More on Leaky Gates

Remember how I have been writing about leaky gates and what it does to us. Well, it looks as though the gates really are leaky, so writes Scientific American. They say that there are leaky receptors in the limbic system that play a role in pathology. Chronic stress damages neurons in parts of the limbic system (hippocampus) that interferes with cognitive function. (Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2012).

When there is trauma it affects the ryanodine receptors and affects calcium balance. There is extracellular calcium which can damage neural cells. I imagine that key cells that control pain are also affected. In experiments with mice they found that stress resulted in cells becoming defective and “leaky,” their term. They conclude that chronic stress induces leakiness in hippocampal cells, resulting in impaired mental function. They liken this is post- traumatic-stress-disorder. Perhaps the same pathways are impaired.

 All this simply means that constant adversity gnaws away at key neural cells, which renders them defective; they cannot do their job. That job includes repression. When the body asks a certain system to function despite constant impact of neglect, abuse, indifference and lack of love, sooner or later it can no longer do what it is supposed to do—shut down pain. It is overwhelmed trying to carry out its job and then it falters; pain rushes through the barriers or gates and we begin to suffer. We don’t as yet feel; that comes when we experience the suffering for what it is and where it comes from; its site of origin. Feeling is making it concrete and connected; that is what transforms suffering into its opposite and finally relieves us. That is the secret of our therapy; and it is not so secret. Suffering is amorphous, shapeless, smell-less; it is as pervasive as the feelings underlying it. Once it is connected we know what to do about it; no different from a thorn in the foot. Once we pinpoint causes it leads inevitably to proper treatment. If we never know it is a thorn we are helpless and go on hurting; that thorn is an imprint, an old feeling stuck in place; we are unable to escape and change. It changes us and will go on doing so until we acknowledge it fully.

So leaky gates are helpful in one sense; they foretell of pain on the rise, bursting through the leaky barriers, showing us what we need to do. It is truly a “thorn in our side.” It is also our chance to get well; to take that rising anguish and turn it into what it is, a feeling, a history, something that constantly drives us. We help patients take their body off the accelerator; that seems like a simple metaphor but you would be surprised at how many patients feel that they are speeding along, driven, and do not know how to take their foot off the accelerator. We know how and it is not so difficult; figure out what has caused the drive or speed. It could be never being touched, or an anxious pregnant mother, or a severe unloving father. We don’ t find out; we find a way to help the patient go back in history and she will discover it all. And she finally will be free; no more constant drive, no more incessant compulsions; no more obsessive ideas and compulsive sex: liberation at last.