The best way I can think of to word this is that some events are so traumatic that they permanently change our nervous system to make it hyper alert to threats and overactivate the sympathetic nervous system.
So it makes me wonder, there have to be events that do the opposite. Events that permanently change our nervous system in the opposite direction where we become permanently calmer, happier, nicer, etc. Basically something the opposite of trauma, where a single event has such a strong impact that it permanently moves our nervous system into a state of long term improvement in calmness.
So I know PTSD and C-PTSD are different things, and I know there are a lot of therapies to take the edge off of PTSD and C-PTSD. But I’m more interested in single evets rather than a chronic treatment if that makes sense.
Things I can come up with are:
Stellate ganglion block. The stellate ganglion is a collection of nerves in the neck that communicates between the brain and the rest of the body. Recently its been found that if you inject lidocaine into the stellate ganglion, for about 6 hours this bundle of nerves can’t send signals to the brain implying there is danger. So during this 6 hour window, the brain permanently pares back connections that keep the sympathetic nervous system active. The effects can be lifelong.
NDEs (near death experiences). Whether you believe they are real or just something the brain makes up, many people have a permanent improvement in their moods and outlooks.
A good drug trip. A good drug trip on either hallucinogens like LSD, or on empathogens like MDMA can cause a permanent change for the better in the user. But many trips can make things permanently worse, or have no long term effect.
Muscle release of certain muscles. Supposedly this works kindof like how the stellate ganglion block works, in the sense that there is two way communication between the brain and the muscles, and when certain muscles are tense it can signal to the brain that there is a threat. The psoas muscle in the hip is one of the important muscles for this, as I think this muscle helps us curl into a ball to protect our vital organs. Psoas muscle stretches or releases can sometimes trigger to the brain ‘everything is safe’ because the muscle that normally tensions to protect the vital organ is stretching rather than contracting. I think certain muscles in the jaw also serve this same function, but I don’t know which muscles.
EMDR. While it usually requires a lot of therapy sessions for people with bad childhoods or C-PTSD, my understanding is that if you had a safe childhood and a single traumatic event, a single EMDR session can permanently rewire your nervous system so that trauma isn’t stuck in the amygdala and hippocampus.
Amygdala ablation of the right amygdala. Its a last resort for PTSD, but destroying the right amygdala can permanently reduce sensations of trauma and sympathetic nervous system activation
Trauma is, by its nature, abrupt and intermittent. Tranquility is, by its nature, sustained and consistent. There is no sudden event that can trigger tranquility. It takes years.
Things which make you feel calmer, happier and more relaxed, but they are temporary and do not change the nervous system. They have to constantly be done for life (things like flotation tank experience, or taking a drug that blocks adrenaline and noradrenaline receptors in the nervous system, or using nicotine to activate the parasympathetic nervous system)
Things which make you feel calmer, happier and more relaxed, and they permanently change the nervous system, but it takes using them repeatedly for months or years. Examples would be things like many forms of therapy, or TMS.
Things which only happen once, but that permanently change the human nervous system to make a person calmer, more relaxed, happier, safer.
I know all 3 play a role, but I’m mostly asking about the third situation.
Thats not really accurate anymore though. A stellate ganglion block will send signals to your brain saying ‘you are safe’’ because it blocks the body from sending signals to the brain that there is danger. This can cause a permanent down regulation in how active the sympathetic nervous system is. The effects can last for life even though the lidocaine wears off in 6 hours.
Things like stellate ganglion blocks, NDEs, right amygdala ablation, etc only happen once but they permanently down regulate the sympathetic nervous system.
I have no idea if there are things that permanently up-regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, or just things that permanently down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system.
It would make someone happier or calmer, but it is a one time event with permanent impact? Thats what I’m wondering about.
A person can have something traumatic happen one time at age 15, and they will still be feeling the effects when they are 80. So I’m wondering what events do the opposite, they happen once and as a result your nervous system permanently gets better regarding subjective well being (rather than worse, which is what trauma does). A person having an NDE at 15 may make their nervous system permanently better (or having their right amygdala destroyed will make things permanently improve) but being handed a puppy or kitten will not.
ECT, Electroconvulsive therapy, is neither severe nor dangerous. In fact, it is often the treatment of choice to treat depression in the frail elderly because it isn’t.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was 51 years ago.
I am not a professional psychiatrist, but having a somewhat large experience with LSD, MDMA, DMT (and a bunch of others, look up Alexander Shulgin) I would agree.
I do feel we are skating on thin ice by endorsing behaviour that is illegal in almost every country in the world.
(This will get probably get me a warning… but my home country Zimbabwe has not updated its laws for many years, so MDMA is technically legal there. I mean, yes, you will be arrested and charged, but the chemical 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is not listed in the list of prohibited substances)
In the US, there is research into giving people MDMA before doing intensive psychotherapy, since MDMA causes people to lower their guard and feel safe. it allows people to address trauma they normally can’t. It was used for this before it became illegal also in the US.
There are also various overseas retreats for PTSD where people are given hallucinogens to help them deal with PTSD symptoms.
No one yet has mentioned a sexual experience? Nothing in life has even come close to the young girl that willingly wanted to lose her virginity to me. It definitely changed my life for the better. I love her to this day and literally thank God for that gift of life.
I can also imagine a sexual experience having a negative effect on someone’s life, but thankfully I have not experienced that.
I did a lot of psychedelic drugs in college, and they definitely affected how I viewed the world in a positive, almost religious way for the better, but it is a distant second place.
We were both naked in bed, both virgins, both keen, but we did not have a condom. We both had a longtime history of flirtation,
But 90s era Zimbabwe was ALL about AIDS, So neither of us was wiling to risk it, even though we both were virgins. I mean, I was, I assume she was telling the truth, too.
Condoms were, and still are, widely avaliable, free, in various public areas. I just did not have one.
You both were much more responsible and disciplined than me when I was in my late teens, early twenties in the late 80s and had some unprotected one-night stands. I was just lucky to not catch anything or father an unwanted child. So congrats to you.
I was talking about the old style electroshock therapy. Unlike the traumatic, forced procedures of the past, modern ECT is performed under general anesthesia with muscle relaxants to prevent injury. Yes, it is similar.
The first time I had sex, I thought it would be something like that, but it was nothing but a “huh, okay” - checking a box off the to-do item list feeling. Not really any fun.
I haven’t done psychedelics, but I have read countless accounts from people saying it basically re-set or re-directed their whole lives. Of course, it is a sampling issue, and those with no effect or change wouldn’t be as prompted to write about it.
Well it wasn’t my first time, it was hers. Which made all the difference. You see, she was visiting her sister at Ohio State (one of my housemates) and she was from a very small town in Indiana. She feared she would lose her virginity to some local boy she had known her whole life. So I was someone she could experience and not have her hometown get the all the details like they always do.
I was not that experienced either, the first few times before were uneventful such as you desribed. Then she came into my life out of no where, an actual angel sent down from heaven!
If when I die I get to choose a week of my life to spend eternity I would choose that week.
I could see how finding meaningful love with a supportive, emotionally mature partner would improve life for the better (the same way a miserable relationship will make life worse). But the sex act itself isn’t that impressive.
And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can’t think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she’s behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y’know?
