Thursday, May 30, 2013

On the Anxiety Case



I have written about anxiety many times.  But I want add a couple of things that may round out the picture.  As we know now anxiety comes from deep in the brain where primal terror is organized.  No matter what we call it, it is always basic terror; it happens early in life either at birth or during gestation when the brainstem is dominant and where breathing is organized.   Some of us are chronic shallow breathers, others suffer sleep apnea where the whole system stops functioning for seconds at a time.   In both cases it is an attempt to conserve oxygen due to diminished oxygen both at birth through anesthesia given to the mother (and therefore the baby), or during womb-life when the mother smokes heavily.  In this case there is oxygen deprivation and the automatic tendency to hold one’s breath.  We see this when a person is shocked at something and puts her hand over her mouth; this is a survival reflex to hold down breathing.

   The point is that from the very start there is a survival response which means conserving oxygen and it becomes a template for any later threatening situations.  By the time we are born the agitation, galvanizing response is in action; therefore there is this constant input from within.   The imprint of threat becomes imprinted and is a constant menace.  Holding one’s breath even for a few seconds is the automatic response,  Terror has now become anxiety, only becomes we cannot peer down into the medulla of the brainstem to see how it all got started.   We cannot see the terror for what it is so we give it a label—anxiety.

    So we have constant activation from within that fights for space from whatever is coming in—a homework assignment, instructions for how to put together a table, etc.    The internal input usually wins sense it is primordial, is survival driven and is incredibly strong.   Later in life when there is a gathering of many people there is far too much possibility for input and so the anxiety person can be overwhelmed.  She may avoid any large gathering.   Or if she attends the party, for example, she suffers and cannot wait to leave.  The whole idea is to reduce or eliminate input.   She wants everyone to do anything complicated for her.  She will feign helplessness or not understanding when all it is that too much information/activation is forcing its way toward conscious/awareness.  The information is in the form of nerve impulses that travel at great speed throughout the system trying to “tell” the whole system to get ready for danger.  And the danger is……..reduced oxygen.  Those impulses tell the chemistry to pour in more cortisol (stress hormone) or inform the immune system to lower its functioning.  No words in those transmissions; just key information warning of danger.  That takes precedence over all other input; so trying to figure out geometry while anxious is far too much.   Anxious means life-threatening input and that cannot be ignored.

  This person often has breathing and lung problems. She goes to doctor after doctor to no avail because he has no idea what is wrong.   But looks into her lungs deeply and can only see the alveolas, not able to see those life and death memories at work in them.  He cannot see deep-lying terror sequestered far below the comprehending cortex.  He cannot see its causes.     He is, in effect, blind.  And so she rushes to a psychiatrist, and he too cannot see what lies deep in the brain so he focuses on her behavior: she has to learn to focus and not pay attention to other input.  She must learn patience, and blah blah.  He too is blind.  They cannot believe what does not seem to be there but, in fact,  it is there if we look.  None so blind who refuse to believe what is there and continue to believe in what isn’t there.


6 comments:

  1. Hi,
    -"so trying to figure out geometry while anxious is far too much"-.

    Yeah, it's like trying to force your way through a doorway too narrow for two trying to get through.

    Mr. Terror and Mr. Geometry stuck in the doorway, neither getting any where. And furthermore, when the geometry was sprung on you in the workshop due to bad design and the team leader's saying "ain't you cut those joints yet". . ? Boy oh boy don't Mr. Terror and Mr. Geometry fight for the right to exit.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. O Paul !
    throughout my schoolyears and thereafter i have fought against Mr.Terror.
    Sometimes I wonder how on earth I made "it" till now (to write these lines
    for example..) and I do NOT "believe" in reincarnation.. ,but it would be
    very interesting whether my Brain/MInd Capacity would have been with this
    ugly/infamous gentleman!1 Yours emanuel

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a person goes through, most people just don't understand. They can't understand why a person would rather work on something, than attend a party; become more sociable. Very frustrating. Wondering what it takes to have people be a bit more understanding and show some care to these individuals; who they think are just either "anti-social, snobs, loners, shy" and any of these 4 characteristic in a person, they really aren't at all.". Someday soon, maybe things will get better for this kind of person, and people won't put so much social/peer pressure on them (which to me, shows lack of humanity, and no feelings for that person whatsoever. No one can be forced to do something, but one is made to feel if they "don't participate." If this person didn't even have to deal with "invitations," or deal with other social events, perhaps one aspect of them, could get a break, and they wouldn't feel so confined and ill. They chose their life, to be alone, and but yet, still are distracted by social invitations. It's not even that they don't like those people; some people gain strength by not attending all the numerous social/family events and holiday occasions. Is it that the person is either ignorant that such a person exists, or is it that "they just don't care. Dr. Janov is right in what he is saying.

