Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing

Connecting is not as difficult as it sounds, but in many ways it is difficult.  In fact, most of our lives, we have been living a disconnected life and our subconscious mind is now a foreigner within us.

Yes, there are certain activities that help take us out of being disconnected, but often we have not passed the threshold we need to obtain and so even with these activities, we stay disconnected.  The fullness of our life is hidden and silent.  We get to the point that our subconscious mind is anything but something we are connected to in our life.

I say it is difficult to connect because we all have lived a life of numbing and avoidance.  Many of the experiences we had early on in life were more than our young minds could handle and so numbing and avoidance became the norm.  Even the daily build up of stress acts in much the same way as traumatic events upon the body.  Traumatic scenes and images we view can also bring on the numbing and avoidance.

Numbing and Avoiding...

When we numb and avoid, we are not feeling.  We are not connected to our body or our mind.  We are not present in life to the degree we may think we are.  In fact, most of the time when you are numbing and avoiding, you're not even aware that you are doing it.  If someone tried to convince you otherwise, you would have great difficulty comprehending what they were saying and questioning strongly how it applies to you and your life.

Numbing and avoiding can be in so many ways.  It can be as simple as using food and alcohol or as complex as using drugs and sex.  Numbing and avoidance can show up through religious practices, constantly buying stuff you don't need, living in fantasy more than in reality or just keeping yourself constantly busy.  There are many ways of numbing and these are just a few, but if you want to read a more exhaustive list that I've put together, check this page out, The Ways We Numb The Body.

We are not feeling everything...

When we are numb, we aren't feeling the full breadth of our physical body.  We may not be and most likely are not aware that we are not feeling everything.  If you are trying to get 100 tasks completed by the end of the day that the boss is demanding you finish, do you think that you would feel all the pains in your body or how the stress is impacting you?  More likely than not, you would not feel these things.  They would get in the way of you performing the tasks you need to complete.  You would be numb to the subconscious mind.

Sometimes we need to numb our body to handle the current moments, but it is when we don't shut off the numbing in our subconscious mind that it becomes a problem  Temporary numbing is one thing, but long term causes great damage to our mind and body.  The more we numb, the more long term damage we do and the harder it is to recover.
 

If we can just begin to understand how much we numb and avoid the hard parts of our life, we will be on the uphill climb to a much greater awareness filled with peace beyond comprehension.  Numbing and avoidance take us away from the subconscious mind where we are empowered and filled with all that we need to take on the challenges of our lives.

We must first begin to understand that numbness and avoidance are two of our greatest enemies in our life.  For the more we choose to not see how we numb and avoid, the more we are robbing ourselves of all the potential for our life.  Numbing and avoidance are negative pleasures.  They help us disconnect, but at the same time, they rob us of our energy and essence of life.  Numbing and avoidance keep us from the deep peace within our lives.

Further Reading:

1. When A Subconscious Mind Is Exposed (Sep 13, 2016)
2. Subconscious Mind Impacted By Past Experiences (Sep 14, 2016)
3. Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing (Sep 15, 2016)
4. Connect To The Subconscious Mind (Sep 16, 2016)

We Numb Gratitude And Happiness

Brene Brown is one of my favorite speakers.  You may know her from the TED conferences where she likes to talk about vulnerability and shame which happens to really resonate with me personally.  In a talk she gave, there was a quote that was very profound.

When we numb [hard feelings], we numb joy, we numb gratitude, we numb happiness. (Brené Brown) - from The Power Of Vulnerability

You see, numbing is something we all do as humans.  It is part of our biology and it is an unconscious act which replicates itself most likely every day of our life.  We are usually unaware that we are doing it, but it runs like fine tuned software program.

Waking Up on December 21, 2012

As I am writing this post, I'm thinking about all that is going on these days in the world.  The fears that people are feeling and succumbing to are so great, that they are impacting every breath that is taken.  I find it sad that we live in so much fear in our individual lives that we have numbed ourselves to reality and we have given our control over to everything but what is true within ourselves.

This is why I am writing about waking up on December 21, 2012.  It is not about the beliefs and opinions that many hold of the apocalypse or the Mayans, but of actually waking up in consciousness.  It is about opening the veil we have placed over our own eyes with our long held subconscious beliefs in our life.  It is about removing the old and finding our way into awareness that will lead us to a greater consciousness and truth in our life.

