Blog Posts

The Biological Basis of Behavior: The Slow Process of Coming to Terms

11/2/2022

Conjecture

I think a BIG THEME in Human History right now is COMING TO TERMS WITH SOME RELATIVELY DIFFICULT LIMITS in COMPLEX NATURAL PROCESSES that we ---

WEREN'T AWARE OF --- or
DIDN'T REALLY UNDERSTAND
- and that "UNDERSTANDING" is in the best of times generally RELATIVE
AND "UNDERSTANDING" requires coming to terms with:
- SOME BIG COSTS
- RE-ALLOCATING RESOURCES

On the ENVIRONMENT SIDE we're coming to terms with CLIMATE CHANGE.

On the BIOLOGICAL SIDE we are slowing coming to terms with the GUT-IMMUNE-BRAIN TRIAD.
- Human Behavior was already complicated.
- It's a lot more complicated than we thought.

The "BIG LIE" or "IGNORANCE" in MODERN SOCIETY has been that nothing is connected ----
- and that we're on TOP OF THIS---
  - WE'RE NOT.

In the Legal System --- this is about one isolated BAD ACT and BAD INTENT ----
- to see more integrated and complicated patterns, including HISTORICAL issues ---
  - That include Genocide, Slavery, Jim Crow as well as a move away from Traditional Farming Practices, Plastics in our bodies, etc.---

We don't have the "SYSTEMS" to deal with that --- NOT ON THE SCALE NEEDED.

It is very hard to go 10 feet in this Society without running into some PROFOUND TRAUMA --- even if you "INDIVIDUALLY" didn't suffer CHILDHOOD TRAUMA or have ADULT PTSD.

Further, SECONDARY TRAUMA is an issue for many people PERSONALLY and PROFESSIONALLY and BIOLOGICALLY.

Trauma, Toxins, Maternal Immune Activation, Auto-Immune Diseases, Cancer, Long-Haul COVID --- all of these can have PSYCHIATRIC RAMIFICATIONS.

Physical BOUNDARIES / Emotional BOUNDARIES can be important --- But they often are a "TEMPORARY FIX" ---If we don't deal with the UNDERLYING ISSUES -- things tend to get worse.

Image Credit: European Society for Translational Medicine

We need to invest more in TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH and MEDICINE regarding the BRAIN-IMMUNE-GUT (Endocrine, Metabolism) CONNECTION to Behavior---

Further, TRANSLATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE APPLICATIONS are NEEDED NOW.

The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University

New understandings regarding relationships between Neuro-developmental Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders & Neuro-Inflammatory biomarkers should be transformative

11/1/2022

New Genetic Evidence Suggests a Continuum Among Neurodevelopmental and Psychiatric Disorders

The understanding that Neurodiversity/Neuro-Developmental Differences or Disorders are underlying many psychiatric complaints SHOULD BE TRANSFORMATIVE.
It is very much about getting out of the PERSONALITY DISORDER grab bag of problematic behaviors ---
- Which is problematic for women, and
- It is especially problematic for men in Criminal Justice.
While at the same time hopefully getting out of LATE DIAGNOSIS of people who have become adept at MASKING and whose STRENGTHS have been recognized at least on some level.
- Even if some of us somehow escaped a personality disorder diagnosis.
- All was not well --- and clinicians were often ill prepared to recognize or address DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES/DISORDERS.
  - THIS IS ONE OF THE BIG REASONS WHY WE ARE NOT GETTING ON TOP OF OUR MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

ICERN Web Library of Neuropsychiatry

ICERN: International Centre for Research & Education in Neuropsychiatry

Focusing on novel neuroinflammatory biomarkers and targets in understanding and managing suicide

BIOMARKERS as they slowly become available I think will reveal a quite COMPLICATED SOCIETY ---

Whose SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENTS are SUSPECT.
Further, the UNCONSCIOUS BIAS behind them and the "REASONABLENESS" of the Majority represent their own kind of PERNICIOUS TYRANNY.
- I'm not against "REASONABLENESS" -- but failing to appreciate DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES is NOT REASONABLE.