    BeachCoast7

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm as lonely in two hours of solitude as I am when someone close dies but minds ability exceeds the reality... I do not die even when it happens... my minds abilities will find hope and I live in "eternity"... that against life-threatening experience of loneliness when I was a little boy.
      In solitude... I can find solace when the illusion of someone is there for me is convincing enough... consolation when my body atrophy!
    I'm learning to be professional. I learn through faith that in loneliness there is someone there for me... but I can never be taught or teach my self to experience the reality of lonelyness... it is passionate... that's where my life start... that is where equations come to life!

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi everybody,

    Why we need to treat anxiety?
    Anxiety linked to shortened telomeres, accelerated aging -http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/bawh-alt070912.php
    Sieglinde

    ReplyDelete
  6. This blog is nice and amazing. I really like your post! It's also nice to see someone who does a lot of research and has a great knack for writing, which is pretty rare from bloggers these days.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Review of "Beyond Belief"

This thought-provoking and important book shows how people are drawn toward dangerous beliefs.
“Belief can manifest itself in world-changing ways—and did, in some of history’s ugliest moments, from the rise of Adolf Hitler to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1979. Arthur Janov, a renowned psychologist who penned The Primal Scream, fearlessly tackles the subject of why and how strong believers willingly embrace even the most deranged leaders.
Beyond Belief begins with a lucid explanation of belief systems that, writes Janov, “are maps, something to help us navigate through life more effectively.” While belief systems are not presented as inherently bad, the author concentrates not just on why people adopt belief systems, but why “alienated individuals” in particular seek out “belief systems on the fringes.” The result is a book that is both illuminating and sobering. It explores, for example, how a strongly-held belief can lead radical Islamist jihadists to murder others in suicide acts. Janov writes, “I believe if people had more love in this life, they would not be so anxious to end it in favor of some imaginary existence.”
One of the most compelling aspects of Beyond Belief is the author’s liberal use of case studies, most of which are related in the first person by individuals whose lives were dramatically affected by their involvement in cults. These stories offer an exceptional perspective on the manner in which belief systems can take hold and shape one’s experiences. Joan’s tale, for instance, both engaging and disturbing, describes what it was like to join the Hare Krishnas. Even though she left the sect, observing that participants “are stunted in spiritual awareness,” Joan considers returning someday because “there’s a certain protection there.”
Janov’s great insight into cultish leaders is particularly interesting; he believes such people have had childhoods in which they were “rejected and unloved,” because “only unloved people want to become the wise man or woman (although it is usually male) imparting words of wisdom to others.” This is just one reason why Beyond Belief is such a thought-provoking, important book.”
Barry Silverstein, Freelance Writer

Quotes for "Life Before Birth"

“Life Before Birth is a thrilling journey of discovery, a real joy to read. Janov writes like no one else on the human mind—engaging, brilliant, passionate, and honest.
He is the best writer today on what makes us human—he shows us how the mind works, how it goes wrong, and how to put it right . . . He presents a brand-new approach to dealing with depression, emotional pain, anxiety, and addiction.”
Paul Thompson, PhD, Professor of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine

Art Janov, one of the pioneers of fetal and early infant experiences and future mental health issues, offers a robust vision of how the earliest traumas of life can percolate through the brains, minds and lives of individuals. He focuses on both the shifting tides of brain emotional systems and the life-long consequences that can result, as well as the novel interventions, and clinical understanding, that need to be implemented in order to bring about the brain-mind changes that can restore affective equanimity. The transitions from feelings of persistent affective turmoil to psychological wholeness, requires both an understanding of the brain changes and a therapist that can work with the affective mind at primary-process levels. Life Before Birth, is a manifesto that provides a robust argument for increasing attention to the neuro-mental lives of fetuses and infants, and the widespread ramifications on mental health if we do not. Without an accurate developmental history of troubled minds, coordinated with a recognition of the primal emotional powers of the lowest ancestral regions of the human brain, therapists will be lost in their attempt to restore psychological balance.
Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science
Washington State University

