C PTSD – A Way Out A place to check in daily

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CONCENTRATION is a central feature of a contemplative life, cultivated through formal meditation practice and also through any of a variety of other daily activities.
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Concentration brings with it a natural joy that arises as the mind settles and is absent of distraction. A surgeon may love surgery, not because the operating room is a pleasant place to be, but because the task demands such complete attention that the mind is filled with the delight associated with concentration.
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Kayakers are often enveloped in rapture even though their bodies are cramped in little boats and splashed by frigid water. A concentrated mind is focused, unified, and stable, regardless of whether the conditions are uncomfortable or luxurious.
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Amazing power in a concentrated mind.
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This passage is from Shaila Catherine again. She taught me how small emotions and thoughts are compared to our true self. I learned about permanence and impermanence from a lady who has sat seven accumulative years in silent retreat meditating.
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I have adopted many of her teachings since my future does not for see seven years of retreat in the near future. She has been farther than me, so I trust her wisdom to guide and inspire me forward.
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Estimates of combat-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in U.S. veterans since the Vietnam War ranges from approximately 2& to 17%. Additional studies of combat veterans of more recent wars places the range of Iraq War returnees who suffer from PTSD between 4% and 17%. Currently, there is no one form of treatment that has been found effective in combating this disorder, but can the brain somehow be encouraged to calm itself down?
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PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder brought on as the result of witnessing a life-threatening event. The individual repeatedly re-experiences distressing memories of the event and this constant repetition eventually alters the composition of the neural networks which process traumatic memories. This memory repetition also initiates:
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Iterative learning – learning through repetition to fear the traumatic event
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Top-down activation – expecting to find a certain pattern, the brain focuses attention on finding evidence of that pattern and not processing what is actually there
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Pruning – eliminating tiny connections between neurons called synapses that don’t receive a lot of activity, further changing the structure of neural networks
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Eventually, the PTSD patient is unable to distinguish between similar experiences. Minor threats to their personal safety are perceived as being on the same level as major ones which causes heightened anxiety responses.
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Researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center have been experimenting with activating the dentate gyrus – a part of the hippocampus – to relieve stress in PTSD patients and those with similar anxiety disorders. The researchers inserted light-sensitive proteins called opsins into the dentate gyrus of mice models. They used light from a fiber optic strand to alternately activate and silence both portions of the dentate gyrus for three minute intervals while the mice took part in two anxiety tests.
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The researchers found that stimulating the dorsal dentate gyrus – the area involved in learning – caused the mice to be more interested in investigating their surroundings, but it inhibited their ability to learn. However, when they stimulated the ventral portion – which is involved in anxiety – the animals’ anxiety levels were decreased without interfering with their ability to learn new things. The researchers also discovered that the effects could be reversed. When the they stopped activating the dentate gyrus, the mice returned to their previous states of anxiety.
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From these results, the researchers concluded that there is potential for alleviating anxiety in individuals with anxiety disorders by targeting the ventral dentate gyrus with medication or deep-brain stimulation. The advantage to this kind of targeted therapy is that it makes an immediate impact on behavior and so it could work much faster than current courses of treatment.
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Mindfulness does the same thing naturally and more, much, much, more.
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I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
Martha Washington
US wife of George Washington 1759 (1732 – 1802)
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Our attitude and effort is what we control. It allows us to choose where we place our attention, our life.
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