Counseling From A to Z

More Discoveries?!!!

Dede Smith, MA, LPC, CCLS

Hi Mike, Wow, oh wow! I found this website by googling techniques for counseling children, and now I'm hooked, beyond hooked--hopelessly addicted! In

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New hope for treatment of cocaine addiction

Amazing what we keep discovering about the human brain. I know when I was in the addictions field, we taught clients some tools to handle relapse thoughts, like call your sponsor, or go to a meeting, use the AA slogans, like Let Go and Let God, which actually change the brains focus, and don't go around slippery places if you do not want to slip. I know there were some folks who were on medication even way back then to help with the physical side of addiction, and there was some controversy in the recovering community about that, and there probably always will be, but I do not think this drug can alter your mood, so it should be OK with recovering folks.

"ScienceDaily (2011-07-15) -- Researchers have discovered that a common beta blocker, used to treat people with hypertension, has shown to be effective in preventing the brain from retrieving memories associated with cocaine use in animal-addiction models. Cocaine is one of the worst drug addictions to kick, with about 80 percent of those trying to quit experiencing a relapse within six months...A common beta blocker, propranolol, currently used to treat people with hypertension and anxiety, has shown to be effective in preventing the brain from retrieving memories associated with cocaine use in animal-addiction models, according to Devin Mueller, UWM assistant professor of psychology and a co-author with James Otis of the research."

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Amino Acid May Help Reduce Cocaine Cravings

The brain is so plastic, and is constantly changing based on the environment...and it looks like it can remember what used to be before cocaine and return to that. This is very interesting research, and I will follow up on it for you.

"ScienceDaily (2009-10-23) -- A new study in rats has found that N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a commonly available and generally nontoxic amino acid derivative, reverses changes in the brain's circuitry associated with cocaine addiction. The reversal appears to lessen the cravings associated with cocaine, thus providing protection against relapse...ocaine is a highly addictive drug characterized by frequent relapses. Recent advances in brain imaging are helping scientists uncover what happens in the brain when an addicted person is exposed to the drug-associated "cues" that trigger craving -- and lead to relapse. They've found that repeated exposure to psychoactive drugs such as cocaine causes an imbalance in the brain circuits regulating reward and cognitive control.

One of these circuits is a pathway involving the neurotransmitter glutamate. In the current study, Moussawi and his colleagues found that NAC restored normal functioning to this circuit in rats that had been previously addicted to cocaine. In addition, after receiving NAC, the previously cocaine-addicted rats did not reengage in drug-seeking behavior, even in the presence of drug-associated cues."

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Brain mechanism linked to relapse after cocaine withdrawal

This is one of those frustrating research articles. On the one hand it is great to know the information in this article, and on the other hand, I want some ideas or tools or tactics that I and my clients can implement immediately, and there are none offered here. But there are lots of links to other research articles, though, so maybe one of them will offer up a tool that can be tried out this afternoon. Yes, your basic still suffering addict wants something to eleviate the pain that fast.

"ScienceDaily (2010-09-08) -- Addictive drugs are known to induce changes in the brain's reward circuits that may underlie drug craving and relapse after long periods of abstinence. Now, new research uncovers a specific neural mechanism that may be linked to persistent drug-seeking behavior and could help to guide strategies for development of new therapies for cocaine addiction...revious research has shown that the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a brain region that is activated when cocaine users experience a craving for cocaine after being exposed to cocaine-associated cues. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which receives input from the VTA via circuits that use the "reward" neurotransmitter dopamine, has also been implicated in drug craving after cocaine withdrawal. Further, increases in the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been observed in the VTA and mPFC in rats after withdrawal from repeated cocaine exposure."

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Frontal cortex dysfunction may contribute to compulsive sexual behavior, study suggests

The research mentioned below would seem to fit with yesterday's article, about addiction being a brain issue, rather than a moral failing, for example. Wondering if committing to a lifestyle of attention to thoughts and breathing and feelings can help offset the lesion or the brain disorder involved in addiction? It appears to have worked for millions involved in 12 Step programs. The 12 Step kind of practice certainly has to build new circuitry in the brain that eventually becomes stronger than the compulsion, if I read the brain fitness gurus, correctly.

