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kcantwell , 04 Mar 2010

Mental exercise

I want to present a mental exercise that has proved successful in stopping compulsions such as skin picking, face and fingers, nail biting, etc. The exercise will cost you nothing but a little time and should show positive results in a couple days with a complete cure in a week. It has worked for many others and I will tell you about their condition and experience (without revealing names) if you will e-mail me at kenn100@yahoo.com. I will also answer any questions you may have. But overall, I hope you will contact me to discuss the method. I do want to know whether or not it has worked. I am an indifidual, not associated with any commercial or academic organization, and you can be assured that our e-mails will be confidential. The mental exercise procedure: Choose a short sentence hereafter called the mantra. I use "I know what I'm doing." Choose some reading matter of intermediate complexity - magazine stories or popular novels will do. As you read your selection, voice your mantra aloud over and over again without stoping. You will see words that you know but somehow their meaning will not seem to register. This is because you are blocking the normal pathway to congnizance by reciting the mantra. Read the sentence of phrase over and over again until the meaning does register. But do not yield to the temptation to stop the mantra. Do this exercise for at least twenty minutes a day, preferebly in the morning. Then, during the course of the day, if possible, do two or three one minute follow-ups. Then just before bed, do ten minutes. This mental exercise is a form of self-therapy and as in all therapy there is resistance. After one or two days you will find many excuses to stop. Don't do it! If you contact me I will encourage you to continue and tell you of other benefits of the exercise in addition to the cessation of compulsions. And we can speculate as to why it works. kenn100@yahoo.com
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40daysfromnow
March 05, 2010
email me and I will send you magic beans that will cure you in 2 days if you lay them on the ground and jump over them counterclockwise and yelp loudly. These magic beans have a strong placebo effect and have been successful in curing highly suggestible patients. My magic beans magically increase serotonin levels by releasing tryptophan into your skin as you touch them. Now when you get the magic beans, start jumping over them and yelping. At the same time, try to do sit ups. You will notice that you cannot jump AND do sit ups at the same time because the jumping is blocking the motor action of the sit ups. Do this for 2 days and you will be cured. No no no no no! That is simply not how it works. If I could say some rubbish over and over and be cured, every therapist would know this method and no one would suffer from this.
kcantwell
March 05, 2010
kcantwell Ahhh - so we have a comedian on the panel. But an anonymous one. Let me be serious. I have researched the placebo possibliity of the metal exercise cure. Others have suggested that also, but after months of the cessation of their compulsion, they came to believe that there is more than a placebo effect at work. I invite my anonymous critic to try the system if he has an annoying compulsion, and when he is cured, I will accept his apology. And if he will send me his e-mail address, I will send him the testimonials of some of those who have participated and succeeded. And if he wants to have a serious discussion of the causes of compulsions, I am willing. I extend this invitation to everyone.
40daysfromnow
March 05, 2010
Yes. There are a lot of anonymous members on this site. It isn't something many of us are proud of. Please elaborate on your research of this method being a placebo effect. And please tell me why months of the cessation of their compulsion allows one to reject the possibility of a placebo effect. Placebo effects can be long lasting. I don't think you need to reject the possibility of this method being a placebo. Placebos have provided equal relief from depression as prescription SSRIs etc. I don't see how any patients could "believe that there is more than a placebo effect at work". How would they know? They wouldn't. But again. Nothing wrong with placebos. I just think that the only people that would benefit are highly suggestible patients. And these highly suggestible people would also be cured with my magic beans. If you do something with effort and determination and truly believe it will work, there is a good chance that it will work (for problems with large cognitive component). But I will need a lot more convincing before I believe it will work, and before I will try it. I don't see how that would affect serotonin levels or anything important. It will just make you look, feel and sound very silly. I just don't see how this method related to compulsions. Where is the science behind it? Talk to me about neurotransmitters, neural connections, associations, arousal, satiety, cravings, compulsions, and some neuropeptides and how they relate to the compulsions and then we can talk. Right now, we have been presented with something as silly as my magic beans.
kcantwell
March 05, 2010
kcantwell Let me present a scenario that approaches our delimma from a philosophic point of view. Supposing I tell one hundred people that a simple but seemingly irrational exercise will cure their affliction. I furthur tell them that the exercise has worked for most of those who have participated. A question arises as to whether or not the cure is the placebo effect or the results of the exercise. The answer is unknown, but half of the prospective participants do the exercise and are cured. The other half do nothing and continue with their affliction and cynicism. Here is the question: Which group would you prefer to be a member of? I usually postpone the following discussion for those who are willing to participate, but because of the "magic bean" nonsense, I will post it now. I discovered what has proven to be a cure for many quite serendipitously. I was doing research on intelligence and reading comprehension. I reasoned that neural pathways to cognizance may be more numerous for those with the higher IQs. Therefore, if the normal pathways could be blocked and new ones forced to form, it could possibly enhance one's IQ when both the original and new pathways were in use. I experimented on myself and a curious thing happened. I had had a finger picking habit for many years. All methods I tried to stop were futile. Pickers can relate to that. But suddenly the compulsion stopped. And when I say it stopped, I mean it disappeared as though it never existed. I reasoned that it was the mental exercise that caused the cessation. This could not be a placebo effect because there was no expectation of the compulsion cessation. I solicited participants on the internet to test the hypothesis that the mental exercise could cure compulsions. The result was rewarding. Yes, it did work. I provided my thoughts on the reasons but did not insist that they were right, and I asked for their thoughts. My first participant likened her mind to a crowded freeway with cars moving slowly and honking their horns. The effect of the mental exercise was to create more lanes that allowed the traffic to move unhampered. I like that metaphor. But let's look deeper into the process. Studies have shown (Mayberg and colleagues) that placebos can be shown by PET scans to effect changes in the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the doorway to cognizance. And the mental exercise, by blocking normal neural pathways to cognizance and forcing the creation of new or enhanced ones, effects changes in the cerebral cortex. Thus, effective placebos and the mental exercise are similar in their effects. But the mental exercise does not require that the participant believe it will work. Most of those who tried were skeptical at first. So let me appeal to you again, try the system. It costs nothing now or ever and the possibility of success is high. In addition, there are other benefits arising from the exercise. And please let me know. You can understand my interest in your experience. Ken kenn100@yahoo.com
40daysfromnow
March 05, 2010
Thank you for your efforts and your concern. I would love to be a highly suggestible person that would be optimistic about this treatment. Unfortunately for me, I am not. Many of us experience episodes of picking that do not even enter our cognizance..... Also, that explanation of how the treatment works would make a neuroscientist shudder after reading it. I can't say that the method does not work, but I will say that that is not HOW it works. I would bet everything I own. You have still not provided any evidence besides your one case study on yourself that could falsify the idea that this is all placebo effect. And your one self observation is simply correlational. I would stop trying to deny that this could be placebo because it is the most likely cause of the effect. And again, the only bad thing about placebos is that they don't work so well for skeptics. I would recommend reading a beginner's psychoneuroscience book.

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