[nemesis]

Just under ten years ago, while I was in my last year of grade school (aged 17), I began experiencing a mild form of disassociative anxiety. Within the space of 2 months I'd started to experience fully blown anxiety attacks, shortly followed by my removal from school, and the development of agoraphobia and an intense fear of anxiety related symptoms.

As my disorder progressed, I began to notice some cognitive impairment. I was no longer able to do the math that I was once able to complete in grade school. I no longer had the focus to read and follow plots as I once did. My memory for peoples names and faces was markedly diminished. I would "blank out in social situations, becoming stuck at times after having listened to every word my company had spoken, but I'd apparently forgotten to formulate what would normally be a quick and witty retort.

I now find myself at the point where I live in a total state of ?blankness?. I am now almost completely unable to read and follow complex story lines. Conversations need to be carefully planned ahead, and my University work has almost ground to a halt as I find myself utterly unable to plan and think in a structured, creative way when writing reports. This post alone has taken me well over 45 minutes.

These cognitive problems have now become a major worry of mine. At least 90% of every waking thought is dedicated to trying to rationalize the causes behind these issues with the mental blankness and issues with concentration. Its reached the point for it completely I'm now totally consumed by worry on what I might have done to myself to bring this on. Does anyone have any similar stories or perhaps some theories on what might be causes these problems?

Thanking you all kindly.

(My apologies if this has already been dealt with in a previous thread.)

 

[Scattered]

I'll preface this by saying I found this on an avoidant personality support group. This article scares the shit out of me. I hope its not true. If it is then are we doing some type of permanent irreversible brain damage to ourselves?

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From http://sln.fi.edu/brain/stress/cortisol.html

The Cortisol Conspiracy and Your Hippocampus
Ironically, stress hormones can damage the hippocampus, the very part of the brain that's supposed to signal when to shut-off production of these hormones ? creating a vicious cycle that degenerates the brain and diminishes the quality of life.

Studies done by Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky showed that lots of stress or exposure to cortisol accelerates the degeneration of the aging hippocampus. And, because the hippocampus is part of the feedback mechanism that signals when to stop cortisol production, a damaged hippocampus causes cortisol levels to get out of control ? further compromising memory and cognitive function. The cycle of degeneration then continues. (Perhaps similar to the deterioration of the pancreas-insulin feedback system.)

Failure of the Cortisol Feedback Mechanism
Normally, in response to stress, the brain's hypothalamus secretes a hormone that causes the pituitary gland to secrete another hormone that causes the adrenals to secrete cortisol. When levels of cortisol rise to a certain level, several areas of the brain ? especially the hippocampus ? tell the hypothalamus to turn off the cortisol-producing mechanism. This is the proper feedback response.

The hippocampus, however, is the area most damaged by cortisol. In his book Brain Longevity, Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., describes how older people often have lost 20-25% of the cells in their hippocampus, so it cannot provide proper feedback to the hypothalamus, so cortisol continues to be secreted. This, in turn, causes more damage to the hippocampus, and even more cortisol production. Thus, a Catch-22 "degenerative cascade" begins, which can be very difficult to stop.

Cortisol Shrinks Hippocampus
The size of the hippocampus averaged 14% smaller in a group of septuagenarians who showed high and rising cortisol levels, compared to a group with moderate and decreasing levels. They also did worse at remembering a path through a human maze and pictures they'd seen 24 hours earlier and ? two tasks that use the hippocampus.

A third of the 60 volunteers, who were between ages 60 and 85, had chronically high cortisol levels, a problem that seems to be fairly common in older people. This study, titled "Cortisol levels during human aging predict hippocampal atrophy and memory deficits," was reported in Nature Neuroscience, May 1998.

Dr. Sapolsky discovered that general sympathetic nervous system arousal is a relative indication of anxiety and vigilance ? the individual is trying to deal with the challenge. On the other hand, a heavy secretion of cortisol is more a marker of depression ? the individual has given up on trying to cope. This burned-out feeling of depression represents the exhaustion stage of chronic stress, where a person feels worthless and has no energy to do anything about it.

 

[Scattered]

http://www.drdebe.com/STRESS.htm

I'm sorry for the second post but this is ridiculous. Chronic stress causes brain damage? I'm a hypochondriac and this shit is actually scaring me. I mean is this saying that if I continue to have panic attacks I will be doing irreversibile damage to my brain? So not only do I have to be cursed with this temperament but now its a degenerative disease that will permenantly affect my mental functioning?