Dr. Janov’s essential insight—that our earliest experiences strongly influence later well being—is no longer in doubt. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, immunology, and epigenetics, we can now see some of the mechanisms of action at the heart of these developmental processes. His long-held belief that the brain, human development, and psychological well being need to studied in the context of evolution—from the brainstem up—now lies at the heart of the integration of neuroscience and psychotherapy.
Grounded in these two principles, Dr. Janov continues to explore the lifelong impact of prenatal, birth, and early experiences on our brains and minds. Simultaneously “old school” and revolutionary, he synthesizes traditional psychodynamic theories with cutting-edge science while consistently highlighting the limitations of a strict, “top-down” talking cure. Whether or not you agree with his philosophical assumptions, therapeutic practices, or theoretical conclusions, I promise you an interesting and thought-provoking journey.
Lou Cozolino, PsyD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University


In Life Before Birth Dr. Arthur Janov illuminates the sources of much that happens during life after birth. Lucidly, the pioneer of primal therapy provides the scientific rationale for treatments that take us through our original, non-verbal memories—to essential depths of experience that the superficial cognitive-behavioral modalities currently in fashion cannot possibly touch, let alone transform.
Gabor Maté MD, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

An expansive analysis! This book attempts to explain the impact of critical developmental windows in the past, implores us to improve the lives of pregnant women in the present, and has implications for understanding our children, ourselves, and our collective future. I’m not sure whether primal therapy works or not, but it certainly deserves systematic testing in well-designed, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trials.
K.J.S. Anand, MBBS, D. Phil, FAACP, FCCM, FRCPCH, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Senior Scholar, Center for Excellence in Faith and Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare System


A baby's brain grows more while in the womb than at any time in a child's life. Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script That Rules Our Lives is a valuable guide to creating healthier babies and offers insight into healing our early primal wounds. Dr. Janov integrates the most recent scientific research about prenatal development with the psychobiological reality that these early experiences do cast a long shadow over our entire lifespan. With a wealth of experience and a history of successful psychotherapeutic treatment, Dr. Janov is well positioned to speak with clarity and precision on a topic that remains critically important.
Paula Thomson, PsyD, Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge & Professor Emeritus, York University

"I am enthralled.
Dr. Janov has crafted a compelling and prophetic opus that could rightly dictate
PhD thesis topics for decades to come. Devoid of any "New Age" pseudoscience,
this work never strays from scientific orthodoxy and yet is perfectly accessible and
downright fascinating to any lay person interested in the mysteries of the human psyche."
Dr. Bernard Park, MD, MPH

His new book “Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” shows that primal therapy, the lower-brain therapeutic method popularized in the 1970’s international bestseller “Primal Scream” and his early work with John Lennon, may help alleviate depression and anxiety disorders, normalize blood pressure and serotonin levels, and improve the functioning of the immune system.
One of the book’s most intriguing theories is that fetal imprinting, an evolutionary strategy to prepare children to cope with life, establishes a permanent set-point in a child's physiology. Baby's born to mothers highly anxious during pregnancy, whether from war, natural disasters, failed marriages, or other stressful life conditions, may thus be prone to mental illness and brain dysfunction later in life. Early traumatic events such as low oxygen at birth, painkillers and antidepressants administered to the mother during pregnancy, poor maternal nutrition, and a lack of parental affection in the first years of life may compound the effect.
In making the case for a brand-new, unified field theory of psychotherapy, Dr. Janov weaves together the evolutionary theories of Jean Baptiste Larmarck, the fetal development studies of Vivette Glover and K.J.S. Anand, and fascinating new research by the psychiatrist Elissa Epel suggesting that telomeres—a region of repetitive DNA critical in predicting life expectancy—may be significantly altered during pregnancy.
After explaining how hormonal and neurologic processes in the womb provide a blueprint for later mental illness and disease, Dr. Janov charts a revolutionary new course for psychotherapy. He provides a sharp critique of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and other popular “talk therapy” models for treating addiction and mental illness, which he argues do not reach the limbic system and brainstem, where the effects of early trauma are registered in the nervous system.
“Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” is scheduled to be published by NTI Upstream in October 2011, and has tremendous implications for the future of modern psychology, pediatrics, pregnancy, and women’s health.
Editor