Again easy question , plus could you please explain to me why you believe or if you don't believe please give me a short reading. And please just give me your own thoughts no definition just your own thoughts. On why you believe in a chemical imbalance or why you don't .
2007-11-04 01:12:03 · 9 answers · asked by killer kitty 2 in Health ➔ Mental Health
idk
2007-11-04 01:20:04 · answer #1 · answered by James H 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There's essentially no doubt that chemical imbalances occur fairly frequently. Just last night, for instance, I had a patient with a minor electrolyte abnormality probably caused by diuretic therapy.
If you're asking about psychiatric disorders, that's a different kettle of fish. Again, the chemical imbalances are real, and there's little doubt of that. These things are descriptive of the findings of analyses done in well-controlled studies. But it's an association. Causality is strongly implied but not proven. Medical professionals know the difference, but the general public seem to have problems differentiating between the two.
Medicine, when it works as it should, is a marriage of science and pragmatism. If most people with a clinical syndrome have some chemical marker that's different from people without the malady, and if correcting the chemical marker usually corrects the symptoms, there's a distinct association, and we'll use what works. Whether the marker causes the syndrome may not be known, but until something better comes along, it's pragmatic to presume causality. The level of certainty may or may not be great, but as long as it works, it's useful. Sometimes it doesn't. Recently a drug used to treat diabetes came under question. Blood sugar control for diabetes is important in decreasing the rate of cardiovascular events. Overall, improving control of diabetes does that. But this one drug, it turns out, controls blood sugars (the marker) without the expected improvement in cardiovascular health. There's something there we don't understand. But that doesn't invalidate treatment or checking blood sugars. It would be nice if these things were simple, but people are complicated beings.
2007-11-04 09:37:41 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
They say I have a chemical imbalance causing depression. They also say that testing supports the "imbalance" started when I was about 4 years old. (Exactly when the sexual abuse started.) I suspect that my normal brain development was stunted due to profound abuse and that created the imbalance.
I think there is a little of both going on, nature and nurture.
Peace.
2007-11-04 09:23:30 · answer #3 · answered by -Tequila17 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I didn't WANT to believe in the existence of a chemical imbalance causing my mood swings. I wanted a quick fix.
But time has shown that it isn't just external factors causing me to be so damn moody (bipolar).
Eventually you just have to acknowledge that the meds do work and accept that they WORK because there is an imbalance.
There are people that meds just don't seem to help. I tend to think that they DON'T have a chemical imbalance.
2007-11-04 09:18:23 · answer #4 · answered by Dawn 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It's not up to me to determine whether or not chemical imbalances exists. It's the scientists' job to do that. And scientists have proven chemical imbalances do exist. So if I were to say that no such thing exists, I would be disagreeing with tens of thousands of doctors who made it their living to study such things. Essentially, I'd be a fool to think that chemical imbalances don't exist, when scientists have proven they do.
2007-11-04 11:08:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah I know that they are associated with some of the symptoms of mental disorders, however they don't cause them. The cause is mainly structural and genetic as most medications change your neural structure to a small degree.
The thing is that chemical imbalances in our brains happen all the time, that's how moods work. However it's the mood structures and networks in the brain that control these imbalances, when these structure and networks form abnormally, that's when you get mood disorders - i.e. bipolar disorder.
2007-11-04 09:23:16 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's not a belief system - it's real. Whether I believe in it is irrelevant, as one poster has already said.
Chemical imbalance can be caused by genetics, epigenetics, emotional or physical trauma, malnutrition, or environmental pollutants, and hormone fluctuation. To name only a few.
2007-11-04 11:02:01 · answer #7 · answered by Arggg 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
short answer: Yes. Because when I was put on medication for the chemical imbalance, I felt much better.
2007-11-04 09:37:42 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
its not a case of believing it, chemical imbalances exist, there a proven fact, believing in them is irrelevant
2007-11-04 09:25:03 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