[Shi m]

For years I've been hearing how just like if you have heart problems and you take meds for it, if you have depression you take meds and it will help cure it. However, this makes no sense to me! You can't replace a brain like you can replace a heart if there are issues with it. The brain is very different. If it is just a chemical imbalance then why doesn't medication alone work? Why don't meds work for everyone? Also, saying that feeling sad and depressed is because of a chemical imbalance is like saying all feelings are just about chemicals and you can make someone feel like any kind of mood by giving them certain chemicals! And how can it be that someone can be born without the possibility of being happy?! It all just has never made sense to me and no one has been able to adequately answer me. Can any of you help me understand this?
(I hope I made enough sense; I find it really hard to explain how I feel about this)

[Skeezyks]

Well... I'm not knowledgeable enough with regard to these sorts of things to give you anything in the way of an authoritative answer to this. However here's a link to an article, from PsychCentral's archives, that may address some of what you're getting at here:

How To Manage Depression Without Meds

Life science student here. I am also here to discuss about mental illness and mental health as a patient, although I view everything with a scientific lens.


No, not every disorder or disease is a chemical imbalance. It can be anything ranging from injury to infection to genetic disorders to natural response to unfavorable conditions. It is not exactly known why brain disorders are caused (although there is sufficient evidence serious illnesses like, for example, paranoid schizophrenia are caused due to genetic defects.) but we, with our still primitive knowledge, know that there MAY be a hormonal imbalance involved in causing depression. The hormonal imbalance can be caused by anything really, from experiencing psychological abuse as a child to head injury or something else entirely like immunological or endocrine disorders.

Take obesity for example, it can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (most commonly diabetes mellitus) but it CONTRIBUTES rather than directly causing the condition, at least most of the times. Same goes for the brain, chemical imbalance can cause for a short interval diseases like clinical depression, dysthymia, etc. however, we do not understand all pathology of the human body itself, let alone completely understand something as sophisticated and evolved as our brain. My point is, if you don't know everything about a car, how can you expect to know everything about the engine? Of course there are some exceptions, as of our current knowledge, but it's a fact we do not know much about pathology and treatment of both, the brain and the body. There are many diseases, infectious agents, treatments and even physiology (study of how the body works) yet to be discovered. This is not just limited to medicine or biology, we don't know many things, including many things about supernovas, pulsars, etc. and stuff that scares me cause I don't understand it.

In short, there are two things you should know.

1) Not every disease, especially brain disease, has a known cause and an effective treatment. Remember Dr.Hawking, the physicist? He had a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and he died, despite being one of the most famous scientists and thus one of the most important scientists. Had we known enough about the brain itself, we could have treated Hawking and he his death could have been prevented. He would never have had to be in a wheelchair, if we could somehow cure ALS.

2) It's a theory that brain disorders like depression are caused by chemical imbalance. The truth is, it could be caused due to an injury or an infection as well, the latter is unlikely but possible. In science, nothing is taken for granted. Everything is taken with a grain of salt (the salt is taken from acid base neutralization....)

I should add that I didn't answer the latter half of your question. So I will do it now.

You can't replace the brain like you can replace the heart cause once nerves are severed, they become dead or at least damaged leading to dysfunctions such as peripheral neuropathy, whose main symptoms are numbness (nerves lose efficiency), and pricking needles sensation (the nerves tell the brain they're in pain.) Nerve cells are the cells which act as wires, transferring what your muscles sense to the brain and from brain transferring orders about what to do to your muscles.

Now I am no surgeon, but from what I know, the brain is different from the heart. Before going into that, I should add that every foreign material is rejected by the body, even a foreign heart. Doctors have to give the patient immunsuppressants to avoid the heart getting rejected by the body, i.e., preventing killing of the donor heart once it is transplanted into the receiver's body.


Heart and kidneys are much more simple to transplant surgically and there are proper medications that help body acknowledge, "Hey, this new guy (organ) is an ally, not a threat" but unfortunately as the brain is infinitely more complex than a simple pump or a filter, we do not know enough about it to make a successful transplant. And I doubt a person can be revived by brain transplant, as the nature of the question seems. It is the unfortunate fact of matter, that no matter how much we progress, we'll never be able to properly do a brain transplant. In my opinion, that's actually the best, or we'll have zombies.

