why couldn't our pain centers be smaller? ha ha. I found the studies on brain develop in teenagers fascinating. It made total sense to me considering when I was raped. Apparently around 10 or 11 or so a child's brain goes through enormous growth. It becomes twice the size in neuronic density as an adult brain then through the teen years it slowly pares itself down dropping all the unused connections as it specializes. I got raped at 12 at which time I closed down emotionally and totally blocked out memeories. This is at the same time that all these unused channels are being shed. Is it any wonder that my brain could be 15 percent smaller in those areas? When I read it, it was like "Wow" that explains it all. But reading about the brain has given me so much comfort because I realize why and I realize that the plasticity of the brain is incredible and all is not lost. My healing has become a challenge in brain development. I guess that is why when I thought of the new connection I was making the other day when I was triggered by the bill situation I felt better, more calm because I knew I was doing brain excercise which is making my mental illness better. I was occomplishing something.
Carrie

<font color=green>But the implicit and usually unconscious bargain we make with ourselves is that, yes, we want to be healed, we want to be made whole, we're willing to go some distance, but we're not willing to question the fundamental assumptions upon which our way of life has been built, both personally and societally.--Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft