the neurobiology of now helps focus the...

The Neurobiology of Now Helps Focus the Future

Linking Cultural/Spiritual Practice to Neurobiology to Support Addiction Recovery

Presented by Laurie Zoppi MSW, RSW

SUSTAIN TRANING SERVICES 250-614-2261

Outline Introduction Connect the Dots Awareness of Emotions in the East PFC & Residential Schools Basil Ganglia Temporal lobe Deep Limbic Mindfulness & Addiction HALT (on the casino floor) Thunderbird Discovers his Cognitive Rigidity (South) Cingulate system & Addictions Shame & Guilt


Presenter

Presentation Notes

We will start with a basic understanding of stress response and an approximate visual respresentation of some of the structures of the brain.The first two directions focus on the two important processes that create our daily relaity: Our emotions and our cognitions/thoughts We will explore what part of the brain are involved with emotions and cognitions as well as explore the impact on our brains by early trauma. The later two directions continues to elaborate the way out by understanding how certain cultural practices storytelling, nature, next slide

Outline Drumming to the Temporal Lobe (West) Anger Spirituality White Buffalo Reminds us to Breathe (North) The Power of the Breath The social brain- a sense of belonging Deep Limbic system and bonding (oxytocin) Willpower Action Café Closing Remarks Msit’ Nok’maq


Connecting the Dots

Use Handout at each table to identify the structures of the brain.

• What the different parts of the brain involved in addiction recovery?

• Review of Stress Response


AWARENESS OF EMOTIONS IN THE EAST Eagle Teaching Self-soothing of Emotions • Prefrontal Cortex functions–ability to feel and express emotions

(empathy) • Basil Gaglia Functions –integrates feelings and movement • Temporal Lobe – emotional stability • Deep Limbic System- emotional colouring/ tone (bonding)


RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL Trauma & the PFC Exercise: Intergenerational brains


9 Functions of the Middle Prefrontal Cortex

1. Body Regulation Body Regulation is achieved by the Autonomic (automatic) Nervous System. The system

generally works without conscious control and regulates functions like heart rate, breathing, digestion, vascular tone, inflammation and immune response, etc. It gives us the ability to come back to base line, homeostasis, peace and ease after stressors.

2. Attuned Communication Attuned Communication is the ability to feel another ones feelings. Feeling felt. Children need

attunement to feel secure and to develop well. Through out our life we need attunement to feel close and connected.



3. Emotional Balance/Affect Regulation Emotional Balance in this context is defined as being able to balance between rigidity and

chaos/arousal. In other words, being able to keep from being overwhelmed or becoming inflexible in one’s emotional response. The ability to feel fear, sadness and anger and change it to ease and peace. Also gives you the ability to stay clear and focus in the face of storms from both outside and inside of us.

4. Response Flexibility Response Flexibility is the capacity to pause before action. Such a process requires the

assessment of ongoing stimuli, the delay of reaction, selection from a variety of possible options and the initiation of action.

5. Empathy

Empathy is defined as conscious awareness and sensitivity to the mind of someone else. It is the putting of oneself in someone else’s shoes. Having compassion and seeing others points of view.

6. Insight or Self-Knowing Awareness Insight links the past, present and future. Insight means integrating cortical representation of

autobiographical memory stores and limbic firing that gives emotional texture to the emerging themes of our present awareness, life story and image of the future.



7. Fear Modulation/Fear Extinction

Fear can be modulated from the middle PFC via neurons that enervate the amygdale, a limbic structure that registers threat and opportunity. These neurons can release calming neurotransmitters (GABA) and can be consciously reprogrammed.

8. Intuition

Intuition in this context means registering the input from neurons from the heart and gut. In other words, respecting one’s gut feeling.

9. Morality

Morality in this context means the ability to think of the larger social good and enact those behaviors, even when alone

The body is the unconscious mind.

-Candace Pert.


