Meet Marian Diamond, one of the founders of modern neuroscience, and an…
When the Brain Goes Wrong
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
This is an extraordinary and provocative series of portraits of individuals with a range of brain dysfunctions. The seven brief segments focus on schizophrenia, manic depression, epilepsy, stroke, head injury, headaches, and addiction. In addition to the personal stories, which give viewers a vivid sense of what it is like to live with these conditions, the segments include interviews with physicians who speak briefly about what is known about the disorders, and what can be done to help those who have them. The modular structure of the series lends itself to a wide variety of uses in the classroom and in continuing education.
'An extraordinary and provocative series about brain disorders.' National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials
Citation
Main credits
Cooks, Roberta (screenwriter)
Cooks, Roberta (film director)
Cooks, Roberta (film producer)
David, Jonathan (screenwriter)
David, Jonathan (film director)
David, Jonathan (film producer)
Distributor subjects
Mental Illness, Brain Disorders; Psychology, Psychiatry, Social WorkKeywords
WEBVTT
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[sil.]
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[music] He uh, was twice the
human being that I was.
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That is when we grew up like, I was the
older brother. I was a little rowdy,
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didn\'t do homework, stuff like that. Uh,
I had good friends. I wasn\'t a bad kid
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but my brother was he
was me plus two of me.
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On the corner away from the
house was an old lady who was
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I think beginning to be senile.
She spoke to me I thought,
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it\'s like the outer limits. Uh, the, the name
of the game was stay on your side of town don\'t
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go were the rich people are. But
um, somehow I got all upset
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and uh, I went Rancocas Valley. And
you what? I was in Rancocas Valley
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Hospital. Huh. They have good OT there.
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I knitted a rug that said, love. The
mental illness came as a horrific
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shock, horrific shock because there were no
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indications ahead of time.
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[music] Schizophrenia is probably the most
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severe uh, mental, so
called mental disorder.
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Uh, which is known for many, many
years but has been coined, the term
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has been called schizophrenia
for about uh, the beginning
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of this century. And it is
a disorder that develops
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most time without any
notion that something like
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that might happen to a healthy person.
Bill is a patient who has been ill
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at least 20 years or so.
He became ill um, in late
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adolescents which is, is very, very typical. He was a college
student at the time. He had done well in high school
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um, academically he was thought to
be certainly well above average.
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And became ill um, in college
and has never really recovered
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since. I\'ve been in 7 different hospitals.
They say that\'s a symptom of Paul, uh,
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Saint Paul was uh, sometimes confined.
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I think I read that. But I
would prefer to be just me.
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I don\'t want to suffer like that.
One must think about the effect
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that the behavior of
individuals with schizophrenia
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is a burden to dysfunctional
or different, abnormal,
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not in one specific way
but in many, many ways.
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So, that what you have is sort
of an ocean or a storm of
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disruptive activity. If an
individual is in turmoil, who can
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not think and solve problems the way
he or she wants to. With bombarded
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with various stimulation and
concerns about their safety,
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the safety of their loved ones. Who
feels in many ways that they have
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no control over anything that happens around
them. Well it sounded like it was a raccoon
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in me or either a mice. At one
time it started off it felt
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like a mice it was small. I\'m serious, it
really felt like something was in my stomach.
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And then it um, it went,
I went to the doctors,
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and went to emergencies part of the
hospital got myself seen. And they told me
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just go home and eat. There\'s nothing wrong with you.
Then I went home and ate, it felt like it got bigger,
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it, you know, as the days went on
it got bigger. And then all of
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a sudden it just went away.
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[music] This can be looked at, as
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far as what happens to the brain of an individual
with schizophrenia. Can be looked at from
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various levels. When one looks at the
relationship between brain and behavior,
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we\'re talking about the relationship
between the structure of the brain
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and behavior. We call the
structure of the brain anatomy.
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And we can also look between the
relationship of the function of the brain,
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the physiology. The rate in
which various chemicals work in
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the brain. The rate in which blood
flow, flows in the brain and behavior.
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We know that it is not going
to be a very simple component
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of brain structure or brain function.
