Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD (31 page)

Appendix: Mind-Body Bridging Terms

Identity System (I-System):
Everyone has one. When your I-System is turned on (or active), your mind clutter (spinning thoughts) and body tension get in the way of how you live your life and stop you from healing your PTSD. When your I-System is off(or calm),your mind is clear and your body relaxed, letting your body heal.

Requirements:
Thoughts or mental rules (or both) about how you and the world should be, requirements are the only things that can turn on your I-System. You recognize them because you get upset when these rules are broken.

Depressor:
Helps the I-System stay on. You recognize it by noticing yourself feeling down, and having negative thoughts and a sluggish, tense body.

Fixer:
Helps the I-System stay on. You recognize it when you have a sense of urgency and the feeling of being pushed to do things. This pushing is the fixer.

Storyline:
Keeps the I-System going. You recognize it by noticing yourself getting caught up in thoughts or stories that pull you away from the world and what you are doing.

Damaged self:
How you think, feel, and act because of your overactive I-System.

Bridging (mind-body bridging):
Action you take that stops the harm an overactive I-System causes.

Bridging tools (mind-body bridging tools):
Tools you use to turnoff (or quiet) the I-System so you can heal your PTSD.

1. Bridging awareness practices:
   When you come to your senses by listening to sounds around you, feeling whatever you touch, and sensing your body.
   
2. Thought labeling:
   When you notice yourself having spinning thoughts, recognize and label them as “just thoughts,” and return to what you were doing. This stops the thoughts from making your body feel bad (tense).
   
3. Mapping (mind-body mapping):
   Doingshort exercises where you jot down whatever thoughts pop into your mind about problems, people, and events in your life. Maps help you see the harm the I-System is doing to you so you can turn it off.
   
4. Defusing requirements:
   Dealing with a situation with a clear mind and calm body, rather than getting upset or melting down when your rules for how you and the world should be are broken.
   
5. Befriending the I-System:
   When you stop pushing the I-System away and start turning down its volume by just watching it, which makes it into a friend rather than an enemy. In fact, later on, like a friend, it even helps you heal.
   

Natural functioning:
How you think, feel, and act when you are settled.

True self:
Who you are when you feel settled about yourself and the world, and your I-System is turned off.

Present moment:
Right here, right now—the only place where you can really live your life. It’s not a zone, or an enlightened or supernormal state. When your I-System is quiet, your true self is in the present moment.

Wellspring of healing, goodness, power, and wisdom:
Source of power that’s always with you when you make your I-System your friend.

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA). 2000.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV-TR).
4th ed., text rev. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Block, S. H., and C. B. Block. 2007.
Come to Your Senses: Demystifying the Mind-Body Connection
. 2nd ed. New York: Atria Books/Beyond Words Publishing.

Block, S. H., S. H. Ho, and Y. Nakamura. 2009.
A brain basis for transforming
consciousness with mind-body bridging
. Paper presented at Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009 conference, June 12, at Hong Kong Polytechnical University, Hong Kong, China, Abstract 93.

Boly, M., C. Phillips, E. Balteau, C. Schnakers, C. Degueldre, G. Moonen, A. Luxen, P. Peigneux, M.-E. Faymonville, P. Maquet, and S. Laureys. 2008a. Consciousness and cerebral baseline activity fluctuations.
Human Brain Mapping
29 (7):868–74.

Boly, M., C. Phillips, L. Tshibanda, A. Vanhaudenhuyse, M. Schabus, T. T. Dang-Vu, G. Moonen, R. Hustinx, P. Maquet, and S. Laureys. 2008b. Intrinsic brain activity in altered states of consciousness: How conscious is the default mode of brain function?
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
1129:119–29.

Menninger, K. 1938.
Man Against Himself
. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

Nakamura, Y., D. L. Lipschitz, R. Landward, R. Kuhn, and G. West. Forthcoming. Two sessions of sleep-focused mind-body bridging improve self-reported symptoms of sleep and PTSD in veterans: A pilot randomized controlled trial.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research
.

Tollefson, D. R., K. Webb, D. Shumway, S. H. Block, and Y. Nakamura. 2009. A mind-body approach to domestic violence perpetrator treatment: Program overview and preliminary outcomes.
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma
18 (1):17–45.

Weissman, D. H., K. C. Roberts, K. M. Visscher, and M. G. Woldorff. 2006. The neural bases of momentary lapses in attention.
Nature Neuroscience
9 (7):971–78.

Stanley H. Block, MD
, is adjunct professor of law and psychiatry at Seattle University School of Law, adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and a board-certified psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He lectures and consults with treatment centers worldwide and is coauthor of the award-winning book
Come to Your Senses.
He and his wife, Carolyn Bryant Block, live in Copalis Beach, WA.

Carolyn Bryant Block
is coauthor of
Bridging the I-System
and the award-winning book
Come to Your Senses
. She is also the co-developer of Identity System (I-System) theory and techniques.