Unconscious Bias

The Denver Gazette & a Broader Critique of Underlying Related Debates & Policy

10/31/2022

To me the admonition "Don't Judge" is not just a feel good spiritual directive.

It's PRACTICAL.

MORAL JUDGMENTS are what people have used to PROTECT THEMSELVES:

Physically, and
Also against WASTEFUL USE of RESOURCES

We do need to protect ourselves and the community:

physically, and
from wasteful use of resources.

It's pretty hard to ignore that we're not getting the RESULTS or OUTCOMES we want in Mental Health.

We've developed some EXPERTISE at managing CRISES
The LONG TERM PICTURE is more complicated
And there are MORE CRISES.

With respect to HOMELESSNESS, it does involve a lot of people with SUBSTANCE USE PROBLEMS but UNDERLYING that tends to be:

Brain Injury --- that people with Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders are more likely to experience
Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders
Psychiatric Disorders that are related to Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders, and
Trauma --- that unfortunately people with Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders are more likely to experience and to experience more keenly.

To me, it's MENTAL HEALTH (not the abortion debate) and COGNITIVE DISABILITY MORE BROADLY where PRO LIFE is most obviously challenged and is failing.

On the other hand, some of the states that have strict abortion laws and that outlawing abortion maybe more of a PRACTICAL REALITY ----

are starting to WAKE UP that they need to support people in much better ways than they have.

[I do consider myself PRO-LIFE but I'm not for banning abortion and the decision to have an abortion I think is often arising "ORGANICALLY" from:

rape,
incest
a society that is struggling with sexuality on many fronts.
a society that is sometimes struggling to provide a living wage to it's "ESSENTIAL WORKERS"]

To me "Don't Judge" is practical. "Judging" solves the immediate problem --- but as Ma Joad said in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"---

"We're the people --- and we keep on comin' ".

I remember hearing death penalty attorneys I greatly looked up to saying:

"Okay, the Death Penalty doesn't deter crime --- it'll deter this person."

BUT those people keep comin'.

To address DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES is SCARY for a WORLD that went through WORLD WAR II and beyond that has gone through many GENOCIDES.

Pope Francis

Last Scene of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) based on the 1939 pulitizer prize winning book by John Steinbeck

Image Credit: safetymattersinc.org

the Denver Gazette: More funding, more homeless — go figure

The Denver Gazette is not all wrong --- BUT the Gazette is NOT all right either

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)

New JAMA study finds administrative complexity as the single-largest source of wasteful spending

Psychiatric Disorders are more and more seen as related to Neuro-Developmental Disorders.

Both Psychiatric Disorders and Neuro-Developmental Disorders are often related to SHARED GENES and MATERNAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION.

OLMSTEAD CONNECTION: Not having sufficient TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH & MEDICINE is leading to the Unnecessary Institutionalization and Risk of Institutionalization inherent in Homelessness of people with Neuro-Developmental Disabilities.

Further, we do need more research.
BUT a lot of this is integrating what we've already got.

Alice Merton
No Roots

"A THOUSAND TIMES --- I've seen this road --- A THOUSAND TIMES."

The Grapes of Wrath

10/31/2022

A lot of what I'm trying to say with regard to:

Anti-Social Personality Disorder specifically and
More broadly Cognitive Disability in Criminal Justice, and
Even More Broadly --- Neuro-Diversity in the Society ---

IS BASED ON NEW KNOWLEDGE AND CONTINUING AREAS OF IGNORANCE & HUMAN LIMITS THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAN WE THOUGHT.