That is going to explain
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all of this richness and extensively
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abnormal behavior. I\'m hearing voices
all the time, night and day until I
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go to bed. They tell you won\'t you go to
bed. They get smart and nasty, you know.
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And then they, they, they threaten you.
Then they do it. They mess you up.
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I\'m in danger. So, right now you\'re hearing people
talking. That\'s right. I\'m hearing\' people.
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What are they saying? They um,
saying you stupid. They um, saying
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they should put a mice uh, in
my stomach and stuff like that.
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If you know somebody with schizophrenia,
respect this person as an individual.
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There\'s no reason to be scared of
people like that. Many times I am aware
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of the media, explains, may try to explain
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a crime or irrational
behavior by saying this
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is a mental patient with schizophrenia. People
with schizophrenia are not more violent
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in fact they are less than the majority
of the population. They are scared of us.
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They\'re scared of society and do
not feel that society is accepting
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of them. I have toothbrush and toothpaste,
that\'s about all I own. So, I brush
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my teeth and I said, it was my cousin
who had been kind of like a sister.
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I brush my teeth for her I said,
somehow I can create a miracle.
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But of course that was just a sick
person\'s thoughts there probably.
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I feel that it\'s worse than cancer.
With cancer
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a person gets it there\'s a uh, logical thing
and there\'s a termination. With mental
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illness what happens is it\'s uh, like uh,
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you take a person and all their, a lot of
their thoughts, motivations, and values.
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It\'s kind of like uh, you take an
egg beater put in inside their head
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at least with my brother,
and it scrambles things.
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And uh, once the eggs are scrambled
it\'s, it\'s really tough to uh,
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to look for the parts that where. You
know, I still love him very much,
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he\'s my brother and I always will.
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[sil.] I think the most horrible
thing about being depressed
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is feeling you\'re totally
alone with a mood that is
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never going to go away.
That time is dragging,
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that you are always going
to be this way, and no one,
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in your normal group of
friends or family could
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convince you that the depression was
going to be finite. People at first
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don\'t recognize it. They may be waking up a
little earlier, they may not be as hungry
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or maybe too hungry or their
interest in sex disappears.
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Or they find that they just don\'t have the usual
energy they had. They don\'t have the motivation
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to pick up the telephone and call a friend. In
fact, what happens is that when friends call
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they rather they didn\'t. You don\'t
want to have contact with anybody.
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You want to be by yourself, at least I do.
Um, I don\'t
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want to talk to people. If someone calls me on the
phone I don\'t want, I don\'t want take it. I don\'t
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want take the call. Um,
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you just feel sort of like a non-person.
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It\'s uh, very debilitating uh, illness.
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Where most of one\'s daily routines are
lost. Many are just the opposite,
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it\'s uh, an extraordinary um,
amount of energy available to
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the individual. In fact, early on
uh, manic people are funny and
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they are uh, socially uh, intrusive.
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Mania is a whole lot more fun
than depression until it gets
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away from you. Uh, there\'s a
certain point in mania that
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you are full of ideas and you\'re very
productive and you\'re witty and you\'re bright.
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And you\'re on stage and you\'re the
life of the party and that\'s fun.
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Beyond that you lose touch with reality and
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that can be kind of scary. What happens
next is the energy begins to continue
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and accelerate and the spe-, speech
and the thinking accelerates.
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Other drives accelerate, becomes sexually
preoccupied very often inappropriately.
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And soon what seemed to be
a wonderful person becomes
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an intrusive person. I tend not to think
about what time it is when I call people.
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
I remember calling a friend one
morning at 6:00 o\'clock and
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
saying, I just read this wonderful passage. Oh, it\'s
wonderful. Let me interpret it for you. Let me read
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it to you right now. Let me, let me.
And she was like, uh, are
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you okay. That\'s the time when
people then call upon the manic to
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get some help or indeed very often these
individuals are taken involuntary
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to hospital. And they become
sort of disorganized.
00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
[sil.] Self-blame can play
00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
a large role in depression. Uh, part of that comes
from inside you. Where you say I brought this
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on myself. It\'s something I did.
I am an unworthy individual.
