Editor’s Observe: This text is a reprint. It was initially revealed March 17, 2019.
Annie Hopper is a limbic retraining specialist. Whilst you might 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 plenty of different circumstances, and by retraining your limbic system to reply appropriately, signs might subside or vanish.
Hopper was herself homeless for a time on account of her EHS, which made her unable to tolerate fashionable environments. I met Hopper in Peter Sullivan’s electromagnetic discipline (EMF) tent at an autism convention run by Jenny McCarthy known as Era 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 Continual and Mysterious Sicknesses,” which is a good useful resource.
Creating 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 situated proper subsequent door to the janitor’s provide room, the place they held all of the cleansing chemical substances 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 little 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 proper storm for a limbic system impairment … I used to be in a automotive accident the place I had a minor whiplash damage. That was in all probability in regards to the fifth automotive 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 nervousness, power muscle and joint ache, and this rising sensitivity to only on a regular basis issues in my atmosphere, like perfumes and colognes. That is the way it began … Actually, it felt like I used to be being actually poisoned by any sort 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 harm 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 could be 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. Mild harm. Sound harm. Odor harm. All the pieces harm … Once I awoke the following 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 sort 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 and so they had dryer exhaust going off, if I walked by that, I’d go into convulsions.
It was very critical, vastly 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 once 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 nervousness, insomnia and a number of different issues, after which I developed this EMF sensitivity. What that meant was that my physique may detect EMF.”
Chemical Sensitivities and EHS Usually Go Hand in Hand
It is a identified undeniable fact that many who wrestle with chemical sensitivities are at greater danger 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 means to talk, which she says is a extreme symptom related to each chemical sensitivities and EHS.
“Once I began to speak, I’d say one thing that actually did not make any sense. It wasn’t truly what I used to be considering,” she says. “There was one thing very cognitively off as properly. I had quite a lot of mind fog and simply not having the ability to focus, incapacity to articulate, to assume, 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 dwelling along with her husband, James, in a condominium in Kelowna, British Columbia. It was not possible 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 data precisely anymore,” she says.
“By some means, the fight-or-flight facilities in my mind had been being triggered a lot in order that it was distorting among the data 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 form of mind damage, some type of mind trauma — one thing was improper. I began to have a look at what space of the mind was accountable for sense of scent as a result of, to me, that appeared like the best place to start out.”
The Function of Your Limbic System in EHS
In consequence, Hopper started researching the limbic system, which is the emotional and reactive a part of your mind, accountable for filtering sensory and emotional data, and sorting that data into two distinct classes: secure 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 data that might not usually be thought-about harmful as life-threatening,” Hopper says.
That is a wholly unconscious response, after all. Primarily, your mind will get caught within the fight-flight-or-freeze mechanism. She additionally researched neuroplasticity, which is your mind’s means to alter.
She found there was quite a lot of analysis exhibiting limbic system overactivation is frequent denominator for a lot of totally different diseases, together with CFS, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, despair and nervousness. 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 had been having an OCD assault. He then gave them a sequence of self-directed neuroplasticity workout routines to do at residence, and rescanned their mind after a time period. What he found was that their brains had been truly being rewired.
The extra they practiced these workout routines, the extra their mind modified, to the purpose the place they really reversed the modifications that had been occurring throughout OCD. In consequence, they had been capable of perform usually once more.
“It appeared to me like that was the best place to look,” Hopper says. “I began to turn into my very own private guinea pig, taking a look at how may I alter the limbic system, figuring out that it was the sensation and reacting mind and figuring out that it could possibly be categorizing data or distorting data … This isn’t in contrast to post-traumatic stress dysfunction, I feel. Or traumatic mind damage …
You understand, I used to be simply as stunned as anybody else, to be trustworthy with you. Once I began to note modifications in signs, my first thought was, ‘Hallelujah’ … By way of influencing this a part of my mind and rewiring the mind, it truly dampened and decreased signs, and miraculously normalized my sensory notion.
When your sensory notion goes again to being regular, your physique is now not reacting to all the things. That made it potential for me to dwell on the planet once more and be of the world once more, and be an lively 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 could possibly be plenty of various things, together with viral, bacterial, emotional or psychological stress. It could possibly be chemical damage, mildew or extreme EMF publicity. “Normally it’s a mix of all of that that results in what we name the proper storm. These sorts of stresses are cumulative,” she says.
Finally, her expertise and analysis led her to develop the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) course, which is now provided as a five-day interactive coaching program round North America and Europe. This system can also be out there on-line and as a 14-hour DVD sequence.
It is not a fast course of. It may possibly take many months of diligent work, however the finish outcomes are clearly well worth the effort. Hopper recommends working towards this system each day for not less than six months.
