# Inactivated self-schema



## karenws (Dec 17, 2010)

I am a biomedical reseacher studying psychiatric symptoms. I have been learning lately about self schema and I think it is relevant to depersonalization. When we repeatedly experience something in the world, over time we create internal representations within our brains of that thing. These internal representations are called "schemas". All our knowledge is organized into schemas. We have a schema for every concept we know, for objects, words, actions, how to do things, people, etc. Apparently, we also have a schema for our "self". This is our brain's representation of who we are, and our properties and features as distinct from someone else or a chair, etc.

People think that during the course of a day, schemas lay dormant when they are not activated by experiences. In addition, I think we have evolved a mechanism for turning off the self-schema temporarily when we experience trauma. For you guys that have depersonalization, does it feel like your self-schema is inactivated? Did your symptoms start after a trauma, or repeated trauma? If so, has anyone tried trauma-focused psychotherapies to help process and work through the trauma so the depersonalization can lift? If you have time to respond, thanks!


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

karenws said:


> I am a biomedical reseacher studying psychiatric symptoms. I have been learning lately about self schema and I think it is relevant to depersonalization. When we repeatedly experience something in the world, over time we create internal representations within our brains of that thing. These internal representations are called "schemas". All our knowledge is organized into schemas. We have a schema for every concept we know, for objects, words, actions, how to do things, people, etc. Apparently, we also have a schema for our "self". This is our brain's representation of who we are, and our properties and features as distinct from someone else or a chair, etc.
> 
> People think that during the course of a day, schemas lay dormant when they are not activated by experiences. In addition, I think we have evolved a mechanism for turning off the self-schema temporarily when we experience trauma. For you guys that have depersonalization, does it feel like your self-schema is inactivated? Did your symptoms start after a trauma, or repeated trauma? If so, has anyone tried trauma-focused psychotherapies to help process and work through the trauma so the depersonalization can lift? If you have time to respond, thanks!


*Apparently, we also have a schema for our "self". *

Interesting concept &#8230; do you have detailed information/references on this theory?


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## foghat (Jan 1, 2011)

karenws said:


> I am a biomedical reseacher studying psychiatric symptoms. I have been learning lately about self schema and I think it is relevant to depersonalization. When we repeatedly experience something in the world, over time we create internal representations within our brains of that thing. These internal representations are called "schemas". All our knowledge is organized into schemas. We have a schema for every concept we know, for objects, words, actions, how to do things, people, etc. Apparently, we also have a schema for our "self". This is our brain's representation of who we are, and our properties and features as distinct from someone else or a chair, etc.
> 
> People think that during the course of a day, schemas lay dormant when they are not activated by experiences. In addition, I think we have evolved a mechanism for turning off the self-schema temporarily when we experience trauma. For you guys that have depersonalization, does it feel like your self-schema is inactivated? Did your symptoms start after a trauma, or repeated trauma? If so, has anyone tried trauma-focused psychotherapies to help process and work through the trauma so the depersonalization can lift? If you have time to respond, thanks!


Hi, Karen...thanks for taking the time and interest in those of us in DP Land. Is 'turning off the self-schema' the same thing as dissociation? In regards to 'self-schema' being inactivated, do you mean sense of self, ego, true personality? If yes, then yes. 
My symptoms started after just a storm of stress and change all at the same time from many different areas. Then my self image and public image were in conflict or not jiving. Then about a year after I got DP'd, I experienced severe trauma that is probably the reason why I haven't fully recovered. It wasn't the trigger to my DP, but surely is what has held me down possibly. That along with maybe some neurotransmitter and vitamin deficiencies. I've actually had this for many, many years, but seem to be recovering as of the past few months. I've made more progress in these few months than all other years combined. I just need a lil something to put me over the top. I'm more than willing to participate in any studies you have going on. 
Thanks
Fog


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## Laura41 (May 30, 2011)

Very interesting what you say. I was brought up in quite an abusive childhood (more mental than physical) and I probably did switch off something. I certainly don't feel that I have a healthy self schema now at any rate. Cheers x


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## karenws (Dec 17, 2010)

Thanks for your replies. Visual dude, I've actually found it hard to access formal literature on self-schemas because those papers are organized in different databases than I have free access to. Its a shame that the psychological literature and the biomedical literature are so separate. But what I have done is just google it and catch little bits here and there. A good place to start is wikipedia's entry for self-schema and the references there, and there is even a facebook page for it! If you search "Google books" for "self-schema" it gives you random excerpts on the topic.

