[Zenobia]

In my reading I came across something rather interesting. I am going to paraphrase the section because it is really quite long. I just wonder what you think about the affect this has on our recovery.

"Cutting, burning and other sef-injurious behaviors may be a way to manage unbearable emotions by altering interpersonal conditions as well as by altering the body's biological ballance...Research on nonhuman primates has demonstrated that self-mutilation is a common reaction to social isolation and fear...Fear activates the secreation of endogenous (internally produced) opioids, which can become highly addictive. In animals that have been severely stressed, WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS CAN BE PRODUCED BY STOPPING THE STRESSFUL STIMULUS...Van der Kolk, Perry and Herman (1991) found that two decades after the original trauma, people with ptsd developed opioid-mediated analgesia (numbing) in response to a stimulus resembling the original traumatic stressor, which they correlated with a secretion of endogenous opioids equivalent ot 8 mg of morphine."

What I get from this article is that when we injure ourself we flood our systems with opioids which make us feel good but the process is highly addicting like any sort of drug use and like drug use there are withdrawel symptoms which push us to injure again so we can elliviate the discomfort. What do you all think? If this is true, how does this affect our efforts to stop this coping behavior?
Carrie

[FearsomeAnna]

Wow Carrie - that is really interesting. I definitely agree - who here hasn't felt more "alive" or euphoric right after an adrenaline rush? It's the same reason, I think, that I got addicted to speed (thankfully I've been clean for a year now and have zero intention of ever taking that stuff again.....yech....so horrid) - you get addicted to that 'high' feeling. Self-injury leads to biological self-medication in a sense.

As for treatment, one thought I have would be to try the anti-depressant Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin is very different from most anti-depressants in that it contains dopamine re-uptake inhibitors and has proven very successful in treating addictive behaviors. I'm about to start it to help me quit smoking.

Here's how it works in relation to addiction: When you become addicted to something, either an action or behavior such as smoking for instance, your body becomes used to this action as a part of "normal" function. If you take away this action, your body goes into withdrawal and triggers cravings. When you 'reward' your body by performing the behavior, your brain thanks you by releasing dopamine, which makes you feel good - it makes you feel more energetic, more alert, and generally better. Wellbutrin works by making your brain hoard dopamine - that way, you constantly feel as if you are getting the reward, but without performing the action. For smokers, it takes away the severe anxiety and irritability that comes with nicotine withdrawal. For people who self-injure, it very well may keep you from spiraling into the vicious cycle of cutting to feel better - both by helping the depression and by tricking your brain into thinking that you performed its preferred behavior.

Thoughts?

some of it's magic
some of it's tragic
but i had a good life all the way......
~jimmy buffett

[darkeyes]

I read a very similar article on the web last year, I believe it can be part of this behaviour.
Animals will go as far as chewing their limbs off to get out of a trap, or will self-mutilate due to frustration.
With this known, is more of a reason for those who do this to give meds a try, they may help with the brain chemistry that goes with this. Statistics have shown a rapid increase of SI amongst young female teens, almost the way anorexia had a rapid increase a few years ago.
I think this was an interesting topic you posted here, thanks for sharing it with all.
High amounts of stress and prolonged stress really plays havoc on our entire being, physically, mentally, upsets almost the whole body and brain chemistry.
Cortisol levels increase, amongst other hormones when under stress.
Damn, stress.

((((((((((((((((((( Zen and viewers )))))))))))))

DE

In giving advice seek to help, not please your friend
SOLON

[dalila]

I don't feel more alive; I feel relief. As if I had been a balloon blow up so tight the only option is to explode, so I 'explode' against my own body. The terrorible pressure is released and my pain seems to flow away with the blood.

[FearsomeAnna]

By "alive" I spoke a little too narrowly - what I meant by that comment was that after an adrenaline rush or anything else that causes the body to release mood-altering chemicals, you feel better. After an adrenaline rush, I feel alive. After you SI, you feel relief. In some way, shape or form the body rewards us for its expected behavior.

some of it's magic
some of it's tragic
but i had a good life all the way......
~jimmy buffett

[Zenobia]

Anna and Darkeyes,
I have to wonder if there is a medication that can be helpful. I am on Wellbutrin right now. It has had no affect as far as the SI goes. It helped to raise my overall mood level but when I get triggered it doesn't help at all. I still SI and I still get suicidal thoughts. Perhaps there is a med that can be taken at the time of being triggered but I would imagine that it would be highly addictive which causes problems as well--such as ativan which works great but ask your pdoc for some when you aren't about to kill yourself and he will just laugh at you. Sigh. I have also tried the mood stablizer topamax but that just about did me in. I felt so dead that I...well anyway we don't need to go there, lets just say my pdoc decided that was not a direction we wanted to continue to travel along.

I need to think on this awhile. I have an itch at the back of my brain on this topic but am not able to make it come forward and make a coherent thought. Grr. I hate that.
Carrie

[Chippie]

That is a very interesting article, it makes a lot of sense, when I cut I feel a great sense of relief and more relaxed I guess you could say. It is like a drug, we get addicted to the chemicals our bodies produce, I don't know it sounds sort of wierd but interessting, hey I'm addicted to myself. Sorry im in a humorous mood, pretty rare for me so I'm taking full advantage.

[Zenobia]

Dalila,
I know that pressure. Things begin spinning through my head faster and faster, I try to block them out but I can't stop thinking of them so I start thinking of the only way that I know that will make the thoughts and emotions go away then I start obsessing about those thoughts on how I shouldn't hurt myself but how much I want to too and how good it will feel after it is done and how well I will sleep but I am in a constant fight because I know I shouldn't do it because it isn't good for me and the sleep is only temporary and the relief is only temporary and it is all so stupid and I don't want to have to explain it and I feel like a freak and thoughts start screaming through my head and I just want it all to SHUT UP! and then it is done and all is quiet and I feel fine again, guilty, ashamed but fine. Then that guilt and shame just gets added to the pile so that next time I just have a little more fuel for the fire when the whole thing starts again. I am tired of it. I am tired of the whole pile of garbage that is SI. I just want to put it on the curb and have the city trucks come take it away forever but unfortunately it isn't that easy.
Carrie

[Zenobia]

It sounds kind of weird, to be addicted to oneself. But hey, I got addicted to a person who I never met. My T compared my craving for that person to the craving that someone else might have for heroine. I never could get into drugs. I took acid once and couldn't make it stop. Never took anything hard again. I drink some but never to a point of loss of control, I get violently ill before I get so far gone. I smoked pot a few years ago and the next day went off the deep in at my husband because I lost control while I was high. Can't cope with it. I am a control freak I guess. Nothing triggers me worse then not having any control over something. I hate to feel helpless. To be helpless is to die. Never again. So instead of drugs I get into people and into my one biochemicals. Ha ha. Now that is amusing. what an addictive personality does when it refuses to become a drug addict. lol.
Carrie

[dalila]

Wow that is so.... so..... hmmm, I don't what to call it but I have felt the same way. I played at the edge of drunkeness and drugs and could not accept the lost of control. I think my fear of losing control has saved my life, cos if I didn't succeed I could end up unable to control my life or perhaps my body.

D