Building a Culture of Empathy

[mariamma]

Another article on empathy. The author explains well how I feel most of the time.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...after-yourself

[Toughy]

Everything we think/emote/do is because of hormones, neurotransmitters or other trace protein structures.

I wish I knew why the above statement just irritates the bejesus out of me.

[mariamma]

Originally Posted by Toughy

I wish I knew why the above statement just irritates the bejesus out of me.

I do irritate people with my blanket statements. Here is some of the science behind what I say.
Your adrenals make about 50 hormones, some being stress hormones, water balance and mineral balance hormones, the gender inducing hormones, etc http://www.safemenopausesolutions.co...fficiency.html
If you feel like a woman, you will have more estrogen than testosterone and vice verse. If you feel like you are both male and female, you probably have high amounts of both hormones.
http://www.twinspirittribe.com/page/page/4580470.htm
If you are schizophrenic, you have too much dopamine. You can have temp. schizophrenia with meth use or a parasitic infection
http://blog.neura.edu.au/2012/08/07/...mmatory-topic/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0311085151.htm
If you are empathic, you are skilled at using oxytocin.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8WV1zAh9zU"]Mirror Neurons - YouTube[/nomedia]
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEsGQ3JmKg"]mirror neurons part 2 - YouTube[/nomedia]
Serotonin engenders well-being and happiness.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/serotonin.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract
I can do a better job with explaining myself. I've just hear so much about this stuff on the radio that I assume everyone knows by now. There's a new study coming out every week on anxiety and GABA or ACTH, vasopressin and anxiety, etc., etc.
If you saw the previous links, they talk about oxytocin and empathy. Oxytocin also engenders bonding, trust, is a primary hormone involved with love, it is what you 'break' when you break a horse (as opposed to the more modern technique of gentle breaking). You break the horse's trust and get the horse to bond with the trainer (instead of dame or the herd). Dogs also have high oxytocin which is why dogs and horses are therapy animals. They help ADHD and autistic kids read and connect to others better.
I hope this answers anyone's questions. I know it's easier to believe I am a deluded crazy person. My lack of patience doesn't help. But there is a reason why I say and write about what I write about. I'm not pulling dreams out of thin air.

[Glenn]

Mariamma; I believe there are two roads we can go by to rewire and/or rebalance ourselves and our environment, and that is via meditation and medication. This faster paced industrial society creates much less empathy and utilizes more natural resources. We need to slow down. Deep meditation can slow down the breath and heart rate and help us to heal (along with medications)and consume less natural resources, and also raise the level of our spiritual energy. You know that the spiritual energy of one empath can raise the consciousness of many.

[mariamma]

Thank you for your observation Glenn. You are right. Meditation and medication CAN both work. I believe with meditation, one changes the hormonal balance without conscious intention. The intention is for clarity or peace of mind or returning to balance or homeostasis. The hormones and neurotransmitters (and the energy signatures they give off, these signatures are not measured by science but can be felt as Chi, Ki, prana or kundalini by spiritual practitioners) just end up getting balanced out and the person meditating feels a benefit.
Meditation generates more serotonin too. Serotonin is a light-generating molecule, has been on earth for 3 bil years and energetically brings spirit or the Light of God into a body. The word Namaste means "the light within me honors the light within you". I believe the word refers to the energy of serotonin.
I also believe theta brain wave state occurs (that meditative head space artists, musicians, dancers, etc. get into) and re-sets the brain and body hormonally. There is little science behind this YET people report 'feeling attuned' or a return to balance after being in theta brain wave state. In shamanism, this is the brain state you get into to connect with the Great Spirit/Source/God. People can independently learn how to heal in this state but it usually takes a teacher. Only serious bad-asses (Shaman) can figure it out without help. Maybe 1% of the population????
Oxytocin is amazing in that a person with high amounts will see a person with high amounts and energetically respond to that person. At first sight, they feel like "I've known you all my life". If one is going to bond with anyone, there will be oxytocin involved.
Medication CAN change the hormonal level in the body and brain. The person on the medication still has to figure things out and change one's mind-set. Medication does help to change the mind set but you still have to change the mind set. It can take months.
The non-profit I linked this thread to talking about rape and how it is representational of a culture and how it reveals a lack of empathy. Thing is, rape will often have more than 1 perpetrator at a time. There will be a connection between the groups of raping males. They will bond over rape, war, violence, etc. So building a culture of empathy is focused on what this all means.
The bonding that happens in life and with oxytocin, it happens mostly at birth. Oxytocin is what is released in order to deliver a baby. You will have the highest amount at birth (either being born or giving birth) then at orgasm, then with yoga, dance or hugs (it must be the muscle clenching. it's released when you stimulate nipples or clench uterus/prostate in orgasm).
I suspect raping males, warring or violent males have been broken (like one breaks a horse) and cannot bond appropriately. Mirror neurons in the brain makes one feel what another feels. You cannot SEE how you are hurting another if you are raping and enjoying raping. The mirror neurons are not working appropriately.
Off the topic of meditation and medication but salient nonetheless.

[Toughy]

I know the science of brain chemistry. Blanket statements in general irritate the bejesus out of me.

edited to add: my experience tells me that blanket statements about science will absolutely come back and bite you in the ass.

[mariamma]

a pdf on Practical empathy and sexual assault survivors. The author is dealing more with empathy in the acute phase but I like the 7 traits of empathy in action.
I see the kindness that they speak of as the action of estrogen. It also is integral maintaining a healthy and connected relationship.
http://www.cvcn.nl/wp-content/upload...mpathy-SSA.pdf

[Toughy]

I see the kindness that they speak of as the action of estrogen.