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
And part of that bl-,
self-blame comes from what
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
society on the outside can impose upon you.
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The illness of manic
depressive disease as it
00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
progresses um, tends to get worse.
Without treatment
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
the periods of mania and depression get closer
and closer together and they get longer
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
and longer. So that before modern
treatments were available an
00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
individual who had, had the illness for 20 or 30
years probably would be continuous in hospital
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
and continuously ill. That\'s not true
today. Lithium has revolutionized the
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treatment of manic depressive disease.
And even those who do not respond
00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
to Lithium alone there many other
treatments that can help them.
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
The hardest thing for me about manic
depressive illness has been to accept
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that I have it. To accept that it\'s going
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
to be with me for the rest of my life.
We can find out about these illnesses.
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
We can determine what it is that
actually goes wrong. What is programmed
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
incorrectly and people who have the
vulnerability. How we can change the nature
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
of the uh, chemistry through
specific medications.
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
Even better than those that we have
now and we have some very good ones.
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
I just feel a lot needs to be done to um,
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
make people aware that mental illness is a
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
tough problem, made tougher by people\'s
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
lack of knowledge, and
lack of interest and fear.
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
And that um, one
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
of the reasons for the fear is I
think that, that people have a sense
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
that there\'s a very fine
line between what is sane,
00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
and acceptable, and what is over the edge.
And they realize somewhere
00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
in there, in the deep part
of their heart and mind that
00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
they have sometimes come
very close to that line.
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
Or that they have actually
crossed it and come back.
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
[sil.]
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
Not only did I get hooked on cocaine
immediately, I\'d say the second day,
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
the second. The first day I used it, the second I went
out and got it but it was a continually haunting feeling
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
that I kept wanting it and wanting
it and wanting it day after day,
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
year after year.
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
In some ways it shouldn\'t
be surprising to us
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
that drugs can be so
compelling because really
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
from what we\'ve been able to learn from research
is that they are activating the very same systems
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
in the brain that helps us experience
our normal pleasures in food, and sex,
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
and relationships. The things
that normally make us feel good.
00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
[music]
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
I always thought that I had it under control. You
go out, I go out on my taxi cab, I\'d make money,
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
I\'d spend my money. I wouldn\'t care
about paying the rent on the taxi
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
or paying my electric bills or
paying my rent. My rent was
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
months and months behind. I think
the hallmark feature of addictive
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
disorders is regardless of the
substance that you\'re talking about.
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
So, there\'s a narrowing of the person\'s
focus, of their behavior. So that
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
they do less and less of what they
usually would do and more and more
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
of their thoughts and their behavior
are directed toward getting the drug,
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
using the drug, getting over the effects of the drug,
thinking about the drug. Thinking about ways of getting
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
the drug. You\'re looking
for quick happiness.
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
And at night you lay in bed you think, well, this will bring me happiness
and this will bring me happiness. But everything that brings happiness
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
would be something I\'d have to work at.
That I couldn\'t get any immediate
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
rewards. We\'re wired to pursue
things that are pleasurable.
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
These drugs activate our pleasure reward systems
in a very efficient way, much more efficiently
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
then many of our natural pleasures and
rewards. And can begin to supplant them.
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
And that\'s where the trouble begins.
Every time I used cocaine
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
it wasn\'t the perfect shot.
It wasn\'t the ultimate
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
thing that you were after and that\'s one reason
why you kept doing it because you kept trying
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
to achieve the, the perfect high, which
was. The perfect high descriptively is,
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
is the death shot. Is very close
where you almost die and that\'s like
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
quite a rush.
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
[music] The brain after having
experienced a huge infusion
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
of this chemical substance that now
activates these systems in a big way,
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
and a bigger way then all our natural rewards.
Says uh, whatever you did to get that
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
feeling do that again. The, the sensation
or rush that I get in having sex
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
during orgasm is the same exact feeling
that I get while I\'m injecting
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
the drug into my body. As a
result of having had this
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
experience, things that signal
the availability of that drug
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
come to be able to do profound things to the person
which we\'ll call craving. The person when they see
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
something that says drug is coming
can begin to feel a profound desire
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
to repeat that experience.
