Editor’s Word: This text is a reprint. It was initially revealed March 17, 2019.
Annie Hopper is a limbic retraining specialist. Whilst you could by no means have heard this time period, limbic hyperactivity or dysfunction seems to be a foundational core of the dysfunction and challenges related to a number of chemical sensitivity (MCS), electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), power fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia and quite a few different situations, and by retraining your limbic system to reply appropriately, signs could subside or vanish.
Hopper was herself homeless for a time resulting from her EHS, which made her unable to tolerate trendy environments. I met Hopper in Peter Sullivan’s electromagnetic discipline (EMF) tent at an autism convention run by Jenny McCarthy known as Technology Rescue. Sullivan is an environmental well being funder who focuses on toxins and wi-fi security.
Sullivan had additionally benefited from Hopper’s work. Intrigued, I learn Hopper’s e-book, “Wired for Therapeutic: Remapping the Mind to Get well From Power and Mysterious Diseases,” which is a superb useful resource.
Growing EHS — A Private Account
Hopper describes the challenges that led to writing her e-book:
“It began in 2004. I used to be working as a core perception counsellor in Kelowna, British Columbia. I used to be working at an workplace that [had] mildew … [and] my workplace was positioned proper subsequent door to the janitor’s provide room, the place they held all of the cleansing chemical compounds for the workplace, all these actually heavy-duty industrial cleaners.
What I additionally did not know was that the precise workplace that I used to be renting was once part of the janitor’s provide room. They simply put up a wall to make a bit workplace house. It did not have correct air flow both.
I labored in that workplace for about 5 months. Over that interval, I began to get progressively sick. Earlier than that, [and] that is what we name like the right storm for a limbic system impairment … I used to be in a automobile accident the place I had a minor whiplash damage. That was in all probability in regards to the fifth automobile accident previous to this mildew and chemical publicity.
Anyway, for the 5 months that I used to be on this constructing, I began to progressively get signs, like anxiousness, power muscle and joint ache, and this rising sensitivity to only on a regular basis issues in my surroundings, like perfumes and colognes. That is the way it began … Actually, it felt like I used to be being actually poisoned by any form of chemical publicity.
I moved out of the constructing ultimately as a result of I acknowledged that it was the constructing that was making me sick, however by that point, it was too late. The injury was already achieved … [Then] I had what I name a tipping level. I used to be strolling by a bookstore and by a scented candle show. Another person is perhaps OK with that, however … at that time, one thing occurred to my mind.
I went over the sting when it comes to this fight-or-flight response that simply didn’t cease. At that time, it felt like I used to be having a mind hemorrhage or one thing. Gentle harm. Sound harm. Odor harm. Every part harm … After I awakened the subsequent morning … I couldn’t put on the identical garments that I’d worn, as a result of my mind was now selecting up on the smallest quantity of chemical residue from laundry detergent as probably life-threatening.
That began a really weird form of science fiction world the place I actually needed to navigate how I did life. If I used to be strolling down the road and somebody occurred to be doing their laundry they usually had dryer exhaust going off, if I walked by that, I would go into convulsions.
It was very critical, massively debilitating. I needed to give up my job. I needed to cease socializing. I used to be very a lot homebound and getting depressed. Simply after I thought issues could not get any worse, they did. What appeared like in a single day, I developed EHS.
By this time, I’ve already received extreme chemical sensitivities. I even have fibromyalgia. I used to be affected by anxiousness, insomnia and a bunch of different issues, after which I developed this EMF sensitivity. What that meant was that my physique may detect EMF.”
Chemical Sensitivities and EHS Typically Go Hand in Hand
It is a recognized undeniable fact that many who wrestle with chemical sensitivities are at increased threat of EHS, and that was definitely Hopper’s expertise. Along with a burning pores and skin sensation, which is a quite common symptom of EHS, she additionally misplaced her capacity to talk, which she says is a extreme symptom related to each chemical sensitivities and EHS.
“After I began to speak, I might say one thing that actually did not make any sense. It wasn’t truly what I used to be pondering,” she says. “There was one thing very cognitively off as properly. I had a variety of mind fog and simply not having the ability to focus, incapacity to articulate, to suppose, to place ideas collectively, to string a sentence collectively, all of that.”
