Group items tagged

"These (simulations) are intended to expose the recruits to combat conditions to teach them that they can trust their training, that they can actually do their jobs, perform first aid, execute whatever orders they're supposed to be executing, under combat condition," he said. "It also introduces them to fear and stress under combat conditions."

who tosses volunteers out of airplanes with sensors all over their bodies to try and understand why combat veterans develop PTSD.

Parodi has found that some people possess an optimal fear response, which she calls the "warrior brain" — meaning they think clearly during a stressful period and once the stressful period ends, their fear response returns back to normal.

"As far as to the application to preventing PTSD, I think what the military ultimately wants to do is to be able to develop and incorporate into their training program, similar to what the SEALS are doing, where you can expose recruits to stressful situations," he said. "But you also want to arm them with the psychological tools — that they need to recognize, that they need to function at maximum capacity during the stressful situation. And when it ends, they need to put it behind them and move on."

But the current treatment has a success rate of just 40 percent.

Of the soldiers who experienced any potentially traumatic combat exposures, only 31.6% developed the PTSD syndrome.

This suggests that there were other factors and vulnerabilities involved for the minority of exposed who did end up developing the PTSD syndrome.

Among these factors, childhood experiences of physical abuse or a pre-Vietnam psychiatric disorder other than PTSD were strong contributors to PTSD onset.

The combined data from all three primary factors — combat exposure, prewar vulnerability, and involvement in harming civilians or prisoners — revealed that PTSD syndrome onset reached an estimated 97% for veterans high on all three.

these results emphasize the need to keep the more vulnerable soldiers out of the most severe combat situations.

Dohrenwend and colleagues also point out that the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, like the Vietnam War, are “wars amongst the people,” and they underline the need for research examining the circumstances in which harm to civilians and prisoners is likely to occur. Such research could provide important clues for preventing such devastating violations of the rules of war.

They consisted of two people sitting opposite each other silently looking at the other person’s eye and the recipient in session was able to have a look at the experiences and emotions and things in their life that they had not fully come to terms with, and that were unconsciously stopping them from being who they wanted to be. It was very emotional.

new pathway

ideas as much as the man that I found attractive.

Klowning was based on the idea that we are not who we think we are.

ble to find out the really human part of us.

here’s a whole language that goes with this group, isn’t there, and processing is one thing that you would go through

charismatic, he did have that capacity to have a group of people in front of him and hold their attention.

nudity has no significance other than what you give it, and if you think that this is in any way inappropriate that’s your dirty mind.

ut of research done by the CIA and the KGB after the Second World War in trying to understand how Hitler was able to persuade a whole population to a particular way of thinking and particular behaviour, and that research got out into the wider community

on Hubbard used a lot of these techniques in his organisation and then a lot of people who had been in Scientology

ocial animals,

emotional right-brain

Hypnotic states are nothing magical but in fact natural hypnotic states occur on a regular basis if we allow them to, about every two hours during the day. There’s a natural down time when our left-brain sort of quietens and our right-brain and our body is able to do a bit of a tune-up of physical processes like blood-pressure and heart-rate and cortisol levels.

dissociative state

driving somewhere

ay-dreamy

ocus their attention

charismatic leader,

behaviour was right or wrong

It’s very interesting studying some of the gurus or the charismatic figures you say you often find that they are often people who have actually started out with very good intentions and just find they have this natural ability to attract people to them, or because they may be good listeners, people feel that they’ve got something to offer

hallucinate. I

en Dyers, was facing 22 charges of sexual assault on two 12-year-old girls

Before they were heard in court he took his own life.

ersonality definitely changed

almost layered by the group norm

staying as connected

learn all they can about the group and continue to just ask questions to try and find our more

But there are some positive things about some groups and it’s likely that some people live happier lives being part of some groups than they would on their own.

groups are often filling desperate needs in people that are not being filled by the way we now live. The way we are now is very isolating, people are often expected to work very long hours, or have very long commutes. More and more families are living apart, so we do not live in a community that is kind to people or respects people. So anybody really is vulnerable, it’s not just, you know, the weak-willed, it’s anybody at a particular time in their life, and particularly if they’re isolated from family and friends.

