How much of our illness is biological and chemical, and how much of it is an attempt to retrain our brain to stop under/overproducing specific chemicals? I know this is an oversimplification -- but let me explain my thought process here.

I once had a therapist explain to me the complexity of the human brain is amazing, because chemical imbalances in the brain don't occur without stimuli of some sort. Emotional stimuli from EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE can cause that imbalance. (That always blew me away -- my body reacts to all stimuli, it's not like "I don't get enough vitamin B12" where you supplement your body. It's my body stopped/overproduces X chemical because of specific events that triggered a chemical change in my brain and thus causes on a chemical level a basis for my illness.)

Now, this idea is supported in theory by the fact psychotherapy and medication kind of go hand in hand. It seems, if we follow my thoughts here, medication helps "stabilize" the imbalance, but we still have to retrain our brains to stop reacting the way it is. This may be why therapeutic techniques CBT are effective to an extent -- it's retraining your brain on multiple levels.

Anyway, this is all based on a comment made to me by a therapist -- it is in no way representative by extensive research or peer-reviewed analysis of any sort. I may be completely off base and sound like a crazy person. I may have some merit in what I'm saying, I just thought I'd share it. I'd be interested in learning from a professional their thoughts about how mental illness works, from various aspects and how they inter-relate. That's really the point I'm getting to -- The various aspects of mental illness all interrelate, not one aspect (biological, chemical, environmental etc.) works alone. Your genes (biological) may be the reason your brain overproduces/limits production of X (chemical), or it may be because of certain events in your life, or on occasion another illness or deficiency (environmental). It may be both, it may be something complete different.... I guess I just never put 2 and 2 together about how traumas and things of that nature could create mental illness.

Just a thought... Don't criticize me too harshly, ok? :P