[dalailama15]

Manchild and Angela,

I am in the same boat as you. And I am experimenting with a theory, the simplest and most obvious one. THC and XTC for some people affect some physiological change in the brain. There is no reason to believe it is irreversable, and it is likely that it can be affected by thought. . . but there is also no reason to believe it is caused by some psychological defense mechanism, or by some kind of bad self talk.

I am tired of trying to believe, with no real evidence, that I am in some way doing this to myself for some obscure reason.

There are those here who simply dont think that introducing THC or XTC into the systems of otherwise healthy young people can cause these same specific sets of dissociative symptoms. We know they are wrong.

And I am beginning to suspect that the only reason some disbelieve the truth of our own lives is that it conflicts with their own pat explanations. And so, like true believers, they dismiss and ignore.

 

[dalailama15]

And, at least for me, I see no reason to continue searching for the thing that was already there, the thing that the drugs triggered or uncovered. . . when I see no compelling evidence that such a thing even exists.

 

[dalailama15]

Jeff, you spoiled the drama, the stinger, of the second post just below the first.

To your question: although I'm no molecular biologist (and just blew the audition to play one on TV) I don't see why not. And I certainly don't think you should feel any preasure, unless otherwise indicated, to come up with other reasons. (Don't take my word for any of this; I'm just, at this point, guessing.)

I want to add that I am not necessarily talking about brain damage. And your experience with caffine (quite a bit less chemically invasive that XTC or THC) makes the idea of damage even less likely. This, I think is good news for all of us.

Some have described the amygdala as a switch, directing neural energy and sensory information either backwards, stimulating the the four F parts of the brain(feed, fight, flee, and reproduce)--the parts we share with our reptile friends (who don't take care of their young, who feel no affection, who never play)--or forwards, stimulating the primate parts of the brain, and then our overgrown frontal lobes--the reasoning, speaking, planning and creating parts. And the amygdala, I beleive, "learns" through memory, through desensitization, through stimulous and response, through positive and negative feedback, and then "teaches" the organism (actually the mammal--we share this organ with all of them), to recognize, for example, what is life threatening, and what is similar but harmless.

We may have just made this switch a little sticky (god I'm really speculating here) and there could easily be some chemical WD40, and just as likely, some behavioral WD40 as well.

 

[dalailama15]

Dude, I don't think it is damage. I really don't. See my "sticky" theory above.

And the reason I am virtually sure it is not damage, is this: virtually everyone who has participated in this community has thought the exact same thing, has had the exact same fear: I am in some way irreperably damaged. This, no matter what the causes of their DP and DR.

And many have recovered fully and many are much better, and all are here to help and to share, and to, above all, reassure.

Don't give up. Don't freak out. There is lots and lots of hope.