To outlive, she needed to get away from all these chemical and EMF triggers. On the time, she was residing along with her husband, James, in a rental in Kelowna, British Columbia. It was unattainable to get away from wi-fi radiation. Ultimately, she needed to resort to tenting.
“Even earlier than this time, I knew that my mind was being affected. It actually made sense to me that my mind was not processing sensory info precisely anymore,” she says.
“By some means, the fight-or-flight facilities in my mind have been being triggered a lot in order that it was distorting among the info that was coming into my mind and making this overreactive, overresponsive, hypervigilant response that was additionally affecting my immune system, my endocrine system, my neurology — all of it …
It made sense for me that it was some kind of mind damage, some type of mind trauma — one thing was fallacious. I began to have a look at what space of the mind was answerable for sense of scent as a result of, to me, that appeared like the best place to start out.”
The Position of Your Limbic System in EHS
Consequently, Hopper started researching the limbic system, which is the emotional and reactive a part of your mind, answerable for filtering sensory and emotional info, and sorting that info into two distinct classes: protected or unsafe.
“You may think about that if any of these neurons alongside that neural community are broken or not working functionally in any approach, then that may begin to categorize info that may not usually be thought-about harmful as life-threatening,” Hopper says.
That is a completely unconscious response, in fact. Primarily, your mind will get caught within the fight-flight-or-freeze mechanism. She additionally researched neuroplasticity, which is your mind’s capacity to vary.
She found there was a variety of analysis exhibiting limbic system overactivation is frequent denominator for a lot of totally different sicknesses, together with CFS, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, despair and anxiousness. Whereas studying Dr. Norman Doidge’s e-book, “The Mind That Modifications Itself,” she had a sudden revelation.
“He was speaking about Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, who’s the guru for obsessive-compulsive dysfunction (OCD). Schwartz acknowledged that with OCD, there is part of the mind that simply wasn’t functioning correctly. That is what retains individuals on this feeling of contamination or obsessive worrying. I believed, ‘I haven’t got OCD, however definitely I really feel like my thoughts or my mind is caught.”
Schwartz would scan his sufferers’ brains to see how the mind was working after they have been having an OCD assault. He then gave them a collection of self-directed neuroplasticity workouts to do at residence, and rescanned their mind after a time frame. What he found was that their brains have been truly being rewired.
The extra they practiced these workouts, the extra their mind modified, to the purpose the place they really reversed the modifications that have been occurring throughout OCD. Consequently, they have been capable of perform usually once more.
“It appeared to me like that was the best place to look,” Hopper says. “I began to develop into my very own private guinea pig, how may I alter the limbic system, understanding that it was the sensation and reacting mind and understanding that it may very well be categorizing info or distorting info … This isn’t in contrast to post-traumatic stress dysfunction, I feel. Or traumatic mind damage …
You recognize, I used to be simply as shocked as anybody else, to be sincere with you. After I began to note modifications in signs, my first thought was, ‘Hallelujah’ … Via influencing this a part of my mind and rewiring the mind, it truly dampened and lowered signs, and miraculously normalized my sensory notion.
When your sensory notion goes again to being regular, your physique is not reacting to every thing. That made it potential for me to stay on the planet once more and be of the world once more, and be an energetic participant in my life.”
What Causes Limbic System Impairment?
So, what truly causes this limbic system impairment within the first place? As famous by Hopper, it may very well be quite a few various things, together with viral, bacterial, emotional or psychological stress. It may very well be chemical damage, mildew or extreme EMF publicity. “Normally it’s a mix of all of that that results in what we name the right storm. These sorts of stresses are cumulative,” she says.
In the end, her expertise and analysis led her to develop the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) course, which is now supplied as a five-day interactive coaching program round North America and Europe. This system can also be accessible on-line and as a 14-hour DVD collection.
It is not a fast course of. It might probably take many months of diligent work, however the finish outcomes are clearly definitely worth the effort. Hopper recommends practising this system each day for not less than six months.
