Posted by Q (198.64.206.92) on June 13, 2000 at 18:39:10:
In Reply to: analysis posted by annemarie on June 13, 2000 at 15:16:14:
... the subconscious child-brain works constantly.
Child-brain does not need to be actually threatened by the conscious mind, it only has to believe that it is, or might be, threatened. That is quite a difference. Even during period of full conscious activity, the mind can wander, daydream if you will, which may frighten the child-brain into triggering a CH-attack. All the child-brain is trying to do is break the concentration of the conscious mind using pain as the distracting mechanism.
The corresponding theory which covers the daytime attacks is what I like to call the "dope-fiend" theory. Under this concept the subconscious mind triggers the pain process to get the by-products of the pain process, e.g. the dope. This theory works hand-in-hand with the child-brain theory in that once the distraction is set-up, the real culprit, the dope-fiend, is never suspected. Who afterall would inflict such pain on ones self just to get a high? Although this behaviour would never be considered rational, that is the whole point, the pain has no other rational explaination or purpose. Two parts of the mind are working against one another in the CH-brain. One rational, e.g. the conscious mind, and another irrational, e.g. the child-brain sometimes in collusion with the dope-fiend mind.
These two theories can both be true, at the same time, in the same person. Both place the root cause of the CH condition in the mental category, rather than being a biological-driven condition. I have yet seen another comprehensive explaination as to the root cause of CH. What I am at a loss for is what to do about solving the problem, given these explainations for the problem.
(re: BTW -- As you asked, I am the one with B&L shades on. The fellow driving the boat is a friend of mine. We had just won a big offshore sailboat race. I was too hungover to steer properly. That was in 1997. I have thought I'd try to find a better picture, but haven't gotten around to it.)