If someone could explain this whole cortisol theory I would greatly appreciate it. These people say that if you don't get stress under control it could lead to depression or dementia.

 

[university girl]

Nem, have you had a CT scan?

 

[nemesis]

Yes it is my understanding that cortisol levels are raised during times of stress, and that under at some levels can be neurotoxic. However, it is also true that the brain is neuroplastic, meaning that not all damage is permanent. The brain has the ability to both grow new nerve cells within the hippocampus, and then propagate those cells to other areas. Learning could not take place if this were not possible, let partial recovery seen in strokes.

Ive had an EEG, CT and an MRI. No visible abnormality in organic structure was shown. The rules out tumors, prior hemorrhaging and other acute conditions. Those exams wont however rule out diffuse axional sheering, an injury inflicted after concisions, and of which I have had two serious instances.

I'll be undergoing a somewhat revolutionary new scan in mid May called a SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) which has the ability of plotting the blood flow through the brain. This will point out areas of over activity (such as seen in sufferers with ADD, Anxiety, Depression and OCD) and it will also indicated areas which have been damaged, where the brain will have shut down part of the blood flow after injury.

The results will be exciting from both a personal perspective, and from a standpoint of being able to see what "DP" actually looks like provided I can rule out prior organic damage, knowing that I am only left with psychological factors.

I'll keep the group posted on the findings

Here are a couple of links for those that might be interested in what SPECT can offer.
Brainplace, SPECT
The Amen Clinic

 

[ShyTiger]

I don't know if relevant but i know memory is one of the first things to be effected when in stress as the blood supply is given to more appropriate places. Memory area is small and is affected the most because of this. Sorry if i havn't explained well i am tired and my brain has taken holiday!

 

[Scattered]

Yes the cells can be regrown up until "a point of no return" as far as I've read. After a certain amount of time of high levels of stress the brain is no longer able to regrow cells and the damage is permanent. Its true that they still don't know the earliest age this is possible at and is mostly seen in elderly people.

 

[university girl]

Nem, are you coming to America for your SPECT or do they have them in Oz? I really want a SPECT but I don't have the finances... I live quite close to one of the Amen Clinics.

 

[Homeskooled]

Wonderful Nemesis! I hope your SPECT scan helps you out as much as it helped me. Are you going to the Fairfield, California office? If you need any help or advice, let me know. I still keep in touch with some of the docs from there. It'll let you know whats going on, and they'll give you medicine, non-medicine (like biofeedback, therapy), and vitamin supplementation suggestions. Its the most comprhensive psych workup you can get, and its cutting edge.

Peace
Homeskooled

 

[nemesis]

Thanks for the support guys. We have quite an excellent public health system in Australia, so both SPECTs will only end up costing me around US$75 in total.

I'll be sure to post the scans along with a summary of the clinicians observations if its of any interest to some.

 

[university girl]

HS, can you believe how cheap that is?! I won't be able to get over this.

 

[person3]

In times that I was REALLY stressed and self-monitoring/focused on myself, i was like this too. I couldn't even laugh at something funny. later i realized it was because of the temporary state of being too far into my head and on some level overanalyzing and focusing on how i FELT rather than taking into account the world around me. We all do this, it will take the ability to NOT focus on your thoughts and yourself to overcome this.

 

[person3]

what the hell...i'm a senior member? ok....

 

[Guest]

im a SENIOR member to, and im only 19

damn I feel old

 

[Guest]

I think that one becomes a senior member when one has 500 posts and more (did some research..lol).

 

[dreamcatcher]

thank god for that i was starting to think that someone thought i was old:0(

 

[Martinelv]

So, in summary, is a 'Great Contributer' higher on the ladder than a 'Senior DPSelfhelp.com' member ? Is this just a numbers game, or a reflection of the content of the posts ?

If it's the later, I want to mine to be changed to 'Emperor'.

I thank you.

 

[Martinelv]

Damnation.

In that case, surely people should be graded thusly:

'Mildly Irritated'
'Desperate'
'Greatly Deperate'
'Eye-poppingly Desperate'
'King of the Wibble People'

 

[Guest]

Martin I've already put in a request to our Clover.
I requested to be a fanbloodytastic hot contributor.

She politely declined saying it was outside of her jurisdiction.
She told me to stop whining and learn to settle for being mearly
great.

damn red tape :roll:

 

[Martinelv]

Politics....politics....grumble.

I demand to be addressed as Emperor, or King, or Sir, or at the very least, Madam.

:evil: