THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: LTK on 17 Oct 2012, 13:54
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I suppose there are enough TED talks available to fill hundreds of pages of forum discussion, but I just picked this one arbitrarily when I had nothing to do and it happens to be one that I now want EVERYONE to watch.
Here, Jane McGonigal describes how she suffered a concussion and had to avoid any sort of mental activity to recover, which made her extremely depressed. This spurred her to make a game out of it, and said game, called SuperBetter, which many people now use to become happier while struggling with an illness. She then proceeds to talk about post-traumatic recovery, and how people can actually come out of a traumatic experience with a fundamentally changed outlook on life. This positive change was found to be achievable even without a traumatic experience, and can be approximated by doing simple daily exercises. She claims that people doing this routine have an average lifespan that is ten years longer than other people.
I'm doing her a great disservice with this tl;dw summary, so you should watch the entire thing (http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html).
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I loved this one. "My heart doesn't work. I'm going to fix it." I don't really think it's worth explaining what's in it, the titla nad first thirty seconds do that fine themselves.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tal_golesworthy_how_i_repaired_my_own_heart.html
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A buddy of mine from when I lived in Alaska uses a self-training method called EFT which he credits for a lot of miracle-type recoveries from traumatic experiences, both his own and with the people he works with. It involves self-supportive language and tapping pressure points using your fingers (it is inspired by acupuncture).
I've had a long night so I'll watch the video in the morning, but is it at all like that? Or am I entirely off the mark
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If you're asking about Superbetter, then no. From what I understand, it turns fighting your illness into a role-playing game, which makes it easier to ask friends and family for help and to avoid negative influences. Trauma and Superbetter aren't necessarily connected, but I do believe coping with trauma is an ability humans have, and pathologies like PTSD are an abnormality. So I wouldn't be quick to associate recovery from trauma with a miracle, especially since self-supportive language and acupuncture have not been proven to have a significant therapeutic effect.
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A buddy of mine from when I lived in Alaska uses a self-training method called EFT which he credits for a lot of miracle-type recoveries from traumatic experiences, both his own and with the people he works with. It involves self-supportive language and tapping pressure points using your fingers (it is inspired by acupuncture).
I've had a long night so I'll watch the video in the morning, but is it at all like that? Or am I entirely off the mark
My last (absolutely wonderful) therapist taught me that! Something about tapping certain points is therapeutic for the specific point itself but additionally, the repetitious action is soothing and provides a distraction from spiraling negative thoughts. It blows my mind that it works, but it really does. I was mid-panic attack a few weeks ago and tried the technique in the heat of the moment and it actually helped to calm me down. Utilizing that and DBT (which is another amazing technique), I've turned the corner from super-insano-crazyface to still-quite-a-bit-off-but-primarily-functional-adult.
Superbetter is interesting.....I can't watch the video on my work computer (no sound), but I went to the official website, signed up and started poking around a bit. I could definitely see this being a helpful emotional tool if you were dedicated enough. I selected anxiety as the thing I'm getting "Superbetter from" and so far it's been similar to what I experienced in therapy (although not as in depth). Make a list of challenges, recognize your support systems, identify self-soothing activities, acknowledge one positive upcoming event in your life......etc, etc.