When contemplating making a change in your life, sometimes a person is stuck, mired in confusion and unable to make a decision. When that mental fog is so thick it seems impenetrable and there are many possibilities, all of which seem equally good or bad, making a choice seems impossible. And sometimes that confusion is almost like a defence not to change. Deep down, it might feel better to stay where you are, however difficult that might be, than venture into something that is largely unknown - no matter how carefully we might think something through, there are so many variables beyond our control (like other people) it can become one of those 'Better the devil you know' things.
When you realize that's where you're at, doing something is necessary. If you really can't decide, pick anything, a random choice if necessary. If it isn't right, you will know before too long and you can try something else. If you do nothing, you could find yourself ten years later still in the same place, mired in the same confusion and indecision.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Neuroplasticity
I've always bought into the idea that the brain is fixed after the early development years. So problems arising from strokes and brain injuries, and things like intelligence and learning disabilities are permanent. That mainstream belief also includes the idea that specific parts of the brain are strictly for one thing (a vision centre, a speech centre, etc) and if something happens to them, that's that for whatever function that particular part of the brain is responsible for.
Now I find out there have been many scientific studies and actual examples over the years that contradict this view, but they have been dismissed by mainstream believers as 'bad science', 'flawed studies', or something like that. However, the evidence seems to have reached the point where they can't be ignored and those traditional views are wrong, or at least, some aspects of them are.
Such views are summed up in a book called 'The Brain That Changes Itself". There is far more science in it than I want to know, but I'm glad it's there. It supports the conclusions, which would otherwise have all the credibility to me of any other opinion, which any drunk in a bar can have.
The brain does seem to be able to build new pathways when there is a problem with one, but the process takes a long time, even when specific exercises to address the problem are devised by someone who understands. Someone can spend six weeks or longer, an hour and a half per day, before he/she starts to notice even small changes. That may be too long for the people in our society who expect instant results - flip a light switch and there's light, turn up the thermostat and there's heat, etc. Even physical exercise is almost like that - people know there isn't an instant result, but expect to notice changes in a few days or a week of working out every day.
The book gives the example of a man who had a massive stroke and lost a variety of functions, whose son was determined to help his father recover. Without really knowing what he was doing, he developed a program he repeated daily. Eventually, the father recovered his abilities. But when he did die years later, an autopsy revealed a lesion in his brain where the stroke had destroyed tissue that conventional science said was the only place the brain could handle the functions he recovered. The brain had 'healed' itself by having another part of itself take over those functions.
-Anyway, I wish I had known this many years ago as I spent a lot of time with people with learning disabilities thinking those difficulties were permanent and the best we could do was develop a way for them to cope with them. If you are one of those people, that may not be the case.
Now I find out there have been many scientific studies and actual examples over the years that contradict this view, but they have been dismissed by mainstream believers as 'bad science', 'flawed studies', or something like that. However, the evidence seems to have reached the point where they can't be ignored and those traditional views are wrong, or at least, some aspects of them are.
Such views are summed up in a book called 'The Brain That Changes Itself". There is far more science in it than I want to know, but I'm glad it's there. It supports the conclusions, which would otherwise have all the credibility to me of any other opinion, which any drunk in a bar can have.
The brain does seem to be able to build new pathways when there is a problem with one, but the process takes a long time, even when specific exercises to address the problem are devised by someone who understands. Someone can spend six weeks or longer, an hour and a half per day, before he/she starts to notice even small changes. That may be too long for the people in our society who expect instant results - flip a light switch and there's light, turn up the thermostat and there's heat, etc. Even physical exercise is almost like that - people know there isn't an instant result, but expect to notice changes in a few days or a week of working out every day.
The book gives the example of a man who had a massive stroke and lost a variety of functions, whose son was determined to help his father recover. Without really knowing what he was doing, he developed a program he repeated daily. Eventually, the father recovered his abilities. But when he did die years later, an autopsy revealed a lesion in his brain where the stroke had destroyed tissue that conventional science said was the only place the brain could handle the functions he recovered. The brain had 'healed' itself by having another part of itself take over those functions.
-Anyway, I wish I had known this many years ago as I spent a lot of time with people with learning disabilities thinking those difficulties were permanent and the best we could do was develop a way for them to cope with them. If you are one of those people, that may not be the case.
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