Memories Emerge from a Sea of Neurochemicals

There are people searching for “the answer” to why they feel a certain way. Their search is for the illusive “cause” that, in the past, certain types of therapists, and the approaches they offered, led people to believe once “uncovered” the feelings could be conquered. We are certainly beings that can be helped by understanding, but that alone cannot be a complete answer to long-term healthy management of the way you feel.
 

It’s compelling to think that if you work hard in a quest to mine your psyche for information about your past this uncovering, and possible catharsis or emotions, can free you of emotional pain. The experiences of our lives are tied to emotions but it’s not as simple as 'bubbles' of varied experiences and their accompanying emotions held inside of us intact until they are burst freeing us of their effects. We are a constantly fluctuating emotional beings. Understanding or “cognitive approaches” cannot be the complete answer to long-term healthier responses to our lives, including our memories.

 
Referencing Daniel Goleman from his book, Emotional Intelligence –

The cognitive approach "leaves unexplored the rich sea of emotions that makes the inner life and relationship so complex". Cognitive scientists, he writes, have too computational a model of the human mind, and have forgotten that, in reality, "the brain's wetware is awash in a messy, pulsating puddle of neurochemicals", and that it is "the wash of feeling that gives life its flavour".

The genius of NeuroTherapy Training is that, every day, it helps you quiet the intensity of stress and the accompanying ‘sea of neurochemicals’ that are the reason you feel the ways you do. By lessening, on a regular basis, the chemistry that is kicked up by certain memories or experiences, you can then reexperience, examine and more healthfully understand the incidents of your life that are inevitably a part of why you feel the way you do. It lessens resistance because you feel less discomfort in reexperiencing.

NeuroTherapy Training stands on it’s own as a full psychotherapeutic approach, but can also be a powerful adjunct to work you may be doing to better understand the emotional forces in your life.

Weight Control: A Double Bind

Being overweight often sentences one to feel as though they are a pariah in society, one of society’s undesirables. Even those who manage to stay, physically, within the socially acceptable limits of physical size are never free of the fear of weakening and falling quickly out of favor. This fear can become so intense as to contribute to the extreme responses of anorexia or bulimia.

Far more often than fear of ill health, overweight people seek help because of not feeling attractive or acceptable enough. The emotional anguish felt by overweight people tears them down and can be far more damaging than the excess weight.

How do social standards play such a devastating role in the situation faced by overweight people trying to lose? 

Our socio/political system is based on the concept of free enterprise. Supply and demand shapes the economic profile of the western world and economics is the basis of the social system. One of the realities of the supply and demand system is that the goal is to create greater and greater demand that will need to be filled by suppliers. It is the creation of demand on which the advertising industry was founded and for which it exists.

Advertising professionals and the companies they represent, benefit from and even stimulate people's vulnerability to emotion. The emotion of fear in all of its modern forms, mainly guilt and low self esteem, is readily triggered by advertisements. The low images many people have of themselves are a result of artificially established value systems. These value systems are designed to benefit certain economic interests rather than for the more effective and healthy functioning of people in general.

This economic system of supply and demand plays a devastating role in people's attempts at weight control. It is fairly well understood that standards of what physical appearance is acceptable or not are dictated by the advertising media. Young and, an almost unhealthy, slenderness are promoted and even demanded as the standard. The message, You are not OK unless you are slender, is everywhere. To force people into line, the advertising media blatantly uses the emotional mechanisms of fear, guilt and low self esteem.

Simultaneously, while demanding slender bodies for acceptability, the same social force is demanding consumption of the very things that make a slender body difficult for many and a near impossibility for some. The high sugar and stimulant intake of the American public is urged on by the advertising establishment. High sugar and stimulant intake, unhealthy in general, trigger physical, chemical and mental weaknesses making excessive weight gain probable and weight loss a complex and difficult process.

The advertising establishment has set in motion a double bind, lucrative for the economic well being of the certain few and devastating for the physical and emotional well being of the many. They continue to urge and stimulate the desire for a high level of sugar and stimulant intake that can lead to the problem of excessive weight gain. They persist in stimulating disdain for and discomfort of overweight people, triggering physical stress from emotional drain. This further increases people's weakness for the sugars and stimulants foisted upon them. A complete and very lucrative industry has even formed out of this double bind, the weight loss industry.

