View Full Version : Dissociation and surviving SFAS
SparseCandy
05-01-2011, 18:39
I have the awesome opportunity to write my own pysch class studying PTSD because my university currently has nothing on the topic. I'm primarily utilizing the modules on the VA's trauma website but as you can imagine I'm also reading and collecting everything and anything I can get my hands on. In doing so, I came across the stress resiliency work by Dr. Andy Morgan. There's a great podcast on iTunes University but I don't know how to link to it. I did find one of the papers he discusses here: http://www.innovationscns.com/baseline-dissociation-and-prospective-success-in-special-forces-assessment-and-selection/
Basically his finding is that people who have experienced dissociation during high stress in the past are signifigantly less likely to handle survival scchool or Q course stress. In the podcast he talks about his theories on neuropeptide Y and the advantages and disadvantages of hyperfocus in high stress. (His example is of a baseball player - narrow focus and dissociation could actually help him since his only job in that second is to catch the ball. Soldiers constantly have to pay attention to so many things that dissociation is a huge liability.)
Do his research findings seem to fit with your life experiences? I mean, I'm sure you don't sit around talking about past trauma and percentage of dissociative episodes, but do his theories seem plausible to you? Have you heard of this before and if so, was it positive or negative?
dr. mabuse
05-01-2011, 18:56
*
Research requires you to research. This is your last freebie/
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2009/12/kipp-ptsd-and-melting-planet-think.html
The Reaper
05-01-2011, 20:21
I have the awesome opportunity to write my own pysch class studying PTSD because my university currently has nothing on the topic. I'm primarily utilizing the modules on the VA's trauma website but as you can imagine I'm also reading and collecting everything and anything I can get my hands on. In doing so, I came across the stress resiliency work by Dr. Andy Morgan. There's a great podcast on iTunes University but I don't know how to link to it. I did find one of the papers he discusses here: http://www.innovationscns.com/baseline-dissociation-and-prospective-success-in-special-forces-assessment-and-selection/
Basically his finding is that people who have experienced dissociation during high stress in the past are signifigantly less likely to handle survival scchool or Q course stress. In the podcast he talks about his theories on neuropeptide Y and the advantages and disadvantages of hyperfocus in high stress. (His example is of a baseball player - narrow focus and dissociation could actually help him since his only job in that second is to catch the ball. Soldiers constantly have to pay attention to so many things that dissociation is a huge liability.)
Do his research findings seem to fit with your life experiences? I mean, I'm sure you don't sit around talking about past trauma and percentage of dissociative episodes, but do his theories seem plausible to you? Have you heard of this before and if so, was it positive or negative?
Do a search for "neuropeptide" here and let me know what you find.
TR
(His example is of a baseball player - narrow focus and dissociation could actually help him since his only job in that second is to catch the ball.Bullets and IEDs move a lot faster than a baseball!:eek:
Stay safe.
charlietwo
05-01-2011, 20:58
Bullets and IEDs move a lot faster than a baseball!:eek:
lol:munchin
SparseCandy
05-01-2011, 21:08
Dr. Mabuse: Book ordered. Thank you!
Penn: Thank you for the link. I could research for years and probably still not pull a blog on public education policy. At least, not unless it is referenced somewhere in a journal. My advisor has been pretty clear on my material coming from EBISCOHost and national institutes for trauma. I just don't know enough yet to tell the crackpot blogs from the good ones.
My ABA teacher has a couple good rants against positive psychology - it's interesting to hear his arguments from someone else in a different part of the field. That said, I understand the temptation to use positive psychology on PTSD. We know that those who catastrophize their experience are more likely to develop it. (That's per Dr. Richard Bryant of the University of New South Wales, not me.) The quick answer seems to be "well, just stop them from catastrophizing with some positive psychology." Unfortunately the brain doesn't work that way. It's a shame if the military is putting all their eggs in that basket - hopefully it's changed in the last year.
Guy: And hopefully you aren't trying to catch the bullet! Narrow focus seems like the antithesis of situational awareness, an awareness you need most during high stress.
The Reaper: My apologies - I've searched PTSD and dissociation and ordered the book Brave New Brain based on that search, but it wasn't quite the same so I posted. Should have searched for the neuropeptide. :o
That search yielded a great thread by Warrior Mentor that taught that this learning has been around a while and that the same questions being asked by Dr. Morgan (natural or training) were asked by members of this board 5 years ago. Also Dr. Morgan's talk had lumped Special Forces and SERE school graduates all together. I can see from that thread that I need to go back and pull the publications to see exactly what the differences were between the SERE school graduates and the Special Forces graduates. Because this is not nearly as new as his talk had me believe, I also should go through and search more thoroughly for other researchers who are studying this. A great take-away is that even if the guy speaking is from Yale, don't assume his information is cutting edge. I did a couple of the steps (questioned validity of his research compared to SF soldier experiences, and did a cursory search for other information) but if I really want to be someone who gets messages to Garcia, I need to go even deeper before asking for opinions.
Thank you for the gentle correction and back to lurking for me.
lol:munchinYou can throw baseball at me all day long and I won't flinch, especially wearing the gear we have however, I've been lucky enough to avoid those bullets & IEDs that make you go...THAT AIN'T GOOD AT ALL!:eek: Get back up and go out again.
"How many sports stars would do that shit?"
We took out a few those "mind" docs onetime w/o telling them...we may get hit according to info. Guess what happened? LMAO!:D
Stay safe.