"ScienceDaily (2010-06-10) -- Sex "addiction" is a concept that has had particularly high visibility recently with the publicity associated with Tiger Woods. Persons with addictive or compulsive disorders frequently display an inability to inhibit behaviors once they become maladaptive, despite adverse consequences of their behavior. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a brain region involved in decision-making and behavioral flexibility, and it has been identified as a potential mediator of behavioral inhibition...Collectively, these data suggest a general role for the mPFC in regulating the compulsive seeking of reward, and may contribute to a better understanding of a common pathology underlying impulse control disorders."

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New definition of addiction: Addiction is a chronic brain disease, not just bad behavior or bad choices

So some of the powers that be in the addictions field have noticed that the brain pleasure circuits are involved and that addiction has neuroplastic aspects? Very cool. So I wonder if living a brain fit lifestyle is preventive, or if a brain fit lifestyle can be part of recovering paradigms? It would seem to me that there are many overlaps between the 12 Step Programs and the Pillars of Brain Fitness, which boils down to doing things that encourage the growth of new neurons (neurogenesis) and the growth of new circuits which is called neuroplasticity. New circuits can happen within minutes when new learning occurs...the brain is very invested in surviving, so any new learned changes neuorons and fast.

ScienceDaily (2011-08-15) -- When people see compulsive and damaging behaviors in friends or family members -- or public figures such as celebrities or politicians -- they often focus only on the substance use or behaviors as the problem. However, these outward behaviors are actually manifestations of an underlying disease that involves various areas of the brain, according to a new definition...Two decades of advancements in neurosciences convinced ASAM that addiction needed to be redefined by what's going on in the brain. Research shows that the disease of addiction affects neurotransmission and interactions within reward circuitry of the brain, leading to addictive behaviors that supplant healthy behaviors, while memories of previous experiences with food, sex, alcohol and other drugs trigger craving and renewal of addictive behaviors. Meanwhile, brain circuitry that governs impulse control and judgment is also altered in this disease, resulting in the dysfunctional pursuit of rewards such as alcohol and other drugs. This area of the brain is still developing during teen-age years, which may be why early exposure to alcohol and drugs is related to greater likelihood of addiction later in life."

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Bilingual benefits reach beyond communication

So learning a second language as a kid has benefits into old age, as does learning a second language as an adult. While it takes more practice for us as an adult to learn a second language, remember, you do not have to become conversant in it as an adult to derive the neuroplastic and neurogenetic benefits of learning a second language. Just remember the pillars of brain fitness, which are physical exercise, nutrition including lots of omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants, good sleep, and novel learning experience, which is usually characterized as the kind of learning that happens when we learn a new language or a new instrument. Those pillars make it possible for us to form new connections between neurons and grow new neurons.

"ScienceDaily (2010-11-09) -- Speaking two languages can be handy when traveling abroad, applying for jobs, and working with international colleagues, but how does bilingualism influence the way we think?...The authors note that “when a bilingual speaks two languages regularly, speaking in just one of these languages requires use of the control network to limit interference from the other language and to ensure the continued dominance of the intended language.” The bilingual advantage in attention and cognitive control may have important, long-term benefits. Preliminary evidence even suggests that their increased use of these systems may protect bilinguals against Alzheimer’s."

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Speaking More Than One Language May Slow The Aging Process In The Mind

I suppose that most of us who are not scientists have to appreciate the lengths that scientists go to say something like..."Well, these are the results of our research, but more research is needed." If you happen to search out the entire article, you will understand what I am referring to. The researcher went to some trouble to qualify the results, but the bottom line is, learning a new language at any age is good for neuroplasticity and neurogenesis.

"ScienceDaily (2008-05-07) -- Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage later in life, a new study has found. Knowing and speaking many languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging...