When we think of other animals --- we think sometimes about HOW MUCH MORE AWARE WE SEEM ---

But it is becoming more obvious--- that we are not as aware as we thought ---
It costs us a lot of ENERGY to bring things into CONSCIOUS AWARENESS --- and it is pretty much on an AS NEEDED BASIS.
Further, we look at living things like insects and they seem very expendable with brief lives or other animals in which many are conceived --- few survive --- and we think that we are so different.
BUT are we so different?
Now there are a lot of ways to look at this --- all these lives are meaningless OR these lives are meaningful in ways we don't appreciate.
Importantly, Professor Graham Rook at King's College London says we're not INDIVIDUALS --- WE'RE ECOSYSTEMS.
It doesn't look like we could ever have really gotten a firmer grasp on Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders without MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
- The newly discovered roles of the Immune System and the Microbiome are NOT INTUITIVE based on our prior conceptualizations.
We have a lot of unconscious behaviors and unconscious cognitive shortcuts/biases --- at least in part TO SAVE ENERGY.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Directed by John Ford

What Would Happen If Everyone Truly Believed Everything Is One?

Waiting for Godot & Science

10/25/2022

If Samuel Beckett felt like he was "WAITING for GODOT" ---I feel like I'm waiting for "SCIENCE" to give the SOCIETY the GREEN LIGHT to:

Recognize that "DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES" are a MIXED BAG on all sides.
Recognize DOUBLE EMPATHY PROBLEMS and that EMPATHY is EFFORT.
NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL INFLAMMATION and SENSORY PROCESSING ISSUES are HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL and we're MISSING a lot of Folks because they didn't fit neatly into categories that aren't TRULY FUNDAMENTAL CATEGORIES.
- Even as there are serious issues that need to be addressed and
- At least SOME of the BIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS are ALREADY THERE IN THE RESEARCH, but not necessarily to the CLINICIAN, and certainly not to the PATIENT or the broader SOCIETY.

Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot

I'm Waiting for Science and it feels frustratingly similar.

Lateral Thinking & Conspiracy Theories

9/30/2022

Conspiracy Theories, Paranoia, Delusional Disorders have abounded throughout HISTORY AND they are often LATCHING ONTO UNDERLYING CONCERNS in the Society.

The CONCERNS CHANGE --- when was the last time you heard someone say "CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED" ? [Of course, Carthage was destroyed in 146 B.C.]

Some of our current CONSPIRACY THEORIES are NUTS --- but they are grounded in TROUBLING REAL LIFE PROBLEMS that have as of yet not been amenable to easy resolution.

I'm going to pick on the Q-ANON folks but there are others including ANTI-VAXERS, ANTI-LGBTQA+, etc.

The positions are often EXTREME and RIDICULOUS --- BUT what the conspiracy theories or delusions are often reflecting is a KIND OF UNCERTAINTY within the Society.

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN)

Most of us may know that Hillary Clinton didn't sexually abuse anybody at a pizza parlor ---

BUT there is a problem of sexual abuse of children in this country and other countries and we don't have a good handle on it.

Carthage Must Be Destroyed

Image Credit:
The Medical Concierge Group

Researchers seem adamant that vaccinations don't cause AUTISM ---BUT researchers have been until more recently quite fuzzy as to what did cause AUTISM --- and even now there are still questions.

Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care

LGBTQA+ --- TRANS issues have dominated public discussion the last 10 years --- The Florida Legislature has jumped on the CRAZY TRAIN. ---

BUT how open is the discussion in the SOCIETY and do we need to do both more public education & research?
It's one thing to say consenting adults should be able to have sex with whoever they want ---
- It's another thing to talk about major biological changes to minors when the rate of Success on TRANSITIONING is not 100%.

I think it may very well be true that once these issues are resolved conspiracy-theorists may move on to something else --- and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

It's a alerting us that we have MORE WORK TO DO --- even if we might frame it differently.