It is too easy for each one of us to sit back and recite mantras and do feel good things that continue the numbing process we live our life by each and every day.  From the doomsayers to the new age movement, the numbing is evident if one just opens their eyes.  The numbing allows the fear to grow and fear allows numbing to grow.  It is easy to point the fingers and say each one of us has it right, while everyone else out there does not.  However, just because that is our belief, it does not mean it is the truth.  It may be nothing more than the illusion we have coaxed ourself into believing.

Letting Go In Life

We all hold on to so much in our day, in our lives and in our bodies.  We carry this through each moment as tension, pain, numbness, fatigue and various other ways.  Letting go in life is not easy.  It is difficult for most people to do.

We are all masters at holding on to things in life, but letting go is much more difficult.  Have you felt the tension in your back by carrying too great of a load in life?  Has your life become tiring because you felt like you had to keep plugging away and not stop or let up?  Do you just not feel life fully because you've carried so much around your neck for so many years?

Holding on in our life shows up in many ways and it usually shows up in the body.  If we are attentive and conscious, we will see it.  If not, we will hide it through numbness.  Even if we smile a lot and recite mantras all day long, it does not mean we have this under control.  In fact, it might most likely be the opposite.  Again, letting go in life is difficult but holding on is the norm.

Losing Your Body By Numbing Out

For anyone who has been through trauma, you fully understand how your body is not your friend after these experiences.  Losing your body is so common among sexual abuse survivors because when you go through these experiences, it is a means of survival.

Consider for a moment that if you are experiencing sexual abuse where someone overpowers you and not only is the pain great, but the humiliation and shame are beyond comprehension, the only way to survive is by shutting down.  It is a means to survive.  It is a means to get through the experience because of the overwhelming nature of what is going on.

For a long time, I did not even realize how much I had shut my body down.  It took me going through a Conversion Disorder and being paralyzed to begin understanding this.  Even in the depths of the Conversion Disorder, I could not feel a needle being applied to the bottom of my feet.  I could not feel the pain in my back and neck.  I could not feel much.

Subconsious Mind Impacted by Past Experiences

We never know enough about who we are or what all we can be.  We all have had experiences throughout our life that has challenged us to the core.  Some of us have encountered areas where we have struggled to stand up against the challenges of life.

All of these experiences are recorded in different ways in our subconscious mind.  It is like information being put into the computer and even though we may not be aware of it, the subconscious mind is recalling the facts.

We go through our days oblivious to the impact of these past experiences on our subconscious.  Indirectly they impact our physical body and mind to the point where we experience illness, disease, pain, and mental struggles.  While we stay oblivious to the impact, they work hard behind the scenes controlling and manipulating our lives to help us make sense of our days.

We learn how to avoid and disconnect...

As time passes, we learn how to avoid and disconnect from the revelations of our subconscious mind.  We disregard the messages given to us and we ignore the physical symptoms that arise until it is too late.  By the time we begin to notice them, they have already been conspiring against us and striving to get our attention.

In all reality, it is not that subconscious mind is our enemy, but when we fail to listen to it or connect with it, we make it the enemy.  We stand opposed to the very nature of what it is hoping to get us to hear and understand.

We become masters at numbing...

We become masters at avoidance and numbing in our life.  We get so good at it that we do not have a clue we are doing it.  We just do it as if we are on automatic pilot.  If someone points it out, we would think they are speaking a foreign language we don't understand.

How could we understand?  It is the subconscious mind that does not show up unless we allow it to show up.  Without connecting to it, the subconscious mind stays hidden.  It is not accessible through the logical mind.

In order to recognize and connect with the subconscious mind, we must first turn off the logical mind and go internally into our senses.  It is through the senses that we become connected to something far greater than our logical mind understands.

Further Reading:

1. When A Subconscious Mind Is Exposed (Sep 13, 2016)
2. Subconscious Mind Impacted By Past Experiences (Sep 14, 2016)
3. Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing (Sep 15, 2016)
4. Connect To The Subconscious Mind (Sep 16, 2016)

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Feel To Heal

So often we do exactly the opposite of what we need to do to heal our body and our mind.  We shut down and numb to everything going on.  In order to heal, we must feel.  When you feel, you heal.

Honestly, that's one of the major truths in life and it isn't because I'm writing a fancy slogan.  Numbing out is a way of disconnecting from all that is going on.  Feeling is a way of listening to the messages of your body and your mind.

