PD Revelation

Way back in the 2013 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's self-administered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) figured fairly prominently in the protocol. Over time though, it seems Janice Walton-Hadlock came to learn that CBT of the well known variety would not directly turn off pause. And so conventional CBT faded from prominence in Stuck on Pause and in the previously available eight chapters of Recovery from Parkinson's.

I refer to “conventional” CBT because the new exercises designed to stimulate the striatum and thalamus, introduced in Stuck on Pause and elaborated on in the subsequent edition of Recovery from Parkinson's, may themselves be viewed as a type of CBT.

In the 2020 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's, however, the more conventional variety of CBT makes something of a comeback (see pp. 126, 236). I was thrilled to see this as I had been, and still am, using a simple CBT approach to address the anxiety that I discovered has tended to drive my fatigue. In the dialogue with the “other,” I look for irrational beliefs that might underly the anxiety, and seek to replace them with rational beliefs. For me this has been extremely helpful. But I wasn't sure if it might, in any way, conflict with the core process of the new exercises. My takeaway from its return to the protocol is that it is just fine to use as a supplement to the core exercises.

For a couple of examples of how I have used a simple CBT approach in this way see this prior post.