New research has found a specific change in brain chemistry due to trauma. An article on Medscape.com says:
“Lower serotonin 1B levels were also strongly associated with age at first trauma. The earlier the trauma exposure, the greater the brain alterations and the greater the severity of PTSD symptoms, and the greater the risk of developing comorbidities,” senior author Alexander Neumeister, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, told Medscape Medical News.
“These findings establish that trauma at a young age causes long-lasting neurobiological and psychological effects in survivors with PTSD. In other words, early-life trauma can interfere with normal brain development,” he said.
The article is somewhat technical, but lay readers like us can pretty much follow what is being discussed. To read the story, you need to register for Medscape.com, which is free.
Read Potential new drug target for PTSD on Medscape.com.
Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.
“Thanks, sky. But when did I become a member of Mensa? Someone really should have told me! I would have so much more of a social life and wouldn’t be here so much! LOL”
Alas Mensa membership doesn’t truly help with the social life imo… and doesn’t exclude the risk of being spathed. Only real group meetings in Belgium that has any succes as being numerous are the ones of gathering matchboxes…. gathering matchboxes wasn’t really my thing. 😉
I know a few married couples who met through Mensa. Hey, at least I’d know the guy was intelligent. It’s so hard to find intelligent men.
Star
Upwards on this thread you asked me if I stayed with my spath through the lies.
In the beginning, the lies were huge and outrageous. I saw them immediately. I stayed. I never met anybody who lied like that, I didn’t know what it meant, it didn’t compute for me.
Over time, the lies got less obvious, and I just sort of ignored them.
But at the same time, more of his mask slipped, more often, and so, later, after a couple of years I left. Why? He declared that he was EVIL. He said felt compelled to start talking BACKWARDS. He said “somebody’s got to die”. It’s taken me months to remove him from my life. Every day gets better.
I didn’t know, until meeting this spath, that there were bodies walking around that looked like they were human, but in fact were missing key human characteristics. He’s deformed.
It’s sad for the human race that this defect occurs.
Athena
callmeathena,
What you posted was very similar to my experience. My socio just kept getting darker and darker… talking in his sleep, and saying just very scary evil stuff.
But what you said was very, very chilling. I can only imagine…
“He declared that he was EVIL. He said felt compelled to start talking BACKWARDS. He said “somebody’s got to die”. It’s taken me months to remove him from my life. Every day gets better.”
I mean, wow. That’s like at the core of what they are… I’m surprised he was so honest about it. That stuff makes me think of the exorcist movie!
Nah, Star, I wasn’t insulted at all….I actually think, the last time I counted I have encountered at least 50 people closely enough to say “they were psychopaths” of one level or another….some are pretty high level criminals…Charles “Jackie” Walls III who molested over 1500 kids including his sisters boys, one of them killed himself, another boy he molested through Boy Scouts killed his family at Jackie’s demand so the family who knew wouldn’t turn him into the law. My own son who is a murderer, the Trojan Horse psychopath, his old cell mate that he sent to kill me, a 3 X convicted child molester/rapist, and I could go on….and then there are the “garden variety” that are “snakes in suits” that are still pretty toxic.
I’m not sure though that I’ve met any more than anyone else, just that it so happens that I happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet Jackie and then he got arrested. At the time I knew him, I had NO IDEA WHAT A MONSTER HE WAS, just that he was an “arsehole” and I didn’t like him. The same with a man named Jack Pratt who was a “friend” in my living history group that was convicted and sent to prison for kiddie porn…or the minister, Dickie Chance who got caught in the kiddie porn computer thing. Most of these people I actually didn’t “like” but I had NO clue about Jack Pratt until I heard about his arrest, he wasn’t a “close close” friend, but I’d been around him a lot and liked him. NO CLUE at all.
I’ve traveled quite a bit and worked in various industries, including the film industry and the medical field, where there is a great deal of incivility. In fact, there is a lot of research going on now about the incivility among nurses and other medical personnel. So maybe I have just been around the type of people who tend to have more psychopaths per capita than regular people. The adventurous types—pilots, mountain climbers, self employed, the ex patriot community, inventors, etc.