Numbing takes you further into despair and pain and illness.  Feeling takes you out of those things.  Yes, I know that in order to feel, you will need to go in and confront the ugliest parts of life.  Its a built in biological mechanism that is truly there for us.

If we were feeling, we would see that there is so much that we have numbed in our body.  In fact, most of the time we are so numb, we can't even being to see this.  It is when you stop and listen and sense, that you will be able to see this.

Are You Hiding From Stress?

Stress takes on many shapes and sizes for many different people.  What may appear to be stress to someone, may just be another part of life.  What may seem as nothing, may be more stressful to the individual than is often realized. 

In humans and in our world we often negate the effects of stress.  We numb ourselves to it and we so efficiently hide from it, that we barely know it exists.  As humans, we are very adept at treating stress as something that is around us, but it doesn’t affect us one bit.

At one time in my life, I had everyone believing that I handled all stress in my day as I put on the “happy face”.  No one realized the daily torment I went through in my own life.  No one realized just how stressed out I was.  No one realized just how on the verge of collapse I was right before the Conversion Disorder hit in full swing.

Too many I know and see often present themselves to the world as having no stress or having everything under control.  From the happy feel good thoughts, to the downright utterance that they have no stress, I see how people I know hide this from the world.  They are masters at it just like I was.  Unfortunately as I stated above, I know first hand how life ending this can be.

Feeling Alive Or Numb In Natural Awakenings

My article just got published in Natural Awakenings for Orlando Florida.  The title of it is called Feeling Alive or Numb?  It is rather a lengthy article, but I tried to pack as much into it as I could.  Click on the image to the right to go to the article.

I am so happy that the editor of this local publication knows how important this topic is and to have given me the opportunity to write it.  I am thankful beyond words for the support of this publisher.

Numbing is something we all do in life.  It is our go to device when life becomes overwhelming or as we struggle to make sense of it.  There are many ways we numb ourselves and while you may think it is everyone else that does this, we only need to stop and look at our own lives.

Most of us live in a numbing state of mind and we don't even know it.  It is such an unconscious state of mind for us to be in.  It happens right in our very own mind and body without any recognition we give to it.

I could go on about numbing, but I'll let you read the article in the Natural Awakenings publication.  It starts on page 17 and continues on for a few pages.

You can also read more about the ways we numb on my site, Somatosync.com .

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/1/16 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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Avoiding Healing

If you're like me in my own healing, you've probably done some avoiding of what you needed to do.  It is easy to avoid healing in our lives because this path is not easy.

Healing is sometimes long and treacherous.  Sometimes it is exhausting.

The only thing is, if we avoid healing in our lives, it will come back up and bite us.  Our body and our mind will work to get our attention and the more we avoid it, the more it will increase.

I know from experience that avoiding things in life, numbing and disconnecting will only take you down a path that isn't pretty.  For me, it took me into a conversion disorder where I was paralyzed and almost on my last breath for good.

It isn't easy to heal, especially when you've been through trauma or child abuse or been molested and raped as a child.  These experiences harm people in so many ways and to get your life back is an exercise in exhaustion at times.  I know, I've been there.

Be real in our healing...

We just need to be honest with ourselves in our own healing and be real with what we are doing.  Are we avoiding healing through various ways, or are we truly going in and doing what we need to be doing.

There are many ways to avoid healing and even if I tried to list all that I could, there would be many more.  I think at a subconscious level we understand when we are avoiding what it is that we need to do, but often times it doesn't rise to a level of consciousness and awareness.

So, how do you avoid healing or how have you done this in the past?

What are your ways that you numb and disconnect, rather than take a long hard look at what is truly taking place on your healing journey.

#Numbing

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Cultivating Your Mind And Body

We're living in a day of disconnect and numbing.  While we can do the new age speak and say words like the mind body, we understand far less than we think we do.  The mind body connection is much deeper than we truly go.

Just like planting a garden and growing seed, if you don't make a fertile place for things to grow, you will never harvest what you plant.  It will be as if you're going through the motions but doing things that truly will not help.

Cultivating your mind and body is how you go in and prepare your day for a day that can be productive and helpful in your growth.  It involves identifying the weeds and other harmful things to your life, where you can work to remove them.  It involves feeding and watering your mind body so that you give yourself optimal conditions to grow.