It is within this complex and negative milieu, that people seeking help for weight control are caught. The, often, devastating levels of frustration and even despair over this symptom can, in this context, be understood. People desiring self control over weight gain, more than others, have these weaknesses blatantly triggered and increased by the socio/economic system.

Programs of “here’s a diet or exercise program, go do it,” often fail because folks have not developed self control over emotional factors that can erode efforts. They often fail because folks have not increased their energy levels and the exhaustion of stress erodes desire, even the ability to exercise. They often fail because the high demands of their brains and bodies for sugar. Stressful overwhelmed  people often experience fluctuating blood sugar levels that erode their abilities to make healthy food choices.

The focus of NeuroTherapy Training on building self control over physical, chemical and mental levels is a healthier approach for those desiring weight management. Anyone seeking to loose weight is really seeking long term management of weight loss measures. The focus on building self control and the more realistic information taught about the mind body connection, make NeuroTherapy Training a good choice for making needed changes required for weight management goals.

As Winter Emerges Your Brain Can Change

Some people start to feel blue for psychological reasons like the year beginning to wind down. Others may begin to feel lower energy and emotional lows partly due to waning sunlight.

Seasonal Effective Disorder:

SAD has been linked to a biochemical imbalance in the brain prompted by shorter daylight hours and a lack of sunlight in winter...Melatonin, a sleep-related hormone, also has been associated to SAD. This hormone, which has been linked to depression, is produced at increased levels in the dark.

http://healthyminds.org/Main-Topic/Seasonal-Affective-Disorder.aspx
   
The American Psychiatric Association lists possible symptoms as:
    
• fatigue

• lack of interest in normal activities

• social withdrawal

• craving foods high in carbohydrates

• weight gain

There is so much discussion about potentials, possibilities and treatments. In the list of "what to do" you will sometimes see Stress Reduction as one option. It probably won't be one of the first in the line of treatment or defense offered by traditional medical or psychological practitioners. That is because the field of psychological does not generally focus on the neurological improvements that regular practice of a concentrated state of mind can stimulate and continue to retrigger.

It is clearly documented that if one system of the body is out of balance it can, and does, affect other symptoms. Medical specialties like psychoneuroimmunology attest to that. When our central nervous system is continually over stressed it clearly can throw off normal and healthy neurochemical production. Our thoughts and emotions which are mixtures of neurochemicals in the cells of our brain cannot happen in their "normal" manner.

People who are given to true chemical depression have brains and bodies that are, possibly genetically, vulnerable to types of chemical imbalances (their neurochemicals are imbalanced or create pathways through the cells of their brains and bodies that result the feelings they call depression rather than in feelings they would call happiness or contentment).

In SAD or seasonal affective disorder, a guess is that it may be due to an overproduction of melatonin a hormone that is part of the chemical mix that makes up our thoughts and emotions. Why the chemical mix in our bodies becomes imbalanced maybe for many reasons, but a one way to help counter imbalances, in general, is to reduce stress on the central nervous system. We should effectively be doing that everyday as part of, in a sense, “taking pressure off the machine”.

When two of the "symptoms" listed for Seasonal Affective Disorder are craving foods high in carbohydrates and weight gain, it has to make one consider glucose levels dropping. When the brain is deprived of glucose it screams for it. Think about marathon runners pushing their bodies to extremes. They are handed glasses of juice along the way. Their bodies are working so hard that they use up glucose and the body demands replenishment. Glucose is part of the brain's fuel. When it is low the brain isn't working at optimum efficiency.

Think of your body experiencing high stress continuously, it's not unlike the runner putting demands on the system. As a part of your response to depression including Seasonal Affective Disorder, add a method of aggressive stress management. It can be a natural way to help coax your system into a better chemical balance.