The ironic thing is,
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
is that before I would use, I\'d feel
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
like I was using. I\'d be driving up,
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
I\'d be getting sweaty palms, my
heart would pound, I\'d be rushing.
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
I\'d get higher and higher and higher
the closer I got to getting the drugs.
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
As I was getting the drugs
I was almost, I was high.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
This cravings state is an important one to
understand because it\'s a hallmark feature of
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
addictive disorders. It\'s not the
only reason a person might use,
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
it might not be the only reason that a person
would relapse. But it should help us understand
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
that this disorder has very
important biological roots.
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
[music] Craving is the reason why
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
you continually go back and use drugs.
There isn\'t a moment in my
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
life that it\'s not telling me
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
that it\'s all right to go and use.
I think another thing
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
that is important to recognize is about these addictive
disorders is that what we\'re seeing there and the more
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
extreme form is something that we all
are experienced in our daily lives.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
We all experience craving states even
if we\'re not pursuing cocaine. Um,
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
we have you know, a very successful
industries for legal drugs in our country
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
that people pursue in a regular basis. And other
things that people do compulsively as well.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
For which they have strong craving, whether it\'s
pursuit of gambling or sexual compulsions or food.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
The near chemistry of those states,
those desired states may be similar.
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
[music]
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
I guess one of the things to understand about
addictive disorders is that they tend to be
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
chronic and that there\'s this potential for
relapse. And that for friends and family
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
of patients who have a relapse
rather than framing that as,
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
Oh my gosh, this is the end.
Very often that\'s the
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
beginning. I can tell you that this,
you start off, you don\'t look
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
at the first year. You start
off with the first second
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
and then you make it the
first five minutes.
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
And then you deal with it 10 minutes
at a time. And just every thought
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
that you have, every
breath you take, you just
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
keep yourself in check and practice the
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
tools that you have. You
totally rethink your thoughts.
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
Because for two and a half years I\'m
surprised that it\'s still there.
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
And I don\'t know why it\'s still there.
But I know I don\'t want to use.
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:33.000
[music] You panic and, and the more you panic the
more you feel like you\'re going to have a seizure.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
All of a sudden, I mean it\'s so quick I can\'t control
it. There\'s no way. I can control it. I\'m just sitting
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
there and all of sudden I\'ll just blank out. Before
I know it I\'ll wake up and I\'m in the nurses office
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
or I\'m sitting on the floor in the kitchen or
something. And I\'ll be like, yeah, that\'s right I had a
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
seizure. A good way of thinking about
a seizure is picturing somebody at,
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
at a baseball diamond with a baseball
bat hitting a single ball out.
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
Uh, one ball is sending a single message.
If you had 10 people up there
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
uh, the way the normal brain would work is that
each one would hit in turn maybe two or three
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
would hit it at the same time and the ball would go out but
they would go different distances and there\'s randomness there.
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
It, in epilepsy during a seizure
what you have is those 10
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
batters swinging their bats and all 10
balls are hit at the same time to the
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
same spot. While I\'m having a seizure it\'s
just a very panicking feeling. You feel,
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
you feel, you\'re feel like you\'re claustrophobic or something like
you\'re closed in and you don\'t know, you don\'t know what to do.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
And that\'s why you want to walk around because as much as I walk
around I feel like I have a lot of space and that\'s why I really don\'t
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
want to talk to anybody because I want to
just concentrate on the seizure and make
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
it go away. Most people with
epilepsy can take medication
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
and have their seizures completely controlled.
That happens about 80% of the time.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
A small percentage of people have seizures that
are not completely controlled by medicine.
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
That provides a reason for them to look for other methods
of treatment. Surgery is another way of treating
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
people who don\'t respond to medicine.
We had her to a number of doctors.
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
Uh, our experience was that
the doctors uh, uh, early on
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
where very interested in treating Melanie but
didn\'t seem to be particularly receptive
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
to our concerns for her as a normal child.