We fail to see the whole picture...

Too often, we give the soil of our thoughts the opportunity to grow, but we fail to fertilize and water our thoughts by connecting to the body.  We fail to see the whole picture of what we are doing, rather than just the plant that may be emerging from the ground.

Our mind body balance is critical to our overall health and outlook on life.  It can either help us find wholeness and wellness or it can be a source of deep pain.  Our mind body is where it all happens, but if we only focus on the mind and ignore the body, we're only halfway to the place we need to be.

The mind body connection means going into the cells and allowing us to feel and sense what is there.  It is not about creating a story from those moments, but just observing and being one with our mind body to notice what is in that moment.  The more we notice, the more aware we become.  The more aware we become, the more conscious we are.

It must come from deep within...

Awareness and consciousness that stand the test of time do not only come from the mind like many think they do.  Yes, you might have awareness or a conscious thought, but if you truly want it to be grounded to stand the test of time, it must come from deep within the body connected to the mind.

The body is such an important part of the mind body connection and it often gets missed.  We stay numb and disconnected because often times, there is far too much pain that we attempt to hide.  By hiding this pain, we are numbing our entire mind body connection and robbing ourselves of peace, joy, and true growth.

Once you realize that cultivating both the mind and the body is essential for wellness, you will see much more power in healing your own life.  You will experience a deeper world around you apart from the fears that are overblown each and every day.

If you want to know more, here are some good resources to check out because these people truly understand much more about the mind body connection and how it impacts every part of your life.  Do yourself a favor and learn to cultivate not only your mind, but your body.  The rewards it pays out will far surpass the fears that try to hold you back.

Resources

1. Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself
2. Waking The Tiger
3. The Body Bears The Burden
4. Unified Therapy - Dr. Paul Canali

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Brene Brown On Vulnerability And Numbing Emotions

Brene Brown On Vulnerability
TED Conference

I really enjoyed this video of a speech given by Brene Brown.  The topic was on vulnerability and numbing our emotions.  It was given at a recent TED Conference.  Click this link to view the video.

Vulnerability is difficult for a lot of people because to be seen as vulnerable in our society, that means we are somehow weak.  To be weak means a shark will probably swallow you up and treat you as a little fish.  We have to appear strong in our society so someone doesn't take us on, run us over, or obliterate our life.  We see vulnerability as a bad things when it comes to the media and especially in politics.

The sad part is that when we take vulnerability away, we are essentially numbing our emotions.  The more we numb our emotions, the more we lose site of what it means to be human.  Emotions are a good thing for being human, but unfortunately in our world, we treat this as a disease or something wrong with a person.

Clutter In Our Life, Part 3

Clutter #3 - Numbing Ourselves
Part 3 of 10

Whether it is through food, coffee, energy drinks, sugar, junk food or many other things, we numb ourselves. We look for substances to give us that high in our day and soothe us from the rigors that we force our self into each day. We feel low and down so we reach for the sugar or caffeine to pump us back up.

If it isn't food substances that numb us, we park ourselves in front of the TV or video games or the latest electronic fad on the market and obliterate every hope of actually experiencing all that life has to offer.

There are moments that we need to just chill out but in our day and age, it is an epidemic where we spend more time numbing out than we do feeling and experiencing life. When we do this, we bring on all kinds of health and body conditions as the years progress.

Come back tomorrow for part 4 of this series, Clutter In Our Life. Below are the various parts to this series that you can read as well.

Clutter In Our Life Series
- Introduction
Part 1: Spending our hours watching TV news
Part 2: Keeping Ourselves Constantly Busy
Part 3: Numbing Ourselves
Part 4: Following Blindly
Part 5: Food Choices
Part 6: Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 7: Hydrating Our Bodies
Part 8: Thinking We Have The Answers
Part 9: Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 10: We Fail To Evolve
- The 30 Day Challenge


Blog Post & Images (c) 3/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Coping With Stress

Ok, here's a question asking for a show of hands.

How many of us know how to effectively cope with stress?

I see a few hands go up, but for the most part many are avoiding eye contact with me.  I know... I know...  it isn't always easy coping with stress.

For most of us, we weren't taught how to cope with stress that well.  Our dearly beloved parents often didn't know how to cope with stress in their own lives and that's what they taught us.  It isn't that we should blame them for anything because they did the best with what they had (ok, maybe not all parents did the best, but I'm sure some did).