“It takes some time to alter these neural networks. Although individuals may begin feeling modifications inside just a few days or just a few weeks or just a few months, you actually wish to repeat these workout routines frequently 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 various neural circuitry and transferring the main focus away from signs in an effort 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 you’ll want to discover the motivation to do the workout routines each day. |
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A for consciousness and affiliation — You should turn into conscious of how limbic system impairment impacts your ideas, feelings and behaviors. If 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 does 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 could be activating the risk facilities in your mind on a steady foundation, and how are you going to change these associations? |
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G for acquire — It is vital to acknowledge the beneficial properties you make all through your retraining course of. “That is attention-grabbing as a result of all of us have an innate negativity bias, that means we will discover what is going on improper earlier than we discover what is going on proper,” Hopper says. “When you’ve got limbic system impairment, that negativity bias could 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 various neurocircuitry by exposing your self to small quantities of stimulus to assist retrain your mind to reply otherwise 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 beauty of 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 are able to use our creativeness to assist in retraining the mind.” Utilizing guided visualization, you may alter your neural chemistry. When in fight-flight-or-freeze response, you launch quite a lot of cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Utilizing this guided visualization method, you may cease the manufacturing of these stress hormones and improve manufacturing of really feel good hormones resembling dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. |
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E for environmental consciousness — Final however not least, you’ll want to assess your day-to-day atmosphere and create essentially the most pristine and delightful therapeutic atmosphere for your self. |
The Significance of Addressing Mobile Damage
In essence, the central precept of DNRS is that neurons that fireside collectively, wire collectively. The aim of many of those workout routines 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 vital 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 harm that’s occurring.
So, I imagine it is vitally vital to deal with each your limbic dysfunction and the mobile harm that has occurred in your physique. Hopper agrees that each angles are equally vital, 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 stage? Completely. Detoxing could be a great factor for most individuals, however for the one who has a limbic system damage, they will nonetheless be sick even after they’ve detoxified … or they may discover that cleansing remedies truly heighten signs fairly 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 going on, but for lots of people, that will probably be sufficient. In the event that they’re nonetheless sick, then we actually wish to have a look at that mind part too.”
So, keep in mind, simply because your signs dissipate, which the DNRS methodology 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.
Superb Tales of Restoration
Hopper’s e book comprises plenty of accounts of exceptional 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 communicate, couldn’t eat. He was partially paralyzed. He was delicate to gentle, to sound, to motion, to chemical substances. He’d additionally had mildew publicity. His mother stored him alive by feeding him little Dixie cups of soup.
He’d been to quite a lot 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 quite a lot of totally different points, like meals sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, some OCD, some motion dysfunction.
Riley got here to this system. It took him a couple of 12 months to get well from the signs that had been left … that had been associated to limbic system impairment. He’s totally recovered. He traveled in Europe and went backpacking for a 12 months. It’s a reasonably wonderful story.”
Hopper additionally recounts two different success tales, together with considered one of a lady with a steadiness dysfunction who made a exceptional restoration on this system. One other is of a younger lady who had extreme POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) who went from being in a wheelchair to rollerblading. At current, Hopper has two analysis tasks 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 going down on the College of Calgary. On this examine, they may assessment mind scans of people that have power fatigue, fibromyalgia or chemical sensitivities to get a baseline mind scan after which have 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 fee 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 beneath a excessive diploma of stress can also dampen outcomes. Homelessness could be an instance right here. “However by all means, give it your finest go. You may not get the outcomes that you just wish to see as rapidly, however that does not imply that you just will not see outcomes,” Hopper says.
That stated, she doesn’t advocate this system for sure psychological circumstances, resembling schizophrenia, or if you happen to’re at present going by excessive situational stress, resembling if you happen to’re going by a courtroom 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 doesn’t suggest that it is not possible, but it surely may gradual 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 assume that might 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 will, not solely after they’re doing the workout routines and in addition all through the day. Should you’re within the grieving course of, it is sort of a little bit bit troublesome to do.”
Barring extreme psychological sickness or excessive stress, if you happen to’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, take into account giving limbic system retraining a strive.
“Do not hand over hope. There’s a solution. There is a approach out of struggling,” Hopper says. “I made a promise to myself once I was sick that if and once I discover a solution, I’d share that with the world. I am doing my easiest to try this. Our crew is increasing an increasing number of.
The DVD has been translated into seven languages. Now we have individuals from everywhere in the world and over 65 nations report back to us that they are recovering their well being by limbic system retraining. All I want to say is, ‘Give it a strive. Embrace this system.’ I feel that individuals will probably be pleasantly stunned with the outcomes.”
To get your ft moist and be taught extra in regards to the science behind the DNRS program, decide up a duplicate of “Wired for Therapeutic: Remapping the Mind to Get well From Continual and Mysterious Sicknesses.” Should you determine you wish to undergo the course, you may decide up the 14-hour DVD course on Hopper’s web site, RetrainingTheBrain.com (you can too choose to do the coaching on-line).
There you can too 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 secure and wholesome atmosphere for many members.
