Quantum Units Continuing Education

By Brad Waters

A small university in Northern Michigan made national news on February 2nd when school officials learned of a threat of violence against their students. The investigation has been ongoing but the university released a statement early on that someone had threatened to harm students on campus. Some reports also stated that the threat was posted on a blog, bringing the internet and social media again into the spotlight. The talk of modern technology rarely leaves the national discourse for long before another threat or violent act shocks us with its ties back to the internet. The Tucson shooting, only weeks ago, a prime example of a suspect who allegedly left a trail of behavioral peculiarities tracing back to YouTube and Myspace.

Naturally, the media will examine these events with every angle and hook that can possibly keep the story running. When social and online media are involved you can be sure it will be scrutinized. Perhaps rightfully so, as these are important discussions to be had. Just look at the current social unrest in Egypt where freedoms associated with internet access and cell phone communication were major flash points in the massive government opposition. When the people were silenced at home, they took their voices to the streets. And as of today, those voices were heard, their demands met, and Twitter and Facebook are at this moment flush with jubilation and optimism.

It’s a basic element of humanity to want to be heard. Communication has evolved to where it is today because people fundamentally want to communicate. And not just communicate for its own sake, but to be heard and validated. If that weren’t the case we wouldn’t have Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook. Technology hot button issue #1? Social networking is undoubtedly an incredible phenomenon with an obvious impact on society. Enter, “The Social Network”, Acadamy Award nominee for best picture in 2010 about the founding of Facebook. It’s hot, it’s controversial, and it’s a fantastic social experiment. But when the Oscar buzz dies down, when the morning shows are done chastising social networking for its assault on innocence after the latest school shooting, what remains? The constantly evolving internet and instantly evolving social networking scene will continue to beckon for examination of its fullest potential and possibility.

Perhaps more of the discussion needs to trend towards acceptance and positive utilization. This is not to diminish concerns about parental guidance, privacy, net neutrality (internet regulation), et cetera and et cetera. But if social media is here to stay, and it certainly appears to be, then we may accept its inevitability, the goods and the evils that come with all things human or machine, and lift up its best possible utilization.

Les Wong is the president of Northern Michigan University and, up until this week, a Facebook skeptic. That is until he realized its potential to save the lives of his students. The University currently has a cell phone based text message alert system that warns students about anything from a campus crisis to a snow day. According to their website that system has access to 95% of the student body- that is, IF they sign up for the alerts, have their cell phones turned on, have reception, and other ifs. However, at a university such as NMU where all incoming full-time students are supplied with a laptop as part of enrollment, an internet based alert system would undoubtedly reach a great audience. Imagine the relief of parents knowing that their Freshman is connected to a round-the-clock electronic safety net. No small amount of moms would be taking to the Tweets!

After the campus threat at NMU the local newspaper interviewed Wong and quoted him as saying: “Yesterday I had the epiphany the paradigm shift of suddenly thinking of those social networks less as a friendship building thing and social thing but as a very effective tool to get word to students and staff very quickly”.*

In addition to being used as a 1st line alert system for the facility, social media (frequently also access on cell phones) immediately becomes utilized as a secondary alert system within networks of student and faculty cohorts. Within seconds essential information has been spread, students are finding a safe place, friends are being located, and families are being contacted. In situations of stress and/or trauma, students and facilities can instantly organize a support group or meet-up to process emotions and disseminate coping resources by creating a Facebook event page or sending a Tweet.

Mr. Wong isn’t the only president talking technology in the news. Only a week after the threat at Northern Michigan University, President Obama visited the campus and this rural town of Marquette, Michigan to tout the benefits of WiMAX- global internet access that would surely social networking to a whole new level.

Social networking and emerging technologies will always be put to ethical tests. With instant communication, be it online or on phone, comes a virtual rumor mill. Not to mention the online bullying, sexting, and the bread crumb trail of our lives that we are leaving in electronic perpetuity. But so it has been for decades with every new fad, phenomena or advance. They require periods of adjustment, paradigm shifts, parental monitoring, psychological inquiry, the fine tooth comb, yet also the opportunity for good to prevail. We are stronger when we allow for the plasticity of change and when we discover possibilities within those things that challenge us the most.

