Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Unlocking Conscious Energy

It is sometimes difficult to write a blog when at times to the blogger, life becomes overwhelming.

"Over" to me, is above.

"Whelming" is a well, a pit, a dark abyss, without a bottom, as in the case of the depressed.

The work of Dr. Helen Mayberg exposed me to that "pit" that perhaps in deep empathy, and thought of what one of her slides described, my own life essence in wanting to feel something new, went for it.

Ok, enough of empathizing with the depths of depression a person can experience.

Is it a choice in my mind to overcome this or is this my "area 25" dysfunctioning, by thinking about that depth of depression.

In a sense this is a follow on to my attendance at the centenary lecture I blogged on earlier, and in a sense a corollory to the testable hypothesis I put to the good Doctor:

Can you put yourself into a state of depression?

We know with good results that the stimulation of this area 25 of the brain, relieves depression in terms of symptoms, but what we don't know is whether the cause of the depression is endogenous (within the person's psyche) or exogenous (from external stressors).

Time will tell, if exogenous or endogenous factors can be discerned after Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). If the factors are exogenous, and the life event has set up the block at area 25, likely, the DBS with cognitive therapy, will be permanently relieving: i.e. the discovery of why one was so despaired, will be exposed consciously, and so called "up the cortex" therapies, can relieve the bad paradigms or events to understanding, so as to no longer exist.

Worse however is the endogenous variety, as this is what likely DBS will most likely be most effective at relieving.

The trick however, is that after DBS, one then has the opportunity to research the depressed person for endogenous or exogenous causality, and in some cases, permanently cure the person.

The good part in all of this research ongoing, is that perhaps the person with the mental illness will have something visible to show the cruel laity, that through bandaging, or a discernable shoulder bulge, a visible "crutch" may make a hidden illness people fear, become a "normal" illness sufficing to say "Hey, here is this surgery I have had. I feel so much better."

The better part is that the flows of conscious energy within the brain are being mapped, and even external flows between people are being worked on.

Where will this take us in the next 7 years? I have predictions of course but they would be ungodly ones to make at this time SMILE

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