I have wanted to give you some background for the toxic mind theory upon
which the self help measures are based. My disovery of the toxic mind as
the basis for the symptoms of emotional disorders came after a study of
a movement called Natural Hygiene (a book called Fit for Life led me to
this), which adheres to nutrition as a means of cleansing the body and
restoring health. My discovery came from a correlation of the principles
of Natural Hygiene, the work of Alice Miller, Janov and others, the
principles of Adult Children of Alcoholics, ie Melody Beattie's ninth
step "dealing with those who harmed us" and finally 50 years of my
research and that of others in biological psychiatry, specifically
catecholamine metabolism. I previously published many papers dealing
with catecholamines and neurotransmission.

That the self help measures work is proven by the scientific evidence
for the toxic mind theory in my technical paper. I also wanted to send
you this information to point out the importance of nutrition. It is
much easier to change to a more natural diet when one is post-flood
because the cravings for non-nutritious food will have calmed down, but
if your physical health is poor it may be necessary to make this shift
along with doing the detox of anger, using substitutes such as raw dates
for processed sugar, baked potato for bread, etc. My field is not
nutrition, and I don't presume to advise in detail about nutrition, but
it is an important factor in the healing of the mind. There are a number
of food lists that were helpful to me, such as the Raw Food and Paleo
Food lists on:

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/

I personally eat according to Instinctive Nutrition, by Severen
Schaeffer, all raw including animal food, Garden of Eden style, (what
tastes good in its natural state is what my body needs, what doesn't
appeal or tastes bad my body does not need)--but there are REAL dangers
from parasites (some Intstintive eaters have nearly died from parasites)
especially if one goes into this abruptly, so I do not give advice about
which food plan to adopt. But there is general aggreement among those I
have studied about the need for animal food, especially fat, as raw as
possible--many eat Sushi for this-- avoiding grains, dairy, refined
carbohydrates, and the need to eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as
possible. The Natural Hygiene movement has become vegetarian, and I have
learned (sadly through the loss of several NH friends) that long term
vegetarianism is deficient in very essential nutrients.

Here is an except from Fit for Life II by Marilyn and Harvey Diamond
which explains the concept of toxemia as the source of most disease.

"Review of the Principles

HARVEY:

Regardless of what you are trying to achieve in the area of your health,
certain fundamental principles can be used. The most basic of these
deserve mentioning. Although these principles are described in detail in
Fit for Life, it is important at least to review them. The approach to
eating suggested by and described in Fit for Life is designed to
accomplish the vital function of keeping the inside of your body clean
and in tiptop working condition. When everything is fine on the inside,
it is reflected on the outside. Even though Fit for Life addresses
itself to energy enhancement and weight loss, its underlying goal is to
cleanse the body. Keep in mind that your body, like anything else, can
become dirty. if the inner workings of your car become all sludged up,
it will not operate well until it is cleaned out. The same holds true
for your body. Your insides can be impeded in their operations by
uneliminated metabolic waste. You can either clean it out or ignore it.
Of course, ignoring it, which in effect is allowing it to become
cumulatively worse, makes about as much sense as jumping in front of a
speeding truck. How does your body become clogged up-- By what is called
a metabolic imbalce, or toxemia. Metabolism is the sum total of all the
processes of the body in taking in food, using what it can, and gettitig
rid of all the rest. Stated a little differently metabohsm is the
building up (anabolism) and the breaking down (catabolism) of tissue in
Ilie body. When waste builds up faster than the body can eliminate it,
you become toxic (or poisoned). The more toxic you are, the sicker you
can become.

Every day your body breaks down somewhere between 300 and 800 billion
cells. Every day! They must be eliminated. Why? Because, besides being
no longer of use to the body, they are in fact toxic or poisonous to the
body, which is where the word toxemia comes in. Spent cells are dead. if
they are allowed to build and build at a faster rate than the body can
eliminate them, then you will reach a point where they begin to poison
the body and start damaging its internal organs. The breaking down of
cells is not the only soce of toxic material. There is another
contributor to the level of toxemia with which the body must contend.
Food! That's right, our old friend that we all know and love.
The people of the United States have a diet that has more than its fair
share of highly processed and overcooked food. Because the body absorbs
nonusable debris and toxic additives from the intestinal tract, there is
a slow buildup of food residue and additives (which are toxic) that
cannot be used by the body. This waste matter coupled with the toxic
debris generated by the breaking down of cells is what creates a
metabolic imbalance or toxemia. You want to have a system as clean and
free of toxic waste as possible. The key to living a long, disease-free,
pain free life lies in understatiding and minimizing your level of
toxemia.