Source Psychology Today

By TRACI PEDERSEN Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on January 10, 2011

A new drug target for anxiety disorders — and particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — is now possible due to a recent unexpected discovery by UCLA scientists.  Their research has honed in on neuronal gap junctions — channels in which electrical communication occurs between inhibitory neurons. 

The discovery also holds promise for Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related disorders.

“The brain has many processes we have not yet explored,” said UCLA Professor of Psychology Dr. Michael Fanselow. ”Understanding them and how they normally work can open up new approaches that may help in very prevalent and debilitating diseases, such as anxiety disorders and memory disorders.”

Gap junctions form where inhibitory neurons touch one another. They are an opening between nerve cells that allow electrical activity to pass from one neuron to another.

When an individual has a terrifying experience, there is often a lingering fear of the place where it happened. This occurs because the nerve cells in certain brain regions increase their ability to excite or stimulate one another, said Fanselow, leader of the study and member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute.

So far, most studies have emphasized that this experience happens because of the communication among neurotransmitters moving across synapses (spaces between neurons). However, there is also direct electrical contact among other small, inhibitory neurons in these areas as well, and these connect through gap junctions, Fanselow said.

“I was completely surprised by this discovery,” he added. “I really thought we were taking a long shot and was surprised that gap junctions were not only playing a role but that their importance was so great.”

Interestingly, these gap junctions are very common in invertebrates but rare in mammals, where they can only be found on certain inhibitory interneurons.

“Because of this, no one has looked at the importance of these gap junctions for learning, memory and emotion,” Fanselow said. “We hypothesized that these gap junctions may be very important. Because the gap junctions cause the inhibitory neurons to fire together, they may cause these inhibitory neurons to act as a pacemaker for the excitatory neurons, making them fire at the same time so they are better able to make fear memories.”

The study included the use of several drugs that block gap junctions in rats, and it was discovered that because the medications disrupted vital rhythms in the dorsal hippocampus (a brain region most associated with cognition), they were able to keep any “fear of place” memories from forming.

The drug injections worked when given right after a frightening experience, revealing that they could be particularly useful for PTSD.  Also, the drugs were just as effective when regularly injected into a cavity near the abdomen as when put directly into the brain.

“Because we don’t know when a person will experience trauma, treatments that can work after the experience hold more promise,” Fanselow said.

“Our research shows a way that neurons can coordinate their activity, and this coordination is critical for memory formation,” Fanselow said. “Perhaps if we had a way of enhancing gap junction function, we may improve memory formation by facilitating gap junctions when memory is impaired by diseases such as Alzheimer’s. However, we have not shown this yet.”

Fanselow noted that the formation of fear memories is what drives anxiety disorders, which are quite common and can be very debilitating. “Gap junctions appear to be key in coordinating the activity of the network of neurons that produce fear memories, specifically, and probably other memories, generally, as well,” he said.

Source:  University of California

Source Site: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/01/10/research-may-yield-new-drug-targets-for-memory-anxiety-disorders/22437.html

by Susanne Babbel, Ph.D., MFT

“Why are some people afraid to succeed but not to fail? Why are some more afraid of failure? How can one learn to embrace these two fears? What is the difference between them?”

A young Canadian woman wrote to me recently with these inquiries. I thought they were excellent questions, and decided to share my thoughts and findings here.

We are all so complex, and the way we react to situations and anticipate results is based on many physiological and psychological factors. So many, in fact, that it can be difficult to generalize why different personality types might handle success versus failure in such drastically polarized ways.

As a psychologist specializing in trauma and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) I’ve had firsthand experience coaching clients whose past experience feeds their current fear of success. For them, the excitement of success feels uncomfortably close to the feeling of arousal they experienced when subjected to a traumatic event or multiple events. (This feeling of arousal can be linked to sexuality, in certain cases where trauma has been experienced in that realm, but that is not always the case.) People who have experienced trauma may associate the excitement of success with the same physiological reactions as trauma. They avoid subjecting themselves to excitement-inducing circumstances, which causes them to be almost phobic about success.

