Brain Health - Depression

I Found this Article in My Save Section of my computer on Brain health and Depression I present this for your information 

Ernie orange county Calif

Twenty people out of 100 experience some form of depression during their lifetime.  With this high prevalence, we need to better understand this often misunderstood disease.  We have reviewed the chemical imbalance occurring in the brain of depressed people.  Low levels of essential chemicals necessary for brain cell function, such as serotonin, can result in depression.  In addition to chemical imbalance, the brains of depressed people demonstrate decreased blood flow through the frontal lobe, further impairing normal brain activity. 

Several lifestyle factors can worsen or improve the illness of depression.  Nutrition is one factor.  However, diet is not the only way to increase serotonin in the brain.  Exercise raises brain serotonin and increases blood flow through the brain.  Multiple research studies show exercise helps to reduce mild to moderate depression.  Muscle movement (motor activity) increases the stimulation rate of serotonin neurons, increasing the release and synthesis of serotonin.  Also, Remember the brain cannot produce serotonin unless the protein tryptophan is available.  Exercise increases the presence of tryptophan in the brain.  The increased presence of tryptophan persists even after exercise is completed.r

The most consistent effect of increased serotonin and increased blood flow through the brain is seen when regular exercise includes aerobic exercise.  Aerobic exercise requires the use of large muscle groups in a rhythmic motion, such as walking, jogging, swimming or cycling.  The recommended minimum length is 30 minutes at least three times a week.

Exposure to bright light is a second possible approach to increasing serotonin without drugs.  Abundant evidence exists on the beneficial effect of bright light exposure in healthy individuals.  There is an interaction between bright light and the serotonin system.  A positive correlation exists between serotonin synthesis and the hours of sunlight.  Since outdoor light is more intense than normal indoor light, 30 minutes being outdoors in the sunlight is recommended.  Maybe you are concerned about the damage of the sun to the skin.  However, to reap the benefits of sunlight, the only body part that needs to be exposed is the eyes.  For example, you could sit on a patio or take a hike using protective clothing and still receive the benefits from sunlight.

Increasing evidence demonstrates what we choose to think about can also alter brain biochemistry.  Numerous studies have shown that alterations in though – such as self-induced mood changes, therapeutic counseling and meditation – can increase blood flow through the frontal lobe of the brain.

Happiness and well-being are important factors in protecting against mental and physical disorders.  Recent studies have shown negative emotions were associated with increased incidence of depression.  Positive emotions protected against depression.

A person’s mood also influences social relationships.  Positive emotions and agreeableness nurture social relationships with others, resulting in higher levels of social support.  Low social support is associated with higher levels of stress and depression, as well as increased illnesses and death from many medical illnesses.

Let’s end this discussion on depression by putting all the lifestyle factors together into a spiritual package.  Research has demonstrated an inner religious experience effective in recovery from depression.  However, an external religious activity was not as effective.

Spiritual food for the brain through Scripture study, meditation and prayer should be taken on a regular basis with the inner convicted purpose of knowing God better. These daily spiritual exercises need to be done with a true inner desire, rather than just going through the forms of religion.  Being exposed to the Light of the World will increase our self-worth and our sense of mission to others.


Anonymous

My Take #8 What is the best way to begin to normalize the dysregulated brain function and allow the person to regain some behavioral control over the use of the addicting substances?My Take #8

The best way to provide a successful result is a residential treatment program. The program begins with a medical assessment before the detoxification begins. The purpose of the detoxification to remove the drugs that are acting on the mesolimbic dopamine system (MLS). Slowly there is fleeting control changes giving back the power to the fore brain (thus the decision make become more normal). 

 Many treatment options are available, and are individualized to fit your recovery needs.  Stopping active addiction is just the beginning.  Recovery is a process of healing the mind, body and spirit.  Our program covers a wide variety of therapeutic areas and techniques designed to get you back into living a happy, clean, and sober lifestyle. For instance gym workouts and groups at the beach in the sunshine allow the nature body chemicals to begin to help take back the brain. Time is the great restorer. Slowly the forebrain gains mental clarity and the loving descent law abiding person returns. This is the beginning stages of getting “CHOICE” back into the equation relating to substance abuse. We use multiple disciplines to help the individual complete the process of early recovery. The process is healing the mind, body and spirit.

Our Goal is to resolve the core psychological problems that trigger the use of the substances. Thus, we provide psychological counseling in one-on-one and group settings through the utilization of the latest advances in Addiction Medicine, individual and group counseling, immersion in 12-Step recovery principles, long term continuing care planning, patients find that full recovery is more than just a possibility.