“It takes some time to vary these neural networks. Although individuals would possibly begin feeling modifications inside a couple of days or a couple of weeks or a couple of months, you actually wish to repeat these workouts regularly to make these actually everlasting modifications within the mind,” she says.
The IMAGINE Acronym
Hopper got here up with the acronym known as “IMAGINE” to encapsulate the technique of this system:
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I stands for intention — The intention being to strengthen different neural circuitry and transferring the main focus away from signs with the intention to change the fight-flight-or-freeze response and normalize limbic system perform. |
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M for motivation — It is not an in a single day repair, so it is advisable to discover the motivation to do the workouts each day. |
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A for consciousness and affiliation — You could develop into conscious of how limbic system impairment impacts your ideas, feelings and behaviors. Once you catch these ideas, feelings and behaviors, you will wish to redirect your mind in that second into an alternate route in order that it would not proceed down the neural pathways related to the impairment. You additionally want to have a look at your associations. What sort of associations have you ever created with stimuli that is perhaps activating the menace facilities in your mind on a steady foundation, and how will you change these associations? |
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G for achieve — It is essential to acknowledge the positive aspects you make all through your retraining course of. “That is fascinating as a result of all of us have an innate negativity bias, that means we’ll discover what is going on fallacious earlier than we discover what is going on proper,” Hopper says. “When you have limbic system impairment, that negativity bias will be magnified due to the impairment itself.” |
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I for incremental coaching — It is a type of neural shaping that helps strengthen different neurocircuitry by exposing your self to small quantities of stimulus to assist retrain your mind to reply in a different way to it. |
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N for neurological and emotional rehearsals — “There’s part of this system the place we use our creativeness and visualization,” Hopper says. “The wonderful thing about creativeness is the mind doesn’t know the distinction between what’s actual and what’s imagined. There is no such thing as a finish to how we will use our creativeness to assist in retraining the mind.” Utilizing guided visualization, you’ll be able to alter your neural chemistry. When in fight-flight-or-freeze response, you launch a variety of cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Utilizing this guided visualization approach, you’ll be able to cease the manufacturing of these stress hormones and improve manufacturing of really feel good hormones reminiscent of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. |
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E for environmental consciousness — Final however not least, it is advisable to assess your day-to-day surroundings and create probably the most pristine and exquisite therapeutic surroundings for your self. |
The Significance of Addressing Mobile Harm
In essence, the central precept of DNRS is that neurons that fireplace collectively, wire collectively. The aim of many of those workouts is to rewire them within the route of therapeutic, as a result of they have been hyperfacilitated within the route of damage.
Whereas testimonials attest to the effectiveness of Hopper’s program, it is also essential to comprehend that this doesn’t tackle the mobile damage that EMFs trigger. My view is that your limbic system alarms and alerts you so as so that you can take steps to cease this mobile injury that’s occurring.
So, I imagine it is vitally essential to deal with each your limbic dysfunction and the mobile injury that has occurred in your physique. Hopper agrees that each angles are equally essential, however that limbic system retraining is the lacking hyperlink for a lot of:
“Let’s take chemical damage for instance. Is it affecting the tissues? Is it affecting the mobile degree? Completely. Cleansing is perhaps a superb factor for most individuals, however for the one that has a limbic system damage, they’re going to nonetheless be sick even after they’ve detoxified … or they may discover that detoxing remedies truly heighten signs quite than decrease signs, as a result of the mind is caught in that trauma state.
The cells of the physique have additionally affected the mind. We may do all these remedies to assist with the mobile, clearing the physique cellularly from what is occurring, but for lots of people, that will likely be sufficient. In the event that they’re nonetheless sick, then we actually wish to take a look at that mind element too.”
So, keep in mind, simply because your signs dissipate, which the DNRS technique will do for a lot of, that does not essentially imply you’ve got mitigated the mobile damage EMF publicity has inflicted. Ideally, you wish to do each. It is a mixture of the 2 that is so essential for full therapeutic.
Wonderful Tales of Restoration
Hopper’s e-book accommodates quite a few accounts of outstanding restoration tales utilizing her program. One not included within the e-book is Riley, who was bedridden for 3 years with extreme power Lyme illness.
