10, 2003, at 7:50:14
In reply to OOPS - Above message was meant to be for Peter, posted by mattdds on April 9, 2003, at 20:46:08
That was an excellent post- I'm so glad you wrote it! We have all been talking about what goes wrong with the HPA axis, but not about what MAKES that occur. I have seen at least three other posters here comment on how much their anxiety and fear reactions, expecially, have diminished with CBT; all three were extremely enthusiastic about it, but also commented on how hard, continuous and tedious the work was- as you did.
I think some therapists working with PTSD feel that the original thought and stress reactions to trauma may originate in the left hemisphere, where they would be relatively accessible to conscious thinking, and modification by CBT. This would likely be true of later childhood and adult trauma. But there are also therapists who think that earlier childhood traumas are not very accessible to modification by words or thoughts, because the hemisphere used during the first three years of life is principally the right one. In this situation, non-verbal methods of treatment may be more powerful modulators of feeling states- for example, art therapy, EMDT, sensory integration therapy, and forms of psychotherapy which involve regression. Starting with these treatment modalities allows the brain to attach words to the traumatic memories- and then thought and feeling modification, as used in CBT, have a chance of being more useful.
To connect my own experience to this, I was able to get into remission from a long-term depression with TMS, plus fish oil, lots of all the vitamins, especially the Bs, exercise and meditation. However, I was aware of continuing hypervigilance, extreme startle reactions, and other signs of a nervous system set way too "high", and I felt that I needed to do something further to try to prevent relapse.
Because my principle trauma was the absence of my mother during the first four years of my life, I decided to see a psychoanalyst who specializes in early childhood PTSD and attachment disorders. He utilizes an art therapist as a co-therapist, and encourages benign regressions in which feeling-states are more important than words- although gradually, we do put things into words as best we can. In the two months that I have been doing this, I have noticed a tremendous calming-down inside me. I did return to being a DST suppressor after having TMS, but feel that this therapy is giving me the best chance of staying that way, and of, basically, helping my HPA axis function in a more normal manner. Of course, I don't know for sure- it just feels that way!Pfinstegg
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:217414
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030407/msgs/218115.html