Posted by Hombre on October 4, 2010, at 19:45:13
In reply to Re: Have our brains been permanently damaged?, posted by Dinah on September 28, 2010, at 8:20:28
I suffer short-term poop-out from my drugs if:
* I haven't been exercising regularly
* I haven't been eating enough whole foods
* My digestion is poor
* For lack of a better way to describe it, my metabolism has slowed down - this could be the result of a lack of exercise or poor diet
* I experience stress in my relationships
* I don't get enough rest
I've found that if I eat whole foods, bolster my diet with supplements, get to bed ridiculously early, try to talk out my problems in my relationships or cut out the ones that are harmful, and adjust my biochemistry with certain herbal substances that have a long history of creating certain adjustments in the body, I am able to respond again to my meds. At least I assume that is what is happening, although I've actually made adjustments to just about every aspect of my lifestyle.
What I mean is, I think since we cannot be sure just what "damage" is being done by the meds, we cannot say that the changes that have occurred are irreversible. And these changes might not all be in the brain, although they affect our moods, our thinking, and other functions associated with the brain. Perhaps not all of the symptoms of the mood disorder come from problems in the brain. We might be able to make things somewhat or substantially better by altering what's going on in the brain by taking SSRIs and other drugs, but that doesn't preclude the possibility that the deleterious changes that lead to post-SSRI dysfunction or treatment resistance are solely in the brain or can only be affected by targeting the brain and its chemistry.
I think the meds cause changes in the way the body functions, that's for sure. But there are reasons why we respond and then don't respond. The information is scarce as to what changes are going on, so we leave the solid ground of science and enter into a murkier landscape. We can no longer depend on the specialized knowledge of most doctors. That doesn't mean that there aren't things we can do, things we can eat, and things we can believe in to change the way our bodies function. There is hope, I believe, but we have to wade out into uncharted waters sometimes to discover what else is out there. If we focus on the brain too much, we get stuck in the lack of knowledge and the scary fact that we still don't really know what's going on in there. That might make us feel hopeless and powerless. But there are still somethings that are within our power to do, although we might not really trust or believe in them due to a lack of scientific evidence. Science clearly shows its limits in this case, however, so after we've mourned that fact, we're in a good position to fill in the gaps and empower ourselves with various methods that science basically doesn't understand and can't help us with.
poster:Hombre
thread:962635
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100926/msgs/964709.html