A crash course in religion.
Since the symbols a troubled brain uses to understand internal chaos lead to the person feeling that there is meaning, and ultimately a way to navigate the conflict between internal and external realities...
I need to get a grip on religion...
Josh symbolises his sense of threat and danger as demons.
The paradox is, the demons don't affect me.
I explain this to him as proof that they can be shut out.
I guess he needs prayers to recite.
I've also promised to search for his soul, since he feels that he is the dead-shell and his real-self is elsewhere.
I'm pleased to say our visit yesterday confirmed that daughter's words had little or no effect. The nurse who didn't leave his bedside whilst people visited just had a different idea about privacy. Yesterday there wasn't a nurse until visiting time came to an end.
When we arrived Josh was standing up and was beginning to get panicky. I told a nurse that he seemed to be returning to the way he was before he came into hospital. I tried to gauge if his pupils were overly dilated - something I've learnt to associate with a state I'd call gone too far - but it was hard to tell, the light levels in the room were quite low.
Apparently his medication had been increased that morning, and that can be associated with a worsening of the symptoms...and I'm having a hard time understanding how dopamine and serotonin (these neurotransmitters are the target of his drugs) switch off the terror-core screaming of the amygdala circuit.
A psychiatrist would say
What do I believe now?
I use Damasio's explanation - that anxiety is the perception of emotion, which is a non-conscious reaction to the environment. The limbic system of the brain mobilizes the body's reaction to a threat by causing adrenaline to be produced...The conscious awareness of emotion is feeling fear, horror, disgust, anger, sadness, shame, or guilt or surprise or joy in response to the adrenaline. Memories inform your perception...this is how Damasio (1999) explains it anyway.
The psychiatric view [Tefera L, Tomao LC] describe non-specific, gone too far anxiety as something caused by pathology. What I think at this point is, I like the idea of the something as being an illness. But I only like that view because words create the illusion of knowledge..I'm really less and less convinced by this.
What I'm beginning to believe is a psychiatrist may as well class neurosis, bipolar, psychosis, depression, or ADHD..as types of demons.
As there are no classical signs of infection or pathology.
A psychiatrist's model of illness implies the necessity of medicine as the traditional treatment.
Magic potions to cast out the demons.
SSIs as a type of Holy water...
I'm becoming more and more disillusioned..
And you know, I didn't start off this way...
I was quite optimistic (as opposed to informed) about drugs, and yet here I am, now thinking Freud had a point.
Damasio follows Freud.
In Freud's theory anxiety is the feeling of a non-conscious perception.
It is a way to prepare the body for something.
And memory creates understanding and response.
So Freud asks us to look to memory for the cause of anxiety.
And memory, like any recording, can be updated and repaired...
Except traumatic memory is famously difficult to change, the unconscious procedural memories (the memories of how the body reacted) are difficult to access.
And I fail to see how they are going to be repaired by increasing dopamine and serotonin...
Anyway...
Changed his bedtime reading book (I read to him) from Gormanghast - the Death Owls were too much for me...
To The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
I need to get a grip on religion...
Josh symbolises his sense of threat and danger as demons.
The paradox is, the demons don't affect me.
I explain this to him as proof that they can be shut out.
I guess he needs prayers to recite.
I've also promised to search for his soul, since he feels that he is the dead-shell and his real-self is elsewhere.
9.The traumatic event changes everything, it is as if the good self died (often represented by a fellow victim of the traumatic event who did not survive).Other than that, when we saw him yesterday he was in mild panic - mild by his standards - because he fears being attacked (raped is the term he used) when he is moved to the psychiatric hospital. As he has a fractured pelvis and can't run...and as he has no idea what he is going to, or what will happen to him, and as we can't tell him anything - and no one else tells him...I would probably feel the same way if I were him, in the darker moments of this journey.
I'm pleased to say our visit yesterday confirmed that daughter's words had little or no effect. The nurse who didn't leave his bedside whilst people visited just had a different idea about privacy. Yesterday there wasn't a nurse until visiting time came to an end.
When we arrived Josh was standing up and was beginning to get panicky. I told a nurse that he seemed to be returning to the way he was before he came into hospital. I tried to gauge if his pupils were overly dilated - something I've learnt to associate with a state I'd call gone too far - but it was hard to tell, the light levels in the room were quite low.
Apparently his medication had been increased that morning, and that can be associated with a worsening of the symptoms...and I'm having a hard time understanding how dopamine and serotonin (these neurotransmitters are the target of his drugs) switch off the terror-core screaming of the amygdala circuit.
A psychiatrist would say
"Anxiety is a complex feeling of apprehension, fear, and worry often accompanied by pulmonary, cardiac, and other physical sensations. It is a common condition that can be a self-limited physiologic response to a stressor, or it can persist and result in debilitating emotions. When pathologic, it can exist as a primary disorder, or it can be associated with a medical illness or other primary psychiatric illnesses (e.g., depression, psychosis)." Tefera L, Tomao LC. Anxiety. [April 14, 2009]So I'm going to think about that...
What do I believe now?
I use Damasio's explanation - that anxiety is the perception of emotion, which is a non-conscious reaction to the environment. The limbic system of the brain mobilizes the body's reaction to a threat by causing adrenaline to be produced...The conscious awareness of emotion is feeling fear, horror, disgust, anger, sadness, shame, or guilt or surprise or joy in response to the adrenaline. Memories inform your perception...this is how Damasio (1999) explains it anyway.
The psychiatric view [Tefera L, Tomao LC] describe non-specific, gone too far anxiety as something caused by pathology. What I think at this point is, I like the idea of the something as being an illness. But I only like that view because words create the illusion of knowledge..I'm really less and less convinced by this.
What I'm beginning to believe is a psychiatrist may as well class neurosis, bipolar, psychosis, depression, or ADHD..as types of demons.
As there are no classical signs of infection or pathology.
- Rubor (redness)
- Calor (heat)
- Tumor (swelling)
- Dolor (pain)
A psychiatrist's model of illness implies the necessity of medicine as the traditional treatment.
Magic potions to cast out the demons.
SSIs as a type of Holy water...
I'm becoming more and more disillusioned..
And you know, I didn't start off this way...
I was quite optimistic (as opposed to informed) about drugs, and yet here I am, now thinking Freud had a point.
Damasio follows Freud.
In Freud's theory anxiety is the feeling of a non-conscious perception.
It is a way to prepare the body for something.
And memory creates understanding and response.
So Freud asks us to look to memory for the cause of anxiety.
And memory, like any recording, can be updated and repaired...
Except traumatic memory is famously difficult to change, the unconscious procedural memories (the memories of how the body reacted) are difficult to access.
And I fail to see how they are going to be repaired by increasing dopamine and serotonin...
Anyway...
Changed his bedtime reading book (I read to him) from Gormanghast - the Death Owls were too much for me...
To The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
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