Residential School Mental Health Profiles

A study was done by Corrado and Cohen (2003) that looked at abuse, mental health, and physical health profiles of 127 Aboriginal survivors of residential schools. The findings were as follows:

1. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (64.2 per cent) 2. Substance Abuse Disorder (26.3 per cent) 3. Major Depression (21.1 per cent) 4. Dysthymic Disorder (20 per cent)


Residential School Mental Health Profiles

Those with PTSD, nearly half (49.5 per cent) are co-morbid with at least one other mental disorder: 1. Major Depression (30.4 per cent) 2. Substance Abuse Disorder (34.8 per cent) 3. Avoidance Personality Disorder (26.1 per cent) 4. Anxiety Disorder 5. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder 6. Dependent Personality Disorder 7. Borderline Personality Disorder (13 per cent).


What is Mindfulness ?

Thich Nhat Hanh (1975), defines it as “keeping alive in consciousness the reality of the present moment.”

Western psychologists such as Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) (1990) have defined mindfulness as being aware of what you are doing, thinking, feeling, as you do, think, or feel it.

Eckhardt Tolle (1997) avoids the term “mindfulness,” while speaking repeatedly of an experience he calls “presence.”


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Albert Einstein warned that “the illusion that we are separate from one another is an optical delusion of our consciousness.” He realized that the conventional Western recipe for success, emphasizing individual achievement and competition, is often a formula for Lonliness, isolation, and despair. The Eastern views we will be talking about advise a more holistic, compassionate, and relational perspective. So if we are to look at Mindfulness as awareness of the present moment and as we started of with the awareness of emotions in the east, it also means awareness of what you are thinking, and doing? How do you think this is relevant to gambling addiction or even better how can we use this in the prevention of gambling addiction? Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

HALT- Prevention on the Casino Floor

Do not get: ◦ Hungry, ◦ Angry, ◦ Lonely, ◦ Or Tired


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Experience as medical Rover at casino rama Twelve Step Program Slogans Probably the most obvious and explicit AA mindful practice is the determination to live “one day at a time.” Several other AA slogans also bring the recovering alcoholic back to the present. “HALT” (do not get hungry, angry, lonely, or tired) is a simple prescription for self-care and “relapse prevention.” As a practice, it implies monitoring real-time levels of hunger, anger, loneliness and fatigue and then taking real-time action to reduce the threat.

Experimenting with Ways to be Presently Aware


1.The Do Nothing Technique 2.4-7-8 Breathing Technique 3.Pause on Each Threshold 4.Do the Slump 5.Tense to Relax 6.Let Your Brain Go Limp

Thunderbird Discovers his Cognitive Rigidity in the South


Thunderbird Story Cingulate System & Addictions

Functions of the Cingulate(yellow) System

Ability to shift attention Cognitive flexibility Adaptability Movement from idea to idea Ability to see options Ability to “go with the flow” Ability to cooperate

Amen, Daniel. (1998)


Problems with the Cingulate System Worrying Holding on to hurts from the past Getting stuck on thoughts (obsessions) –cravings Getting stuck on behaviours (compulsions)- acting on it Oppositional behaviour Argumentativeness Uncooperativeness, (tendency to say no automatically) Addictive behaviours (alcohol or drug abuse, eating disorders) Chronic pain Cognitive inflexibility Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) OCD spectrum disorders Eating disorders Road rage Amen, Daniel. (1998)


Self-Compassion vs. Guilt and Shame guilt sabotages self-control Neuroscience of guilt and shame Doughnut Study Need to take away value-based opinions

of relapse prevention and managing cravings.

Forms negative beliefs of self and cognitive distortions


Drumming to the Temporal Lobe in the West

Music & Rhythm Emotional Stability is one of the functions of the Temporal Lobe


The Power of Nature


Nightway Chant of the Navajos Hogan formed from dusk and dawn, Hogan formed of mist and gloom, Hogan formed of rain and clods, Hogan formed of insects buzzing. A fog of darkness knocks, Darkness is the path That leads out of darkness. Let my legs stand again. Let my feet walk again. Let my body move again Restore my mind to me.

