It’s often claimed that mental illnesses derivate from a ‘’chemical imbalance’’ on the brain –that occurs when there’s either too much or too little of certain chemicals, called neurotransmitters- but that would be diminishing how complex those disorders are. In fact, APA (American Psychiatric Association) defended in 2005 that ‘’the exact causes of mental disorders are unknown’’. In that same year, Drs Thomas Insel and Remi Quirion proposed that mental disorders need to be ‘’addressed as disorders of distributed brain systems with symptoms forged by developmental and social experiences.”
Pies, RW. (2014, April) Nuances, Narratives, and the ‘’Chemical Imbalance’’ Debate [Blog Post.] Retrieved from https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/nuances-narratives-and-chemical-imbalance-debate (last accessed on 13th October 2020)
Mental illnesses don’t simply result from an amount of certain brain chemicals, but of a set of probable causes, such ‘’as faulty mood regulation by the brain; genetic vulnerability; stressful life events such as a history of physical, psychological, or emotional abuse; medications; medical problems genetics; family history; having a history of alcohol or illicit drug use and taking certain medications psychosocial factors, such as external circumstances that lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness’’.
Harvard University. (2009, June) What causes depression? Harvard Health Publishing Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression; Eske, J. (2019, September) Everything you need to know about chemical imbalances in the brain, Medical News Today Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326475#myths (last accessed on 13th October 2020)
However, chemicals are involved, it’s just not as simple as ‘’one chemical being too low and another too high”, but of millions and billions of chemical reactions working both inside and outside of nerve cells. There are specific areas of the brain that regulate it so scientists believe that the cause of these disorders might lie in the nerve cell connections, nerve cell growth and functioning of nerve circuits rather than on levels of brain chemicals. The use of antidepressants supports this theory because despite the immediate increase of chemical messengers on the brain, the patients take several weeks or longer to feel results. The researchers started to question why; if depression was only the result of low levels of neurotransmitters, how come people didn’t feel better as soon as their number is increased? They then progressed their theory to ‘’the real value of these medications may be in generating new neurons (a process called neurogenesis), strengthening nerve cell connections, and improving the exchange of information between nerve circuits. If that's the case, depression medications could be developed that specifically promote neurogenesis, with the hope that patients would see quicker results than with current treatments.’’ However, the understanding of the neurological function influence in disorders is incomplete and therefore, susceptible to change.
Burns, D.D. (2017, December). Do depression and anxiety result from a Chemical Imbalance in the brain? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://feelinggood.com/2017/12/12/do-depression-and-anxiety-result-from-a-chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain/ (last accessed on 13th October 2020)
Professor David D. Burns, a winner of A. E. Bennett Award from the Society for Biological Psychiatry, among others, dedicated a long time of his life studying the chemical imbalance theory but stopped when he ‘’realized that the chemical imbalance theory was not a productive or valid.’’ In one of his clinical studies, he flooded the brains of depressed veterans with serotonin – a neurotransmitter that was believed to cause depression when in deficiency- but there was no effect on their moods or disease. This led him to believe that the theory wasn’t accurate and he now defends that although there are biological brain disorders, he finds unlikely that mental disorders are a ‘’chemical imbalance’’ since the brain itself it’s not a ‘hydraulic system of balances and imbalances.’’. Instead, he thinks that ‘’Everything about being human results from biological (genetic) and environmental influences—such as IQ, personality, height, hair colour, and the proclivity to being naturally more negative in outlook (depression, anxiety, shyness, anger) or more naturally positive (happy, confident, outgoing). However, we do not yet have much understanding of the brain systems that are involved. To what extent is depression the result of problems with our hardware (tissue level brain abnormalities or damage) vs. software (learning, neural circuitry, etc.)? We just don’t know.’’
Burns, D.D. (2017, December). Do depression and anxiety result from a Chemical Imbalance in the brain? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://feelinggood.com/2017/12/12/do-depression-and-anxiety-result-from-a-chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain/ (last accessed on 13th October 2020)
Depression
Mental Health Survey
The goal of this anonymous survey was to better understand the society's view of mental health, as well as its state in the world around us.
If you want to answer the survey, you can do so here.
You’ll notice in this first graph that the majority of people still believe the Chemical Imbalance theory as a valid theory, which, along with the also high percentage of people who weren’t aware of this theory, attests to the lack of education around mental disorders and their causes.
Going further into the detail and not so visible, in this graph the percentages of the answer "I'm aware but I don't have an opinion" are decreasing up to the age group of 19-24 years. From here to over 50s, the percentage does not change much, remaining almost constant. These statistics show us that older people do not give it as much importance as they do to other less taboo topics and although adults are usually more informed than children, this is not the case. Once again this shows the lack of education.
On the other hand, the second graph shows us that most people believe that mental illnesses are genetic, which has some truth in it, even if it’s more complicated than that, however a lot of people also answered “no” or that they never thought about this topic, which is also an indicator of a lack of education. Additionally, we can also observe that there is an increase of the answer “I have never thought about this topic” as the age groups become higher, which fundaments the previous conclusion.
Finally, in the last graph, we can observe the influence the pandemic has had in our society and understand the overwhelming negative impact it has had to people of all ages. Most answers are between 5 and 8, but 9 and 10 also have a concerning amount of answers.
In terms of mental illnesses being a taboo topic, we can conclude that most people agree that it is in fact still taboo, however, like we can see in the previous graphs, people are not making an effort to normalize conversations about mental health and mental health education, and thus, by not actively trying to destigmatize this topic, they contribute to its toxic culture.
Lastly, from the last diagram, we can conclude that women are generally more comfortable admitting that they seek help from mental health professionals, since the difference in percentage of men willing to admit this is much smaller than the women’s. This happens because in our society women are defined as “emotional”, which definitely has its problems, but, in this case, it provides an environment more comfortable for conversations about mental issues. On the other hand, men are meant to be “strong” and not show vulnerability at all, which leads them to supress their emotions and problems until breaking points, instead of dealing with them in a healthy way.
Methods people use to help themselves or others
We also asked people to share the methods they use to help themselves or others in the moments when the mental condition is more fragile. We obviously can’t share all the answers, but the more recurrent ones were seeking professional help, medication, meditation, talking to friends and family, physical exercise, breathing exercises and other distractions. Here we can see another way this pandemic has affected people mentally, since for a lot of them going outside to clear their heads is a coping mechanism they could no longer utilize during this time.