Comment by Noaidi
9 hours ago
> If the problem was brain chemistry, wouldn't it be with them from birth until treatment
Ha, of course it can be! Our brain chemistry is not stable through our life! Many children are born with epilepsy, but some people develop it later in life. epilepsy, like all neurological disorders are nature AND nurture, genes AND the environment.
Using your roller coaster analogy, there very well may be genes that control; how much fear someone experiences when riding a roller coaster. The problem society has is telling people that they all should be able to not have feear riding a roller coaster and if youa re too afraid to ride a roller coaster you should take xanax.
> "Our brain chemistry is not stable through our life!"
Citation requested. Because, y'know, it's not like your leg muscles suddenly don't work from age 40-50 and then start working again and we say it's because of unstable "leg chemistry". It's not like your stomach, liver, kidneys, <organs> suddenly stop working after you lose your job or your life partner and we say it's both inexplicable and because of a deficit of "body chemicals" and nod agreement with each other that "body chemistry isn't stable" through a lifetime.
These are just unsatisfyingly crappy non-explanations.
And quick attempts to assume that Doctors, Neuroscientists, Psychiatrists, Psychologists must have a better detailed knowledge of brain chemistry and I'm just falling for nonsense seems to find that they actually don't, and they don't agree that "brain chemistry" is a good explanation, and it can't be measured in a patient, and the idea isn't strongly supported by evidence, and even the mechanism of action of "drugs which correct brain chemistry" isn't agreed on, and when given to people to "correct brain chemistry" it often doesn't make the problem that was blamed on brain chemistry go away.
> "there very well may be genes that control; how much fear someone experiences when riding a roller coaster."
I will lump "genetics" in as another pet-hate unsatisfyingly crappy non-explanation that people tag onto whatever they want so they can stop thinking about it further. There probably are many genes which affect how much fat bodies store, or burn, or food cravings, or what constitutes hunger, or production of various leptins and grehlins and insulins and stomach acids, but that doesn't mean "I'm obese because of my genetics" is any kind of explanation at all. Or "I have this personality because my parents and grandparents had it, it's genetic" is an explanation. Downe's Syndrome is a good use for genetics as an explanation. "I have a macro-scale set of vaguely related behaviours, symptoms and body effects and no clear cause, it's my genetics" isn't.
Even if you have sequenced your genome, and have some specific gene that is associated with extra fat storage, genes can be turned on and off through a lifetime by behaviours and environment. Having a gene from birth doesn't mean it's being expressed and is therefore causing a specific problem, or that the problem can't go away and can't be fixed. ( https://www.cdc.gov/genomics-and-health/epigenetics/index.ht... )
> "The problem society has is telling people that they all should be able to not have feear riding a roller coaster and if you are too afraid to ride a roller coaster you should take xanax."
I agree with this. Society likes assuming everyone is the same. Imagine if we collectively noticed that Adrenaline gives people "a burst of strength" and decided that daily exercise, individual strength training plans, gym visits, were all too much bother and that ageing adults were suffering from "an imbalance of Adrenaline" and when they struggle to carry their massive haul of groceries in from their car they should carry an auto-injector of Adrenaline to help their chemical deficiency.
> Citation requested. Because, y'know, it's not like your leg muscles suddenly don't work from age 40-50 and then start working again and we say it's because of unstable "leg chemistry".
Ohhh, leg chemistry, good choice! You know that leg "chemistry" is control by neurotransmitter release, yes? So you must have never heard of Familial Periodic Paralysis then. Let me tell you what happens with that, because it happened to me while taking Seroquel. Familial Periodic Paralysis is also called Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis and is due to mutations in the gene that encodes the alpha-subunit of the skeletal muscle sodium channel (SCN4A).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1338/
"The paralytic attacks are characterized by decreased muscle tone (flaccidity) more marked proximally than distally with normal to decreased deep tendon reflexes. The episodes develop over minutes to hours and last several minutes to several days with spontaneous recovery.
Some individuals have only one episode in a lifetime; more commonly, crises occur repeatedly: daily, weekly, monthly, or less often. The major triggering factors are cessation of effort following strenuous exercise and carbohydrate-rich evening meals. "
Look at that! Their muscles stopped and stared working again!
And yes, this happened to me while taking seroquel because it lowered my potassium so much it affected my nervous system.
Any good psychiatrist will tell you that they have no idea what is going on. But that does not mean neurotransmitters cannot be changed and that they do not effect behavior.
> I will lump "genetics" in as another pet-hate unsatisfyingly crappy non-explanation that people tag onto whatever they want so they can stop thinking about it further.
As someone who, as an armature geneticist, helped design a genetic study for Stanford, can I say that I put more energy into thinking about these things over the last 45 years than you can even imagine?
>Or "I have this personality because my parents and grandparents had it, it's genetic" is an explanation.
I have my hair color, height, skin color, all the physical traits from my parents, so why do you think the brain is not physical as well? Or or adrenal system? The brain is effected by genetics, this is true as has been shown clearly as a risk for schizophrenia. I have no idea why people think our mood, which is dictated by our thoughts which are created and sensed by our brain, which is a physical organ, does not have anything to do with genetics and neurotransmitters.
and then you go on to talk about epigenetics, like that matters by genes don't? Do you know that genes control the epigentic response? Genes like DNMT1? So people with differences in DNMT1 will have different epigenetic responses?
> I agree with this. Society likes assuming everyone is the same.
So how are we different? nature AND nurture. Genes AND environment. I agree the solution to these problems are wrong, but your solution are just as bad as the ones your are prescribing.
Listen, there are times when our neurtranmitters are supposed to be different, like when we are in pain or when some one dies. But some people, like me, have these changes regardless of the situation and we can like them to other environmental factors like diet, sunlight, weather, etc.
I could tell you whey and why I think am so sensitive to the world but I doubt you would listen, because no one listens, because everyone knows.