ADRENALINE

Hello:  

The reason for me to enter these posts that are part of my book called, --- The Human Mind, is obviously to market that book.   But in a much larger sense it is an attempt on my part to get the ideas contained in that book accepted.  In my not so humble opinion, that is a much more valuable goal than marketing the book for the book's sake alone.

ADRENALINE

When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.

(Henry J. Kaiser)

Adrenaline prepares the body for action and it also prepares the mind for total concentration and alertness.  During the Korean War, autopsies were performed on many of the casualties of front-line action.  Although these men were in their early 20’s, the Doctor’s were  amazed to discover that many of them were suffering from a huge amount of plaque in their arteries.  Hans Selye demonstrated many years ago that unrelenting stress, fear of injury or death, in laboratory animals can cause physical damage inside the body and the brain of the affected animals. 

The Doctors said it looked the same as if these dead soldiers were 70-year-old heart patients.  They also noted that it appeared entirely possible that the young soldiers could have died of this problem before the bullets actually killed them.  These soldiers had to live with the fear of imminent death almost 24 hours of every day.

I believe that the adrenaline rush that is activated because of this fear, caused the excess plaque, which I postulate would be un-metabolized adrenaline still in their bloodstreams.  Since bullets do not discriminate, we can also postulate that other “luckier” soldiers who were wounded instead of killed, also had excess plaque in their bloodstreams.

If they were removed from the killing zone because of their wounds, their bodies would have a chance to break down or use up the excess adrenaline.   The appearance of their arteries would, with the passage of time and in accordance with the subjective nature of each individual’s reactions to fear, have the potential to return to a level which would be considered normal for their age group.

We can now use cat scans to prove that such remedial action does take place.   With this knowledge, it is easier to see why some soldiers would use alcohol or recreational drugs or even neuroleptic drugs to try to anesthetize or shut down these unending fears that affected their internal body functions.

Since an inordinate number of surviving soldiers in their early 20’s did not die of natural causes, as the Doctors had predicted, then other factors must have entered into the equation to keep them alive.  I believe that these other factors, and the factors thus described in the story, prove that the condition was negotiable.

I postulate that it was not caused by genetic factors that could not be negotiated or dietary factors either at that age.  At the time, and in that book, nothing was said, or perhaps even known about the physical affects on the brain of these soldiers.  However, now we know that the brain actually swells up when it is under constant, unrelenting stress that a soldier who must face the possibility of death on the front lines must endure in all out war.

The CBC up here in Canada made a TV movie, which they called, “Glory Enough For All.”  It concerns the discovery of Insulin by Frederick Banting, right here in the city of Toronto.  Dr. Bertrand Collup was brought in from the western province of Alberta to help purify the extract. 

He was actually the first person to perform this task.  However, in his excitement over his discovery, he failed to keep adequate notes and could not replicate his discovery.  The search for purified Insulin had to be continued for another period of time before Insulin was finally purified once again.

I believe that the above story about autopsies in the Korean War holds a very important example to prove that my theories about distorted and conglomerated fears are correct.  I feel a kinship with Dr. Collup because, although I have the quotations from the book, I failed to keep adequate notes so that I could refer the reader to the actual source of this story.  

I believe that the book in question was written between 1955 and 1965.  The topic that the book addressed itself to was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.   The Korean story was not central to the book itself but was merely one of many different topics described therein. 

I have made a considerable effort to find this book without success.  If any of you who are reading these words can help in locating --- “The Korean story” book,; I would certainly appreciate hearing from you.  My email address is strarrow2@gmail.com  

Listen to the words of Jerome L. Jacobs M.D., who wrote the book which he called, “Interplay.”  On page 96 and 97 --- “Thousands of Psychiatric casualties from the First World War were believed to have been shell-shocked, brain damaged, by concussive explosions when in reality, they were actually victims of fear.  It is simpler to comprehend that a metabolic malfunction in the brain may produce neuroses, psychoses and even criminality, and treat that disorder relatively cheaply with chemicals, than it is to spend considerable amounts of time with patients in psychotherapy trying to understand and sort out numerous variables in their developmental experiences which are actually responsible for their suffering.”

Since this knowledge about fear has been available for such a long period of time, why hasn’t the truth become totally accepted?  The answer is, unfortunately, that the success rate for psychotherapy has not been good enough to bulldoze the bio-psychiatric model into a mass grave where it belongs.

It is interesting to note here, that the drugs that are now used for mental illness were originally brought into existence to help calm the nerves of hospitalized patients who were waiting for major surgery.  These people were experiencing fears for their physical well being and in some cases, the fear of death itself.

If the drug temporarily damaged or dulled the brain, making it difficult to concentrate on ones fears and as a result, calmed down the patient waiting for surgery, isn’t it rather obvious that if it also helped the mentally ill person, that such people were also being negatively influenced by conglomerated fears?  

Not necessarily fear for their physical well-being but fears associated with whatever achievements that they were involved in and which they felt they were failing at.  Fears that in effect were robbing them of the maturing process at whatever age they were at.  And still further, fears that were negatively affecting achievements that were important to them.  And if you will allow me to inflict upon you the curse of repetition, --- fears that are at all time negotiable.