Fog, yes, I think dissociation is similar. I think there may be different sections of the self-schema that can be turned off in different situations and these states will feel different. For example, there is a phenomenon called "fugue" that sometimes happens to people who are realing from a sudden traumatic experience. In this state, they don't know who they are and don't have access to autobiographical information - amnesia. Their knowledge-base of the world seems relatively unaffected, while their knowledge of them selves is inaccessible. So this seems to be a different state than people with depersonalization describe, where what is inaccessible not so much the knowledge about self but the acute experience of self. Maybe someone with fugue experiences depersonalization right after the traumatic event, but when the acute experience of self comes back it is stripped of all the self-knowledge that had been attached to it (just guessing) I understand that dissociation is the combo of depersonalization, derealization and psychogenic amnesia (having blank spots in your memory of the trauma). Dissociation is certainly considered a protective reaction to trauma (I picture it functioning as kind of a circuit breaker, where when the circuits are suddenly overloaded, the fuse trips in order to avoid burning out the rest of the wiring.) This dissociation defense is known to sometime become hypersensitized by repeated trauma so it starts to trip over minor things, and then can become chronic. So probably the same type of chronicity scenario can pertain even if it is only the depersonalization component of dissociation in isolation. Congratulations on your progress toward full recovery.

Laura, yes childhood emotional abuse is a very important contributor to adult psychological distress. Although I am a biomedical researcher and my training has been oriented toward finding drugs to treat mental illness, I have become more convinced that the solution to most mental illness will turn out to actually be in psychotheraputic techniques. Therapists have developed some very effective trauma-focused interventions. So far, these techniques have been shown to be remarkably effective in randomized clinical trials, but only for PTSD so far. But therapists are saying that their clinical experience is that these trauma-focused therapies are even effective for a wide range of nonPTSD conditions, and that these therapies are even effective for what they call trauma with a little t, meaning relentless minor traumas from bad relationships and bad parenting. It will be exciting when randomized clinical trials are done to see if these clinical impressions hold up to scientific scrutiny. In the mean time, despite the lack of evidence base yet for depersonalization, it might be worth trying. The 3 therapies to consider are trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and schema therapy.

Lovin this discussion.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

The way that I experience depersonalization is not only the disappearance of my own schema but the inability to form schemas all together.


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## Laura41 (May 30, 2011)

Wow that's all very interesting if not a little difficult to digest all at once! In simple terms, can it mean (as I do) that you can go around life never really connected to yourself so you are unable to make plans for the future, socialise effectively, have a good job etc etc? Once in a while, i can think 'oh there you are!' and then it goes away again.

PS. Thanks for your help x


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## soup (Apr 14, 2011)

This is very interesting to me. I have schizoid personality disorder and experience a type of detachment similar to those with DP. The difference is for me it is egosyntonic. My mind wants me to believe the shell-me is the real me. Do schemas cause detachment? From my brief reading it seems they are more responsible for sense of identity than the sense of self. But beyond the identities we create for ourselves there is in normal people an inner sense of "I," which is directly related to the actual experience of emotion, not what emotion you experience. So as I'm reading it schemas would be the product of our interpretation of that sense of self. That may just be a network of feelings, so maybe it's made of schemas too. But for me at least they aren't gone or inactivated, theyre just hidden. I think unfelt feelings influence much of what I do. Still, being cut off from feeling is almost being cut off from one of the senses - the subjective sense.

Keep in mind anyone can experience detachment to a smaller degree just by thinking deeply. You just go into your mind.


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## Guest (Jun 5, 2011)

People around here are starting to find me a bitchy killjoy, lol, but I have to clarify something again.

We are *BORN with a hard-wired schema of how our bodies are perceived.* Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D. U. of CA San Diego has done some of the best work on this. And there is a difference between NEUROLOGICAL schema and PSYCHOLOGICAL schema.

Consider Ramachandran's work on phantom limbs. I am fascinated by this, because one of my worst symptoms is sort of a "reverse" phantom limb experience. My arms are obviously attached to me. They function properly and yet they LOOK FOREIGN to me and feel "stuck onto my body." Well, I am aware that is wrong, not normal. It bugs me when I type, and I have trouble playing the piano ... have actually abandoned it after playing fro many years.

