Possibilities with Parkinson's - a Column by Dr. C

Sanctuary and solitude help create the conditions for practicing insight meditation. This helps me to sense the Parkinson’s brain noise coming from my damaged midbrain, enabling me to better understand, and manage, some of my Parkinson’s symptoms. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease of the midbrain. My…

Life in our hectic world is very noisy. To get the most benefit from the practice of insight meditation, we need our Parkinson’s life to be quiet. We must reduce the external noise so we can hear those subtle ripples in our brain’s undercurrent, the precursors to problems. Preventing…

With Parkinson’s, there’s a chronic malaise, a sense of “dis-ease” that never leaves. In this column, I’m using the hyphenated term “dis-ease” to separate its deeper meaning from the medical use of the word. Dis-ease is an ever-present part of the brain noise I face each day. There are…

I wouldn’t mind having a chronic illness if I didn’t have to feel sick all the time. But there is no good reason everyone around me must endure my complaints. Negative self-talk is what I call “misery moaning.” Moaning and complaining about misery consumes otherwise productive hours in a day.

I visualize my Parkinson’s disease as a form of brain injury — specifically to small portions of the midbrain. I imagine the total volume of damaged area to be about the size of a golf ball. This means I have the rest of my brain to use for…

I have scars on my retinas I can’t see through. Parkinson’s disease doesn’t cause them, but they do significantly limit my vision. Imagine you’re in the car, looking through the front windshield. A bird flies by and leaves a big dropping right in the middle of your view. It’s…

It’s difficult for people, even family, to understand the serious effects of stress on someone living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A 2021 Nature article, “Stress and mindfulness in Parkinson’s disease — a survey in 5000 patients,”  suggests that stress has “considerable and detrimental influence on quality of life…

I’ve written previously about how Parkinson’s disease (PD) “breaks” the biological clock that regulates our wake-sleep cycle, disrupting our daily routines and sleep. For me, it manifests most acutely during “off periods,” when everything in my body shuts down. As a 2020 article published in The American…

The most success I had helping those with brain injuries was when I had regular access to both the design and delivery of therapy. Inside a rehab center, there’s good access to both these elements. This would often change when the patient was sent home. My success in designing rehab…

Every year the president of the United States gives a State of the Union address, telling citizens (and the world) how he thinks things are going. This is me telling readers how I’m doing. It’s been eight years since I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After writing two books…