Debunking Brain Myths
October 14, 2011Noted physician joins NeuroTechnologies
June 27, 2011Are You Taking To Many Medications?
June 1, 2011Differences between us and neurofeedback
May 29, 2011Why You Can’t Concentrate
May 29, 2011Mirror, mirror…in your brain
November 19, 2010The drawback to Antidepressants
March 5, 2010EXCERPTED FROM: LIMITLESS YOU: THE INFINITE POSSIBLITIES OF A BALANCED BRAIN BY LEE GERDES
We have become a society that relies a great deal on prescription medications. For instance, we use antidepressants to change our mood. But although we rely on them heavily, antidepressants don’t work at all.
Even when they do seem to help, they often lose their effectiveness over the course of treatment. Antidepressants are made to increase the chemicals known as neurotransmitters. Even when they work, it’s an artificial way of changing the brain, generating activity that’s not present in a normal brain. Though it may relieve the symptoms, the antidepressant doesn’t cure the depression. The cause, which lies in an imbalance in the brain, is untouched by the medication. In fact, the antidepressant may trigger an even greater imbalance.
This is why antidepressants can lead to suicide, especially among teens and young adults. Because a teen’s world is so volatile, a state caused by the combination of hormones flooding
the system and the psychological need to establish an identity, we never know which of the many changes they have to cope with might prove to be one too many. Hence the current advice is that certain types of antidepressants shouldn’t be given to teens.
People tend to think of depression as a single syndrome, but it isn’t. To say that someone has “depression” isn’t a diagnosis but simply a description of how the individual feels. When the brain patterns of depressed individuals are examined, it becomes clear there isn’t just one pattern associated with depression. In fact, at least 16 dominant patterns have been detected. Were the brain of each of these individuals to be trained in the same way, the results from one to another would bear no similarity. For this reason, each brain needs a specific approach if it is to be restored to balance and harmony
When we consider the kinds of behavior associated with depression, over a dozen different behaviors are generally labeled “depression.” No antidepressant can possibly deal with all these behaviors in a single stroke, nor are they designed to do this. They are generally intended to deal with one chemical activity of the brain only, and thus often fail to address the actual cause of the individual’s depression. When an antidepressant affects all areas of the brain in the same way, it can reduce the effectiveness of those areas that don’t need dealing with in this way.
Brain training is much more precise, and becoming increasingly so. It looks at a person’s emotional state from the vantage of the various lobes of the brain as the trainers put the brain through its paces during the assessment. Then the computer compares how the mathematical algorithms applied to this particular brain’s energy patterns depict possible areas of imbalance. For instance, if one person says they are happy, while another says they are unhappy, we pay attention to the differences in the brain’s energy patterns to determine which balances or imbalances may be connected to the state of happiness being experienced. We see the reasons for a person’s happiness or unhappiness in the brain’s activity. From observing thousands of brains, it’s been possible to begin understanding how brain pattern imbalances are associated with some pathologies.