If Empathy is EFFORT ---What does that mean for Neuro-Diversity with the emphasis on Diversity ---- A Lot of EFFORT

7/20/2022

Two of the things that we're slowly coming to terms with:
- Our "empathy" often isn't that Empathy with EFFORT --
  - It's really more maximizing the efficiency of like-minded people, and
  - We are struggling to address pretty hard-wired split second Empathy determinations that are really based on "which team you're on."

If we're using that EMPATHY of EFFORT
- it can be TIME-CONSUMING
- it can be FRUSTRATING, and
- it may be forcing us to come to terms with our own limits at the same time we're being asked to exercise MORE EFFORT in understanding someone else.

I don't think it's any accident that the Americans with Disabilities Act says yes we need to make REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS ---
- Unless it would be an "UNDUE HARDSHIP"

If we just default to an idea that EMPATHY is something GOOD PEOPLE do --- and don't really have the ability to recognize:
- The Double Empathy Problem not just in autism but in human relationships generally
- We're going to UNDER-ESTIMATE what it really takes.

Further, Neurodiversity is really testing EMPATHY on the part of everyone because----
- Neurodiversity isn't some MONOLITH --- it's all over the place, and
- Neurodiverse people are going to have to empathize with other Neurodiverse people who may be very different from themselves.
- and if they can do that ---
- they'll have a lot to TEACH the SOCIETY

PBS The Brain with David Eagleman
In-Groups & Out-Groups

Neuro-Divergent Therapist Louise Taylor
Neuro-Diversity & Empathy

When We're Talkin' Neuro-Diversity -- We're Talkin' Neuro-Diversity

Abortion Debate

5/5/2022

It is hard to see how we get out of this NATIONAL TRAUMA of which the ABORTION DEBATE itself is part of without more LATERAL and INTEGRATIVE THINKING.

Colorado has been a good place for that:
- Abortion is Legal, and
- We've done things like make Contraceptives available to teens and that has reduced abortions
  - That is not necessarily the SOLUTION a lot of Conservatives, especially Religious Conservatives, are looking for BUT ---- it does show some "FLEXIBILITY" in dealing with the issue.

"MAKING SPACE" is a BIG IDEA right now and it's a little cooler version of INCLUSION.

I post both Pastor T.D. Jakes and Modern Secular Philosopher Alain de Botton.

Alain de Botton is this wise bald guy --- very much my TYPE who is very INTELLECTUAL, concerned with HUMAN ETHICS, etc. I just love all that.

But it is just within the last few days that I learned that Alain de Botton was the author of "The Consolations of Philosophy."
- I had not connected the two.
- I had his "The Consolations of Philosophy" (originally published in 2000) but in a a process of MINIMIZING ---- I got rid of it
  - Because I felt it missed the CONSOLATIONS OF RELIGION.
  - Now my IDEAS of RELIGION and other people's ideas are not necessarily and are probably not the same.

INTEGRATION is a BIG IDEA that has gotten BIGGER.
- When I was growing up in Oklahoma City in the 1970s --- the BIG ISSUES were SCHOOL INTEGRATION, BUSING --- RACIAL INTEGRATION.
- The INTEGRATION MANDATE of the Americans with Disabilities ACT -- makes "INTEGRATION" a central duty.
- Most recently, when we talk about INTEGRATION we're often talking about INTEGRATING PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH CARE.

Another IDEA is "Working Our Way Back in the Chain of Causality to Solve a Problem"
- That's what we're doing in moving around the World to a more Public Health Approach to Criminal Justice.
- It's what Colorado did in making contraceptives more available.
- It's what RESEARCHERS did to get better understandings of Neuro-Developmental Differences and Psychiatric Disorders.

Reframing the Conversation around Unplanned Pregnancy

Even if you are not faced with an unplanned pregnancy in the GREAT DEPRESSION in Oklahoma -----

You don't have to think that hard or go back that far in the "CHAIN OF CAUSALITY" to realize providing people MORE SUPPORT (FINANCIAL, EMPLOYMENT & SPIRITUAL) as well as Reducing the Incidence of Rape and Incest could reduce the number of abortions.

