Dow and Erika,

These are powerful and effective ideas. The work that I did with a psychiatrist during my severe depression including creating new ideas or "stories" to view the early childhood trauma I had experienced. With a new "story" my brain seemed to process the information in a different way. Without the support of anti-depressants it might have been difficult to get that process happening but I have no doubt that the new "stories" created fresh pathways. In addition, I took up beading at the time - I tried to meditate and wasn't good at it but beading had the same kind of effect on me. It was as useful a therapy as anything else I did.

However, with the canoe-building and mountain climbing and starting the CGA program I had been trying to create new pathways (inadvertently - I didn't think of it that way) but without the meds and support of a skilled psychiatrist who got to the root of the PTSD I wasn't having much luck.

My own feeling is that it can take a combination of useful tools including the new pathways theory to combat severe mental illness.

Wendy

Rheumatoid Arthritis
Methotrexate, Celebrex, Plaquenil