Category: Blog Posts

It’s exciting to report that we are significantly closer to understanding what causes schizophrenia. More than two million Americans are diagnosed with schizophrenia, which is characterized by delusional thinking, hallucinations, and speech and behavioral disorganization. The New York Times recently reported on a landmark study that pieces together the steps by which overactive genes can increase a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia.

The researchers found that the risk of schizophrenia is tied to a natural process called synaptic pruning. As a person matures from adolescence and early adulthood, the prefrontal cortex of the brain (the section where thinking and planning skills are centered) prunes or removes weak or redundant connections between neurons. According to this study, people who are at risk for developing schizophrenia carry overactive C4-A genes that tag too many of the connections for pruning, resulting in fewer neural connections and thinner prefrontal layers, which is associated with schizophrenia.

Since the schizophrenic’s loss of frontal lobe activity is where executive functions develop, this study explains why schizophrenic adolescents have difficulty defining and adopting adult thinking. Researchers hope that completing this at-risk genetic profile will lead to clarifying a better prognosis for these people.

The more that is learned of mental disorders, the closer we are to knowing how to treat them effectively. For now, medication can blunt some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Also psychotherapy is an effective treatment for mental disorders.

As a psychologist with over 30 years of experience in counseling families, I also see the importance of providing therapy for family members who have the ongoing stress of caring for someone with a serious mental disorder. If this describes you and you live near Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA, please contact my office and schedule an appointment to get the support and understanding that you need and deserve.

Can you believe it’s been seven years? The free Asperger Syndrome Partners & Family of Adults with ASD Meetup was founded on April 5, 2009. And I’ve been offering the free international teleconference for two years now! Our first teleconference was held on February 21, 2014, and the worldwide response has been phenomenal! People are signing up months in advance.

There’s so little support for families with children on the Autism Spectrum. And there’s next to nothing for partners and families with adults on the Spectrum. This Meetup group and my books are really filling that gap.

If you’re a member of the Asperger Syndrome: Partners & Family of Adults with ASD Meetup group, you know about the monthly free international teleconference and the paid video conferences.

Here’s what one of our participants said about a recent Video Conference:

“This group has been a lifeline to me and I can see it is for so many others as well. Even though we were not in the same room, and even though we didn’t have time to say very much; seeing each other’s faces and expressions and interest level – on top of the fact that we “get” each other – was a monumentally positive experience. Very encouraging and uplifting, and the information learned was vital.”

However, there are many other resources within the Meetup dashboard that you may not know about…

When you’re a member of the group, you can listen to past teleconferences. Go to Discussions Tab, scroll down the page and click on Teleconference Meetups folder. Select the topic you wish to hear. Or login and click on this link to take you to the index of topics. Note: The more intimate video conferences are not recorded!

When you become a member of the group, you can also join ongoing discussions around informational, inspirational and fun topics.

If you’re cautious about preserving your anonymity, you can use a pseudonym. However, we’ve made this a safe place to express yourself freely, so most members feel very comfortable with simply using their first name. Remember, this is a group for Neurotypical family members to get the support they need in dealing with the craziness of living with someone on the Spectrum. If that describes your situation, feel free to join us today.

It’s said that we all carry scars – scars from past emotional and physical wounds that shape who we are today. How you remember a past, painful occurrence will determine your present ability to experience emotional health.If you’ve properly processed the negative past and extinguished it, it won’t present itself as a problem for you now. Oftentimes, however, if the original conditioning event is not processed correctly, you’ll experience a physiological response each time you experience that event.

For example, physiologist Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate the sound of a bell with the sight and smell of meat. So each time the dogs heard the bell, they would salivate. They were conditioned to respond in that specific way because of their memory of what the bell represented.

When clients are asked to re-experience a past emotion, such as anger or fear, they’re being asked to go back and relive a memory. By reliving that memory, they produce a feeling. And that feeling can be used by a NET Practioner to help a client overcome a phobia, resolve life-altering stresses, and heal mental disorders.

Scientific research is connecting the dots between painful events, stress, and the physiological changes to the brain. As the Dec 2015 study “Could Stress Contribute to Pain-Related Fear in Chronic Pain” stated:

“A difference between acute and chronic stress is supported by data outside of the pain field: Early adversity as well as chronic stress has been linked to structural alterations in the brain causing a hyperactive amygdala and impaired prefrontal inhibition. These alterations could underlie the extinction impairments observed in several mental disorders, which is interesting in the context of chronic pain given the high comorbidity between chronic pain and affective disorders. Finally, effects of acute stress on pain-related memory retrieval may be fundamentally different in normals and patients with chronic pain. While stress-induced effects in normals are adaptive, they may be altered and in fact maladaptive and in patients with chronic pain. For example in patients with PTSD, cortisol enhanced rather than impaired memory retrieval.”