Uh, they would uh,
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
prescribe medication and lots of it. Uh,
we were not happy about that at all.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
Subsequently we came to uh, uh, to the current
doctor. Doctor Sperling, had told me that there was
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
no chance of getting better. He had
told me, you know, you have like 0%
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
of being on medication and have it control your
seizures. So, that, that right there had told me
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
well basically I\'m just going to find more information
about this surgery. What it\'s going to do my memory,
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
stuff like that. I had really worried
about and see if it will work out for me.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
We then did a series of test, seeing if we could find out where
her seizures came from. And if can identify the spot in the brain
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
that triggers the seizures we can then
remove that spot. And most of the time stop
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
the seizures. In Bob\'s case we have EEG
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
recorded from the depth of the brain with electrodes
placed within the substance of the brain itself as well
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
as electrodes placed on the surface of the brain. There
was an abnormal electrical discharge in the brain
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
that began in one area. In his
case the right temporal lobe.
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
And this electrical discharge spread rather quickly to
involve other regions of the brain as the frontal lobes
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
and some of their connections become involved
in this seizure then we begin to see posturing
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
where the hands came up in that praying
position. The head and eyes turning
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
to the right and, and as different structures of the
brain are involved we see different manifestations
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
of the seizure. Bob, can you tell me
your last name. As both sides of the
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
brain come involved in the seizure his
ability to interact with his environment,
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
to answer questions, to follow commands, and
to know what\'s going on about him is lost.
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
Bob, do you know where you are.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
I, I, might. I, I was just, just
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
in here. I. That mumbling
uh, is an indication
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
that the seizure has ended. At this point
he\'s confused immediately after the seizure.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
This is known as a postictal state, post meaning
after, ictal for ictus, which is Latin for seizure.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
And very typically people are confused after
seizures. And he really can\'t follow commands
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
or understand questions properly.
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
[music]
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
I had uh, two or three accidents.
Last accident really did me in.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
It\'s when I hit my head in the windshield and I hit
it uh, a big oak tree in the front. My car hit,
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
right. I\'ve been through a lot.
And to hear about surgery
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
really it\'s going to make me feel
a lot better. When making the
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
decision to do epilepsy surgery you want to try to
find an area of the brain that contains a scar.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
The basic idea is that
the scar is triggering
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
the seizures. And since that area of the brain is
scarred it\'s not doing anything terrible useful.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
So, you can safely remove it. Uh, it looks like all
of your seizures seem to come from the right temporal
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
lobe. Right about there. And uh,
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
we\'ll be able to bring you back and offer
you the surgery that we talked about.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:43.000
[music] I had the seizures for 19
years and now I have this surgery
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
and it\'s like all of a sudden it\'s like I don\'t have to
worry about anything. It\'s like somebody threw a switch.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
Melanie is really a very different personality
now. Uh, before she was uh, insecure
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
and not sure of herself. The difference now is that now
although she is the same person she\'s much more outgoing,
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
much more confident. It\'s a delight having her
around. Melanie was in the hospital for about
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
a week for her surgery. People usually
go home five or six days after surgery
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
and in fact she was up and walking around the next day. As
serious as brain surgery sounds it\'s amazing how quickly
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
people bounce back from it particularly young, young
people like Melanie. Uh, Melanie has been very fortunate
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
in it that surgery has been a big success.
She\'s not had any seizures since the surgery.
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
Uh, she continues to take her medicine of
course. I\'m more happy, more cheerful.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
I\'m just constantly skipping around. I\'ll turn the radio
on and I\'m just popping my head, dancing constantly
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
or something.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
[music] It\'s very frustrating.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
It\'s frustrating and you get angry.
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
You\'re just angry that it happened to
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
you. I was devastated, my kids
were devastated at that point.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
I felt like I feel into a chasm,
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
you know. And I thought, I thought
she died but she wasn\'t dead.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
[music]
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
A stroke is the sudden loss of blood supply
to an area of the brain caused either by
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
blockage in the blood vessel because of
a clot or a rupturing of a blood vessel
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
with a hemorrhage.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
We had a wonderful day Sunday, we played a
little cards, we went to bed Sunday night.