“He couldn’t converse, couldn’t eat. He was partially paralyzed. He was delicate to gentle, to sound, to motion, to chemical compounds. He’d additionally had mildew publicity. His mother stored him alive by feeding him little Dixie cups of soup.
He’d been to a variety of actually nice practitioners and had come a great distance. They received him strolling once more and having the ability to discuss, however he was nonetheless left with a variety of totally different points, like meals sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, some OCD, some motion dysfunction.
Riley got here to this system. It took him a few 12 months to get better from the signs that have been left … that have been associated to limbic system impairment. He’s absolutely recovered. He traveled in Europe and went backpacking for a 12 months. It’s a reasonably superb story.”
Hopper additionally recounts two different success tales, together with one among a girl with a steadiness dysfunction who made a outstanding restoration on this system. One other is of a younger girl who had extreme POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) who went from being in a wheelchair to rollerblading. At current, Hopper has two analysis initiatives within the works.
One is an observational examine at McMaster College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, involving 100 members with all kinds of medical diagnoses. This examine goals to evaluate how the DNRS program impacts high quality of life and measure modifications in symptom severity over the course of a 12 months.
The second analysis initiative is happening on the College of Calgary. On this examine, they may evaluation mind scans of people that have power fatigue, fibromyalgia or chemical sensitivities to get a baseline mind scan after which take a look at how the mind modifications when somebody is definitely implementing this system for a interval of not less than six months.
Based on Hopper, the estimated success price of enhancing high quality of life is about 90%. Hopefully, these research validate that estimate.
Extra Info
Whereas this system seems to be very efficient, you do should be motivated to do it. Being underneath a excessive diploma of stress may additionally dampen outcomes. Homelessness is perhaps an instance right here. “However by all means, give it your greatest go. You won’t get the outcomes that you just wish to see as shortly, however that does not imply that you just will not see outcomes,” Hopper says.
That mentioned, she doesn’t advocate this system for sure psychological situations, reminiscent of schizophrenia, or for those who’re at present going by excessive situational stress, reminiscent of for those who’re going by a court docket case, or grieving a liked one who simply handed away.
“Which may not be a extremely good time to start out the course,” she says. “It does not imply that it is unattainable, but it surely would possibly sluggish the development down. I feel that if somebody’s simply handed away, you are coping with grief or loss, there is a pure development to grieving and a pure course of the place grieving takes place.
I do not suppose that may be a extremely nice time to start out this system, as a result of we actually need individuals to focus particularly on elevating their emotional state as a lot as they’ll, not solely after they’re doing the workouts and likewise all through the day. In the event you’re within the grieving course of, it is form of a bit bit troublesome to do.”
Barring extreme psychological sickness or excessive stress, for those who’ve been struggling for a very long time with a power and mysterious sickness, be it CFS, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, EHS, Lyme illness, meals sensitivities or any variety of different difficult-to-pin-down illnesses, think about giving limbic system retraining a strive.
“Do not surrender hope. There’s a solution. There is a approach out of struggling,” Hopper says. “I made a promise to myself after I was sick that if and after I discover a solution, I might share that with the world. I am doing my highest to try this. Our group is increasing an increasing number of.
The DVD has been translated into seven languages. Now we have individuals from all around the world and over 65 international locations report back to us that they are recovering their well being by limbic system retraining. All I wish to say is, ‘Give it a strive. Embrace this system.’ I feel that folks will likely be pleasantly shocked with the outcomes.”
To get your toes moist and study extra in regards to the science behind the DNRS program, choose up a duplicate of “Wired for Therapeutic: Remapping the Mind to Get well From Power and Mysterious Diseases.” In the event you determine you wish to undergo the course, you’ll be able to choose up the 14-hour DVD course on Hopper’s web site, RetrainingTheBrain.com (you too can decide to do the coaching on-line).
There you too can register for the five-day interactive coaching seminar. Since individuals coming to this system have all kinds of sensitivities, nice care is taken to make sure a protected and wholesome surroundings for many members.
