The article from this week's Time magazine I recommended as a topic thread is called "Your Brain Under Fire" & is therefore relevant here. If anyone else reads it, let me know.

mujica, can you find us a link to read this article at?

I found it - http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/16/your-brain-in-a-shootout-guns-fear-and-flawed-instincts/

By the way, this article could be a trigger, please be warned - it's regarding the argument on gun control and how getting guns in more hands isn't as easy of an answer as people would like to think.

What they describe is what we talk about on here all the time and it isn't in response to being shot at . . .

It really is being stuck in fight/flight . . .I was thinking this afternoon it is like chronic trauma or traumatic incidences is like an electronic overload and when the body finally goes 'tilt', then we're misfiring inside all the time (the neurotransmitters). I feel so much better since I started taking the aminos. I'm not all the way better - but I'm laughing again (laughter was all to rare for a long time) and I still can't sleep when I lay down without sleep aid. Acupuncture will start the end of January. I've read many articles about how effective if it is in resetting the adrenals.

Dbpalm,
I'm glad you get to start accupuncture soon. I am curious which aminos you've tried, the dosage and how long it took to see improvement. I've looked at GABA and pregnenolone but can't get much concrete information. Both were expensive at GNC and I'd like to know if it's worth it. Thanks

Hellodolly, I have done several saliva neuro-endocrine tests and we could see I was not low in GABA, and serotonin was only slightly low. I was low in norephinphrine, epinephrine, and glycine, were really low. I started taking l-theanine and l-tyrosine, plus selenium because Reverse T3 was high. I feel so much better. I still can't lay down and sleep without sleepaid, but I'm not reduced to a trembling empty-headed mess at every stressor. I still have to work on the tendency to trance. I'm going to EMDR the sleep thing because it may be residual from my marriage where I almost literally didn't allow myself to sleep becaue I didn't know what he would do. for 9 months of him in the home and about 7 months after I got him out.

hellodolly, I search online and order supplements, to be able to get them for alot less. Vitacost.com is a great site - but amazon can lead you to very good ones as well. One of my previous counselors affirmed Puritan was a good company.

Thank you so much dbpalm. Can I get this kind of saliva test at my regular doctors office or do I need to see an indocrinologist?

It's great to have come to an understanding for ourselves of what happened to our brains in trauma. Another great step, imho, would be for that knowledge to be generalized and not just specialized. That's why I come again to the Time magazine cover article for this week. About not just understanding the neurology of it, but having it be understood beyond those of us with PTSD and who do research on PTSD. When I was a hospital chaplain until 2010, my "parish" at work was neurosurgery. Helping neurosurgeons explain what had happened to the brains of patients to patients' families and loved ones opened up possibilities for me about our being understood.

Wow! A totally unexpected quality of response! Thank you all!

Neurology is fascinating enough to get us all in trouble. I think its place on the development curve is about the same place as psychology was before Freud wrote his first book. Undeniably important but poorly understood by warring factions.

Anyhoo... Thought I'd share my morning read.

http://www.cognifit.com/brain-plasticity-and-cognition

Couldn't agree more Arfie, thanks for posting this topic!

I don't mean to be glib here, but isn't re-assigning neurotransmitters, in the end, a sophisticated look at one aspect of what learning can be? "Changing our minds?" I say this in the light of the subsequent posts on IQ here and from my own lesson plan today as a college philosophy instructor.

hellodolly - only chiropractors who are on the cutting edge have I been able to find to run these tests. There may be some sites we can order them outright - like maybe Theresa Dale or Life Extension - altho' I think Life Extension does blood draws for them and there's controversy over protein bound (blood) and saliva. I also was on a site yesterday that would do this same testing with hair samples. I didnt dig far enough to see the cost. We can get these saliva panels for under $300 - if you want me to find you a reputable site, I will.