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
About 1:30 in the morning for some
reason I couldn\'t sleep very well
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
and my wife nudged me. And she says,
Honey I\'m cold on my one side.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
Well, when I realized I couldn\'t move
my arm, I just went into a panic.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Right then and there I knew she had
a stroke. Her mouth was drawn down,
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
no pain. So, immediately I
called the doctor and an
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
ambulance. Of course, all the doctors are coming
in and working on you and taking your vital signs.
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
And somebody\'s always there right with you, you know.
So, you don\'t really have time to really think,
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
you know, much right away.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
Then afterwards you have plenty of time to
think. When the people leave you\'re just there
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
thinking.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:33.000
[music] In Elizabeth\'s case the
stroke affected the right side of the
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
brain both motor and sensory
portions of the brain.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
Both a little to the front and a little
to the back. So, that she lost dexterity
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
and power in her left hand,
primarily dexterity.
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
When I came here I had to really
get started on level one therapy.
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
There\'s different levels of therapy
that they put me on. So, I uh,
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
I did real well then once, I didn\'t do
well here either at first because I
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
was still down.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
There are a number of different
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
frustrations and problems that occur in the
process of rehabilitation from stroke.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
Those include all the frustrations that anyone
who has taken for granted a number of physical
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
functions you would experience if all
of a sudden those things were absent.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
It\'s clear a loss of part of one\'s self. And
the way one identifies one\'s self is in
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
terms of one\'s abilities
and one\'s function.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.000
[music] Emotional liability
is frequently seen in
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
patients with stroke. The right side
of the brain, the part of the brain
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
that was damaged in Elizabeth\'s
case also controls
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
the emotional tone of one\'s voice.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
I found a lot about
strokes, after I had mine.
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
And this is normal too, crying.
Some people laugh
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
and some people cry
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
for a while you get over
it as you get stronger.
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
I just figure it was a twist of fate. Life
dealt her kind of a bad hand at the moment.
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
And I said to myself, I
can\'t think about what
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
happened that\'s over. So, my
first thought was to go forward.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
All right. Big step with your right.
Excellent. Up nice and tall.
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
Now stiffen that up. At a girl.
Big step. Walk up. Left leg.
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
Up nice and tall on that left leg.
Up. Big step with the right.
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
There you go. Much better than before. That\'s more like it. You
used to stiffen that leg like up like that. You\'ll get it.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
[music] Like many other patients
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
with stroke there\'s an early recovery phase
when brain swelling that accompanies uh,
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
a area of damaged subsides.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
She\'s shown tremendous ability to
compensate and to use the remaining
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
uh, functional aspects of her, of her brain and
body. She has tremendous support from her husband
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
and family support. And, and
rehabilitation is critical
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
because patient\'s feel isolated. They have
difficulty getting back into mainstream
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
without good support from the family.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
We really can do everything
we did before. We can.
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
I mean, I can take her to the beach and
she loves to get a Sunday every Saturday.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
Sunday on Saturday. So, when she comes home Friday
I\'m taking her right out and getting her a Sunday.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
We can really do everything. Only thing
she can\'t do is dunk a basketball.
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
That\'s about it.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
[sil.]
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
I uh, sometimes think my whole
life just got yanked away and out
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
from under me. And a big empty
space got shoved back in there.
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
And I have to figure out what,
what I\'m going to do with it all.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
There are times that I think he really wishes
that I would of taken him off the respirator.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
I mean, he has said it not
in so many words but,
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
but he makes comments to why am I
still alive, I\'m only half a man.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
Well, Ed, uh, had a very severe head injury.
He was driving down one of the secondary
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
highways uh, when I believe some
equipment fell off of a truck and
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
struck his car. Ed uh, was thrust
forward, I think pushed uh, at
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
the windshield or through the windshield
and was immediately unconscious.
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:08.000
[music]
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
Uh, when I woke up my wife
had, had me uh, transferred to
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital.
And I didn\'t recognize her.
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
My brother Steve stopped in to see me,
didn\'t recognize him and didn\'t recognize
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
my own mother and father, so.
Talk about having to start
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
all over again from ground
zero and that was me.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
Life was pretty normal. Um, Ed
was going for his doctorate,
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
I was working overtime, many, many hours
to get him through Temple University.
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
And um, the accident happened.
