Mental Health/psychology Thread

I'm a licensed child psychotherapist (LCSW), and I love to learn about and talk about the human mind, emotions, and behaviors. I love the topic of trauma and its impact on the brain. I love play therapy and the use of sensory integration techniques (occupational therapy stuff) incorporated into treatment.

I don't want this to be a self help or advice thread, but I'm always open to PMs. Let's keep the discussion on theory and practice.

BTW, there's another clinician here whom I'm proud to have influenced towards this field. I'll let him come forth.

 

Psychopathy:

Let er rip, trodgers. Tell me about these studies. How do they isolate heritability? And how do they eliminate epigenetic factors to any gene that seems to produce primary psychopathy traits?

I skimmed the wiki link and all of the genetic factors can be explained by environmental factors that shape how those brain areas/chemicals come to be and function. I'm sure the studies are more in depth.

 

Wow I have no idea what you asked trodgers, but I feel the Psyche of people is severely understudied. Psychology for me pops into my head every time there's a mass shooting. The mass media starts looking at gun control and security in gun free zone areas, but I'm always thinking, what the hell did this person go through mentally to decide that they'll just go out and start shooting people.

 

It's difficult to isolate environmental influence because there are millions of environmental experiences, unique to each individual. however, neuroscience can isolate epigenetic factors by determining if one has a certain gene and then seeing if it has been turned off or on. if a large group of people has a certain gene that has been turned off and they all share certainsimilar environmental variables, a strong correlation is drawn. Conversely, calling a brain function genetic is always looking at something in hindsight. how can they rule out that the environment didn't shape that?

There's irrefutable scientific evidence that environment shapes the biological structures of the brain, in wiring, in physical size, and in neurotransmitter release. Genetics don't " wire a brain". Genetics set the foundation of basic structure and may determine how sensitive the brain may be to the environment.

genes= type of wood
environment= the carpenter, tools, and hardware

 

There are only a rare few purely genetic conditions, even medically speaking. Outdated medical science says that's false, but very recent neuroscience is shedding light on the role of environment (mostly interpersonal relationships) and their role in creating diseases of the mind and body. The role of stress and disease is going to turn medical science on its head, IMO.

I would agree that genetic considerations play some role in behavior. Genes may have the deck shuffled for certain predispositions, but gene potential and gene expression is dealt by the environment.

Maybe I'm coming across as though I'm arguing that genes are meaningless. That's not my argument. My argument is that no one if born with genes that RESULT in them being a primary psychopath. The fetus may have genes that make their stress response system more sensitive than others, or the area of the brain for reading social cues may be less sensitive, etc. But, the environment, starting in utero, takes charge and orchestrates how these areas develop and what genes are turned on and off based on exposure to hormone levels, and activation of those areas in response to the environment. Individuals with those genes who encounter a lot of stress will go on to become primary psychopaths. Those that don't, won't. Brain functioning is use-dependent. Neurons that fire together-wire together, is a common phrase. The descriptive traits for primary psychopathy are not the results of genes in the way that eye color is. Shallow affect, difficulty reading others and reading one's own emotions are traits that are conditioned into certain brain areas based on how often they were stimulated, HOW they were stimulated, and by whom they were stimulated. Those are all tied to the brain stem and limbic system; areas hugely impacted by hormone levels during early development and wired based upon what they were exposed to. If a crying infant is ignored or hurt or scared by its caregiver because it was trying to express itself, the brainstem creates wiring to suppress affect for its own survival. The ability to read others' cues comes from ones own cues being read correctly by the attachment figure; same with reading ones own emotions. The brain wires itself depending upon its interactions with the attachment figure.

This is Allan Schore, one of the most highly respected neuroscientists and attachment theorists doing a much better job of explaining what I'm trying to. Much of the video is about attachment, but woven in there is explanation of genes/environment/brain development.


If you agree with this and were arguing that genes may predispose one to be extra sensitive to negative stimulation or extra resistant to positive stimulation, I'd agree with that. All I'm saying is that genes have some influence, but they don't create these traits like eye color.

I'm really confused. "Attachment issue" was just a term I used for an insecure attachment relationship between primary caregiver (biological or otherwise) and child. An insecure attachment is caused by a caregiver not being attuned (understanding, empathic, and responding to emotional and physical needs) to the child and/or being a source of fear for the child. Insecure attachments can come from neglect (parent drug use, severe postpartum depression, being in a DV situation, etc) or abuse. Symptoms that arise from insecure attachments are: poor emotional regulation, anger outbursts, excessive worry, mistrust, defiance, lying, stealing, high need for power and control, aggression, bullying, and others. Of course there are times when these symptoms are present due to other factors when there IS a secure attachment. For example, a child may be abused by someone else or be involved in a traumatic situation even though he has a very strong attachment with his parents. My comment earlier about the parent always being at fault was speaking on to whether or not a secure attachment was in place. If there's an insecure attachment, the parent didn't connect properly (many times due to DV or postpartum). My comment about a child who is "so stubborn that nothing works" was suggesting that it was almost certainly due to an insecure attachment, and spanking would make that worse.

 

No, I just win!

I hope you have a fine beer to drink this Friday night. Cheers!

 

What does this imply? A poorly formed stress response system (brainstem, amygdala, hippocampus, and various other brain structures) is involved in ALL psychiatric disorders. The stress response system takes in sensory stimuli from the environment, interprets it as safe or threat, and tells the body (heartrate, muscle tension, pupil dilation, adrenalin release, etc) and mind (beliefs about it, memories, etc) to act accordingly. If this system is over or under sensitive, you can imagine the resulting psyho-symptomologies. What causes the stress response system to get out of whack? The answer is very simple...it is shaped by what it has been exposed to. Trauma (neglect, abuse, living in terror conditions), especially of the persistent or unpredictable kind does a real number on the stress response system. Deductive conclusion? Trauma is a major factor in EVERY disorder.

Anecdotal observations from myself and my wife when working with severely and persistently mentally ill adults (schizophrenia and other psychoses). All of their hallucinations and delusions are warped metaphors for childhood traumas.

 

Agreed. I wasn't continuing the debate. I was starting a new discussion.

 

I don't think this is going to rekindle the debate. I never succinctly laid out my views because I was going into details trying to support them.

1. there are many genes that directly cause something ( eye color, hair type, height, etc etc)
2. genes do not cause any psychological disorder(except probably autism)
3. any psychological disorder can manifest in anyone, no matter their genes because the disorder was created by the environment.
4. however, there are genes that make an individual more sensitive to or more buffered from those environmental influences.
5. the environment causes psychological disorders and the only role genes play is as an exacerbant or deterrant.