Posted by Larry Hoover on November 27, 2002, at 22:51:51
In reply to Re: Stress does what? » Larry Hoover, posted by bluedog on November 27, 2002, at 21:18:35
> On a more serious note I very strongly believe that stress is the root of (mostly)all evil when it comes to my current condition. I note that your post blames stress as the cause of many conditions including some types of depression and chronic fatigue and I can explain the role that stress has played in my depression and chronic fatigue.
>
> I have greater difficulty seeing the causal relationship between stress and my social anxiety. Do you have any thoughts on this question? I am very interested to hear your views.
>
> Thanks Larry
> bluedogSocial anxiety is probably more likely to develop in someone whose HPA axis is entering a phase of serious dysregulation. Hormone levels not only reach extreme levels, they also oscillate between extremes....too low can follow too high, and vice versa.
This sets the stage for the possibility of an unfortunate coincidence between some social event and an uncomfortable oscillation in hormones. The amygdala unconsciously processes the coincident experiences, and a conditioned response develops. Later social interactions bring back the experiential 'memory' of earlier discomfort. This arises without a conscious thought, and the discomfort is quite real. Just like Pavlov's dogs drooling at the sound of the bell. The bell isn't food, but the dog cannot control its salivation.
One of my professors used to tell this tale about himself. He took part in some of the preliminary work in aversive training for alcoholics. The drug now known as Antabuse was under investigation for its ability to make people violently ill if so much as the smell of alcohol was encountered. Before testing it on alcoholics convicted of drunk driving causing death, my professor (then a university student) was given the experimental drug, and offered a drink. Without thinking, he asked for a scotch (his favourite drink, and one he could seldom afford as a student). He was incapacited by retching and vomiting, for over an hour. When he told me the story, some forty years later, he still could not go near scotch. He regrets to this day not choosing wine. His amygdala won't let him have scotch, as violently vomiting is often associated with poisoning. It's wired into us, this capacity for aversion.
I'm applying something I was just looking into, in another context, but it seems to make sense to me to apply it to social anxiety, too. What do you think?
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:129590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/129668.html