Posted by Larry Hoover on November 28, 2002, at 8:02:09
In reply to Re: Stress does what? Social Anxiety!! » Larry Hoover, posted by bluedog on November 28, 2002, at 3:34:56
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> > 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?
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> > Lar
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> What you say seems to make sense Larry. However I will get back to you with a more detailed response in due course. I am trying to process this information and come to some sort of conclusions of my own.
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> The thing is I happen to be a hell of a lot more knowledgeable about my depression and chronic fatigue than I am about my social anxiety. The reason for this is that I need to get my depression and chronic fatigue under control before I can start looking at the social anxiety side of things.Well, sorry to add more weight to your brain, but you might want to read this:
Med Hypotheses 2002 Nov;59(6):727-35
Unconscious amygdalar fear conditioning in a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome patients.Gupta A.
Robinson College, University of Cambridge, CB3 9AN, Cambridge, UK
Here, a novel hypothesis for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is proposed. CFS may be a neurophysiological disorder focussing on the amygdala. During a 'traumatic' neurological event often involving acute psychological stress combined with a viral infection or other chemical or physiological stressor, a conditioned network or 'cell assembly' may be created in the amygdala. The unconscious amygdala may become conditioned to be chronically sensitised to negative symptoms arising from the body. Negative signals from the viscera or physiological, chemical and dietary stressors, become conditioned stimuli and the conditioned response is a chronic sympathetic outpouring from the amygdala via various brain pathways including the hypothalamus.This cell assembly then produces the CFS vicious circle, where an unconscious negative reaction to symptoms causes immune reactivation/dysfunction, chronic sympathetic stimulation, leading to sympathetic dysfunction, mental and physical exhaustion, and a host of other distressing symptoms and secondary complications. And these are exactly the symptoms that the amygdala and associated limbic structures are trained to monitor and respond to, perpetuating a vicious circle. Recovery from CFS may involve projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the amygdala, to control the amygdala's expressions.I shall firstly discuss predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors involved in the possible etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), followed by the patient's experience of the illness. Finally, I shall look at a suggested explanation for the symptoms of CFS.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:129590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/129708.html