by Bette Lamont
Children and adults from all walks of life fail to form strong and appropriate relationships or, conversely, form superficially intimate relationships, which always seem to deteriorate. This is the woman who flits from social group to social group, never staying with one for very long; it is the man no one knows intimately, he’s always been a loner, or the child who plays by himself at recess and never seems to have any friends. People with these issues may have a treatable, correctable neurological condition known as a bonding and attachment disorder. While any form of a bonding and attachment disorder interferes with an individual’s ability to act and feel appropriately, extreme forms are apparent in those who behave psychopathically, especially sociopaths and killers. NeuroDevelopmental Movement® addresses and resolves the underlying neurological condition, so that the effected individual can lead a healthy, productive life.
Individuals with bonding and attachment disorders may have anomalies or unfinished development in the part of the brain called the pons. The pons typically develops between one to five months of age and is responsible for all vital, life-preserving function, including sensory perceptions of heat, cold, hunger, and pain. It controls respiration, heart rate, and other necessities critical to survival. It identifies potential threats to our immediate safety and regulates our response to those threats. Because the pons develops in very young infants, it is non-verbal and reliant on movement and reflex. Infants at this time think in terms of black and white: I’m hungry, I’m going to die; I’m cold, I’m going to die; I’m not with mom, I’m going to die. You can’t spoil a pons-level baby because they must know that their needs will be met. This is how we develop a sense of safety and belonging in the world.
Pons-level dysfunction occurs when the infant’s needs for nurturing are not immediately met and/or her ability to complete developmental movements are restricted.* As the pons regulates response to threats—and an extreme of all sensation is perceived as life threatening to a pons-level infant—high levels of neurochemicals related to the “fight or flight” response are released for a prolonged period of time. The infant’s neurology adjusts to this toxic level of stress hormones; her brain literally behaves as if it is threatened at all times. Consequently, even when the infant’s needs are met, normal function does not return. No amount of nurturing will restore normal neurological function. The only way is to directly stimulate the pons and allow healthy to occur.
Adults who injure their pons, either as the result of extreme stress or due to a physical accident, develop this same dysfunction as their neurology alters to act as if the individual is always under attack.
Emotional and behavioral ramifications of pons level dysfunction manifest along a continuum and can be severe. As NeuroDevelopmental Movement® addresses emotion and behavior from the lens of the underlying deficit in the central nervous system, the collection of signs and symptoms of that dysfunction that the psychiatric and medical community use as a diagnosis are largely irrelevant: the human brain manifests its dysfunction in an amazing array as it works very hard to compensate for any deficiency. NeuroDevelopmental Movement® concentrates on the root cause of the problems—abnormal neurology—not a name with which we can label that abnormality.
One of the most critical purposes of the pons is recognition of threats and dangers. It controls our “fight or flight” response to life-threatening situations. Pons dysfunction skews this response, so that the individual constantly feels threatened. She may be hyper-alert and anxious, behaving as if even the most innocuous situation is dangerous. Children with this dysfunction often cannot sleep alone or become hysterical when left with a caregiver other than a parent. Adults express a constant, unmitigated, undefined dread or anxiety, “I always feel like something awful is going to happen, but I don’t know what.” The individual may need to know exactly what is going to happen in the future and is unable to cope with flexibility and change. On the other end of the spectrum, individuals may behave recklessly as the input regulating perception of danger is abnormal. They may cause deliberate harm to themselves without a sense of the risk involved. Inappropriate response to danger and risk disconnects and isolates the individual from those around him.
Individuals with pons-level dysfunction may feel as if they are constantly threatened, so attempt to exert control over their environment. They may not accurately interpret external social guidelines. Feeling at a loss, the individual attempts to gain as much control as possible to obtain a sense of security and may create her own set of complex, non-verbalized rules, which are rigid and inflexible. S/he expects others to follow these rules. If those around her fail to do so, she may become angry although the anger often remains unexpressed. Consequently, the individual’s belief that the world is hostile and unsupportive is confirmed and their sense of security further deteriorates.