Smoking Largely a Sugar Addiction

If you’ve been a smoker for many years, you’ve undoubtedly tried at least a couple ways of quitting. Or you could even be a serial cold turkey quitter, works well every time until…The seeming uncontrollable cravings by people who quit smoking may not be a craving for nicotine at all.

The predominant psychological approach to this addiction continues to involve behavior modification techniques. Even when hypnosis is used it is most often directed at suggesting modifications in behavior. The mental health profession continues to treat smoking as largely a behavioral issue when it’s clearly known to be a body chemistry issue. You can ask three people who quit smoking "cold turkey" or with hypnotic suggestions modifying their behavior, or through aversion techniques. Guaranteed one or more are back to smoking or they gained weight, by an increase in craving for sugar and carbohydrate foods or took up more alcohol which metabolizes to sugar.

In the last couple decades, the medical community jumped into the fray of “therapies” claiming to have “the answer” to a smoking addiction. Patches and pills were, and still are, prescribed and prescribed and prescribed. Yes, they gave some relief for avoiding cigarettes but what they most basically did was replace. Once the patches or pills were stopped what about them had changed the body’s vulnerability?

The Snyder Michael Method of NeuroTherapy effectively treats a smoking addiction by focusing on body chemistry in a natural way and in a way that truly changes the person’s addictive nature. It’s been known for years and talked about in books (See Sugar Blues by Duffy) that a major part of the addiction to cigarettes is an addiction to the sugar. The tobacco is cured in sugar so sugar is imparted with every puff stimulating the central nervous system. In over twenty-five years of working with folks helping them gain self control over the addiction to cigarettes, we’ve observed the sugar addiction outweighing the nicotine addiction.

We’ve always been curious why the field of psychology ignored the sugar addiction part of a cigarette addiction. They continue today with aversion techniques and behavior modification. When the pills and patches arrived on the scene, their protocols didn’t involve addressing it either.

There are two ways our use of mental training and the protocols surrounding The Snyder Michael Method of NeuroTherapy address the addiction to cigarettes. First by aggressively quieting, and teaching clients to quiet, their central nervous systems. The brain’s fuel is glucose (sugar) when the brain and central nervous system are full steam constantly, they need a lot of fuel (marathon runners drink juice along the way). Second, by instructions on how they can intake food and beverages throughout the day in a way that helps keep the brain “fueled” naturally, lessening it’s screaming for fuel (glucose/sugar).

There are other important aspects of managing the addiction to cigarettes that the mental training protocol addresses. But, teaching people about the sugar addiction, and giving them tools to easily and effectively address it daily, has clearly led to years of effectively helping people successfully control the addiction to cigarettes.

NeuroTherapy Training Newsletter Offers Valuable Information

We have recently started an informative newsletter that will be worth your time to consider subscribing. The information offered centers around the method, NeuroTherapy Training. In it you will find information useful to your life and your efforts to improve emotionally. What makes it different is you learn about issues of your life and ways of improving given from a neurological perspective. There are links to textual resources, audio resources and there are articles relating to common issues people face in life and how mental training is an important approach to consider. There is a Brain Trivia area, that gives a "what is happening in the brain" perspective on common life issues.

Here are links to some past issues of the NeuroTherapy Training Newsletter:

The primary article surrounds the subject involves the importance of humor in our lives
1. NeuroTherapy Training Newsletter - Humor In Our Lives

The primary article surrounds the subject of fear
2. NeuroTherapy Training Newsletter - Managing Fear

The primary article surrounds the subject of organization and the ability to organize things.
3. NeuroTherapy Training Newsletter - Organization!

Listen and Learn

Sometimes when learning about something new, it's enjoyable to listen rather than read. There are n umerous short audio lectures about NeuroTherapy Training available, online without download.

Here's just an example

If you are considering becoming a theapeutic professional and seeking a proven approach that reflects the latest information about the mind body connection=

If you are a Life Coach wondering how teaching people tools to manage their fear can enhance what you offer

If you or someone you know are facing a life-threatening illness

We hope you'll enjoy these and more...

