Today I came across reference to a new therapy called the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) that employs the principles of neuroplasticity to cure chemical sensitivities, Cronic Fatique Syndrome, Fibromialgia even Gulf War Syndrome. At first glance it looks a bit like snake oil but on closer examination it caught my interest. The system was developed by Annie Hopper whose life was devastated by multiple chemical sensitivities that resulted eventually in the lose of her job, her family and even her home. She began to educate herself in various approaches to treatment and in the process noticed that many of her symptoms were similar to those of persons suffering from Acquired Brain Injury (ABT). ABT usually results from a blow to the head. She developed DNRS based on methods used to treat ABT and now conducts three-day workshops to provide participants with enough familiarity with the system to carry on treatment on their own. Her website has many testimonials attesting to its effectiveness. At the time that her life was overwhelmed by these chemical sensitivities, Hopper had a therapy practice employing what is described in her bio as core belief counselling. I experienced something known as Core Belief Reengineering (CBR) about 15 years ago with some success but nowhere in her bio does it say that the counselling Hopper did was based in CBR. However, I did make this leap. About 15 years ago many of my friends were going throiugh the process of CBR with the only practitioner in Eastern Canada. I became intrigued. At the time I was a sucker for anything except chemicals or pharmaceuticals to make me feel better. I had just exited a relationship that in many ways was the most normal I had ever experienced and I was about to turn 50. There were a number of other things going on but suffice it to say I was an anxious mess. I have had anxiety most of my adult life in addition to the other numerous mental health disorders I have made reference to in past posts but pn top of all that I began to experience symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)–probably because of the high level of anxiety. OCD is a devastating disorder and I count myself fortunate that I only had symptoms for a short time. When my friends doing CBR started to report life-changing results I decided to do it. I was also intrigued by the term reengineering. I was working as a management consultant at the time and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) was all the rage in the business world with huge global corporations, such as Ford Motor Company, were being transformed by it. The idea of applying similar principles in a therapeutic model was most intriguing.. Towards the end of my therapy sessions a number of things happened. A chronic pain in my left hip, the result of a shortened ilioibial band, disappeared. The OCD symptoms also went away and then miraculously my asthma seemed to be cured. Now I’m a skeptic and in spite of what I was experiencing, I was hard-pressed to ascribe these changes to CBR. The disappearance of asthma symptoms I thought could also be due to a new mattress, new pillows and new bedding. I knew, at the time, that one of the main causes of asthma is dust mites and with a new bed I would have been dust mite free. Having both allergies and ADHD I have seen many different kinds of alternative treatments and most of them leave me cold to the point where am long past any interest in exploring any of them that don’t seem to be backed by solid scientific research such as Cogmed Working Memory Training. Having said this there are few alternative therapies rooted in sound science available to address mental health issues that exploit neuroplaticity other than Cogmed. In fact, DNRS is one for the first I have come across. Taking this into account plus my own experience with CBR and my rather grudging acceptance that some really benficial changes did happen, if not as a result of CBR, at least simultaneous with doing the therapy, I am intrigued and will write further about this in future posts.
A new study from the prestigious University of Oxford indicates that learning to juggle can lead to a sharper and better co-odinated brain.The study, reported by the BBC website here, was conducted by the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) and was designed to discover if learning a complex phystical skill could alter brain structure. The test group of 12 subjects was given weekly training in juggling and asked to practice for 30 minutes every day. The study lasted six weeks. The control group of 12 simply continued on with their daily living. Both groups were given MRI scans before and after the six weeks. There were no differences before and after in the control group but the experimental group showed a five percent increase in white matter in the rear of their brains where the skills of reaching and grasping objects in peripheral vision are located. One conclusion drawn by the researchers is that any complex skill would result in an increase in white matter in the brain but not necessarily in the same region as the study showed. Dr. Johansen-Berg said, “This should provide some hope for those with neurological diseases such as MS where neural pathways have become degraded.” One interesting sidebar of the study was that all the subjects in the experimental group showed increases in white matter even though the level of their juggling skills varied. This was interpreted by the scientists as meaning that there were benefits to complex physical skills training that related to the time spent training and practising and not the level of skill attained.