Without a grounding in one’s own emotional landscape, an individual’s ability to receive and interpret social signals are absent, warping her response to social situations. The spectrum of behavior ranges from, as Florence Scott, RN, DMT, termed, “socially promiscuous” to withdrawn. The “socially promiscuous” individual tries to win the favor and attention of almost everyone he meets, as he fails to discriminate between his relationships with family members and those outside of the intimate circle. He may share personal information with a stranger or develop superficially close relationships immediately. Withdrawn individuals are the lone wolves who abstain from social relationships entirely or fail to form intimate bonds even with family members.
Pons-level dysfunction affects an individual’s ability to receive and interpret love. The emotion of love requires a sense of safety and security which individuals with this injury lack due to their sense of perpetual threat. Unattached individuals may seem either remote or clingy or both. Parents of these children report, “She never initiates hugs,” or “He won’t go to sleep unless he is in our bed.” The individual tends not to respond to displays of love and affection or, at the other end of the spectrum, never physically lets go of their caregiver. Although clinginess and remoteness appear contradictory, they are both inappropriate interpretations of bonding and indicative of this dysfunction.
This injury warps an individual’s ability to interpret the emotions of others. Because their own emotional balance is so skewed, the clues normal humans use to interpret one another’s emotional state are lost on people with bonding and attachment disorders. This can appear as a lack of empathy. The individual may hurt an animal or other person and then laugh about it. The pons regulates our sense of pain, so, if that is hindered, an individual has nothing to which to compare another’s pain; hence, it becomes amusing. This is one of the more dangerous hallmarks of attachment and bonding disorders and easily leads to violence. As a convicted serial killer said, “I don’t have any feelings about what I did. I don’t remember ever having any feelings.” On the other end of the spectrum, this dysfunction may manifest as over attentiveness to the feelings and wishes of others. The individual may go out of her way to appease those around her; she has no sense of what those around her feel, so behaves conciliatory. Others may be angry or pleased, but, with no way of interpreting, she assumes the worst and does her best to prevent it. This may appear as phoniness or superficial charm.
Diminished pain perception can manifest as the individual who seriously injures herself without the injury causing any distress. For instance, a client with this condition reported that she broke her leg while skiing. For anyone with a normal sense of pain, this would be immediately debilitating. This woman continued to ski, walked around for a week on her broken leg, and, only when unable to ski well a week later, sought medical attention. Diminished pain perception becomes self-directed as well. Individuals attempt to stimulate sensation through self-mutilation or other extreme forms of sensory input. When asked about these self-destructive behaviors, a common reply is, “I just wanted to feel something, anything at all.”
Pons emotions develop pre-verbally, so there are no words an individual can use to adequately express them. This contributes to a sense of isolation, a sense that no one understands. Feelings of loneliness, despair, and abandonment predominate. These emotions originate due to the dysfunction, not in response to an external threat (although, due to the inability to appropriately identify danger, an individual may assign them to an innocuous source). It is nearly impossible for an individual to verbalize her emotions, erecting another barrier between her and the outside world. Sometimes individuals release these emotions through rages which tend to be extreme and, possibly, violent.
Disconnection from the world leads to distortions of time and causality. Time is not perceived as a continuous flow from one moment to the next and the relationship between cause and effect is not apparent. A child with this issue is often inconsolable regarding any separation from a caregiver and the assurance that the caregiver will return has no impact. The pons really does think that if I am not with mom, I’m going to die and the individual behaves subsequently: only this moment counts. Consequently, causality has little meaning. Most punishments are useless, as they require the individual to connect the misbehavior with the punishment. Instead, for the individual with a pons-level dysfunction, these are two discrete events. Adults with this issue may appear to behave manipulatively, deliberately engaging in risky or painful behavior, and then acting genuinely surprised when confronted with the results of their actions. They may assign the apparent unreasonableness of the response to the responder, which serves to further alienate them from others.
