Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was initially revealed March 17, 2019.
Annie Hopper is a limbic retraining specialist. While it’s possible you’ll by no means have heard this time period, limbic hyperactivity or dysfunction seems to be a foundational core of the dysfunction and challenges related to a number of chemical sensitivity (MCS), electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), persistent fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia and a variety of different situations, and by retraining your limbic system to reply appropriately, signs could subside or vanish.
Hopper was herself homeless for a time resulting from her EHS, which made her unable to tolerate fashionable environments. I met Hopper in Peter Sullivan’s electromagnetic subject (EMF) tent at an autism convention run by Jenny McCarthy known as Generation Rescue. Sullivan is an environmental well being funder who focuses on toxins and wi-fi security.
Sullivan had additionally benefited from Hopper’s work. Intrigued, I learn Hopper’s guide, “Wired for Healing: Remapping the Brain to Recover From Chronic and Mysterious Illnesses,” which is a good useful resource.
Developing EHS — A Personal Account
Hopper describes the challenges that led to writing her guide:
“It began in 2004. I used to be working as a core perception counsellor in Kelowna, British Columbia. I used to be working at an workplace that [had] mildew … [and] my workplace was positioned proper subsequent door to the janitor’s provide room, the place they held all of the cleansing chemical compounds for the workplace, all these actually heavy-duty industrial cleaners.
What I additionally did not know was that the precise workplace that I used to be renting was part of the janitor’s provide room. They simply put up a wall to make a bit workplace area. It did not have correct air flow both.
I labored in that workplace for about 5 months. Over that interval, I began to get progressively sick. Before that, [and] that is what we name like the right storm for a limbic system impairment … I used to be in a automotive accident the place I had a minor whiplash damage. That was most likely in regards to the fifth automotive accident previous to this mildew and chemical publicity.
Anyway, for the 5 months that I used to be on this constructing, I began to progressively get signs, like nervousness, persistent muscle and joint ache, and this rising sensitivity to simply on a regular basis issues in my surroundings, like perfumes and colognes. That’s the way it began … Really, it felt like I used to be being actually poisoned by any sort of chemical publicity.
I moved out of the constructing finally as a result of I acknowledged that it was the constructing that was making me sick, however by that point, it was too late. The injury was already carried out … [Then] I had what I name a tipping level. I used to be strolling via a bookstore and by a scented candle show. Someone else could be OK with that, however … at that time, one thing occurred to my mind.
I went over the sting by way of this fight-or-flight response that simply didn’t cease. At that time, it felt like I used to be having a mind hemorrhage or one thing. Light damage. Sound damage. Smell damage. Everything damage … When I awoke the subsequent morning … I couldn’t put on the identical garments that I’d worn, as a result of my mind was now selecting up on the smallest quantity of chemical residue from laundry detergent as doubtlessly life-threatening.
That began a really weird sort of science fiction world the place I actually needed to navigate how I did life. If I used to be strolling down the road and somebody occurred to be doing their laundry and so they had dryer exhaust going off, if I walked by that, I would go into convulsions.
It was very severe, massively debilitating. I needed to give up my job. I needed to cease socializing. I used to be very a lot homebound and getting depressed. Just once I thought issues could not get any worse, they did. What appeared like in a single day, I developed EHS.
By this time, I’ve already bought extreme chemical sensitivities. I even have fibromyalgia. I used to be affected by nervousness, insomnia and a bunch of different issues, after which I developed this EMF sensitivity. What that meant was that my physique might detect EMF.”
Chemical Sensitivities and EHS Often Go Hand in Hand
It’s a identified undeniable fact that many who wrestle with chemical sensitivities are at larger threat of EHS, and that was definitely Hopper’s expertise. In addition to a burning pores and skin sensation, which is a quite common symptom of EHS, she additionally misplaced her means to talk, which she says is a extreme symptom related to each chemical sensitivities and EHS.
“When I began to speak, I’d say one thing that basically did not make any sense. It wasn’t really what I used to be pondering,” she says. “There was one thing very cognitively off as effectively. I had numerous mind fog and simply not with the ability to focus, incapability to articulate, to suppose, to place ideas collectively, to string a sentence collectively, all of that.”