All too often, we deal with stress by acting as if it is not there.  We avoid it, numb it and disconnect from it.  We look at anyone who acknowledges it with raised eye brows as if they are doing something wrong in life.

We keep ourselves so busy...

Sometimes we keep ourselves so busy that we don't have to acknowledge its presence in our lives.  Sometimes we have a few extra numbing and mind altering substances just so we can continue on separating ourselves from what is going on.

Some of us do very well at shoving it deep down inside of us so we just don't have to look at it.  Humans are pretty good at that.  Yeah, there are days when we need to do that, but so often we forget to flip the switch back the other way and deal with the stress.

Often we avoid and disconnect and numb stress in such an unconscious way that we're oblivious to its effects upon our body ... and our mind.  It is there, but we're in such a busy mode and disconnected mode that we don't see it.

When I've gone into some deep healing moments on the table, one of the first things we do is observe what is there in that moment - what we feel in our body.  There are many times that I don't feel anything until I stop and start to ask the question and notice it.  Then, it intensifies and that is the launching pad for the deep healing work.

Numbing and disconnecting...

Regardless of how you deal with stress, coping with it by numbing and disconnecting is not the best way.  It may be necessary in the moment, but if this continues, it starts to have major impacts on the different systems in the body.  It opens the door for illness and dis-ease.

Learning to be aware of its presence and learning to cope with stress is key to finding a more happier and healthier life.  It may not happen all at once and some of us may require much more difficulty to learning how to do this, but you mind and body will thank you.

If you do nothing and just let it build, at some point it will try to get your attention.  The daily buildup of stress can be just as harmful as traumatic experiences.  Trust me - and I share this from my own personal life - you don't want to go down the road of letting it build and not finding a way to let it go.

Coping with stress is about letting go, but doing so on a daily basis.  We have to find ways to stop and "smell the roses" or life will takeover and we'll be left wishing we had.  There are simple ways and more profound ways to cope with stress, but it all starts by stopping and observing and feeling in  your body.

After that, your body and  your mind will guide the way if you allow them.  They will show you things that you may not have realized, but it all starts with observing and feeling the stress within your body.

I leave you with this question - what will you do today in learning to cope with stress and letting go?  How will you allow yourself to feel it in your body, so you can let it go from the cellular level?

#stress

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Masking Pain In Life

This is a discussion that I think we all need to have in this world.  Pain is a big topic and the addiction to pain killers is growing at astonishing rates with little to show for its existence.

I've dealt with so much pain in my life; emotional, physical and chronic.  It has not been easy at times, but I've learned some shortcuts through it that help me greatly.

Often pain takes us into a moment of not feeling and not wanting to feel.  It takes us into self-protection.  It brings out the best numbing skills we have.

We try to avoid it and do just about anything we can to act as if it doesn't exist.  We try to use beliefs in all kinds of thoughts and philosophies and religions to make it appear that pain will disappear or has vanished.

Pain is there for a reason...

Pain is there for a reason.  It is a messenger to our body that something is not right or that something needs our attention.  Pain is the wake up call if we've avoided the earlier messages from our body and most people never hear those messages.  We are too asleep to hear the trains go by.

Pain medication and methods often mask the pain.  They make it seem as if it is not there.  While these medications and treatments may make us believe that the pain is gone or reduced, it is an illusion.  It may help us temporarily, but if we're not careful, the brain quickly embraces anything that reduces or takes the pain away.   Most of the time, we're not strong enough to counteract that and this is evidenced by the amount of prescriptions that are being consumed in our world.

It's a never-ending cycle...

Sometimes we have to do what we need to do in order to reduce the pain so we can catch our breath.  However, if you don't watch out, that's like a never-ending cycle that just reinforces an outside substance rather than embracing the healing power you have inside of you.

When we are young and we fall down or something happens, our parent is generally there for us to help us feel better.  However, the hidden message being taught is that we need someone else (or something else) to take our pain away and to make us better.  Yes, it might be innocent, but without the right tools, it enforces that part of the brain that looks to outside forces and diminishes the part of our brain that looks within.  It begins the process of setting ourselves up later for a life where pain engulfs our life, especially if we're not able to advance and learn.