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
And all of a sudden I was thrown into uh,
something called closed head injury trauma.
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
The skull itself uh, has some
smooth surfaces and then some
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
rough surfaces. You know, sharp areas.
When there is force, when the brain is
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
moving within the skull and pushed against
these sharp ridges in the skull uh,
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
we can get bruising. Something called
contusions. In the frontal lobes especially,
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
in the front part of the brain and then the temporal
lobes. Which would be on the side uh, lower down.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Now these areas of the brain are particularly
important for higher forms of thinking,
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
memory, concentration,
judgment, and, and insight uh,
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
creativity. The uh, Ed before
the accident was uh, 98%
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
immersed in advanced mathematics.
Uh, I was teaching it. I was almost
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
living it. I mean that uh, everything that
was in those books and in my head just
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
took a vacation. The hardest
part was knowing that Ed
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
would never have his memory back. Um,
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
it\'s just, it, it\'s a tough
time I now, I live for memories
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
but I think a lot of people do.
And Ed didn\'t know me,
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
he didn\'t know that we were married.
Um, he didn\'t
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
know anything about our
home, our the last 8 years.
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
It was tough on my wife, I mean.
She got a call from the uh
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
, State Police saying that uh,
I was in critical condition
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
at uh, at Jeff. And uh, she
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
was all worried for those thirty days \'cause
nobody knew if I was going to live or die,
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
or anything. And then, it\'s been uh,
for me it\'s been tough but for her
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
it\'s been uh, like a real nightmare. It
was very difficult but I had to become
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
his eyes and his hears. And I had to be
able to speak for him because he couldn\'t.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
And I had a lot of decisions to make.
Especially when he was on the respirator.
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:08.000
[music] Well in head injury
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
because of all the uh,
difficulties with thinking and
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
the changes in personality that occur. Um,
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
it\'s the, the person\'s disintegrated
and, and they no longer react, interact,
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
um, or, or behave, uh, in ways
that they, they typically did.
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
Uh, and so, the mature uh, person who,
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
say in Ed\'s case whose uh, uh, you
know, dynamic teacher who was going on
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
to get his PhD in math uh, is now in the,
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
he\'s a child. I never know when Ed\'s going to
wake up whether he\'s going to be in a good mood
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
or a bad mood. It\'s a lot
of mood swings. Um, he
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
has outburst. Um, a lot of times he will
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
look at me with a real blank stare and
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
I, I really think he doesn\'t know who I am but
he\'s not going to admit that. Many patients
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
don\'t even recognize their deficits. They aren\'t able
to appreciate the memory impairments that they have.
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
Uh, and this can lead to anger when someone
directs them to act in a certain way
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
or reminds them that they have a uh, they
have a certain task to do. Uh, sometimes
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
they may react um, with uh, an apathy.
They just don\'t, they don\'t care
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
and that has a physiological,
a biological basis.
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
Now I figured I\'d have a uh,
glorious and famous life being a uh,
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
uh, a PhD mathematician but
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
we both know it didn\'t turn out that way.
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
No, it didn\'t. What about the chances of it
turning out that way. What do you think? Well,
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
if my um, memory
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
comes back. What do you think
the chances of that happening?
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
What does that mean? Not good.
Not good. No guarantees.
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
No guarantees. Not with head
injury, right. No. Mmm.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Well uh, when my dad died that was a big deal on my
life and that was a couple years ago. But he died
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
and we buried him and we mourned him. And
I, I mourned him and we got over it.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
I mean he\'s in the ground
or where ever he is.
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
And when this happened to Ed, Ed died but
he\'s still with me every day. I mean I see
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
him every day and every night I\'m taking
care of him. But he\'s not the same
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
Ed. He\'s not the same husband that I know.
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:58.000
[sil.] I lay there and, and the
room has to be dark because
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
um, light makes my head fell uh, a blasting
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
pain. Where all thought stops and
you just feel like something sharp
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
is driven into your head.
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
[sil.] The majority of people have
very benign headaches and never
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
come to the attention of the medical
profession. The most seriousness of headaches
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
generally represent hemorrhage into
the head. And so, an aneurism a
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
weak spot in the wall of the blood vessel can
develop. That is the kind of headache that we have to
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
really handle surgically. There are other
kinds of headaches from brain tumors,
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
those are relatively rare.