To survive, she needed to get away from all these chemical and EMF triggers. At the time, she was residing together with her husband, James, in a rental in Kelowna, British Columbia. It was unimaginable to get away from wi-fi radiation. In the tip, she needed to resort to tenting.
“Even earlier than this time, I knew that my mind was being affected. It actually made sense to me that my mind was not processing sensory data precisely anymore,” she says.
“Somehow, the fight-or-flight facilities in my mind had been being triggered a lot in order that it was distorting a number of the data that was coming into my mind and making this overreactive, overresponsive, hypervigilant response that was additionally affecting my immune system, my endocrine system, my neurology — all of it …
It made sense for me that it was some type of mind damage, some type of mind trauma — one thing was flawed. I began to take a look at what space of the mind was answerable for sense of scent as a result of, to me, that appeared like the correct place to begin.”
The Role of Your Limbic System in EHS
As a end result, Hopper started researching the limbic system, which is the emotional and reactive a part of your mind, answerable for filtering sensory and emotional data, and sorting that data into two distinct classes: secure or unsafe.
“You can think about that if any of these neurons alongside that neural community are broken or not working functionally in any manner, then that may begin to categorize data that will not usually be thought of harmful as life-threatening,” Hopper says.
This is a wholly unconscious response, after all. Essentially, your mind will get caught within the fight-flight-or-freeze mechanism. She additionally researched neuroplasticity, which is your mind’s means to vary.
She found there was numerous analysis exhibiting limbic system overactivation is widespread denominator for a lot of totally different diseases, together with CFS, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, despair and nervousness. While studying Dr. Norman Doidge’s guide, “The Brain That Changes Itself,” she had a sudden revelation.
“He was speaking about Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, who’s the guru for obsessive-compulsive dysfunction (OCD). Schwartz acknowledged that with OCD, there is part of the mind that simply wasn’t functioning correctly. That’s what retains folks on this feeling of contamination or obsessive worrying. I believed, ‘I haven’t got OCD, however definitely I really feel like my thoughts or my mind is caught.”
Schwartz would scan his sufferers’ brains to see how the mind was working after they had been having an OCD assault. He then gave them a sequence of self-directed neuroplasticity workout routines to do at residence, and rescanned their mind after a time period. What he found was that their brains had been really being rewired.
The extra they practiced these workout routines, the extra their mind modified, to the purpose the place they really reversed the adjustments that had been occurring throughout OCD. As a end result, they had been capable of perform usually once more.
“It appeared to me like that was the correct place to look,” Hopper says. “I began to turn into my very own private guinea pig, taking a look at how might I modify the limbic system, understanding that it was the sensation and reacting mind and understanding that it could possibly be categorizing data or distorting data … This just isn’t not like post-traumatic stress dysfunction, I feel. Or traumatic mind damage …
You know, I used to be simply as shocked as anybody else, to be sincere with you. When I began to note adjustments in signs, my first thought was, ‘Hallelujah’ … Through influencing this a part of my mind and rewiring the mind, it really dampened and diminished signs, and miraculously normalized my sensory notion.
When your sensory notion goes again to being regular, your physique is not reacting to every little thing. That made it doable for me to dwell on the earth once more and be of the world once more, and be an lively participant in my life.”
What Causes Limbic System Impairment?
So, what really causes this limbic system impairment within the first place? As famous by Hopper, it could possibly be a variety of various things, together with viral, bacterial, emotional or psychological stress. It could possibly be chemical damage, mildew or extreme EMF publicity. “Usually it’s a combination of all of that that leads to what we call the perfect storm. These kinds of stresses are cumulative,” she says.
Ultimately, her expertise and analysis led her to develop the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) course, which is now provided as a five-day interactive coaching program round North America and Europe. The program can also be obtainable on-line and as a 14-hour DVD sequence.
It’s not a fast course of. It can take many months of diligent work, however the finish outcomes are clearly definitely worth the effort. Hopper recommends working towards this system each day for no less than six months.