I know pain is a much more complex entity than it may appear to anyone reading this.  Pain is insidious with how it gets us to respond.  It is crafty and cunning.  It is smarter than most of us and in fact, most research struggles to fully understand how pain works.  Researchers know parts of it, but they have not fully figured this one out.

Yet, I didn't think I could...

In my own life, I have seen times where I could take on the pain and yet, I didn't think I could.  I have been confronted with horrible physical realities and while feeling like I was powerless, I have found a power within me to heal and conquer.  The things that most would tell me are impossible to change are the things that I have began to understand that I could.

Believe me, it takes a heck of a lot to do what I am suggesting here.  It is not easy, but I know that deep down within me, there is a way out.  There is more than we currently know and understand today.  It is embracing the power we hold within, while not numbing and disconnecting in life that gives us much more than we can see.

Masking pain is one way of dealing with pain.  We all know how to do that, but as I'm seeing in this world, masking is not working.  The pain is still there.  People are still struggling to deal with pain.  So, our ways of masking pain are failing us.

Isn't it time that we begin to look outside the box in treating pain?  For if we continue to only see the tree, rather than the forest in front of us, we may likely miss the discoveries that can propel humanity into a new future.  Masking and numbing the pain will not get us where we need to go.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Trauma and the Stress Response

According to the article, "The Biological Response to Psychic Trauma", through arousal, the body responds to increased phsyical or psychological demands by releasing norepinephrine (NE) and adrenorcorticotrophin (ACTH). Both of these hormones play a major role in the release of corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF). The hypothalamus also secretes throxin releasing hormone (TRH) which activates the secretion of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, CRF and vasopressin.

Of course, I could keep going on and on with all the hormones that are released because of the arousal process by the body to some stimuli of fear. But as you can see and if you read the article in detail, there is a lot that happens when we are introduced to something that brings the fear up in us. It is biological and is just not all in your head.

As the article goes on to state, these hormones help the body mobilize the energy it needs to deal with the stimuli or fear that it is receiving. Biological functions such as increased glucose release to power the cells to increasing the immune function of the body as a way of protecting us when under stress, all occur in these situations. In a well functioning body, stress produces rapid responses of hormones but if chronic stress persists all the time, than the response to stress is less than effective. Prolonged durations of chronic stress desensitize the body and hormones are not secreted or produced in the levels they are needed nor at the pace which they are needed.

Here are some findings from the article about PTSD and Hormone Levels

Abnormalities of the these hormone systems in the body are often found in patients with PTSD.

Increased 24 hour norepinephrine and epinephrine secretions with PTSD veterans compared to patients with other psychiatric diagnoses.

One study showed blunted ACTH response to CRH stimulation

Found that the severity of PTSD was directly related to baseline cortisol level.

Prolonged duration of stress is not just a function of the hormones that are released but the capacity of the individual to deal with the stress and manage arousal.

Severe chronic stress in animals results in a physiological state which resembles dependence on high levels of exogenous opioids.

Because fear activates the opioid peptides, the body can become conditioned to future stressors and to events that would normally not be considered stressful - psychic numbing.

Because of psychic numbing, there is a correlation between PTSD (trauma) and self mutilation. People who engage in self mutilation often have a history of severe childhood trauma.

One of the hallmarks of PTSD is the intrusive re-experiencing of elements of the trauma in nightmares, flashbacks or somatic reactions which seem to be triggered by autonomic arousal.

Chronic sleep problems are often found in people with PTSD due to chronic hyperarousal. Studies have shown increased sleep latency, more awakening, less total sleep time and less REM time.

In a study, it was found that post traumatic nightmares occur during any stage of the sleep cycle and most tend to occur during 2 and 3 am during Stage 2 or Stage 3 sleep (possibly during the transition to REM sleep). When a patient reported the nightmares during stage 2 or 3, it was the exact reliving of the traumatic experiences but if it was in REM, the nightmares were more likely anxiety filled dreams.

Traumatic experiences have demonstrated an increase in symptoms of respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular and endocrine systems in people with PTSD.

As you can see, this is just the tip of the iceberg in the research that has been done with respect to trauma and PTSD. If any of what I have quoted in this blog post interests you, I would urge you to read the entire article referenced below. Bessel Van Der Kolk and his associates and colleagues are some of the pioneers in how trauma affects the body in biological ways. This isn't pie in the sky concepts. It is real and anyone who has been through trauma knows just how real it is.