NeuroTherapy Training audio tracks

Neurofeedback Training: Missing The Mark

NeuroTherapy Training, the method written about in the blog, is not a neurofeedback approach. Neurofeedback approaches have become a new trend in psychology, but for the average person seeking help to more healthfully cope with the pressures and emotional challenges of life, we see it as one that may miss the mark in a number of ways that should be considered by anyone seeking training in professional therapeutic skills.

That therapists and life coaches are more commonly hearing now about the importance of adding something like neurofeedback, mindfulness meditation and even medication, is a realization by the psychological community that merely cognitive based therapies are not enough. Emotion is chemicals, if there isn't something offered to clients to change their brain’s chemical patterns that result in their emotional lives, true and lasting change will not occur.

Appearing a lot like the 1970’s meets the 2000’s or Pavlov meets Pert. The touted uses of Neurofeedback training work on the principle of operant conditioning. In this case the “neurological carrot” is the release of endorphins, the feel good chemicals of the brain.

It is agreed that the brain can be trained to “remember and recreate” a prior experienced state. In fact, the brain is trained continuously and daily to do that. What happens when someone who has caused you problems in the past walks into a room? Your brain activity shifts to a certain pattern that alerts you that this person is a threat (in a modern caveman-saber tooth tiger scenario). It returns to a brain state possibly not healthy for you physically, but one that will allow you to “survive” in the modern jungle.

Too Subjective
Unfortunately, with the subjective or problem directed application of Neurofeedback training, to truly help you, you would need to train the brains responses specific to that scenario and specifically to thousands of similar shifts in brain states daily. These shifts may not be particularly healthy to your body but they enable you to survive the modern version of tiger attacks. This is likely why Neurofeedback training is commonly touted for reconditioning more specific brain responses such as those attached to ADD or responses undesired by athletes when attempting to excel at their sports.

Our neurological lives are a complex maze of necessary brain responses. From the perspective of a psychological professional, I clearly agree that too many of those responses are not healthy for the body and that the brain does get into “neurochemical” habits that sustain less effective ways of responding. The key word here is “sustain”. Our brains lock into loops of neurochemical responses stimulating the same feelings over and over, even when different neurological responses are necessary for a healthy body and more effective responses to life.

It is felt that the Neurofeedback training approach, with its goal of training the brain out of certain specific responses, is too limited, like trying to change one unhealthy neurological loop at a time or taking on one tiger at a time when three are attacking at once.

Machinery Not Necessary
For truly healthy neurological responses that are sustained, a more powerful and broad-based brain training process is required. The approach we devloped and use, NeuroTherapy Training, offers that approach and it does not involve purchasing and training in neurofeedback machinery. As intriguing as hardware hooked up to the head may seem, it’s purpose or goal must be looked at. The purpose or goal of that type of brain training is limited to attempting to reshape certain specific responses to certain specific ‘mental tiger attacks”.

NeuroTherapy Training sessions on the other hand involve:
· Educating clients in new, interesting and easily understood ways about how their mind and body interact to create their emotional lives.
· Regular mental training sessions, guiding clients through a process of mental training exercises that train their brains in new ways and enable their own abilities to use that training effectively daily
· Coaching in effectively integrating daily mental work into their lives.
· Use of the most powerful brain training process, SUBVERBAL SHIFTINGâ that prepares the brain and body daily to handle multiple and continuous ‘mental tiger attacks’ by calling upon the Human Survival Response.

NeuroTherapy Training is a method that offers clients:
· A life-long mental training process.
· A way of keeping their brains responding and returning to healthy emotional patterns every day.
· A way of responding emotionally to mental tiger attacks in powerful and healthy ways, not just staying in the loop of the negative emotions triggered by them.

Therapy and life coaching practices that merely offer talking therapies, or cognitive training tools, suffer from a missing link. If you are considering the addition of methods to your practice, you are looking in the right direction. Don’t, though, merely accept that neurofeedback training, with seemingly impressive machines, is the only way you can help your clients make the shifts in neurological activities they must make to evolve in the healthy mental ways they desire. Learn how you can take your practice into the future offering NeuroTherapy Training to your clients to enhance their progress in critically important and impressive ways.

For more information check out our website at http://www.therapyofthefuture.com/