The most frequent problem is
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
migraine. My mother says that I um,
started to get migraine headaches
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
from um, the age of 3 on.
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
And my father always had migraines. And I
can always remember that when he would
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
lay on the coach that I would lay with him.
We don\'t always
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
know who in the family had them. Many people don\'t
talk about them. But if you follow carefully
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
about 8 to 10% of the population
has a genetic tendency
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
to a migraine headache type problem.
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
No noise, no smells, no food, nothing.
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
I\'d lay there and, and try not to focus on the
pain which just comes in waves real regular.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
And I think I\'d laid there for half
an hour and it\'s really been like 5
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
minutes. A migraine headache is
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
an electrical discharge in the brain.
In, in actuality a polarization
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
change. We can measure
magnetic changes by the
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
polarization in the brains electrical system.
That starts in the back of the brain
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
and gradually spreads forward. There seems to
be a release of certain kinds of chemicals.
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
The chemicals are released in and around the
blood vessels and in and around the membranes
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
over the brain. And these chemicals
produce an inflammatory response much
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
as if you skinned you chin and then got all
swollen and painful. Only the membranes
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
around the brain are now
equipped to feel this pain very
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
intensively. I put something um,
cold on my head which helps
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
for a minute but your whole
face feels tight. And I get
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
very restless. And this is after
I\'m lying in bed and I\'ve
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
already put myself in a dark quiet room.
They become very aware
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
of their ability to become
disabled, not to keep functioning.
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
So, they very often seek ways of preventing
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
themselves from having so many headaches. One of the
earliest things they learned is they can go down
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
to the drug store or the supermarket and there they
see huge numbers of analgesic types of medication.
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
And they will try taking some of these the
first sign of a headache. And often times
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
this will work and they will be able to
keep functioning. But psychologically
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
they very rapidly become dependent on
the idea that they need medication
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
to turn off these headaches.
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
[music] After a headache that\'s
gone on for two or three days. Um,
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
wake up in the morning and open your
eyes and it\'s still there. It\'s just
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
despair.
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
A lot of people know that if they take
alcohol, particularly things like red wine
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
very soon thereafter they will have a terrible migraine.
A lot of people have the same problem with chocolate.
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
Others have the same problem with nicotine.
Many people have
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
to much caffeine. They\'re
all kinds of triggers.
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
Uh, psychological stresses often times
been blamed. Having a migraine is totally
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
disruptive to my family life. I
am incredibly short tempered
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
with my um, children. When
I have a headache I go
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
upstairs and I lay down or I
lay down on the coach and they
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
play quietly uh, or get
themselves something to eat,
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
or um, just leave mom alone.
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
The headache problem becomes an
extreme one psychologically. It is a
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
chronic problem that tears into
the family fabric that somebody
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
can\'t really be a partner and be a totally
healthy partner. Then there are a lot
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
of frustration. The way that these headaches
have really affected my marriage is
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
um, the level of frustration that
my husband has to live with. Um,
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
there\'s nothing he can do. He can
point me in the direction of um,
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
a doctor. But he, he
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
can\'t help when it hurts. Certainly any
kind of time there\'s a chronic disease
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
it produces a major stress
to families and headache is
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
one of the many problems. Especially,
especially active since the
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
stress of the psychological
upset will be in of it\'s self
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
another trigger for more migraines.
The biggest impact that um, having
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
all these headaches has had on my life is
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
that I never can plan anything
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
ahead because I never know when
they\'re going to come. The careful
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
neurological evaluation with
the most considered approach
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
to the avoidance of the
pitfall of to many drugs is
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
the way they should handle their problems.
The migraine patient has to take
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
good stock of who\'s working with
them and be totally upfront about
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
all the plans and rules as far as
how to go forward and get those
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
headaches controlled.
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:18.000
[music]
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:25.000
[sil.]
Distributor: The Fanlight Collection
Length: 45 minutes
Date: 1992
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: College/Adult/Professional
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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