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Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

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Re: Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

#101

Post by afpx »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #100
afpx wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a lot of trauma as a child, and it left me with an enlarged and overly-connected amygdala. If I was living 10,000 years ago, this wouldn’t be so bad. It would just result in an over-active fight/flight response. However, in the modern day, it results in an ‘always-on’ stress response which saturates my body with stress hormones. And, the stress hormones cause lots of other health issues, and it becomes a cycle…

How did you find out about the size of your amygdala?

MRI. Isn’t that the only way?

Re: Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

#102

Post by bornon5 »

ceras wrote: post #95
bornon5 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen this book recommended from time to time. I have a condition that falls within the book's purported domain, but when I read the synopsis, it raised all kinds of red flags. As a skeptic, what about this book let it through your filters? I really want to be open to it.

What let it through my filter was: (1) I'd already spent time and money on traditional treatments with neutral or even negative results. So $11 and a few hours reading wasn't that hard to stomach (2) I heard it recommended by others who were similarly skeptical, which put it on my radar. Otherwise I may have just given up. (3) I felt confident I could read the whole book with a truly open mind. I told myself before s…

Thanks for this. I've struggled with the effective-vs-true question, even to the point of panicking that I had read too much about the placebo effect for it to work on me. I like your #3 - I'll give it a real shot.

Re: Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

#103

Post by bornon5 »

md224 wrote: post #65
bornon5 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen this book recommended from time to time. I have a condition that falls within the book's purported domain, but when I read the synopsis, it raised all kinds of red flags. As a skeptic, what about this book let it through your filters? I really want to be open to it.

I'm not the person you're replying to, but I'm curious about the other side of this: what were the red flags you found, and why do you consider them red flags? I find that open-mindedness can be as simple as questioning and rethinking one's heuristics for detecting bullshit. These heuristics are useful for keeping us sane, but we should recognize them for what they are: epistemic shortcuts that allow us to dismiss so…

I agree with you on this. Ultimately I think there's an element of pride ("I don't get taken in by scams!") that I would do well to shed. But looking at the vague list of attributes:

  - celebrity doctor  
  - passionate followers  
  - findings not accepted by mainstream medicine
  - touts a worldview I want to be true
I have trouble seeing what's qualitatively different from your average daytime TV doctor selling supplements. The big distinction is almost certainly that people who seem smart recommend it, which as I mentioned to the poster above, may now be enough.

Re: Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

#104

Post by RandomInteger4 »

afpx wrote: post #101
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you find out about the size of your amygdala?

MRI. Isn’t that the only way?

Oh yeah, I was more referring to the string of events that led to the realization that you might need a brain scan vs. just being prescribed something. I imagine there is an interesting story to be told here regarding your experiences with the medical system leading up to that point?

I don't mean to prod too much; just curious.

Re: Some unexplained physical symptoms may be caused by unresolved emotional trauma

#105

Post by pmarreck »

_ywdj wrote: post #40

I’ve been testing this hypothesis - as best as one possibly can without conventional medical support - for the past few years. I’ve found that with persistence, emotion-based therapies are effective at bringing about healing of chronic physiological illnesses. Prior to that I’d spent several frustrating years seeking diagnosis for conditions that were debilitating but not apparently identifiable or treatable. To me t…

Here's the problem- You know what else might heal chronic physiological illnesses?

Time.

There's no way for you to go back in time, NOT use the emotion-based therapies, and compare the outcomes.

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