We teach an understanding of how and why the midbrain Hi-jacks the person away from “the seat of all that we are” in the fore brain. Teach techniques to control the ‘Cravings” that every addicted person has when they are becoming clean and sober. Time and good recovery tools leads to a less intense craving

Ernie @ Hope By The Sea

My Take # 6 Out patient alcoholic and Drug Treatment

Out Patient treatment of alcohol and Drug Addictions is one of the options But unless you have a client who is stable treated as out patient with a caring staff can be done but the result are less successful

 Outpatient treatment should recognize and treat co-occurring disorders by psychological counseling, drug and alcohol counseling as well as educational and group counseling.  It begins with an assessment of the alcohol and drug abuse/dependency as well as an assessment of the patient’s mental status.  From this a plan is formulated which is time limited to and measurable to treat the dependency/abuse as well as the co-occurring mental illness.  

One of the problems with out patient treatments is compliance since most of their time is not monitored or controlled in any way ,the need to stop using an addictive substance is not as clear to the addicted frontal brain and use is much more likely. But in some cases it is the only real option.

Ernie In South Orange County Calif.

Meth Addiction, My Story Part 4

"Methamphetamine is a powerful psychostimulant and sympathomimetic drug. It is a member of the family of phenylethylamines.
Methamphetamine enters the brain and triggers a cascading release of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin. It is highly active in the mesolimbic reward pathway of the brain, inducing intense euphoria, with high-risk for abuse and powerful addiction."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_meth)

In my last blog I talked about My first decisions as an adult. I refered to them as my "Man" decisions.
I dropped out of high school the day after my 18th birthday, Maybe the day of, not sure. This is when the "Party" really started for me. I also had a lot more good ideas(see meth virtually shuts off the frontal lobe of the brain, this is where good judgment and reasoning lie). To support my habit I would sell meth, and so I could learn how the police operate, I would start criminal justice classes at the near by community college. I know, you are thinking, that is brilliant. Thats what I thought.

Life started to get really crazy, really fast. I was buying from the gang members, selling as much as I could, but I have to be honest(it is part of my recovery, ha ha) I just wasn't a very good drug dealer. Why you ask? well because I like to use, oh a little co-depentent also, had to get you high to, if you were there.

Anyway things where starting to really get out of control, I was smoking $100's of dollars of meth a day. and at the end of the week when it was time to pay up, I was always a little short and you never, let me repeat, you never come up short to a chicano gang member. So I did what any good addict would do, I stole what ever I could, from who ever I could, and sold it where ever I could and to who ever I could. This was a life or death matter.
The next nine months where extremely crazy, my introduction to the street life. learning the rules of the streets and learning who you can trust, NOBODY.

The longer I used and the more days I stayed awake the more paronoid I got, but for some reason there was a comfort in this crazy paranoia when I was livin' the street life.

let me explain my paranoia in the early days, cause part of it is justified and the other part is meth induced mixed with lack of sleep.
The justified paranoia: the feeling that everyone is out to get you. justified? Yes, because for the most part, they are.
The unjustified paranoia: when you think your best friend of 15 years is a undercover police officer. Unjustified, yes, you have known him virtually all your life, when did he go through the training. a rat maybe, undercover cop, no.
A Rat: an individual who narcs on or helps the police in anyway to get out of trouble for something illegal that they have been caught for.(AS defined by the streets volume 1)

Here is the funny thing, this is only the first nine months of my adult life. I am just barely getting started. I haven't even been arrest as an adult yet. tune in for more.

Drug Addiction: My Story Part 3

I left off with my last post about my first "black out" and alcohol poisoning.

I was 15 years old when this happened. High school for me is a real blur because I was so drunk and high all the time. We partied all the time and by the time I was 16 I had been arrested 2 times. Once for a lying to the police. Yes, I was a liar. Anyway, I was 15 driving my parent vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, got pulled over and told the cop I was my brother Stan. Not sure why the cop let me go but he did. My brother got the ticket in the mail, went to court, and said "I didn't get this ticket" the officer was there and said "this is not the guy". A few hours later the cop showed up at my door with hand cuffs and hauled me off to jail.

The second time I was 16, just got my license and yep, you guessed it, DUI. Hmmm, I am starting to think this kid has a problem.

I was one of those kids that could smile and say everything is OK and I will never do that again. Everyone believed me. I believed me.

And then when everything was going good, I would think. I can have just one.