Exercising the Brain

A person who speaks more languages is likely to be more clear-minded at an older age, she says, in effect “exercising” his or her brain more than those who are monolingual. Languages may create new links in the brain, contributing to this strengthening effect.

The research was based on a survey taken in 1989 on people between the ages of 75 and 95. Each person was asked how many languages he or she knew, what his or her mother tongue was, and which language he or she spoke best. The researchers compared bilingual speakers to tri- and multilingual speakers.

Analyzing the results, the researchers found that the more languages a person spoke, the better his or her cognitive state was. A person’s level of education was also strongly associated with cognitive state, but the number of languages contributed to the prediction of cognitive fitness beyond the effect of education alone."

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You are what you eat: Low fat diet with fish oil slows growth of human prostate cancer cells, study suggests

Another use for fish oil. I remember back about 12 years ago, when I was doing EEG Brainwave biofeedback, I had a client with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who reported the fish oil helped her CFS, so I bought some and tried it. The delivery system then was not as good as it is now, so when I took the supplement, it made me burp really fishy burps. That is not the case anymore, and you will see references to fish oil as part of the nutritional regimen for many health related issues, and the brain fitness writers are saying getting fish oil in your diet or supplementing for it is a mandatory for neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.

ScienceDaily (2011-10-25) -- A low-fat diet with fish oil supplements eaten for four to six weeks prior to prostate removal slowed down the growth of prostate cancer cells -- the number of rapidly dividing cells -- in human prostate cancer tissue compared to a traditional, high-fat Western diet, according to a new study.

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Whether we know it or not, we can 'see' through one eye at a time

Remember that old saying that your parents taught you about..."Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear"? Well, now I guess we are going to have to ask ourselves which eye we are seeing through before we can decide which half of what we see we are going to believe. Truth is just getting too complicated. I am not surprised though that our experience of visual reality is much more complicated than previously assumed. Keep looking I say.

"ScienceDaily (2011-10-18) -- Although portions of the visible world come in through one eye only, the brain instantaneously takes all that information and creates a coherent image. As far as we know, we "see" with both eyes at once. Now a new study suggests that the brain may know which eye is receiving information -- and can turn around and tell that eye to work even harder...The findings, says Zhang, suggest some intriguing things about the visual system. "Maybe there are binocular neurons in the brain" -- neurons that take in and collate information from both eyes -- "that also know which eye that information is coming from and can feed back to that eye," telling it to pay closer attention. In other words, the mechanisms of visual perception, and the communications between eye and brain, may be even more flexible and powerful than scientists thought."

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Juggling languages can build better brains

What I have been reading in regards to brain fitness for the last several years says that we can encourage neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, or the growth of new neurons and connections between neurons by taking care of the pillars of brain fitness, which are physical exercise, nutrition inclucing omega 3 fatty acid and antioxidants, good sleep, stress management, and novel learning experience. The novel learning experience has routinely included the concept that learning a new language or new instrument was good for neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. The research mentioned below would seem to confirm that.

"ScienceDaily (2011-02-18) -- Once likened to a confusing tower of Babel, speaking more than one language can actually bolster brain function by serving as a mental gymnasium, according to researchers...Recent research indicates that bilingual speakers can outperform monolinguals--people who speak only one language--in certain mental abilities, such as editing out irrelevant information and focusing on important information, said Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Penn State. These skills make bilinguals better at prioritizing tasks and working on multiple projects at one time.

"We would probably refer to most of these cognitive advantages as multi-tasking," said Kroll, director of the Center for Language Science. "Bilinguals seem to be better at this type of perspective taking."

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Bilinguals see the world in a different way, study suggests

I had never thought about how world view would change when learning a new language. Maybe that is what is meant when the brain fitness folks say that learning a new language is important for neurogenesis, or the growth of new neurons. How do bilingual folks determine which world view to apply in their day to day activities? You would think that would be dictated by the language situation they were in, but maybe there is an amalgam world view that bilingual folks enjoy, running in the background of their day to day activities? Very curious indeed.