In the study of Phantom limbs, Ramachandran discusses the fact that we are born with a concept of our bodies. A "map" - a schematic - that exists IN THE BRAIN. (This is very hard to articulate and you have to read his book "Phantoms in the Brain" ... I stink at conveying this.

PEOPLE BORN WITHOUT LIMBS FEEL LIMBS. I don't think this is as common as those who have LOST a limb who feel the limb is STILL THERE and have pain in it, but it is astounding that those BORN WITHOUT ARMS for example ... FEEL the arms. And they know that isn't right. The mind fills in the missing pieces, or it is programmed in such a way to construct the SELF.

Psychological schema therapy, and the concepts therein, is something else. I don't know a lot about it, but it is like CBT, DBT, and I work on it myself for PSYCHOLOGICAL issues, not my symptoms. I was raised with abuse and very few coping mechanisms. In CBT and DBT I work to realize I am ALLOWED to express my opinion and won't get ripped into for it, I can BE MYSELF and talk about my illness, and if someone doesn't like me -- so what. No one can be liked/loved by everyone.

I should have developed this knowledge through MY ENVIRONMENT but my mother was so vicious and manipulative (and my father out of the picture) that those strengths were really poorly developed. And it is part of my work in therapy to *psychologically build my own coping mechanisms.*

But there is a difference between NEUROLOGICAL BODY SCHEMA and PSYCHOLOGICAL BODY SCHEMA -- and hence there is a dramatic different between reasons for SYMPTOMS vs. reasons for inability to have appropriate social skills. The treatment is different.

Again, because I am so interested in Neurology, I am aware of SYMPTOMS that can be cause by something faulty in our hard-wired gray matter, vs. psychological issues which can develop from our ENVIRONMENT.

I again find the phantom limb studies (and also one can train someone to have less, or stop having phantom pain by retraining the brain through PHYSICAL THERAPY, not psychology) -- the use of mirrors ... you have to read about it ... anyone the NEUROLOGICAL schema more helpful in understanding DP/DR (perceptual distoritions) ... and again Ramachandran talks about Cotard's, Capgras, loss of Proprioception. All of these things describe neurological phenomena which destroy the integration of functions in the brain that help us understand the real world.

Ah, and lastly ... the brain cannot tolerate "emptiness" or a lack of stimulation. If you put someone in an isolation tank long enough, they will hallucinate lights, hear a phone ringing, etc. And this is a HEALTHY person. Also, you know that if you look at a drawing that is incomplete, you can often fill in the blanks and figure what it is. AND if you write a sentence with many key words missing, it can be read ... the brain can fill in what's missing.

I still see the need to integrate NEUROLOGY into this ... and it may be more significant than psychology, though psychology is HOW WE COPE, but personality can also be hard-wired.

From my studies of the works of V.S. Ramachandran and Oliver Sacks. I'm very influenced by this amazing neurologists. Read Sacks' -- he is VERY approachable and tells stories of his patients. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife As A Hat" is a famous example that is fascinating. And yes, the man had a brain disorder in which he could NOT describe things, example, he would be handed a rose. He would say, "Ah, an object with a long slender length of something, AH, something sharp, many sharp things." I think ultimately when he SMELLED it, his mind finally filled in the blank and he was able to say, "AH, a flower!" or even "A rose." But by looking at it, he could not say what it was.

End of lecture.


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## Guest (Jun 5, 2011)

> The basic philosophy of Schema Therapy is that if basic safety, care, guidance, and affection are not met in childhood then as adults these patients feel a void emotionally and thus the schemas begin to develop and often lead to unhealthy/unstable relationships, poor social skills, unhealthy lifestyle choices, self-destructiveness, and overall poor functionality.
> 
> By building caring bonds and enforcing self-examination, Schema Therapy aims to help a person to gain the self-confidence needed in order to achieve their ultimate goals. This therapeutic approach attempts to create a peaceful environment in order to help patients to feel more comfortable during discussion groups and lessons.


From the Wikipedia article. I have had this therapy. It is essentially Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Therapy. I have never heard it referred to officially as schema therapy. Schema, to me refers to schematics, which related to the brains "pre-formed/wired" concept of body and Self. Like a schematic for a building, or a car, etc. It is the "model" the "structure" ...

