81–90 of 122 posts
This does not surprise me one bit. I was prescribed beta blockers for "heart problems" that turned out to be panic attacks and I noticed the same effects. On beta blockers you're able to talk about unpleasant memories as casually as one would note the weather. It's a surreal experience, but a useful one. Before this it was easy to shut down and avoid confronting bad memories. Now I can just brush away everything. Ano…
I have been taking low dosage Propranolol for about a year now. It was prescribed for me for my hemiplegic migraines. Combined with exercise and occasional CBD oil it has completely eliminated migraines from my life. This medication is absolutely brilliant and harmless. Also keeps my resting heart rate around 55. If you struggle with migraines, talk to your neurologist, for me it was a life changer.
It took about a year and a half to finally have a light bulb moment that the Propanolol was the major difference between the most successful and prosperous years of my life and the parts of my life where I've been an anxious hot mess. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this medicine as it's truly made my life more meaningful in allowing me to achieve what I'm really capable of as a software developer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 15 that got placebo didn’t get propranolol
But it's not clear if they were exposed to the tarantula.
Coincidentally, I recently listened to an interesting Revisionist History episode that covered the importance and controversy of a semicolon in the interpretation of a section of the constitution
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/21-divide-and-conquer
This does not surprise me one bit. I was prescribed beta blockers for "heart problems" that turned out to be panic attacks and I noticed the same effects. On beta blockers you're able to talk about unpleasant memories as casually as one would note the weather. It's a surreal experience, but a useful one. Before this it was easy to shut down and avoid confronting bad memories. Now I can just brush away everything. Ano…
I take it only before public speaking, not regularly. The only downside is it leaves me with dry eyes and exhaustion at the end of the day, but it’s a small price to pay for the huge QoL improvement.
So like think loading a block of memory then rewriting it, but this time you rewrite the memory without the associated anxiety.
As someone who has used propranolol on and off over the past few years, the thing that intrigues me here is that propranolol works well in this instance due to crossing the blood/brain barrier as opposed to other beta blockers that do not. The use of beta blockers in anxiety is commonly associated with reducing the effects of stress on heart rate and blood pressure, not necessarily on affecting the brain directly whi…
Anxiety is complex and is not just the mental experience, which is why therapy for anxiety uses "hot cross bun diagrams" to describe the feedback loops that physical sensation contribute to.
See the "physical" boxes: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Five-aspects-of-the-hot-...
http://cbtmidsussex.co.uk/aboutcbt.html
So they're not really a band aid, they're helping with one part of that feedback loop.
Living with someone with crippling PTSD and anxiety disorders, I'm thrilled to hear about this study. As someone who's dealt with an oppressive government (which is where the PTSD and anxiety came from), I wonder if this therapy can be weaponized by the powerful to oppress the powerless. The rise of the warrior cop is bad enough, but what about a crack squad that has been chemically desensitized to killing in cold bl…
In Brave New World, this was soma. "A gram is better than a damn."
A lot of people are saying it's "erasing" the memory. I actually think the way it works is much simpler. I've read that when you relive any memory your brain essentially unloads it, then rewrites it (sometimes in a modified form). So like think loading a block of memory then rewriting it, but this time you rewrite the memory without the associated anxiety.
I took it as a product of not having a photographic memory. When my mind recalled the memory, there were a lot of parts missing: hand gestures, voice volume, other students, etc. So my brain filled in those gaps with "reasonable" guesses. And, during a depressive episode, it was reasonable to assume other people didn't like me. These additions became part of the memory.
Even with the depression and anxiety under control, I keep in mind that memories can be emotionally altered. So I'm more willing to believe my memories are wrong. And I don't let myself obsess over a memory, which was never productive, anyway.