We are very much influenced and impacted by events in our past or by repeated durations of chronic stress. Yes, there are varying degrees to these different stressors but they affect us biologically. All too often, we go through our lives trying to run from them and trying not to acknowledge these things. That is understandable because it is not an easy thing to deal with past trauma and heal from it. It takes work and it takes the safety and support of those who understand how to help an individual heal. It takes a great deal of patience both for the person who is traumatized and the support network working with that person.

However, if traumatized people continue to avoid their past, it will catch up to them in some way. Whether it is through a medical condition of a body that is so overwhelmed or whether it is through some form of acting out that brings you front and center with a past you are trying to forget, trauma will catch up with you. Those who have been through trauma, understand this from a very instinctual level but often they have learned to cover the trauma up, avoid it and act as if everything is ok. All the time though, these traumatized individuals know that this is far from the truth.

It is important to note, that traumatized people need to know is that whatever they have gone through in their lives, they are not alone. Others have walked in those same shoes and are healing in astounding ways from it. There is hope. Yes, healing can be difficult but the other side of it can be so beautiful and provide so much more joy to life than most can ever imagine.

While you may not understand what you need to do in order to heal from it, the first step is beginning to acknowledge that something happened and that you need to begin the process. The process will unfold as it needs to, if you allow it to and if you find a person that is safe, trustworthy and fully understands the path which you walk. You don't have to know all the answers and you don't have to heal it all in the shortest amount of time possible, but in order to heal, you have to take the step into the unknown. When you take the step, you will be surprised and amazed at all there is out there for you and for your life.

Source Of Information:
Reference: http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/vanderkolk2/
Anxiety Research (U.K.), Volume 4: Pages 199-212
The Biological Response to Psychic Trauma: Mechanisms and Treatment Of Intrusion and Numbing



*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Chronic Pain Prolonged With Painkillers?

There is nothing worse sometimes than when you hurt.  When you're in pain, you just want it to be gone as quickly and simply as you can.  If you're a highly sensitive person, pain is not your friend.

Let's face it though, no one wants to suffer through chronic pain or any type of pain.  In this country we will do just about anything to avoid it.  Painkillers often become the way we deal with life, medical conditions, chronic pain and other situations we find ourselves in every day.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2010, enough prescription painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult every 4 hours for 1 month.  (source:  drugabuse.gov).  We all have most likely read just how much painkillers are being abused and overused these days but that statistic is frightening.  I have seen the recent news of Prince overdosing on Fentanyl (Fentanyl Deaths Soar) . 

Pain medications among fastest rising additions...

Heroin and pain medications are the fastest rising addictions in the US according to www.addictions.com. As they discuss, there is great potential for addiction no matter what drug is used.

While painkillers seem to be America's best friend, they are dangerous and according to a new study by University of Colorado, could be more harmful than good.  In the study, they reveal that opioids such as morphine actually increase chronic pain.

Not just long term painkillers...

We are not talking about a long term painkiller that is being used, but just a few days of treatment that ended up causing chronic pain for several months.  In their study, the painkillers were triggering an immune response which caused the release of pain molecules.  Once this happens, it increases the perception of pain in the brain.

I am saddened to see just how many painkillers are being used today and how many addictions result from this practice.  It has been many years since I have taken any prescription medication whatsoever.  I try hard to keep myself healthy or find effective alternatives if something is needed.

Self-Medicating is not helping our bodies...

We cannot keep self-medicating our bodies and expect us to be fully human.  It is not helping us individually or our society, because rather than getting rid of the pain, we are just numbing ourselves to it.  Numbing does nothing but take you further into the darkness of life while helping you believe that you're doing the right thing.

The more we go into the pain, the more aware we are of what is happening in our body.  Yes, when the pain gets to great, then it is very difficult to manage and I do understand that.  However, taking more painkillers is not the answer like this study suggests.  Finding ways to connect with our body and come out of numbness will yield much better results over the long term.

If you want to learn more about how the placebo effect works, take a look at the following blog post on Placebo Effect And Medical Care .

(click image to read)

Question Of The Day

What ways have you found to alleviate pain without using painkillers?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Hiding Things From Our Mind

To know yourself is the greatest gift you can receive.  Yet, all too often, many of us do not really get to know ourselves.  If you crawl into the back corners of your mind and dig into the closets of your life, sometimes there are things that are ugly and scary.

