Posted by BarbaraCat on October 3, 2003, at 17:46:27
In reply to Re: ok so who is knowledgeable about meth?, posted by starlight on October 3, 2003, at 12:20:46
I agree about the Bipolar and abuse link. Was your father bipolar? My father was never formally diagnosed by he was close enough for jazz as far as I'm concerned. Out of 8 kids, at least 4 were very disturbed. But it's so difficult to say if it was because of their lousy childhoods or genetics. Nature or nurture, the age-old question. I think about our cats whom I love so much. The idea of hurting them in any way is horrible, totally repugnant to me. I would lay down my life than willingly hurt them. I just don't understand the kind of psychological torment that could allow that kind of perversion.
Yeah, our brains aren't meant to take that kind of ongoing stress. It clobbers the hippocampus and amygdala which keeps the fear response wired in. My naturopath sees alot of fibromyagia patients like myself and in her estimatation, over 90% have all had childhood abuse and suffer from ongoing PTSD. Our bodies don't like it either and something's gonna give sooner or later.
As far as your aunt's abuse problems, she probably didn't have access to the help we have today for our disorders. They had, what, valium, ECT, Elavil - whoopie. No one went to a 'shrink' for fear of the stigma, and if they did what good would it do. So self medication was about it for relieving stress. I don't subscribe to the 'alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease' concept. One can form a physiological dependence on it and at that point it gets harder and harder. But helpless? Nah, there was always a point to turn back before it got too far out of control. Blaming it on genetics allows a person to roll over too easily. Maybe not a popular sentiment, but it's mine.
The fact is that substances are fun, feel good, and are the most reliable source of an instant lifting of mood. If only I didn't feel like run over dog turd the next day I'd do it alot more. I've had some incredibly transcendant experiences on ecstacy and acid, absolutely lovely buzzes on Vicodin wine and pot, but ye gods, do I pay for it, and it's getting increasingly not worth the pain and self recrimination. The thing that's helping me clean up my act is reading about the effects of substance abuse on my brain and body. Not pretty. As I get older and deal with fibro and bipolar depression, it becomes clear that I have some choices to make if I want to pursue my goal of health and well-being. - Barbara
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:257077
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20030903/msgs/265312.html