Category Archives: Mental Health
Why the Treatment Doesn’t Hold: The Truth About SGB for Complex PTSD
I’ve had 28 Stellate Ganglion Blocks (SGBs) for Complex PTSD, hypervigilance, quadrilateral Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and other sympathetically driven conditions. These are symptoms of extreme central sensitization from a lifetime of environments adverse to my well-being, especially repeated sexualized … Continue reading
Posted in SGB for PTSD
Tagged Nerve Block, Nervous System, SGB, SGB4PTSD, Stellate Ganglion Block, tools
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Seeing the Pattern Changes Your Options: Contempt, Power, and the Environment
Contempt is not just a tone or a facial expression. It is a way of organizing a relationship around power. It places one person above and the other below, and it does it in a way that shuts down curiosity, … Continue reading
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Complex PTSD as Sensitization to Cues of Danger
People sometimes wonder why I react so easily. Why a tone shift, pause, or subtle power move can instantly affect my body. They want to know why I notice things others miss and why my system seems to live so … Continue reading
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Why I Quit Therapy
Over 6.5 years, I was traumatized by 13 therapists. Even the intake, first session, and attempt to explain my history put my nervous system back into the same defensive state. In session, I frequently encountered misattunement that prompted their disbelief, … Continue reading
Science Over Slogans: What Daniel Amen Gets Wrong About Anxiety
In a video clip, Daniel G. Amen, M.D., shares what he calls “One of my favorite strategies to combat anxiousness” and refers to “killing” what he calls “ANTS,” his acronym for “Automatic Negative Thoughts that steal your happiness.” Amen advises … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged anxiety, change, Daniel Amen, IPNB, science, thinking, thoughts
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The IPNB of Masking: How the Nervous System Prioritizes Belonging Over Authenticity
Masking behavior, or social camouflaging,, is the conscious or subconscious suppression of one’s natural personality, emotions, or neurodivergent traits to conform to social norms, fit in, or avoid judgment. It is commonly used by autistic individuals, those with ADHD, or … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged authenticity, IPNB, masking, performing, protection, safety, social camouflaging, survival adaptations
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The DSM Update: New Bells and Whistles on the Same Old Bunk
The American Psychiatric Association’s plan to revise its holy book, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), shoves a bunch of cosmetic and structural bells and whistles onto the same old diagnostic framework. They’re going to reorganize criteria into domains, talk … Continue reading
Fascism in a White Coat: The Authoritarian Regime of Mental Illness
If the mental illness industry were a government, it would resemble an authoritarian regime that maintains control through coercion, manipulation, and the suppression of dissent, while claiming to act in the people’s best interest. It enforces compliance through labels and … Continue reading
Losing a Point of Safety: Why I Cried at the DMV
When I cried at the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles last week, it wasn’t because the line was so long and the agency was staffed with sloths, but a far deeper reason. I even cried when I had to make … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Mental Health
Tagged death, Delaware DMV, Delaware State Police, DMV, grief, loss, Matthew Snook, memorial, police, solidarity
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Brutal Work: Trauma, Mushrooms, and Integration
Four years ago I bought “magic” mushrooms from a company in Canada. The box arrived wrapped in holiday paper. Inside was a quality t-shirt and a pair of cheap footies. At first I was alarmed that I might have been … Continue reading