I myself wanted to do research on the nervous system, its pathology and its therapeutics, its anatomy and its physiology because I myself suffer from various brain conditions and I know how it's like to suffer. My parents are also neuropsychologically ill, and my uncle who is my childhood hero, recently went through a brain surgery and he'll never fully recover. He can drive and hold a job, but his personality has changed and even his driving his limitations. I wish I could help, but my doctors told me I too am just another victim of helplessness and despair.

[Amedley71]

As part of my career I have attended many trauma based courses. One thing I thought was very interesting is how the juvenile brain is essentially damaged by not only physical trauma but also emotional and psychological trauma. When a young brain is growing the frontal cotext is the last part to fully develop. So when a child is repeatedly exposed to trauma that 'fight or flight's trigger is basically stuck. It stops developing. Thats one reason children who have been exposed to long term trauma will often have poor impulse control, extreme responses and find it difficult to reason through problems. I have to wonder if adults who have endured trauma as children essentially have a form of brain damage. Perhaps portions of the brain have remained underdeveloped.
This is just a theory.

[Fuzzybear]

[taraconnor777]

[QUOTE=Shi m;6325280]For years I've been hearing how just like if you have heart problems and you take meds for it, if you have depression you take meds and it will help cure it. However, this makes no sense to me! You can't replace a brain like you can replace a heart if there are issues with it. The brain is very different. If it is just a chemical imbalance then why doesn't medication alone work? Why don't meds work for everyone? Also, saying that feeling sad and depressed is because of a chemical imbalance is like saying all feelings are just about chemicals and you can make someone feel like any kind of mood by giving them certain chemicals! And how can it be that someone can be born without the possibility of being happy?! It all just has never made sense to me and no one has been able to adequately answer me. Can any of you help me understand this?
(I hope I made enough sense; I find it really hard to explain how I feel about this)[/QUOTE
A
NO,it was not a chemical problem--originally.A great many clinical depression cases start out in your family.yOU may not even remember stuff among your family(my sister to this day,cannot handle the memory,she was sexually molested by our dad;as he did to me also,)My sister carefully denys any memory or reality of it happening to her,also,but usually its not only one victim in a family.--multiple females get molested,raped, ect.AND I WAS TOLD TO NOT REMEMBER UNDER PAIN OF DEATH.

YOU have a big fat "thing "in your head,"whether you remember it or not.It might be sex,rape,beatings,death threats,a violent family member,whatever your family you grew up with, did to you.WHOEVER did this "depression- clinical-memory."--WHO EVER RAISED YOU. BUT you had "early trauma" and it often affects your BRAIN.

Yes,it has real physical effects on your brain!!MANY DEPRESSED OR MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE FROM EARLY TRAUMA.--THEY don't like to admit it,the shrinks.Sometimes they are forced to tell you this,cause you try to get off the anti-depressant.==and once off,your BRAIN cannot handle life.---Finally,they tell you,"Don't go off the medication,your brain is tramatized."MOST of the very mentally ill people could not go off meds--maybe no tranks,but anti-depressant,yes.--Finally you realize, yes,I have brain damage of some sort.

If you protest you had a great upbringings,but you can't remember much of your childhood,or any "significant memory,"believe me,SOMETHING went on in early life.you don't get this way from "self-hurting brain virus"or stuff.Maybe your brain was literally hurt,accident?crime to you?car wreck?GOT ATTACKED?

But the reason for the chemical imbalance started with WHO OR WHAT RAISED YOU AS A KID AND TEEN.--WHOM??You probably did not start life with a "chemical imbalance"to your brain.You got ABUSE SOMEWHERE.--CAUSE that's one of the most frequant reasons for clinical depression.--child or teen abuse.no one starts out with "chemical imbalance"--its a result of"who or what raised you."I had amnesia till i was in my 30's.--AMNESIA is very common.

But,I cannot tell what happened in your upbringing--that is up to you--no one is born with a chemical imbalance, almost NO CASES.IF you have shrinks who say"its only a chemical imbalance,nothing else."they are lying.START READING BOOKS on reasons for severe depression.--why people have them,how to manage them,ect ect.Get someone you trust,to talk to.Come here, we will not BS YOU.I WON'T.