Oh, speaking of MENSA, they have various club meetings in prison, BTW…and being in MENSA isn’t all that “special” anyway, as 2% of the population who tests well on IQ or ACT-type tests qualify. My son is a member of the 99.9 th group…well, he was til I quit paying his dues. Not sure if he is still a member.
Being “intellectually smart” doesn’t mean diddly as far as life is concerned, it only means how fast you can process information, but doesn’t do anything for how well you function in life, or what kind of person you are or your “emotional intelligence.” I have never had any doubt that I am “smart” but I have been PLAYED LIKE A FINE VIOLIN by just about every psychopath I’ve come across until I finally GOT THE LESSON.
One of the things That FIRST drew me to LoveFraud is the INTELLIGENCE of the bloggers here. I had kept asking myself “if you’re so smart why have you been used and abused by all these folks?” But then I saw people who were smarter than I am who had also been used and abused and DAMN! I realized that no matter HOW SMART YOU ARE you can be CONNED unless you know what to look for and PRACTICE CAUTION. I didn’t feel so STOOPID any more or so alone…I’m in “good company” here and “smart company” here.
Yep, 2% of people are MENSA level. That’s a similar percentage as spath percentages, and we know how many we meet. A MENSA measured and level individual may not pay to get the Mensa magazine, but is a member for life normally once registered.
While the high IQ can have similar effects (needing challenges, underachievement because of boredome, processing speed, often high sensitiveness which then slows the processing for the mass of data being taken in), it is but one of the many intellgences out there. I can say that my music intelligence is total 0. Can’t for the life of me sing, play guitar (and I wanted to learn), or read note sheets without effort. And when it comes to physical intelligence: I am barely average on ball sports (and I tried many), and was totally hopeless at gym, and despite my long lengs I always lost in 100m races… NEVER EVER was able to make a cartwheel, and just felt clumsy about that my whole elementary and HS career. Only good for water sports and rhythm. I can find my way pretty good in nature, but always lost when driving in cities: American and European.
I agree with darwinsmom and oxy about this IQ stuff. I think, if anything, the high IQ can be a social problem rather than help. It also creates all sorts of disasters when suddenly everyone around you expects you to solve world hunger and prove the existence of quantum realities all in one lifetime (by everyone, I mean family). Not to mention the EQ element which an IQ test says nothing about. My EQ was around 80 when I tested. Social disaster! My brain is lickidy split quick and it’s only now that my emotions are starting to catch up with it!!! (lickidy split is my mother’s word invention as far as I know…has anyone else heard this expression?).
IQ tests measure something very specific that shouldn’t be confused with overall aptitude in life, I think. It’s targeting a specific type of functioning and it neglects a huge range of qualities that make for an able person. Creativity is the other thing pretty much forgotten on IQ tests. There’s a new test that measures this and people with “genuis” IQ scores on the traditional IQ test were found to have varying degrees of ability on this test, while others who scored low on the traditional IQ test may score higher than the “geniuses” at times. In the end, we may wind back to a more scientific way of evaluating talent, rather than “intelligence” or maybe even just individual strengths and thinking styles along a spectrum.
Then there’s the dumpaths. They get their own test.
Well, just to clarify, I’m NOT a Mensa member. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 🙂
BTW, my IQ is supposed to be 160. It’s more of a curse to me than a blessing. Although I’m sure I’ve probably lost a few IQ points over the years blogging on some of the internet forums I’m on. 🙂 (NOT this one). The best thing I love about blogging with LF members is the great spelling and grammar. I don’t have to pour bleach into my brain after every post. It doesn’t surprise me that many of you are in Mensa or Mensa-worthy.
I just have my highschool education, I aint smart as those mensa people, but I know a few genious ( did I spell that right? ) and book smart people that dont have common sense enuff to come in out of the rain and wouldnt have a clue how to survive if the trucks didnt bring them everything they needed every day..just my opinion – ok I am off this stage for awhile.