One can have a pre-wired structure, and of course can WORK on creating there own "skin" so to speak ... one can start with little or no foundation and build one's own. Those with personality disorders I think would have a more difficult time with this, as there it is my impression (and I have read) that personality disorders are more hard-wired.


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## soup (Apr 14, 2011)

baleeted


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## = n (Nov 17, 2004)

Self schema? This is very hard to talk about. I dont think many people have really captured this thing in words. I might say 'yes' in answer to the self schema question. But then again if the schema could be considered a kind of file of documents about me, i sometimes have the impression i am looking at it over someones shoulder (ie its there but strangely outside/detached from me)- i know where my arms are! i know what ive said to people! i know how i look (very roughly! But do i really feel that this is me? I think perhaps i am estranged from my self schema rather than completely lacking one (i experience it as 'other').

There was a sort of trauma at the start of it, i haven't had treatment (except prozac).


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## karenws (Dec 17, 2010)

Very interesting input, everyone. To surfingisfun001, I'm curious: You say you can't form schemas all together. Would you be willing to describe that in more detail? For example, have you always had that or did your ability to form schemas stop at some point or after some event? Are we talking about forming new schemas for new concepts we learn, or are we talking about accessing or modifying your old knowledge schemas? If the former, have you noticed any difference between forming schemas from repeated first hand experience versus forming schemas that other people are trying to teach you? The reason I ask is that, for people who can't learn from a lecture but instead have to "learn by doing", I wonder if that protects the person from learning erroneous schemas. If the latter, I've been thinking lately that certain events might cause a person to have an inability to access schemas (not just the self schema).

Laura, well, I'm not sure what to expect exactly but what you describe makes sense. In your abusive childhood, you may have turned your access to feelings way down because what you were feeling was so awful. If this condition makes you blind to your feelings, as Soup describes, that will make it very hard to plan since during planning you consult your feelings in considering different future scenarios to choose from. Also socializing will be impaired without having access to your feelings. I would think that the therapeutic necessity now would be to go back in your memory to when that fateful decision was made (the decision to protect the little kid from horrendous feelings by turning them practically off), to realize that while that defense saved your sanity back then, it is costing you a bundle now as an adult, and to try to make the choice now to turn off the depersonalization defense and instead mourn what was lost.

Dreamer, yes we are born with the wiring for certain schemas, like our body plan. I'm starting to think that learning new schemas actually grows new neural wiring. I (and others) think that because animal studies show that it takes weeks to learn a new schema from scratch (similar to the time course of structural plasticity), but once it is established, slight modifications can happen very rapidly (on a time course of synaptic plasticity). There are also data that new neurons are born during adulthood, and some data that these new neurons participate in learning, but its still controversial - (I think because the experiments haven't been careful to distinguish learning of new schemas versus modifying old ones). So when you say "hard wired", don't assume that that means you were born with it and will die with it. There are good data now that our experiences change our hard wiring - you can detect changes in gray matter density and volume in people after learning experiences - like learning to juggle. You can detect white matter disruption in people after stressful experiences and during depression. If you cut a rat open you can see neuronal sprouting after transferring it to an enriched environment, and you can see loss of neuronal material after stressful experiences. So in this way the psychological becomes the neuological

Also, I wouldn't expect the self schema and the body plan schema to be the exact same thing. I guess the self schema would contain the body plan schema but the self schema would also have more in it regarding your history, your skills, your traits, your expectations of yourself, and your typical feelings. I think the sensation of turning off only the body plan component of the self schema would feel more like an out of body experience - feeling like you are a disembodied spirit or energy - like is sometimes described during a near death experience.

Regarding personality disorders, my reading is that childhood adversity is a common cause, and schema therapy has been found to be efficacious, at least for borderline personality disorder.

gotta run now but =N serious consider trauma-focused therapy.


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

*I have become more convinced that the solution to most mental illness will turn out to actually be in psychotheraputic techniques*

Do you feel this is due to the difficulty of targeting a medication, whereas therapy can specifically work on 'compromised' areas?

I would be very interested in your view on the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopaminergic neurons are 'perceptual', involved in decision making, regulate memory formation (regulate glutamate), signal to noise ration, etc&#8230; Couple this with how many get DP/DR from recreational drug use - nearly all of which affect dopamine directly or indirection - and it seems to merit attention.