"ScienceDaily (2011-03-14) -- Scientists have found that regularly speaking in a second language makes you literally see the world in a different way. Color perception is an ideal way of testing bilingual concepts because there is a huge variation between where different languages place boundaries on the color spectrum...As well as learning vocabulary and grammar you're also unconsciously learning a whole new way of seeing the world," said Dr Athanasopoulos. "There's an inextricable link between language, culture and cognition.

"If you're learning language in a classroom you are trying to achieve something specific, but when you're immersed in the culture and speaking it, you're thinking in a completely different way."

He added that learning a second language gives businesses a unique insight into the people they are trading with, suggesting that EU relations could be dramatically improved if we all took the time to learn a little of each other's language rather than relying on English as the lingua-franca."

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Master of Arts in Addiction Counseling

The link below represents a bit of a change for me in my blog entries. If you follow it, you will be taken to a page with a video from the Hazeldon Foundation, where you can get some excellent training in the addictions field. So many of my clients come to me with addiction issues. It is crucial to assess whether or not an addiction is at the root of a mental health issue or accerbates it. Let me know if you enjoy.

The Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies educates future leaders in addiction counseling.

The Master of Arts in Addiction Counseling is a full-time, one-year program or part-time, two-year program at Hazelden's Center City, Minnesota campus. Clinical placements within and outside of Hazelden provide practice opportunities focusing on youth services, outpatient treatment and long-term care, corrections, cultural diversity, and mental health. Students are positioned to pursue entry-level licensure in addiction counseling.

Click for more info

Language Driven By Culture, Not Biology, Study Shows

My business involves language, so I am curious about research on language. The research mentioned below makes me wonder about our self-talk, the dialogue I usually have running in the back of my head while I am involved in the day to day stuff of life. How does that get started and how can I turn it off are questions of importance to me, because the words chosen in self-talk have a huge impact on your feelings, and I like to feel good. Is self-talk a genetically based behavior? Is it socially learned? My kids are not able to see into my head to see my self-talk, nor I theirs, so do they have it? They sure seem to have some thoughts when playing, which can get translated into behaviors.

"ScienceDaily (2009-01-19) -- Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than genetically, according to a new study. By modeling the ways in which genes for language might have evolved alongside language itself, the study showed that genetic adaptation to language would be highly unlikely, as cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes. Thus, the biological machinery upon which human language is built appears to predate the emergence of language...According to a phenomenon known as the Baldwin effect, characteristics that are learned or developed over a lifespan may become gradually encoded in the genome over many generations, because organisms with a stronger predisposition to acquire a trait have a selective advantage. Over generations, the amount of environmental exposure required to develop the trait decreases, and eventually no environmental exposure may be needed - the trait is genetically encoded."

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Predicting what people are about to say

What could research like that mentioned below mean to folks my age, who are working on sustaining their memory through working on the Pillars of Brain Fitness? One of those pillars is 'novel learning experience' which is usually characterized as the kind of learning that I experience when learning a new language or a new instrument. Learning a new language is good for neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to formulate new connections, because of the need for regular practice and there is an increasing level of challenge, so think of a course for folks who want to learn conversational Spanish that includes predicting how another might finish a sentence? Adds a level of interest not there with the usual drills, right?

"ScienceDaily (2010-03-29) -- Researchers have made novel discoveries about the human ability to predict what other people are about to say. Their findings could have significant applications for educators, speech therapists, entrepreneurs, and many others interested in communication and comprehension...This intrinsic ability to predict based on probability has implications for language comprehension. Educators engaged in foreign language instruction might effectively focus their initial efforts on the most probable sentence constructions. Entrepreneurs engaged in marketing their products or services might use the most probable phrases in preparing their advertising messages. These research findings on linguistic probability may also be helpful in making computerized language more natural. Another practical application would be in the refinement of tools used in profiling and diagnosing those with language disorders. As noted by the authors in an interview, "Linguistic patterns are important in predicting comprehension. If we can make better use of these patterns to enhance comprehension, then we can improve people's ability to understand one another."

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