Archive for the "Brain" Category

Dr. Paul Hegstrom’s story follows the typical pattern of the abused child who becomes the abusive adult. Underneath all the abuse lies a brain that froze in childhood.

Wounds in childhood occur from:

• Rejection
• Incest
• Molestation
• Emotional abuse
• Physical abuse

The wounded child’s emotions freeze at the time of wounding and lock up. Physically that child grows into an adult body, but he/she does not mature emotionally. So they act like a child when stressed.

A healthy child’s brain has very little of the brain neurotransmitters:

• Serotonin
• Dopamine
• Norepinephrine

So they think concretely, don’t recognize danger … Read the rest

The abusive person’s behavior repulses most of us and leaves us wondering how anyone could do such denigrating and painful things to another person. We commonly feel very angry at abusers and judge them. In an effort to protect the recipients of the abuse we may have to intervene in ways that are painful for us, but also necessary.

Understanding the disruption in the abuser’s brain development can help us intervene in better ways and give us compassion for the abuser. However, the abusers still are accountable for their actions.

Dr. Paul Hegstrom was an abuser in … Read the rest

If you think that overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is impossible, then you need to know about the work of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, MD, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist.

He will give you and your loved one hope!

Definition of Obsessive-compulsive disorder:

 Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something (compulsions).

Can the Obsessive Compulsive (OCD) brain as shown by PET scan above be retrained to return to the normal state of mind as in the normal … Read the rest

In my medical school days (late 1960’s) The brain was thought to have localized areas that performed certain functions and these areas did not change. Once they were damaged they were gone and nothing could be done about it.

This “localization” concept started in 1861 with Dr. Paul Broca, a surgeon. One of his patients could not speak after suffering a stroke. Since they did not have MRIs or CT or PET scans then, they performed a lot of autopsies to understand what happened anatomically. At autopsy the area of brain damage that caused loss of speech became known … Read the rest