“It takes some time to vary these neural networks. Even although folks would possibly begin feeling adjustments inside just a few days or just a few weeks or just a few months, you actually wish to repeat these workout routines frequently to make these actually everlasting adjustments within the mind,” she says.
The IMAGINE Acronym
Hopper got here up with the acronym known as “IMAGINE” to encapsulate the technique of this system:
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I stands for intention — The intention being to strengthen various neural circuitry and shifting the main target away from signs as a way to change the fight-flight-or-freeze response and normalize limbic system perform. |
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M for motivation — It’s not an in a single day repair, so that you must discover the motivation to do the workout routines each day. |
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A for consciousness and affiliation — You have to turn into conscious of how limbic system impairment impacts your ideas, feelings and behaviors. When you catch these ideas, feelings and behaviors, you will wish to redirect your mind in that second into an alternate route in order that it would not proceed down the neural pathways related to the impairment. You additionally want to take a look at your associations. What sort of associations have you ever created with stimuli that could be activating the menace facilities in your mind on a steady foundation, and how are you going to change these associations? |
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G for achieve — It’s vital to acknowledge the features you make all through your retraining course of. “This is fascinating as a result of all of us have an innate negativity bias, that means we will discover what is going on flawed earlier than we discover what is going on proper,” Hopper says. “If you’ve gotten limbic system impairment, that negativity bias may be magnified due to the impairment itself.” |
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I for incremental coaching — It’s a type of neural shaping that helps strengthen various neurocircuitry by exposing your self to small quantities of stimulus to assist retrain your mind to reply in a different way to it. |
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N for neurological and emotional rehearsals — “There’s part of this system the place we use our creativeness and visualization,” Hopper says. “The wonderful thing about creativeness is the mind doesn’t know the distinction between what’s actual and what’s imagined. There isn’t any finish to how we will use our creativeness to assist in retraining the mind.” Using guided visualization, you possibly can alter your neural chemistry. When in fight-flight-or-freeze response, you launch numerous cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Using this guided visualization approach, you possibly can cease the manufacturing of these stress hormones and improve manufacturing of really feel good hormones similar to dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. |
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E for environmental consciousness — Last however not least, that you must assess your day-to-day surroundings and create essentially the most pristine and exquisite therapeutic surroundings for your self. |
The Importance of Addressing Cellular Injury
In essence, the central precept of DNRS is that neurons that fireside collectively, wire collectively. The objective of many of those workout routines is to rewire them within the route of therapeutic, as a result of they have been hyperfacilitated within the route of damage.
While testimonials attest to the effectiveness of Hopper’s program, it is also vital to comprehend that this doesn’t handle the mobile damage that EMFs trigger. My view is that your limbic system alarms and alerts you so as so that you can take steps to cease this mobile injury that’s occurring.
So, I consider it is vitally vital to deal with each your limbic dysfunction and the mobile injury that has occurred in your physique. Hopper agrees that each angles are equally vital, however that limbic system retraining is the lacking hyperlink for a lot of:
“Let’s take chemical damage for instance. Is it affecting the tissues? Is it affecting the mobile degree? Absolutely. Detoxification could be a great factor for most individuals, however for the one that has a limbic system damage, they’re going to nonetheless be sick even after they’ve detoxified … or they could discover that cleansing remedies really heighten signs reasonably than decrease signs, as a result of the mind is caught in that trauma state.
The cells of the physique have additionally affected the mind. We might do all these remedies to assist with the mobile, clearing the physique cellularly from what is occurring, but for lots of people, that will probably be sufficient. If they’re nonetheless sick, then we actually wish to take a look at that mind element too.”
So, keep in mind, simply because your signs dissipate, which the DNRS methodology will do for a lot of, that does not essentially imply you have mitigated the mobile damage EMF publicity has inflicted. Ideally, you wish to do each. It’s a mix of the 2 that is so essential for full therapeutic.
Amazing Stories of Recovery
Hopper’s guide incorporates a variety of accounts of exceptional restoration tales utilizing her program. One not included within the guide is Riley, who was bedridden for 3 years with extreme persistent Lyme illness.