[llibertat]

It could be just chemical or just environment, but I find for myself it's a combination of both. Find a leg up anyway you can to budge the depression - which for me, leaves me in a place where no language can reach. Even it's just a 10 minute walk outside. Try medication if you haven't already - if you have and it doesn't work, try another one. Mainly, keep trying. The terrible valleys don't stay forever. I have to accept I always have and always will have depression - even if it's just "average" - low grade depression or at least have a tendency for it. Finding a way to live with it and finding ways to mitigate it are what I search for.

[Sunflower123]

((((( Shi m )))))

[Shi m]

TheLonelyChemist: I think you misunderstood my question. Thank you for taking the time to answer though

[Shi m]

[QUOTE=taraconnor777;6326531]

Originally Posted by Shi m

For years I've been hearing how just like if you have heart problems and you take meds for it, if you have depression you take meds and it will help cure it. However, this makes no sense to me! You can't replace a brain like you can replace a heart if there are issues with it. The brain is very different. If it is just a chemical imbalance then why doesn't medication alone work? Why don't meds work for everyone? Also, saying that feeling sad and depressed is because of a chemical imbalance is like saying all feelings are just about chemicals and you can make someone feel like any kind of mood by giving them certain chemicals! And how can it be that someone can be born without the possibility of being happy?! It all just has never made sense to me and no one has been able to adequately answer me. Can any of you help me understand this?
(I hope I made enough sense; I find it really hard to explain how I feel about this)[/QUOTE
A
NO,it was not a chemical problem--originally.A great many clinical depression cases start out in your family.yOU may not even remember stuff among your family(my sister to this day,cannot handle the memory,she was sexually molested by our dad;as he did to me also,)My sister carefully denys any memory or reality of it happening to her,also,but usually its not only one victim in a family.--multiple females get molested,raped, ect.AND I WAS TOLD TO NOT REMEMBER UNDER PAIN OF DEATH.

YOU have a big fat "thing "in your head,"whether you remember it or not.It might be sex,rape,beatings,death threats,a violent family member,whatever your family you grew up with, did to you.WHOEVER did this "depression- clinical-memory."--WHO EVER RAISED YOU. BUT you had "early trauma" and it often affects your BRAIN.

Yes,it has real physical effects on your brain!!MANY DEPRESSED OR MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE FROM EARLY TRAUMA.--THEY don't like to admit it,the shrinks.Sometimes they are forced to tell you this,cause you try to get off the anti-depressant.==and once off,your BRAIN cannot handle life.---Finally,they tell you,"Don't go off the medication,your brain is tramatized."MOST of the very mentally ill people could not go off meds--maybe no tranks,but anti-depressant,yes.--Finally you realize, yes,I have brain damage of some sort.

If you protest you had a great upbringings,but you can't remember much of your childhood,or any "significant memory,"believe me,SOMETHING went on in early life.you don't get this way from "self-hurting brain virus"or stuff.Maybe your brain was literally hurt,accident?crime to you?car wreck?GOT ATTACKED?

But the reason for the chemical imbalance started with WHO OR WHAT RAISED YOU AS A KID AND TEEN.--WHOM??You probably did not start life with a "chemical imbalance"to your brain.You got ABUSE SOMEWHERE.--CAUSE that's one of the most frequant reasons for clinical depression.--child or teen abuse.no one starts out with "chemical imbalance"--its a result of"who or what raised you."I had amnesia till i was in my 30's.--AMNESIA is very common.

But,I cannot tell what happened in your upbringing--that is up to you--no one is born with a chemical imbalance, almost NO CASES.IF you have shrinks who say"its only a chemical imbalance,nothing else."they are lying.START READING BOOKS on reasons for severe depression.--why people have them,how to manage them,ect ect.Get someone you trust,to talk to.Come here, we will not BS YOU.I WON'T.

Depression is something that runs very high in my family and I really do believe I was born with a disposition towards it. What your saying is very true for many cases, however my upbringing, although relatively not as great as many of my peers', has not been abusive. My father had a quick temper, but it was only ever with words. It has now been much more under control as he has been working very hard on controlling it ever since he became sick with cancer 8 years ago. Still not perfect and I don't have the best relationship with him, but I would still say that even if that aspect of my life didn't exist, I would still be depressed.

I am sorry for my misunderstanding.