The net sum of a pons-level dysfunction is a profound sense of displacement, lack of self-worth, and mistrust of the external world. Clients often say, “I just don’t feel like I belong here,” “I ought to be dead,” or “I don’t deserve to live.” Lacking sufficient means of receiving signals from the world or appropriately interpreting them if they are received, this individual cannot trust his own experiences and, consequently, does not trust the words and actions of others. Even as a caregiver assures the individual of their benign intent, he views that through a lens of mistrust, further isolating him. In extreme cases, individuals choose to turn off their feelings altogether and behave psychopathically.
Recent scientific studies confirm the connection between abnormal central nervous system functionality and behavioral issues. A June 2006 study released by researchers at the University of Chicago and Harvard found that individuals with intermittent explosive disorder, repeated and uncontrollable anger attacks in response to trifling situations, have abnormal brain signaling in the part of the brain responsible for recognition of threats. In July 2006, psychologists at the University of Amsterdam released a study measuring the connection between individuals’ physical needs and their ability to express empathy. When stressed by extreme sensory input, such as pain or fatigue, the subjects’ ability to empathize greatly diminished. For an individual with pons-level dysfunction, this stress is hard-wired and occurs constantly.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement® addresses the underlying structural dysfunction so that normal function can occur. Once normal function is in place, the constellation of emotional and behavioral problems subside. A neurodevelopmental assessment gauges the deficits in an individual’s central nervous system. This process reveals challenges at foundational levels of the brain in their language, the language of reflex, movement and sensation, and provides an accurate measure of functionality. Once the deficits are identified, the individual is assigned a plan of neurodevelopmental activities targeted at the dysfunctional areas. Developmental activities are the exact activities that infants and young children complete when establishing central nervous system functionality during their early months of life. Our knowledge of the normal developmental sequence tells us what specific activities are associated with acquisition of capability and function in each part of the brain. The activities assigned to address pons-level dysfunction are those a healthy one-to-five-month-old infant automatically completes. Depending on the diligence of the individual and the severity of the dysfunction, a typical course of treatment lasts eighteen months to two years.
A plan of NeuroDevelopmental Movement® targeted at pons-level dysfunction speaks directly to deep, pre-verbal emotions. When an individual begins, his feelings of grief and anger are frequently overwhelming. The emotions that have not been expressed explode to the surface and erupt all at once. If unprepared, this may be surprising as the feelings are not in response to surrounding circumstances; they arise because of the sensory-motor stimulation of NeuroDevelopmental Movement®, not due to immediate surroundings. Especially if the individual has a history of risky behavior, it is crucial for the caregiver—parent, spouse, or friend—to remain uncritical and accept these emotions impersonally. They are indicative of important and beneficial neurological changes. A therapist should be involved with most of our profoundly impacted clients to provide support as the individual wades through deep and confusing emotions. The individual may also become resistant to the emotions (generally, reverting to risky behaviors) or the plan itself. The therapist can offer structure and support to guide the individual through these challenges. Completing the assigned neurodevelopmental activities will stimulate change so that the individual progresses through this difficult time as quickly as possible.
NeuroDevelopmental Movement® forms new brain connections. As the plan progresses, the individual develops healthier pons functionality. The flow of emotion begins to subside and the individual has the capacity to form appropriate bonds and relationships. He begins to trust his own perceptions of the world, which gives him the tools to trust those around him. He identifies and respects his emotional and physical boundaries, which, in turn, allows him to respect others. His behavior adjusts to become more appropriate to his current circumstances. Cortical psychological interventions become effective in dealing with the ramifications of his experiences.
Bonding and attachment disorders can be debilitating to those who experience them and to those individuals’ loved ones. Due to the neurological basis of the disorders, traditional therapies are largely unsuccessful. Stimulation of the injured part of the brain and repetition of neurolodevelopment allows healthy function to occur. While the individual must address those lingering emotions, she is now free to form healthy, appropriate relationships. As the mother of such an injured child remarked, “He still has much to learn about the emotions that were so long locked away from him, but now he has the ability to be a healthy and happy child.” (testimonial from NDM files)
* Developmental movements, together with sensory experiences and reflex integration, are a set of activities known as the Developmental Sequence that infants and young children engage in automatically. They trigger engrams in the central nervous system, which, in turn, activate new functionality, leading to increased capability. This is how humans acquire functional neurology.