Posted by Dinah on August 26, 2002, at 0:53:48
In reply to If you have a dissociative disorder, posted by judy1 on August 25, 2002, at 12:47:09
I've wondered about similar things Judy. But more along the lines of personality disorders. I don't know about more global disorders that involve neural circuitry or brain chemicals, or executive functions. I mean, there is only one brain, so if something is haywire there, the whole brain needs to be treated.
Anxiety would be more borderline I suppose. If you have a lot of anxiety in one state, and I don't suppose that's unusual, it would trigger chemical reactions that would need to be treated on a whole brain basis. And if moving into another state calmed you, the chemical reactions would reverse themselves. Perhaps depression might be the same way.
But I don't know about mania. It can be triggered by stress or staying up late or things like that, so I suppose it could be triggered in different states, but once it's triggered wouldn't it just be a brain malfunction? I don't know about you, but once I take a medication that triggers a hypomanic episode, not much will reverse it but time or medication. Removing the trigger doesn't help at that point.
I don't know. I guess I see dissociative states as more of a learned or conditioned response and less of a brain thing, and that probably colors my ideas about these things.
poster:Dinah
thread:975
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020702/msgs/978.html