Today I transferred the ownership for a motor scooter that I purchased the day before yesterday and went for a ride–the first on my scooter. I bought the scooter for a number of reasons. I plan on saving a lot of money on gas. I hope to save money on parking. Scooter and motor scooters park free in Toronto. But mostly I just like the idea of travelling slower, being aware of the passing scenery in a new way, the wind in my face… I had originally thought I would buy a motor cycle but then last summer, everyone I knew that owned one crashed and all of them were injured–one quite seriously. Scooters go slower. Certainly mine does. It’s only 5o cc with a top speed of about 35 mph. Having ADHD I’m easily distracted and driving a car I miss a lot of stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a good driver but I miss things I would rather enjoy. I feel when I’m on the scooter a bit like the feeling I described while Nordic walking a kind of zone thing and I guess that would be reason enough for getting it. Those moments certainly help to ease the tension of coping with the distractions and tensions that go with having ADHD.
Today I went to buy a lock that immobilizes the scooter when it is parked. The sales guy said to me, “Don’t lose the key. We’ll have to take a cutting torch to it to get it off.”
I replied, “I’m going to lose the key I have ADHD.”
He said, without a pause, “That’s why some people buy a third key.”
Most of the time I think I’m the only one (plus a few of my friends) who loses things like keys and directions and receipts. Hell I even lost the ownership certificate on the way back from registering the scooter this morning. The truth is I lose a lot of things but wallets and keys I don’t (touch wood). I use a trick I learned many years ago to always leave them in the same place. My wallet is only ever in two places. One is in my pocket and the other is on my bedroom dresser top. Same with the keys. Oh I have occasionally left my wallet on a counter top while paying for somethings but I’ve been lucky. Either the clerk found it and hurried after me or I’ve noticed before I got to far away. Once or twice I’ve left my keys in the lock in the door after opening it and noticed they weren’t in my pocket (or on my dresser ) and gone to look at the door.
My worry now is that I have put the scooter key and the lock key on one ring that is different from the one I use for all the rest of the keys. The reason is that I don’t want the whole bunch of them dangling together hanging from the scooter ignition. I am worried but I plan to follow the same rules although it will mean having two sets of keys in my pocket or on the top of my dresser. I do know that I won’t have to worry about leaving them in the door.
In the last post, I promised to write more about a recent study on mindfulness and its effect on mind fitness. They study was conducted by Amishi Jha of the Department of Psychoogy and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth Stanley of Georgetown University. Their conclusion was that mindfulness training made a measurable improvement on mood and working memory in a Marines training for deployment in Iraq. The program called Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) was designed to produce protective results on the psychological health in individuals who were enter into situations that would produce extreme stress (read combat) and was incorporated into pre-deployment training. Study participants included 48 males with an average age of 25 from a detachment of Marine reservists. The experimental group comprised 31 Marines with 17 in the control group. The MMFT group attended an eight week course. The effect of the training on mood was measured by the Positive and Negative Schedule (PANAS) while working memory improvement was measured using the Operation Span Task. Working memory capacity degraded and negative mod increased over time in the control group during training. The MMFT group, on the other hand, experienced improved working memory capacity and a decrease in negative mood. You can read more about the study in the journal, Emotion as well as the latest edition of Joint Force Quarterly, the advisory journal of the Join Chiefs of Staff.
I have been fascinated by the idea of mindfulness ever since I first heard it described in a bar by a tennis pro who was trying to seduce my tennis partner…the most unlikely circumstances indeed. I have headed down a lot of blind allies since then including attending a class on mindfulness meditation by some well-meaning practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. For awhile I thought that I was confused about the idea of separating mindfulness from meditation or was it the idea that I could be meditating and doing something else such going for a walk or eating a meal? Recently, in bookstore specializing in psychology and spirituality I came across a most-unlikely guide–The Idiot’s Guide To Mindfulness. In this book was all that I had been searching for–instructions on how to practice mindfulness in any activity and completely removing it from its Tibetan Buddhist roots (not that I have anything against Tibetan Buddhism). Now it is quite possible that it is entirely coincidental but since I began reading the book and trying to be completely in the moment I have felt better, happier. In addition, a few weeks ago, I started Nordic walking in the cemetery right across the street from where I live. Nordic walking is an exercise that seems to lend itself to mindfulness practice.
While doing it, you are traveling much slower than you would if you were running. The rhythmic nature of using the poles and swinging your arms is quite natural and requires little attention from the conscious mind so you are more aware of your surroundings and you walk more upright than you would if you were…well just going for a walk. All of this adds up to the perfect setting for the practice of mindfulness. I have been seeing the cemetery in whole new ways and I have lived beside it, or near it, almost all of my life.
Now I have come across a study that concludes that mindfulness, which the study defines as the ability to be aware and attentive of the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility, improves working memory as well as mood.
In the next post I will talk more about this study.