There is another layer to the fear of success. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that the road to success involves risks such as “getting one’s hopes up” – which threatens to lead to disappointment. And many of us-especially if we’ve been subject to verbal abuse-have been told we were losers our whole lives, in one way or another. We have internalized that feedback and feel that we don’t deserve success. Even those of us who were not abused or otherwise traumatized often associate success with uncomfortable things such as competition and its evil twin, envy.

In order to have a healthy relationship with success (and it’s flip side, failure, or disappointment), the first step is to learn to differentiate between feelings of excitement and a “trauma reaction.”

Here is an easy exercise:

1. Recall an event where you were successful or excited when you were younger, and notice what you are feeling and sensing in your memory. Stay with the sensation of for 5 minutes. 
2. Recall an event where you were successful and excited recently in your life, and notice what you are feeling and sensing. Stay with this sensation of for 5 minutes.
3. Now tap into the sensation of a memory of an overwhelming situation. I suggest not to start with a truly traumatic event, at least not without a therapist’s support. Start with something only moderately disturbing to you. 
4. Now, go back to visualizing your success story. Do you notice a difference?

While corresponding with the young Canadian woman, I asked her to do look up bodily response to fear and excitement and let me know what she found. This is what she wrote back:

“I was looking up how the body responds to fear, and it said that when we sense fear the brain transmits signals and our nervous system kicks, in causing our breathing to quicken, our heart race to increase… we become sweaty, and we run on instinct. When we get excited or enthusiastic, doesn’t our nervous system work the same way?”

I assured her that, yes, the physical reactions to stress and to excitement are very similar. So, when we experience a traumatic event—such as a car accident or a school bullying incident—our body associates the fear we experience with the same physiological feelings we get while excited. Once we have been through enough trauma, we start to avoid those types of situations that trigger memories of fear. For this reason, trauma victims can tend to avoid excitement, and that can lead them to avoid success.

I work with trauma victims to get past their fears and associations and help them embrace and follow the path to success and healthy recovery.

Complicated Grief
Standard CEU Hours: 5 CEU Cost: $15.00
NBCC CEU Hours: 4 CEU Cost: $12.00

This course provides personal and professional information, testimonies and time-tested tools for healthy ways to cope and adjust to life after sudden and/or violent loss. It looks at the reality of sudden loss with perspective and insight, including the author’s (Dr. Gabriel Constans) personal experiences, as well as his clients and colleagues, who have been walking, crawling and sometimes running in the midst of sudden, unexpected, often horrific circumstances.

Grief and Depression
Standard CEU Hours: 2 CEU Cost: $6.00
NBCC CEU Hours: 2 CEU Cost: $6.00

This short course discusses the differences and interrelationships between Grief and Depression according to the DSM-IV. This is another course in a series on Grief and Loss by Dr. Gabriel Constans.

Men and Grief
Standard CEU Hours: 2 CEU Cost: $6.00
NBCC CEU Hours: 2 CEU Cost: $6.00

This course explores the different ways in which men react to and heal from grief and sadness. The course weaves in the complex web of biology and environment to illuminate how and why men may respond differently than women, as well as how their responses are similar. By exploring some of the different and similar emotional responses and their roots, the hope is to be better able to support one another through painful times.

Behind Bars II: Prison Population and Substance Abuse
Standard CEU Hours: 12 CEU Cost: $36.00
NBCC CEU Hours: 15 CEU Cost: $45.00

This report constitutes the most exhaustive analysis ever undertaken to identify the extent to which alcohol and other drugs are implicated in the crimes and incarceration of America’s prison population. Any individual interested in this issue or working with inmates who abused substances prior to incarceration will benefit from this course.

Good Grief: Love, Loss and Laughter
Standard CEU Hours: 16  CEU Cost: $64.00 Exam Only / $96.00 with Book
NBCC CEU Hours: 12  CEU Cost: $48.00  Exam Only / $72.00 with Book

This course was developed from the book, Good Grief: Love, Loss and Laughter by Gabriel Constans, PhD, which was written for professionals and everyday people who face death and grief. The writing is complete with real situations and honest stories to help bring love and hope to this difficult situation. Those in the mental health, medical, or social work field as well as parents, teachers, students, friends, or anyone else dealing with death and grief could benefit from the practical and compassionate information presented.

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