“He couldn’t converse, couldn’t eat. He was partially paralyzed. He was delicate to gentle, to sound, to motion, to chemical compounds. He’d additionally had mildew publicity. His mother saved him alive by feeding him little Dixie cups of soup.
He’d been to numerous actually nice practitioners and had come a good distance. They bought him strolling once more and with the ability to discuss, however he was nonetheless left with numerous totally different points, like meals sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, some OCD, some motion dysfunction.
Riley got here to this system. It took him a couple of 12 months to get better from the signs that had been left … that had been associated to limbic system impairment. He’s totally recovered. He traveled in Europe and went backpacking for a 12 months. It’s a reasonably wonderful story.”
Hopper additionally recounts two different success tales, together with considered one of a lady with a steadiness dysfunction who made a exceptional restoration on this system. Another is of a younger girl who had extreme POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) who went from being in a wheelchair to rollerblading. At current, Hopper has two analysis initiatives within the works.
One is an observational research at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, involving 100 individuals with all kinds of medical diagnoses. This research goals to evaluate how the DNRS program impacts high quality of life and measure adjustments in symptom severity over the course of a 12 months.
The second analysis initiative is going down on the University of Calgary. In this research, they are going to assessment mind scans of people that have persistent fatigue, fibromyalgia or chemical sensitivities to get a baseline mind scan after which take a look at how the mind adjustments when somebody is definitely implementing this system for a interval of no less than six months.
According to Hopper, the estimated success price of bettering high quality of life is about 90%. Hopefully, these research validate that estimate.
More Information
While this system seems to be very efficient, you do need to be motivated to do it. Being below a excessive diploma of stress might also dampen outcomes. Homelessness could be an instance right here. “But by all means, give it your finest go. You may not get the outcomes that you just wish to see as rapidly, however that does not imply that you just will not see outcomes,” Hopper says.
That stated, she doesn’t advocate this system for sure psychological situations, similar to schizophrenia, or if you happen to’re at the moment going via excessive situational stress, similar to if you happen to’re going via a court docket case, or grieving a beloved one who simply handed away.
“That may not be a very good time to begin the course,” she says. “It doesn’t suggest that it is unimaginable, but it surely would possibly gradual the development down. I feel that if somebody’s simply handed away, you are coping with grief or loss, there is a pure development to grieving and a pure course of the place grieving takes place.
I do not suppose that will be a very nice time to begin this system, as a result of we actually need folks to focus particularly on elevating their emotional state as a lot as they will, not solely after they’re doing the workout routines and likewise all through the day. If you are within the grieving course of, it is sort of a bit bit troublesome to do.”
Barring extreme psychological sickness or excessive stress, if you happen to’ve been struggling for a very long time with a persistent and mysterious sickness, be it CFS, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, EHS, Lyme illness, meals sensitivities or any variety of different difficult-to-pin-down illnesses, think about giving limbic system retraining a strive.
“Don’t quit hope. There’s a solution. There’s a manner out of struggling,” Hopper says. “I made a promise to myself once I was sick that if and once I discover a solution, I’d share that with the world. I’m doing my best possible to do this. Our workforce is increasing increasingly more.
The DVD has been translated into seven languages. We have folks from all around the world and over 65 nations report back to us that they are recovering their well being via limbic system retraining. All I wish to say is, ‘Give it a strive. Embrace this system.’ I feel that individuals will probably be pleasantly shocked with the outcomes.”
To get your ft moist and study extra in regards to the science behind the DNRS program, choose up a duplicate of “Wired for Healing: Remapping the Brain to Recover From Chronic and Mysterious Illnesses.” If you determine you wish to undergo the course, you possibly can choose up the 14-hour DVD course on Hopper’s web site, RetrainingTheBrain.com (you can even decide to do the coaching on-line).
There you can even register for the five-day interactive coaching seminar. Since folks coming to this system have all kinds of sensitivities, nice care is taken to make sure a secure and wholesome surroundings for many individuals.
