Mind games.

[JimBeckenham]

I had ERS for my acoustic neuroma one year ago.I've been experiencing mood swings, slight depression, and i'm reacting to situations in an angry way.Has anyone had similar experiences?

[drdeanbellavia]

Jim:

Your AN is located in your neocortex, which is not near your emotional brain (amygdala, etc.), so any local pressure or damage from your AN is not directly related to your anger, although it may be indirectly related through your personality.

Genetically, our emotional brain has 4 "basic emotions": anger, fear, joy and sorrow triggered by emotional memories stored in the left and right amygdala, which are triggered by sensory memories in the sensory cortex. All the other emotions are "rational emotions" (surprise, regret, frustration, etc.) that are triggered by memories in the rational brain (frontal lobes). Each basic emotion has a purpose: anger = to alert us to attack (confrontation); fear = to alert us to danger; joy = to alert us to our connections (whatever is important to us); and, sorrow = to alert us to disconnection from our connections.

The right and left frontal lobes house the four "rational styles": director, analyzer, socializer and relator. Each style has a purpose: director = to get things done ASAP; analyzer = to proceed unerringly; socializer = to interact with our connections; and, relator = to reconnect with our connections.

Each emotion triggers its rational style so that the rational style can "sort out" the reason for the emotional reaction, quell the emotion and rationally react accordingly. Anger triggers the director style; fear triggers the analyzer style; joy triggers the socializer style; and, sorrow triggers the relator style.

We are either strong (we use it a lot), weak (we rarely use it) or moderate (we use it as needed) in the four genetic emotion/styles pairs and we all have one “strongest” emotion/style that we always use when we are distressed—and, we can only use one emotion/style at a time.

The reason for this short lecture on human personality is to help you determine whether you are a “get-it-done director” or not. If yes, when distressed by the repercussions of your AN you will naturally trigger your anger (your strongest emotion). It is important for you to understand this so that you can quell that inappropriate anger before it gets out of hand.

Your slight depression can come from the frustration of not being able to get past the AN symptoms (i.e., get them done and over with), which would also trigger anger if you are a strong director.

I hope that this helps,

Dean

[JimBeckenham in reply to drdeanbellavia]

Thank you Dean,extremely helpful and informative.

Jim

[drdeanbellavia in reply to JimBeckenham]

Jim:

If you have balance problems and want to get your balance back, go to the following link:

thebioengineeringco.com/ind...

Here is a message that I received from someone after doing the exercises:

“My AN is similar in size to yours and I had Cyberknife two weeks ago. Too early to say whether it made a difference to my dizziness (although I was told not to expect much change) but the exercises described above made a massive difference pre-surgery. My specialist also said to do as much exercise as possible, particularly anything involving hand eye coordination such as racket sports. I’m a cyclist and a runner so have continued both but am completely convinced that it is these exercises that have made the difference.”

Here is another message I received about the exercises:

I had an acoustic neuroma removed 6 years ago.

I found your one page article on the treadmill exercises and they have made an amazing difference in my life.

I am very thankful that you shared this and that it somehow popped up on my Google search early last year.

Good luck,

Dean

[JimBeckenham in reply to drdeanbellavia]

Many thanks again Dean.

Jim

[designer8]

Irritability and depression can often be attributed to vitamin and mineral deficiency and may have nothing to do with your AN (however, issues following AN surgery/anaesthetic can play a part). You may think you’re getting enough nutrients from your diet, but for one reason or another, you’re not absorbing them. I’d get (and I do every eight months or so) a full blood count and see a qualified naturopath to understand them (your GP probably won’t have a good enough understanding of how they all work in together).

[JimBeckenham in reply to designer8]

I will look into this,thank you.

Jim