Paradoxically, we can use the power of past, negative events to help us heal our present. The job of a NET practitioner is to gently help a client go to that place of unresolved negativity so he or she can complete a process that allows them to move forward from that painful place.

If you live near Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA please contact my office and schedule an appointment. As a NET practitioner, I will help you remove the block, so your body can repair itself naturally.

Read more on my website: Releasing Unresolved Stress.

A conversation with some who has Asperger’s Syndrome is fraught with stress. You never know how they’ll react to the simplest of statements. Whether your Aspie rants, or melts down into a rage or torrent of tears, or gives you that blank look and walks away, you feel rejected, confused and abused.

An Aspie client of mine once threatened me with quitting therapy because he claimed I was “judgmental.” He said he could get better therapy from the Internet. He told me he just wanted to get the anger out of his head but that my judgmental behavior got in his way. I thought for a moment and had an epiphany. “Do you just want to rant with no interference from me?” He looked at me with surprise and said, “Of course. That’s the type of therapy that works for me!”

I don’t consider listening to my clients rant very effective therapy. It just reinforces anger. On the other hand it may be a place to start.

But what do you do when you aren’t the psychologist? How can you explore the confusing logic and sensory system of our Aspies and figure out why they dissolve over the simplest of human interactions? And in the process, how do you support yourself during these extreme emotional reactions? It overwhelms our sensory system too. So how do you hang in there with your loved ones and still take care of yourself?

The February Video Conference will address this topic: Rants, Meltdowns and the Silent Treatment. You can choose from either of these two convenient time slots, Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 8:30 AM or Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:00 PM. These sessions will NOT be recorded, so make sure you honor your commitment to attend. The price is $15.00 and there are a few spots still open. Let’s discuss this mysterious need to rant, control, and hide from strong emotions. And in the process, let’s support each other as we learn to cope.

Also, be sure to read a free chapter of “Our of Mind – Out of Sight: Parenting with a Partner with Asperger Syndrome (ASD)”. This book discusses the science behind Aspie behavior and how you can initiate the rules of engagement that help your Aspie give you the emotional support that you need.

Every year you may resolve, “I want to lose weight” or “I want to quit drinking so much”, or “I want to spend more time with my family.” Yet as January fades away so does your resolve. Why is it that we can’t accomplish what we want? Because all too often we apply a band-aid when surgery is needed. We end up trying to fix the symptom or signal without addressing the real problem.

When problem solving the first question to ask yourself is, “Is this thing I’m observing the signal or the problem?” Recognizing and interpreting the signals is quite a complex process, but you can improve your skills.

However, there are two common mistakes people make when trying to solve a problem or create real change in their lives…

1. Ignoring signals until they grow into serious problems. For example, I often hear that people too busy to attend to themselves or their personal relationships. Too busy doing what? Working? You need to ask yourself why are you working so hard? Is that your goal? Most people want a close-knit family who enjoys being together. But if you’re too busy managing the nuts and bolts of a business or career and have no time to enjoy and communicate with your family, aren’t you overriding one of the reasons why you working in the first place?

2. Mistaking signals for the problem. When a person is angry or aggressive, we tend to listen, but when a person is quiet or passive, we tend to ignore them. Actually, those behaviors are signals of something. Discovering the meaning of the signals takes digger deeper.

The bottom line is that all human behavior is meaningful. But the meaning may come disguised as signals that look like problems themselves. For example, alcoholism is a signal of a pervasive illness. Alcohol abuse, on the other hand, may be a sign of overwork, too much stress, a lack of parental guidance, or even confusion in the work place. If you try to solve the problem of alcoholism by reducing the person’s stress at work, the alcoholic may just have more time to drink. Likewise, if you recommend alcohol treatment for the person who is abusing alcohol, they may stop drinking but find other self-destructive methods to cope with problems at work.

Many New Year’s resolutions are superficial but the underlying problems most likely require deeper probing. So if there’s something about your life that isn’t working don’t just settle with a quickly forgotten resolution. Instead dig in, assess, diagnose and search out the meaning. If you live near Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA please contact my office and schedule an appointment to figure out what the signals are telling you. I’ll help you tap into all the strengths at your disposal to create workable solutions.