The Brain, Use It or Lose It

The use of psychotropic medications (antidepressants) for stress, depression, and anxiety problems can cause the dependency for stronger medications as the brain loses the ability to produce its own serotonin.

We have all at some point in our life heard the phrase use it or lose it. We can apply it to skills we may have not used for years, and found you partially or totally lost the skill completely.

This old, but true saying applies to our body the same way. Centuries ago, during a more unsanitary time, our gallbladder had a major role in fighting germs and food breakdown. Now, due to proper cooking of foods, the gallbladder has become unused, unneeded, and has deteriorated in size and function.

The human body is very adaptable and has the potential to adapt according to our environment given enough time. Modern times, especially since the industrial revolution, have created something that the human body has found itself incapable of adapting to. The demands of a faster paced society, deadlines, and a state of always being in a hurry have destroyed our body's harmony. Your body and brain has been programmed to run at a faster speed than was intended. We don't take time to properly rest and give the brain time to properly reflect on activities before the next has started. To make things worse, we rely on modern conveniences and have become less physically active.

The brain in ways is a super computer controlling and regulating every aspect of our body. Our body is loaded with safety programs, just like a computer. The presence or lack of a hormone tells the brain to turn on or off something else. What happens to your computer if the firewall gets turned off? It becomes vulnerable to attacks. The brain is no different; it has its own firewall called serotonin (natural shield). Serotonin, at normal levels, creates a natural shield that protects us from falling apart and is produced during exercise. While indulging ourselves with all the modern conveniences and becoming less active we have been training our brains to produce less and less serotonin.

As we replace our serotonin, we are in fact building up mental/spiritual roadblocks. These roadblocks affect our ability to think clearly and allow for fear and doubt to control our decisions and actions.

The absence of, or low serotonin levels have disarmed our firewall making our brains very vulnerable to depression, stress, and anxiety. To further complicate the problem, we as a society have begun relying on antidepressants to replace the role of our serotonin.

As we slowly replace our serotonin with pharmaceuticals we send the message to our brain that we need less and less so the brain produces less. This in turn causes us to require larger doses or stronger pharmaceuticals to make us feel better.

As our brains slowly stop producing serotonin, and has been replaced with pharmaceuticals there comes a point where the brain forgets how to make its own serotonin.

Have we reached a point where some may say they don't need it? We have food processing companies so we don't need our gallbladder. We have pharmaceutical companies so we don't need serotonin.

Therapeutic levels of serotonin can be rebuilt through a carefully planned fitness approach such as the W.A.R. (worry, adrenaline, rest) method from Building The Temple Therapeutic Fitness program.

The solution is within our lifestyle changes. Exercise and being active produces serotonin. Medications for mood stabilization should only be used for short periods of time to avoid dependency. Usage during the period of exercising to build up serotonin levels is ideal, but should be stopped when a therapeutic serotonin level has been achieved. This should only be done under the supervision of a physician.