Dr. John H. Tilden, who discovered the phenomenon of toxemia in the
early 192Os, first laid out his findings in his landmark hook Toxemia
ExpLained. Dr. Tilden was a practicing physician who became
disillusioned with the drugging approach to healing and turned to
Natural Hygiene. The success he had employing the principles of Natural
Hygiene with his patients totally convinced him of the worthiness and
excellence of this field of science. He described the extent to which
toxemia is the root cause of the many ailments we humans suffer. He
demonstrated dramatically that, more often than not,

WHAT WE CALL DISEASE IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE BODY'S OWN EFFORT TO
CLEANSE ITSELF OF TOXINS.

Of course, the different problems are given different names depending on
the area used for the elimination ot waste, creating the illusion that
there are thousands of separate maladies when, in fact, most of them are
one and the same-- toxemia. To think that every single malady is a
distinct and different problem is like thinking that water, dew, ice,
frost, snow all have a distinct and different essence. Envision a dike
holding back a large body of water. This dike is made of bricks and
mortar. Because of a prolonged rainstorm, the body of water becomes
larger and larger, putting more and more pressure on the dike.
Ultimately, the dike starts to succumb to the ever growing body of
water. First, some of the mortar loosens and water starts to trickle
through (these are detoxification crises, in the brain it may be a
release of repressed anger--my addition). Then some bricks pop out and
water starts to come through those openings. With the breach, some the
structure itself starts to crack and crumble, and finally the foundation
starts to erode, with the result that some of the structure collapses.
Fmally, the water level becomes so great that water simply surges right
over the entire dike and floods it under. The problem here is not the
bricks or the mortar or the foundation of the structure itself. The
problem is the ever increasing, vast amount of water that ultimately
became more than the dike could withstand. There were not four problems,
there was one: an overload of water. To understand what happens with
toxemia, imagine that your body is the dike and that the water is your
level of toxemia. No matter how strong you are, no matter what measures
you take to remain strong, an ever increasing level of toxemia will in
time take its toll (a youth might kill off a dozen classmates during a
detox of anger--again my addition here). It will overwhelm you and lay
you low with some malady. This is why I say that the secret to longevity
(and sanity, me again!) is in keeping your level of toxemia as low as
possible. (for the brain, the need to release and redirect anger at the
first sign of an excitatory symptom so as to periodically detoxify the
neurons that have become clogged with neruotransmitters as a result of
suppressing anger--my last addition here)":

This same Dr. John Tilden wrote the following: 'Drunkeness and crime of
all kinds are vicarious toxin eliminations--crises of toxemia.'

Tilden and other early Natural Hygienists were probably abused children
themselves, did not understand that the central nervous system works
just as the rest of the body in it's effort to eliminte toxins. They had
an unfortunate moralistic approach to emotional detox events.

What is different about the nervous system is that nerve cells, or
neurons, are formed at birth and generally do not replace themselves.
This means they constantly must repair portions of the cytoplasm during
periodic detox crises (which are excitatory nervous symptoms). In the
hypothalamus, which is not protected by the blood brain barrier, some of
the toxins are from exogenous food and other sources. But most of the
toxemia in the neurons--toxicosis is a better word since toxemia usually
refers to blood--is from excess noradrenaline and related metabolites,
which have accumulated in the neurons as a result of the suppression of
anger and other negative thoughts and emotions.

Here is the abstract of my technical paper which will soon appear in the
peer-reviewed journal Medical Hypothses. When the paper is published I
wil have permssion from the editor to put the full paper on one of my
web sites.


The toxic mind: the biology of mental illness and violence
E. Van Winkle, retired, Millhauser Laboratories of the Department of
Psychiatry New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY.
Mailing address: Murray Hill Station. P.O. Box 893, New York, NY 10156

Abstract -- The continual suppression of emotions during fight or flight
reactions results in atrophy and endogenous toxicosis in noradrenergic
neurons. Diminished synaptic levels of norepinephrine are associated
with depression. During periodic detoxification crises excess
norepinephrine and other metabolites flood synapses. The norepinephrine
overexcites postsynaptic neurons and causes symptoms ranging from mild
anxiety to violent behavior. Some of the other metabolites, which may
include dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid,
peptides, amino acids, and various metabolic waste products, are bound
by noradrenergic receptors and alter neurotransmission. When they
prevent norepinephrine from exciting postsynaptic neurons, depression
returns. A mechanism is proposed for the binding of norepinephrine and
for the effects of the other metabolites, many of which have been
thought to be neurotransmitters. The diverse receptor proteins presumed
to be specific for false neurotransmitters may instead encode specific
memories. The shift in depressive and excitatory behavior is
characteristic of nearly all nervous and mental disorders, including
addictions, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and psychosomatic
disorders. When toxins accumulate in regions of the brain that control
specific activities, the symptoms observed will be related to those
activities, giving rise to supposedly distinct disorders that represent
the same detoxification process. Recovery can be facilitated by therapy
and self-help measures that involve the releasing and redirecting of
repressed emotions.

in press, Medical Hypotheses

Ellie