Again, 'spot targeting' is a problem. Take schizophrenia as an example: it involves dopamine problems at both extremes: the 'positive' symptoms (delusions, paranoia) are from hypersensitivity of some neurons yet the 'negative' symptoms (anhedonia) are from not enough dopamine for others.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

karenws said:


> Very interesting input, everyone. To surfingisfun001, I'm curious: You say you can't form schemas all together. Would you be willing to describe that in more detail? For example, have you always had that or did your ability to form schemas stop at some point or after some event? Are we talking about forming new schemas for new concepts we learn, or are we talking about accessing or modifying your old knowledge schemas? If the former, have you noticed any difference between forming schemas from repeated first hand experience versus forming schemas that other people are trying to teach you? The reason I ask is that, for people who can't learn from a lecture but instead have to "learn by doing", I wonder if that protects the person from learning erroneous schemas. If the latter, I've been thinking lately that certain events might cause a person to have an inability to access schemas (not just the self schema).


There are no schemas to me. My inner world and outer world have become blended together. Nothing is distinguished or set apart from anything else. I can't form concepts or thoughts. It's as if I am everything and nothing at the same time.

I started feeling this way when I was 19. I am 23 now. It happened after I changed my belief system. I had an enlightening experience in which I experienced true inner peace and total connection with the world around me. This was shortly lived, about 3 weeks. After that I completely disappeared into nothingness. This is when the inability to form schemas began.


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## Guest (Jun 10, 2011)

karenws said:


> Very interesting input, everyone.
> 
> Dreamer, yes we are born with the wiring for certain schemas, like our body plan. I'm starting to think that learning new schemas actually grows new neural wiring. I (and others) think that because animal studies show that it takes weeks to learn a new schema from scratch (similar to the time course of structural plasticity), but once it is established, slight modifications can happen very rapidly (on a time course of synaptic plasticity). There are also data that new neurons are born during adulthood, and some data that these new neurons participate in learning, but its still controversial - (I think because the experiments haven't been careful to distinguish learning of new schemas versus modifying old ones). So when you say "hard wired", don't assume that that means you were born with it and will die with it. There are good data now that our experiences change our hard wiring - you can detect changes in gray matter density and volume in people after learning experiences - like learning to juggle. You can detect white matter disruption in people after stressful experiences and during depression. If you cut a rat open you can see neuronal sprouting after transferring it to an enriched environment, and you can see loss of neuronal material after stressful experiences. So in this way the psychological becomes the neuological
> 
> ...


This is a great discussion. When I say "hard-wired" I guess I mean, especially in neurology, we are born with given instincts, and perhaps even given personalities (not necessarily pathological) that are the FOUNDATION of who we are. Some of these characteristics really can't be changed. For example, one thing I am certain about is someone being gay. I believe someone is clearly born with a sexual orientation and they could try for a century to change that, and it can't happen. It is who they are, and it is VERY unfortunate that so many are still stigmatized for something that is part of who they are.

However, as will the phantom limbs example, Ramachandran has developed some very clever therapies to "trick the brain" and change a malleable brain into coping with the phantom limb, revising the schema, etc. I suppose either eliminating pain and controlling odd movements where the individual literally "makes room" for the missing arm in various situations.

*Yes, the brain is malleable and can compensate for dysfunction, and we know the blind for example compensate by the growth of certain neurons that improve hearing and other senses that allow them to function quite well -- but it is all on a spectrum.*

Also, re: abuse. Someone said in another thread, "You can't cure abuse with a pill." I agree. In that case you need therapy, you need to readjust maladaptive patterns of thinking, and this is possible.

*Medication helps with SYMPTOM control which in turn can facilitate PSYCHOLOGICAL work. I would say for most it takes both. I know this is true with myself. I always say, had I never had DP/DR, anxiety, depression, I would STILL have sought out a therapist for social interaction difficulties that came from my abuse. Frequently the scars from that are life-long, and one is always WORKING at it. Really we all continue learning and maturing until the day we die.*

Unfortunately nowadays, psychiatrists are more likely to toss a med at you than spend time working on the psychological. I have an ideal setup at a University where I have a resident psychiatrist who handles my medications, and a wonderful therapist, ACSW, who helps me work through my psychological issues.