But you see, I am an addict and for me one is too many and a thousand is never enough. and so the cycle would start again.

I want to jump ahead to my 18th birthday, the day I became a "MAN". I am a man now, I can make my own decisions. I didn't say good decisions, I said my own decisions.

The first "Man" decision I made was to check myself out of high school. Why not, wasn't close to graduating. The second was even better, I was going to quit alcohol, caused too many problems. I think you will like the third, this was my best yet, I would only smoke meth because I could stay awake and get more done. Yes, that was my third "Man" decision.

In my next blog I am going to take you deep into the mind of a meth addict. Where we go, what we do, and who we do it with. You will want to read the next post because this keeps getting better or not ...

Drug Addiction: My Story Part 2

Yesterday in my blog I talked about the first time I used meth and how it made me feel. Today I am going to go more indepth, take you deeper into the mind of an addict and how drugs grabbed a hold of me.

So, when I was 13 I tried meth for the first time and for me it was the thing that had been missing from my life. The thing that made me feel whole, normal, and the thing that told me I could conquer the world. I had no idea that, that thing was a lie. That it told me these things to grab a hold of me so that thing could destroy my life. That one time turned in to all the time and by the time I was in 9th grade I was using everyday. Not many people at that time knew the severity of my disease or as I like to call it, "My Dis-Ease". Addiction starts out as a happy place because for a while it comforts this dis-ease, but that changes and addiction becomes a very dark and lonely place.

By the time I was 15 and a half I was drinking all the time, partying when ever I could and my meth addiction had progressed from a couple of lines per day to smoking a gram or more per day. This habit became harder and harder to keep up and I was even stealing the tithe money my parents had for our church. Some say didn't anyone know what was going on? Couldn't anyone see where you were headed? And the answer is not likely, see addicts are, or I should say, become very good at manipulating, lying, and covering our tracks. And me I was one of the best, because I looked so innocent. Anyway, as the stealing and lying progress the pain intensivies and the more we need to make that pain go away.

I'm not sure of the exact date of this story, but I know it was a dark day in my life as my parents friends were to arrive at our house for a dinner. These weren't just any friends, they were a very big Christian minisrty family, that were very well known. on that day I was feeling a little anxious (probably because I didn't have any drugs). So, I went down to my friends house. He had some some Bacardi 151 and I thought I will have just a little to make me feel or not feel as I like to say.

2 large glasses later I was in full black-out, don't remember anything until I woke up in the emergency room in a rage. I thought the doctors were cops and the Christians were demons. I was so strong that I broke the straps that they tied me down with. I fought and fought until seven of them held me down and I could no longer fight.

I was told I had a blood alcohol level of over .4. I was 15 years old.

To answer any questions you all might have, yes, we began family counseling. I resisted at first, but figured if I just went with it I could continue to use, and once again manipulate the system.

This is just the beginning, so please come back because I have so much more to share. It gets deeper, much deeper and if you want to understand despair and desperation in the life of an addict I urge to check back.

Because this gets good or really, really bad ...

Drug Addiction: My Story Part 1

The life of an addict is hard, it is more than hard. The life of an addict is a 24 hour 7 day a week job. Take it from me, someone who knows.

Yes, I am an addict and this is part of my story.

When I was 13 years old I felt different, a little more insecure then most, a little more afraid then everyone. I was a shy boy, who was a little chubby. I thought I had to be tough and wouldn't let anyone know how I was feeling. I hated the way I felt and I searched for something to make me feel different. For me it started with alcohol. I hate the way it tasted, but of course I drank it anyway and I felt better.

It wasn't excatly what I was looking for, so I tried pot, loved it, but being a chubby kid hated the way it made me eat. So one day I was at my dealers house and he was out of marijuana, but he had some speed and asked, would you like that instead.

Speed I said, what is that?

He said it keeps you awake. I said sure let me try it. And that was it. I was hooked.

It was everything I was looking for. It told me I could do anything. I could focus. I wasn't hungry all the time. And most of all, it told me I could do and be anything I ever wanted to be  ... I would just need more.

Well this is the beginning, if you are not an addict and have never experienced anything like this or if you are an addict and you want recovery or are wonder what comes next.

Continue to read my blog because I am going to walk you through my life, "The Life of an Addict". from the beginning of a disease, through hard times, desperation, jails, institutions, a near death experience, and now.

What I have become and what I am doing with my life and how one addicts experience can change the lives of many. I hope you will continue to read from day to day.

to be continued ...