|
By Grant Mullen MD
A Christian medical doctor takes a look at mental illness.
No, definitely not. Mental disorders are a physical illness caused by chemical imbalances in your brain.
You see, the brain is divided into regions called "control centers" that direct every activity the body does, including thinking. It is important to realize that forming a thought is as physical an event as blinking an eye or moving your arm. Nerve cells in the brain allow you to form thoughts in the same way that they permit movement. We only have full control of our thoughts when all the nerve cells are working properly to give us that control. This process is subject to malfunction like any other part of the body. We can lose voluntary control of our thoughts if we have an internal neurological malfunction or an imbalance of nerve transmitter chemicals even though we may have the best of intentions to control our thoughts.
The mood control center is a place in the brain where thought content and thought speed are regulated. This center controls what you think about and how fast you think about it. It therefore controls your mood and ability to concentrate. Unfortunately, we don't know where this control center is located in your brain as it is more of a function than a location. If your nerve cells are working correctly in this center, your mood and concentration will always be kept within the normal range. It is technically impossible to measure mood but we define normal as being relaxed, content, feeling in control, able to concentrate, clear headed and coping with stress. No one, however, is "normal" 100% of the time.
Continue article >>
|
When the control center is functioning well, your mood will always return to the normal range (eventually) regardless of the degree of negative or positive stress in your life. It works much like a top or gyroscope that will always return to the vertical position as long as it is spinning.
There are very specific chemical substances called neurotransmitters that are produced by brain cells to regulate these control functions. If anything happens to disrupt the production of these chemicals, then the control center will malfunction, your mood will fluctuate outside of the normal range and you will lose the ability to control your thoughts. If for example, there is a chemical imbalance, you would find your thoughts going much faster and it would be harder to control what you were thinking about. If something exciting happened, your thoughts could race uncontrollably in ecstasy or if something bad happened you could race with depressive thoughts. You would have lost the ability to put brakes on these thoughts.
This article is generously contributed to canadianchristianity.com by Grant Mullen. For more information visit Answers to common mental health questions.
March 27/2008
|