But I do see in myself, and in others, a pre-formed personality. It's back to the ancient Greek concept of "The Four Humours" -- a more simplistic breakdown of basic personality structure. And you see this every day. Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine and Phlegmatic. I am obviously a Melancholic personality, and that is just who I am. That does't mean I can't experience joy, etc., but it means my overall way of seeing things is more "the glass is half empty." I can work on seeing things in a more positive light in therapy, and using my Zen approach to life, making lifestyle changes -- yoga, exercise, diet, but it is generally how I think and have since a child.

*It makes sense that the world would be populated with individuals who have much in common, yet, having diversity serves a purpose. Those inclined to be risk takers have a certain role, those who are more philosophical have a certain role, some are artistic, others are more into science, but often traits can overlap. I know quite a few people in corporate positions who play in bands, who draw, who sing, etc. And I think there is a purpose to faith and lack of faith. How would life be if we were clones of each other. Where would new ideas come from? "Thinking outside the box," etc.*

I think there are limits to any treatment ... now at least. As always, we are just beginning to understand the brain. It is SO complex, and treatments are really limited. And say someone with schizophrenia, or autism, or bipolar ... that is an illness they live with as a diabetic controls the illness but has no cure at this time. But quality of life and functioning can be improved. No doubt. But again this is on a spectrum. Nothing is black and white -- though I admit myself, I am the person on the "black" side of thinking, and have to force myself into the "gray." That is my work in therapy.


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## karenws (Dec 17, 2010)

I used to think the same thing, dreamer, about having been born with MY melancholic personality, my seeing the glass as half empty, and my having to always work to see things in a more positive light. But recently, after reading a book on schema therapy, I broke down my thought processes. I realized that whenever I saw someone expressing joy, I thought, "What an idiot, their joy is unwarranted". What kind of thing is that to think!?!. How could there be a gene for that? Then I realized that I had clearly been taught that by my family. I thought back and I remember that every time I expressed joy and playfulness as a child, my dad would say, "Settle down! You're so uncivilized", my mom would say, "Quiet down, sit still!" and my brother would laugh and say "What an idiot, its just a stupid doll" (or whatever was making me happy at the time). This was easy to remember because I still see them doing it now to my kids when we visit.

I realize that as an adult, whenever I have any brief impulse to feel joy, I quickly squash that emotion with a thought that it is not safe to feel joy, there could be some threat lurking just out of site, it annoys people for me to express joy, and I actually would feel embarrased to express joy, because I picture other people ridiculing me, thinking my joy is ill advised. So then I followed the steps in the self-help schema therapy book and worked on changing my view. Instead of thinking joy is risky, embarassing and unwise, I now try to catch myself and instead think "They were wrong to teach me that. In fact, you've got to be an idiot not to see the joy in this moment". Since then I have felt many more joyful moments that I definitely wouldn't have had before doing this self-therapy. That experience has made me doubt my prior belief that my melancholic personality was inate, rather than learned. Since then my eyes have been opened to a whole mess of other dysfunctional schemas that I learned from them. And I am trying to undo them one by one with the same techniques. I think its working.

This was unexpected, because I was trained as a biomedical researcher and my whole field and I have been looking elsewhere for causes of mental illnesses, personality traits and maladaptive psychological functioning. Even though my field acknowledges that data show that childhood maltreatment predisposes to adult psychopathology, we keep trying to dismiss that data by pointing out that the abusing parents and children share the same genes, so the parental abusiveness and child pychopathology could both be a reflection of the same genes.

This experience of mine only came about because my research on animal models of depression led me to a new idea about what is going on during depression (the loss of a source of reward leads to a painful process of severing psychological attachments to the lost entity, which is accomplished by severing neuronal connections in the brain's reward circuit) and when I googled around, I was shocked to find that Freud already had almost this same idea a hundred years ago. This started me reading the literature written by psychotherapists based on their clinical experience, impressions and ideas that I would have previously dismissed as unscientific psychobabble. In fact, its almost taboo to seriously consider it. But what I'm finding is that their view of how the experiences of a person give rise to psychiatric symptoms can actually be translated onto a plausible neurobiological scenario involving neuronal plasticity, and after doing that, it actually explains more of the biomedical data than the genetic defect/chemical imbalance model of mental illness that my own field came up with. Its fascinating to me.


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