Counsellors and psychotherapists recognize all too well that at the center of the concerns confronted by their customers are stressful or traumatic memories. One thing they thought they could not help with. Today Havening techniques is turning out to be a game changer.

What you are about to read is the story of a family. A man with a dark past who didn't fit into society's expectations of how a family should look like. He needed some help but nobody offered it to him.

He thought about himself as a survivor rather than a victim. He had been through a traumatic experience and his world had changed. Things that were once solid became hazy. His world blurred and shrank. He could no longer fit inside the constraints of the family unit and he lost part of his identity.

He also became depressed and anxious. Some of his former friends no longer visited or got stuck up. They no longer cared about him. Their caring had waned. They didn't want to play anymore. He became more paranoid. He could now pick out liars in a crowd and tell when their minds were clouded. He had become hyper vigilant.

The story begins with the birth of his son. The man grew increasingly impatient as he watched his wife have their second child. He began to doubt that they could have another. He didn't want another dark child in the family and he didn't want another baby. He couldn't cope with another trauma.

When the son was born, he was irritable and agitated. At school he made mischief and threw things.

He told his son to calm down and stop bothering the other children. The father broke down and told his son to shut up and stop bothering the other children. His son said and laughed, "Why should I shut up or bother you?

He felt as if he was frozen in time. He couldn't feel anything. He felt as if his brain was stuck in 1965.

The medication helped her feel something. She felt something. They both felt something.

In the 1950s, psychologists in the U.S. and Canada discovered that a chemical in the brain was responsible for emotion. In 1963, the Harvard psychiatrist Solomon Asch discovered corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and published an article saying it was responsible for sexual desire. Later, research by others confirmed his findings and they became widely used in treating patients with disorders of the immune system and stress. The chemical was also known to be responsible for hunger, depression, anxiety, sleep and pain sensation. It stimulated the growth of nerve cells in the nervous system.

Asch's discovery that the CRH was responsible for emotions was revolutionary. People could get rid of symptoms of stress by manipulating the levels of the chemical in their brains. CRH was an anti-depressant, but Asch knew that it had to be given together with antidepressant medication to be effective. The result was a pharmaceutical blockbuster. In 1978, Astghin and his colleague Daniel Kripke published an article in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders that showed that the CRH inhibited the reuptake of serotonin, a chemical that boosts serotonin levels.

Since then, there have been another two discoveries:

> The second chemical boost, dopamine, is responsible for feelings of motivation and motivation is the second chemical boost. Since we don't make dopamine on its own, it must be combined with another chemical, serotonin, in the brain to make motivation happen.

> Another finding was that the chemical was released when someone felt pleasure. We can release dopamine by participating in activities. Since the CRH stimulated nerve cell growth, we might release more dopamine when we did activities.

> They also found that when someone felt happiness and satisfaction, CRH was released and the person could get more of it when they did certain activities.

Since the discovery of the CRH, the pharmaceutical industry has developed ways to suppress or boost the levels of the chemical to meet the needs of different patients. In addition, many medications now block its effects, so that it can't be the sole chemical boost needed. In the late 1970s, a young researcher named Carol Hughes came up with a new idea.

> Her idea was that there were other chemicals in the body besides CRH that worked in the same way and could be stimulated. It was named serotonin syndrome, and even though it had been found to stimulate bone loss, it stimulated nerve cell growth and could improve health. A drug called fluoxetine came about and it made nerve cell growth. Fluoxetine was also an SSRI, so patients could be treated with it only. Hughes, though, had no money or support and her experiment was quickly abandoned. There were later researchers who had support and who did find that there were other chemicals in the body besides CRH that might work in the same way as CRH. One of them was John Baez.

> Baez did extensive work on serotonin. He found that when someone felt happiness, dopamine was released and it stimulated nerve cell growth. This work led to the discovery of a group of chemicals called the serotonergic family, which include dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Many serotonin drugs work in the same way as CRH. They can stimulate nerve cell growth. In the 1980s, a group led by Dr. Michael Posner at the University of Miami found that serotonin did indeed stimulate nerve cell growth. They named the serotonin receptors, SERTs, after the son of the lead researcher, John Posner.

> Now there are a variety of drugs that work on serotonin. The drug clomipramine is a SSRI. This has caused the emergence of the clomipramine syndrome which can be distressing for many patients. The drug sertraline, which is also an SSRI, can cause the same problem. A newer drug, citalopram, can not cause the syndrome. It did cause a very interesting effect. In people who did have the syndrome, it produced depressed mood, irritability, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, decreased appetite and weight loss, and anxiety. The new drug could be used for people who don't have the syndrome. For many of these patients, it does produce the negative effects noted above.

> Sertraline and clomipramine have a nasty side effect called tardive dyskinesia, which is a movement disorder. It will be interesting to see if this phenomenon occurs with the sertraline and if it can be corrected with treatment.
> In conclusion, Sertraline has potential to be an effective medication for the treatment of ADHD.

In 1978, Astghin and his colleague Daniel Kripke published an article in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders that showed that the CRH inhibited the reuptake of serotonin, a chemical that boosts serotonin levels.

> Another finding was that the chemical was released when someone felt pleasure. Since the discovery of the CRH, the pharmaceutical industry has developed ways to suppress or boost the levels of the chemical to meet the needs of different patients. > Her idea was that there were other chemicals in the body besides CRH that worked in the same way and could be stimulated. There were later researchers who had support and who did find that there were other chemicals in the body besides CRH that might work in the same way as CRH.