THAT IS the CONSOLATION of RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY.

Ideas & The Need for Conversation & Dialogue

Conversation & Dialogue: Integrating Science, Reason & Faith/Religion

"Lack of Empathy," LimitS and Neuro-Diversity

4/25/2022

Conjecture

There's almost always A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING.
Further, a lot of what we "THINK" about "Mental Health" isn't so much "WRONG" as "PARTIAL."
When we just have a FEW PIECES to the PUZZLE or we are "TOO CLOSE" or "TOO FAR AWAY" --- things can look DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT and SKEWED AND DISTORTED.

To me, "LACK OF EMPATHY" is "They Know Not What They Do" BUT it is also a pretty good indicator of PERSONAL and SOCIETAL LIMITS----

When we start talking about "LACK OF EMPATHY" in the Criminal Justice System ----We're often tagging this with "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER"

When we start making some kind of CONNECTION between "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER" and NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

It didn't do away with the "LACK OF EMPATHY"
BUT it starts to look a lot DIFFERENT.

I did very well in SCHOOL --- but I was and am EXHAUSTED a lot of the time --- and I would generally come home from school and crash.

I can remember one day in particular in which I did not get up in time to pick up my younger sister --- she did manage to have a friend take her home BUT

She spent what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of time SCREAMING at me in the front yard -----
- That I was the "MOST INCONSIDERATE PERSON IN THE WORLD."

Now --- it sticks out in my mind because most of the time that wasn't happening.

Up close or far away?

Scientists challenge you to work out whether you’re looking at microscopic or macroscopic photos of nature

BUT what if you are somebody in which that is happening MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY.

You're going to get ANGRY after awhile --- and probably NOT AFTER AWHILE --- BUT VERY QUICKLY.

Further, if people didn't understand your INITIAL "LIMIT" ---

they are unlikely to understand why you are ANGRY.

Just to make this more INTERESTING --- DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND YOUR INITIAL "LIMIT" ----?

Now this is complicated enough ---- BUT LET'S THROW IN EPIGENETICS.

This really gets into "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR."

We want this person to be "MORE SENSITIVE" ----

GUESS WHAT --- You may get your wish ---
Only it's not going to look like your "IDEA" of "SENSITIVITY" ---
- It's going to look like "REACTIVITY"

The MORE STRESS you put that person under in the hopes of getting "SENSITIVITY" ---- the more "REACTIVE" the person may become biologically.

We are currently in the PROCESS of UNRAVELING 2 GREAT INTER-TWINED LANGUAGES:

BIOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

One of the things we're finding in this GREAT UNRAVELING is not only does CLIMATE HAVE LIMITS ---- WE HAVE LIMITS TOO.

One of the Many Hard Things About Life ---We're Often Taking the Test BEFORE We've Learned the Lesson

3/15/2022

WebMD: Anxiety and Cancer Patients
(Feb. 2021)

"Intense anxiety associated with cancer treatment is more likely to occur in patients with a history of anxiety disorders or depression, and patients who are experiencing these conditions at the time of diagnosis.

"Anxiety may also be experienced by patients who are in severe pain, are disabled, have few friends or family members to care for them, have cancer that is not responding to treatment, or have a history of severe physical or emotional trauma.

"Central nervous system metastases and tumors in the lungs may create physical problems that cause anxiety.

"Many cancer medications and treatments can aggravate feelings of anxiety."

I found this article March 7 ---- a couple of hours before the Hospital was predicting my husband would probably not survive more than 24 or 48 hours.

It has been a very long road for 2 honest, over-educated people who more often than not --- DID NOT HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION THEY NEEDED.

As children we see adults and read about people in history making mistakes, floundering around and --- WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE KNOW BETTER?

And at least sometimes --- it wasn't that people weren't being HONEST --- it was that FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS of the problem were NOT KNOWN or were MISUNDERSTOOD.

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