If you look at it like many in my family do, you would say that sometimes we all have skeletons in our closets.  You might also go looking at it like some in my family, that sometimes it is best to leave things untouched.

In many ways, we use our mind to discover new things about ourselves, but we also use it to hide so much from our consciousness.  We don't truly know that which we hide from ourselves because we spend too much time running and hiding and numbing from it.  Its easy to just ignore it and go on in life singing lullabies to the world.

The World Is Spinning Out Of Control

I continue to see the world around me spinning out of control.  I see the nervous systems of most people vibrating at such a rapid speed that the body cannot sustain it.  I see the hype activity of the world around me running at supersonic speed.

We cannot continue to spiral out of control as we are doing now.  We can't continue to burn the candle at both ends.  We cannot continue to treat our bodies as if just another medication pill will bring us back to balance.

Things have greatly changed in the last six months to a year.  At one time, you could do some bodywork to help ground people and bring their nervous system down.  In fact, you had to sometimes push their systems up a little to drop it down.  Now, it is like you can't push them up because they are already wound too tight.

I cannot believe how much things have changed in humans.  I feel it and sense it in those that I touch or that I am around in a day.  I feel sad for the people who don't even realize it and I can see them headed for a disastrous affair with illness and disease.

Dealing With Pain In Life

One of those subjects that we all experience whether we admit it or not, is most likely one we all want to be gone.  I'm talking about pain.  Pain is part of the human experience.  Pain is a part of life whether we want to believe it or not.

There are different kinds of pain from emotional to physical to chronic and then some that are the result of a physical accident or injury.  Each one takes its toll on us and drains our energy.  Sometimes the pain gets so unbearable that we do everything we can to avoid it, disconnect from it or believe that it doesn't exist.

As humans, we are pretty good at numbing ourselves from pain.  It is easy to do if we stay busy so we don't have to think about it or we have beliefs that help us hide from the pain.  It is easy to do if we just have gotten to a point where we ignore it because it is too much for us to deal with.  Numbing is a powerful human skill that we all possess and it is practiced routinely.

Chronic pain...

If you suffer from chronic pain, it seems like there is no end in sight.  It seems like there is nothing that will help.  There is no option but to deal with it in whatever form works for you.

Emotional pain...

If you suffer from emotional pain, tears will not always be enough to wipe it away.  Love is sometimes hard to let in to soothe it.  It is a loneliness that is felt clear to the bone when you suffer from emotional pain.

Physical pain...

Physical pain sends us running for help before we can blink an eye.  It is pain that we want to stop and have it stop quickly.  It is pain that is often hard to endure depending upon the severity of it.

Just hoping the pain will end...

Through all of this, our brain tells us something is wrong and either we know what that is, or sometimes it is just too complex for us to understand.  The more complex it is, the more we tend to suffer in silence apart from the world, just hoping that the pain will end.

Our bodies know how to numb us and try to protect us, but some days, that is not even enough.  Often we turn to all kinds of products, substances, and beverages.  Sometimes we turn to belief systems and medication all in an attempt to ease the pain.  Believe me, when the pain gets tough, I start looking for anything that will help, even if it isn't the best thing for me in the long term.

Pain is part of the human experience...

Pain is part of life.  It is part of the human experience.  Although I'm sure this isn't what most people want to hear, I know it to have truth from my own life and experiences I've been through.  I know it to be truth from what I have seen in others.

If you're experiencing pain, keep in mind, "this too shall pass".  If you're dealing with chronic pain, it isn't as simple as that thought.  If you're dealing with emotional pain, know that it isn't the end of the world.  Things will get better and they can get better.

I'm a firm believer in that whatever experience we are going through, things can change.  It may not change in the way we expect it to or in how we believe it should, but things can change.  I have overcome the odds of physical situations when the doctors told me I would never make it.  It is hard for me to accept that things cannot change.  I've seen a different world.

 
Whatever you do, try not to hide and disconnect or numb from the pain.  Try to keep yourself grounded with what you feel, but look for ways that physically take you out of the pain, not just mask it or hide it or make you believe it doesn't exist.

We all have far more potential within us to heal and deal with pain than we realize.  Yes, it gets hard to do.  Yes, it gets hard to endure.  I'm not saying it is easy or quick.  I am just saying, we have far more potential than we realize.  We have strength we know not of and I fully believe that for every inhabitant of this planet.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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