Some of the factors that are most important in human wellbeing are a sense of connectedness and a sense of control over your life now and in the future. So what often these organisations do is offer a whole list of very simple rules, if you just follow these rules then you’ll feel okay. If you just remove yourself from that world and you just mix with us everything will be okay. So they often offer a sort of a way of getting back some feeling of control.

describe some of the techniques, not necessarily the abuse that may have occurred, and then to help them understand that they were involved in quite a deliberate psychological process.

validate their humanity

what was missing before and helping them create a life now that is healthier and more balanced and does meet all their needs as a human being.

people who grow up in these organisations and really are trapped, and for those that grow up and then start to rebel as teenagers or as young adults and leave, it is very, very difficult because that’s been their reality.

recognition by the courts and by particularly the Family Law Court and we need education of the legal profession and I think the professional organisations, particularly the professional health organisations need to be more pro-active in first of all educating themselves about what these issues are and then making it very clear in their code of ethics of these different professional groups how the codes of ethics dovetail with belief systems.

it may be as common, or more common, in ICU patients as in soldiers

"We need to pay more attention to preventing and treating PTSD in these patients."

they often experience flashbacks about delusions or hallucinations they had in the hospital

being given sedatives and narcotics -- may lead to "memories" of horrible things that didn’t happen

"One woman thought her husband and the nurse were plotting to kill her,"

For the study, the Johns Hopkins team observed 520 mechanically ventilated patients with ALI,

The researchers found that 66 of the 186 patients (35 percent) had clinically significant symptoms of PTSD,

Sixty-two percent of the survivors who developed PTSD still had symptoms at their two-year visit.

Half of this same group was taking psychiatric medications, and 40 percent had seen a psychiatrist in the two years since being hospitalized with ALI.

The researchers also found that patients with depression before hospitalization were twice as likely to develop PTSD,

This inflammation may lead to a breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, which alters the impact on the brain of narcotics, sedatives and other drugs prescribed in the ICU.

Bienvenu says patients who have these risk factors need special attention. Simply educating them and their primary care doctors about the increased risk for PTSD would be a step in the right direction, he adds.

he symptoms fall into three categories: reliving the traumatic experience (flashbacks, nightmares), avoidance (feeling numb, detached, staying away from people and places that serve as reminders of the experience), and hyperarousal (being easily startled, having difficulty sleeping, irritability).

"psychological rehab" now deserves attention.

The intervention reduced PTSD symptoms by helping patients make sense of their ICU memories,

prefrontal cortex’s ability to boss the brain increases with age.

reward system can outmuscle the master planner.

adolescent brain specifically evolved to respond to rewards so teens would leave behind the protection provided by their parents and start exploring their environment — a necessary step toward the independence they will need in adulthood.

So that’s why you have parents to act as your prefrontal cortex,” Frank jokes. Then, all too often, he says, “you reach adolescence and you don’t listen to your parents anymore.”

brain acts as the sculptor and chops away excess synapses. Scientists refer to this process as synaptic pruning.

If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something

necessary phase in teen development

exploratory period.

Even laboratory mice experience a similar phase during their development.

Young mice that explore most tend to live longest

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner relies on a powerful magnet and radio waves to create detailed images of the brains

Teens also can play games that require them to make choices,

observing and measuring which parts of the teens’ brains are most active

During the risk-taking and rewards-based tests, one region deep inside the brain shows more activity in adolescents than it does in children or adults, Crone says. This region, known as the ventral striatum, is often referred to as the “reward center”

Adolescents are particularly sensitive and responsive to influence by friends, desires and emotions, researchers say. It’s one of the hallmarks of this stage in life.

eel good” response helps explain why they often give in to impulsive desires.

to be shouting louder” between the ages of 13 and 17 than at any other time during human development.

prefrontal cortex, it’s the brain’s master planner.

brain is locked in a tug-of-war between the logical pull of the prefrontal cortex and the impulsive pull of the ventral striatum.

prefrontal cortex seems to lag in developing. It turns out this delay serves an important evolutionary function,

So it’s important that the master planner not be too rigid or restrictive during adolescence. Instead, it stays open to learning.

One of the processes involves axons, or fibers that connect nerve cells. From infancy, these fibers allow one nerve cell to talk to another. Throughout the teen years, fatty tissue starts to insulate the axons from interfering signals — it is a bit like the plastic that coats electrical cables.

In axons, the insulating tissue allows information to zip back and forth between brain cells much more quickly. It also helps build networks that link the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions, allowing them to work together more efficiently.

The second key process involves synapses. A synapse is like a dock between nerve cells. Nerve cells communicate by transmitting chemical and electrical signals. Those signals move through the synapses.

brain starts discarding many of these connections

So the brain strengthens the synapses it really needs and eliminates those that either slow things down or aren’t useful.