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At work I specialize in Relapse Prevention, ADHD and Addiction, and
Neurobiological aspects of Addiction and recovery.
As a human being reinvents their life, making room for their true self, that beautiful refugee, to re-inhabit their days, the brain is rewiring, re-sculpting and rebuilding itself. Whatever you focus on and spend time and energy on has a shaping effect on the architecture of the brain. Learning causes dendrites (Which resemble the branches of trees) to sprout in the area of the brain being challenged. |
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A classical pianist for instance has developed
a forest of dendrites in the area of the brain that is engaged by music.
It is just this freedom, this creative ability to impact our own experience (by choosing where we place our attention) that works against us in addiction. As addicts we exercise this creative power unconsciously to build our own prison, our own hell. In recovery we can consciously choose what to focus on , what to give our time and energy to, and perception will open the door to a new world. My mother was fond of a certain saying in the last ten years of her life "All things change when we do." Art helps me to remember that. The poem is one I wrote once as I tried to remember how I perceived the world around me at 1 and 2 years of age. |
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