Feeling soothed, may I wander. Feeling cooled, may I wander. Feeling healed, may I wander. May I wander free of pain. May there be beauty before me. May there be beauty behind me. May there be beauty above me. May there be beauty below me. May there be beauty all around. In beauty it is finished.

Buffalo Reminds us to Breathe (North)


North Direction

Interconnectedness Storytelling

Deep Limbic System Oxytocin Willpower & the

Brain


Oxytocin Release

Calm and connect response in brain

Neurochemical basis for the felt sense of safety and trust, of connection and belonging

Fast way to regulate body’s stress response

1. Head Rub

2. Massaging vagus nerve

3. Hand on Heart

4. Hugging someone you feel

safe with (20 seconds & three

long, deep breaths with)


What does it do? How to activate it?

Graham (2013)

Outer Prefrontal Cortex ( Green)

Focus Ability to learn from mistakes Willpower * Goal setting* Social


Summary

The key to healing is: The ability to be aware of your felt experience, pay attention to the

thoughts that influence that felt experience. Calming the nervous system Feeling connected with others

This can be done by: Creating a tapestry trough the weaving of the indigenous knowledge and cultural practices & brain science.


I am a Table Host, what should I do? Remain at the table when others leave

and welcome travelers from other tables for the next round of conversation.

Briefly share key insights from the prior conversation so others can link and build using ideas from their respective tables.

Gently & as appropriate, encourage people at your table to jot down key connections, ideas, discoveries, and deeper questions as they emerge.

Because people are used to behaving a certain way when they are a facilitator or “being facilitated”, there can be a danger with inexperienced Table Hosts taking on more of a role than is meant here.

There are no facilitators in a World Café, only hosts. Everyone at the tables is responsible for hosting themselves and each other.


© 2015 The World Café Community Foundation Creative Commons Attribution www.theworldcafe.com

References


Amen, Daniel. (1998) Change your Brain change your life: Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger and Impulsiveness. Three Rivers Press. New York. Pg 111 Corrado, R . Ph.D. & Cohen,I. Ph.D. (2003). Mental Health Profiles for a Sample of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Survivors of the Canadian Residential School System. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Ottawa, Ontario. DuWors, G. (2011). The Mindful Practice of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Wise Brain Bulletin: News and Tools for Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Vol5.11 (11/2011). www.WiseBrain.com Graham, L. (2013). Bouncing Back: Rewiring your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-being.New World Library.California Gregson, D & Efran J.S. (2002) The Tao of Sobriety : Helping You Recover from Alcohol and Drug Addiction. Thomas Dunne Books. St. Martin’s Press. New York Hanson, R (2009) Buddha’s Brian: The Practical Neuroscience of happiness ,Love and Wisdom. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland,CA. Hanson, R and Mendius, R, (2008) Train Your brain #12: From Shame to Worth www.WiseBrain.com

http://www.wisebrain.com/

http://www.wisebrain.com/

References


Hebb, D.O(1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley & Sons Hazen-Hammond, S.(1999)Spider Woman’s Web: Traditional Native Anerican Tales about Women’s Power. The Berkley Publishing Group. New York. Roche, L. (1998) Meditation Made Easy. Harper Collins Publishers. New York. Siegel, D (2010) Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation. Bantam Books. USA. Siegel, R D (2010) The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems. The Guilford Press. New York. London. The Neurobiology of Willpower (It’s Not What You Expect) A Webinar Session with Ruth Buczynski, PhD and Kelly McGonigal, PhD from (nicabm) National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine. The Social Brain: Why No Brain Heals Alone A Webinar Session with Ruth Buczynski, PhD and Louis Cozolino, PhD. (nicabm) National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine.

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