Posted by Maxime on May 3, 2005, at 20:01:02
In reply to one more thing Re: QUESTION FOR SLS, posted by Lizzyb on May 3, 2005, at 13:34:03
> > This is all really new to me. What is "kindling"?
> > Thanks
>
> I read the thread and posts you started about kindling and didn't understand.
>
>I understand it from a bipolar perspective. First,
the name "kindling" was chosen because the process is likened to a log fire.It might be suitable fuel for a fire, is very hard to set afire in the first place. But surround it by smaller, easy to light pieces of wood - kindling - and set these blazing, and soon the log itself will catch fire.In bipolar disorder initial periods of cycling may begin with an environmental stressor, but if the cycles continue or occur unchecked, the brain becomes kindled or sensitized - pathways inside the central nervous system are reinforced so to speak - and future episodes of depression, hypomania, or mania will occur by themselves (independently of an outside stimulus), with greater and greater frequency. In other words, brain cells that have been involved in an episode once are more likely to do so again, and more cells will become sensitized over time. For example, there is evidence that the more mood episodes a person has, the harder it is to treat each subsequent episode... thus taking the kindling analogy one step further: that a fire which has spread is harder to put out.
So Scott is saying (and tell me if I am wrong Scott) that one could prevent withdrawal symptoms from anti-depressants from happening by preventing the fire before it starts by using anticonvulsants, or benzos or neurontin etc. Anything that has anti-convulsant properties.
Does that make sense?
Maxime
poster:Maxime
thread:493061
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050424/msgs/493317.html