Yeah, the brain scans and brain wave activity charts are pretty amazing; validating. The one about cortical timing that is basically a picture of how the startle reflex is shorted out in PTSD is something I've struggled to explain -- most people have never had occasion to consider the importance or even the existence of a healthy startle reflex -- and especially interesting to me is the way that the right brain tries to make up for the diminished waves in the left brain creating sort of a mock, or alternate, reflex. It makes perfect sense to me, because the reactions I have now don't feel anything like ones I had before and for the better part of my lifetime, which I think has contributed to feelings of depersonalization, that I am trying to operate a person I don't recognize.
His explanation and scans about dissociation and depersonalization, and contemplation of the self/body are really compelling too, and a good quantification for the usefulness of yoga and other body-oriented techniques.* He just gives so much really useful background information in this talk. I just watched it again! I can't seem to watch only a few minutes of it. (I also find his humanity to be kind of on the adorable side. =P)
His mention of the Cloitre-Stovall study was significant to me as well, with its demonstration that the relative warmth of practitioners had little to no effect on positive outcome for trauma victims. He suggests it was a surprise to the researchers who conducted the study, but for me it made perfect sense and was wholly validating, because of all the therapy I've had which seemed to me to be providing warmth as a primary method of trying to help me (lots of nodding and "yes I can see how that would be hard") but to no avail has especially frustrated me because of the blame that's ended up in my court as a result, that I'm not trusting the process enough, or whatever. The process of having aimless but concertedly warm conversations twice a week, and awful inapplicable drug therapy..
If I was in the Boston area I'd probably be at the guy's doorstep by now. =P
I misspoke a bit in my last post with my reference to the word overlap -- because I'm reminded in re-watching this talk that the symptom sets and intensities differ quite significantly, which is what makes the diagnoses quite separate. I'd certainly be wary of the same set of symptoms being analyzed as one diagnosis versus another, as it suggests that some misdiagnosis or some less than well measured diagnosis has occurred somewhere along the line -- which certainly creates some potential for disaster, depending on what treatment that doesn't help could ultimately hurt. With Complex PTSD never having made it into the DSM, some practitioners may have indeed suggested BPD as the closest diagnostic "fit" available, if only for simplified insurance and billing purposes and also if they have not have not been avidly doing the same trauma research I now find essential just for my own basic understanding.
I actually whole-heartedly recommend at least very careful review and assessments of diagnoses given by others, because without my own efforts I'd currently still be being treated for the wrong thing (not BPD, but depression and ADHD; not false assessments but really not getting to the heart of my most affective issues), with the wrong drugs (where do I begin), and just getting into worse shape all the time. As I live in the New York City area one would think that I would have run into a competent practitioner at this point; my chances at doing so should theoretically be better based on numbers alone. But I have not had the "luck". Dr. van der Kolk's reference to the 1975 psychiatric textbook description of early childhood sexual trauma is a good reminder of what we are up against in the field though, in terms of its institutional knowledge and culture. Perhaps the greatest psychotherapeutic decision-making mistake I've made in all this time has simply been not seeing a practitioner under the age 50..? =P
"None the worse"! Shoot me now..
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*Quoting/borrowing from a related presentation document Dr. vdK has posted on his own site, I liked this bit, which does point to the treatment applicable to trauma crossing over multiple constructs, BPD etc.: Traumatized people need to have physical & sensory experiences to:
- Unlock their bodies,
- Activate effective fight/flight
- Tolerate their sensations,
- Befriend their inner experiences
- Cultivate new action patterns.
**bla bla bla and bla. I do go on, and I apologize! 