I think you have it backwards. I have to want to have empathy in order for estrogen to be produced. If I don't want to have empathy ain't no empathy estrogen gonna be produced.

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by mariamma

I do irritate people with my blanket statements. Here is some of the science behind what I say.
Your adrenals make about 50 hormones, some being stress hormones, water balance and mineral balance hormones, the gender inducing hormones, etc http://www.safemenopausesolutions.co...fficiency.html
If you feel like a woman, you will have more estrogen than testosterone and vice verse. If you feel like you are both male and female, you probably have high amounts of both hormones.
http://www.twinspirittribe.com/page/page/4580470.htm
If you are schizophrenic, you have too much dopamine. You can have temp. schizophrenia with meth use or a parasitic infection
http://blog.neura.edu.au/2012/08/07/...mmatory-topic/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0311085151.htm
If you are empathic, you are skilled at using oxytocin.
Mirror Neurons - YouTube
mirror neurons part 2 - YouTube
Serotonin engenders well-being and happiness.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/serotonin.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract
I can do a better job with explaining myself. I've just hear so much about this stuff on the radio that I assume everyone knows by now. There's a new study coming out every week on anxiety and GABA or ACTH, vasopressin and anxiety, etc., etc.
If you saw the previous links, they talk about oxytocin and empathy. Oxytocin also engenders bonding, trust, is a primary hormone involved with love, it is what you 'break' when you break a horse (as opposed to the more modern technique of gentle breaking). You break the horse's trust and get the horse to bond with the trainer (instead of dame or the herd). Dogs also have high oxytocin which is why dogs and horses are therapy animals. They help ADHD and autistic kids read and connect to others better.
I hope this answers anyone's questions. I know it's easier to believe I am a deluded crazy person. My lack of patience doesn't help. But there is a reason why I say and write about what I write about. I'm not pulling dreams out of thin air.

i dont think you're a deluded crazy person or pulling dreams outta the air, thin or not. i just grind my teeth at the idea that chemistry rules our lives. i believe 100% in the power of neurotransmitters. i'm not an idiot. i just cant get behind the whole if you have too much or not enough of xyz hormone you'll do this or be that. i think it's exactly the opposite: our lives rule our chemistry.

neurotransmitters are part of the human recipe. existential memory (experience, culture, self-talk, etc) is the other part. mix the two and people are capable of almost anything to a lesser or greater degree. add in a support system, trial and error experimentation, determination, passion and paradigm shift and the end result is a person who encourages certain behaviors in their neurotransmitters not neurotransmitters that encourage certain behaviors in a person. people become accustomed to the circumstances they create in themselves.

we feed what we need.

[mariamma]

Originally Posted by Nomad

i dont think you're a deluded crazy person or pulling dreams outta the air, thin or not. i just grind my teeth at the idea that chemistry rules our lives. i believe 100% in the power of neurotransmitters. i'm not an idiot. i just cant get behind the whole if you have too much or not enough of xyz hormone you'll do this or be that. i think it's exactly the opposite: our lives rule our chemistry.

neurotransmitters are part of the human recipe. existential memory (experience, culture, self-talk, etc) is the other part. mix the two and people are capable of almost anything to a lesser or greater degree. add in a support system, trial and error experimentation, determination, passion and paradigm shift and the end result is a person who encourages certain behaviors in their neurotransmitters not neurotransmitters that encourage certain behaviors in a person. people become accustomed to the circumstances they create in themselves.

we feed what we need.

I hear what you're saying. You explain the difference between having an emotion and DEALING WITH an emotion or directing the energy. Let me ask, how much support do we get when we change the course of our lives? When we change the direction hormones and neurotransmitters? Men get very little support. It is possible and many people practice redirecting emotions. It's just not generally supported but accepted, especially when it lowers emotional energy or re-focuses it on others in a beneficial way.
When we have a stress response (or any other hormonal response) it usually lasts 90 seconds. But the 'feelings' will last....longer....2 hours, 2 days, however long we experience that emotion.
Vasopressin is a hormone involved with love. When you see someone you love and have that swooning feeling...that's vasopressin in action. That 'swoon' lasts 10 seconds, 30 seconds, however long but the love continues. It goes thru peaks and troughs. It continues on BECAUSE WE PUSH THE EMOTION THAT WAY. When love fails, it probably is because we did not continue the emotion or we had become unbalanced. Dopamine runs love in the brain. Taking an SSRI (serotonin) can make STAYING in love difficult.
I believe we are saying the same thing. If one looses control of self, it probably will involve dopamine. It doesn't mean if one has X amount of dopamine, one will lose control of self. It just makes it very difficult. Not everyone is strong of will.

[WickedFemme]

I'm a real believer in the theory that thoughts illicit emotions and have done a lot of work within around that particular theory. I guess I just don't want to be in more control of my life and therefore Rational Emotive Therapy (I believe it was Albert Ellis) seems to work for me. Although, I believe that some people are incapable of controlling their behaviors based upon their emotional reactions to certain events due to some underlying mental health issues (especially Asix II diagnosis), I believe that most of us can control our emotions and that they are within our control under normal circumstances. Whatever normal is.... I would say that traumatic events can lead us to behave in ways we wouldn't normally behave. However, for me to come from a purely emotional state is not the answer. I have learned that even under great duress with my training that I can respond to situations with a certain amount of rationality.

I have a ton of empathy for others - it's my job, it's what I do for a living. I teach people how to rationally think before reacting to situations. Of course, I'm no expert and I am human and I certainly do have my moments. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't believe in the theory that chemical releases within the brain chemistry are the cause of certain emotions. I do think that those emotions can be controlled as to not cause undue distress.

[WickedFemme]

and therefore, I believe that 'empathy' can be taught to people who are not psychopaths.