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oemBiology oemBiology
wrote...
Posts: 1245
7 years ago
Referring to following video, after viewing it 2 times, I still get no idea on how depression is caused.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what wrong is the process?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions


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wrote...
Educator
7 years ago
Some people say depression is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, namely the endocrine system, that maintain good mood.

The endocrine system modulates our response to various internal and external things by controlling several chemical messengers, including serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Serotonin regulates mood, appetite, sleep, muscle contraction, and some cognitive functions that include memory and learning.

Serotonin is a very powerful psychoactive chemical that is thought to regulate the depth of mood. Your body is actually loaded with serotonin, but it can't get through the blood-brain barrier, so the brain is it's own serotonin manufacturing and control center. Taking serotonin doesn't help.

Norepinephrine acts in our systems like adrenaline (epinephrine), which gets you excited - makes your heart pound. Dopamine affects the brain's reward center, sexual gratification, sleep, mood, attention, working memory, and learning.

Our brains regulate serotonin and these other messengers. Serotonin is produced at a relatively constant rate, which if left unchecked would lead to hallucinations. So the brain has a "re-uptake" mechanism that collects this neurotransmitter from receptors and stores it for later use.

Our brains have receptors that respond to serotonin and other neurotransmitters. The larger the number of receptors that are affected by serotonin, the happier we feel. Serotonin is released during exercise (responsible for the "runners high"), while laughing and playing, and through sexual activity. Additionally, oxytocin is released as a result of touching, which enhances sexual excitement and bonding.

In the clinically depressed, the serotonin level becomes abnormally low, and remains there. The depressed can no longer interact normally with people, or engage in life's activities. They are in a state of mental anguish that can be severe, and may not be able to get off the couch or even out of bed. Anxiety is very similar to depression, and is often a symptom that accompanies depression. The medical treatment for both is similar.

Normal activity, such as exercise, laughing, and sex, are not sufficient to lift people out of clinical depression. Alcohol may be desired, but is totally inappropriate. Alcohol depresses the central nervous system, which is the opposite of what is needed. Alcohol can deepen depression, and interfere with the activities of any drugs taken for treatment.
oemBiology Author
wrote...
7 years ago Edited: 7 years ago, oem7110

Our brains regulate serotonin and these other messengers. Serotonin is produced at a relatively constant rate, which if left unchecked would lead to hallucinations. So the brain has a "re-uptake" mechanism that collects this neurotransmitter from receptors and stores it for later use.

Our brains have receptors that respond to serotonin and other neurotransmitters. The larger the number of receptors that are affected by serotonin, the happier we feel. Serotonin is released during exercise (responsible for the "runners high"), while laughing and playing, and through sexual activity. Additionally, oxytocin is released as a result of touching, which enhances sexual excitement and bonding.

In the clinically depressed, the serotonin level becomes abnormally low, and remains there. The depressed can no longer interact normally with people, or engage in life's activities. They are in a state of mental anguish that can be severe, and may not be able to get off the couch or even out of bed. Anxiety is very similar to depression, and is often a symptom that accompanies depression. The medical treatment for both is similar.


I get an idea on how Serotonin works on our body, Serotonin keeps our mind under conscious status (only handle required processing on information - less workload), and avoid any hallucinations (handle many unnecessary processing on information - more workload), where do hallucinations come from? when we cannot focus and concentrate without conscious mind, and our unconscious mind plays an important role on our brain, does it make sense?  

During exercise (responsible for the "runners high"), while laughing and playing, and through sexual activity, it helps us to focus on reality and keep our conscious mind awaken.

If brain works harder, of course, we feel more stress and feel depressed.  Does it make any sense on where depressed come from - the amount of information to be handled within brain?

Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you very much for any suggestions :>
wrote...
Educator
7 years ago
Here's a more clear look at how serotonin works at the cellular level:

https://biology-forums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24064

Low serotonin levels are believed to be the reason for depression and associated symptoms of anxiety, apathy, fear, feelings of worthlessness, insomnia and fatigue. The opposite is true when a high-level of serotonin is present, you feel jovial and enthusiastic. MDMA promotes the formation of this hormone.

Now, what causes these low levels is a mystery, however, some drugs may contribute to this. This is why clinical depression has sky-rocketed in the developed world, and not elsewhere in the world.

Depression in various countries



I tried looking for evidence if hard work causes depression, and I couldn't find any correlation.
oemBiology Author
wrote...
7 years ago
Here's a more clear look at how serotonin works at the cellular level:

https://biology-forums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24064

Low serotonin levels are believed to be the reason for depression and associated symptoms of anxiety, apathy, fear, feelings of worthlessness, insomnia and fatigue. The opposite is true when a high-level of serotonin is present, you feel jovial and enthusiastic. MDMA promotes the formation of this hormone.

Now, what causes these low levels is a mystery, however, some drugs may contribute to this. This is why clinical depression has sky-rocketed in the developed world, and not elsewhere in the world.

I get a personal experience on handling stress, and require to focus consciously on slowing down my brain activities, such as "SHUT DOWN MY COMPUTER" it works very fast and my stress muscle are relaxed instantly.  I think it is why monk like to do meditation daily.  Is there any reference on how conscious mind works within the brain? but conscious mind is more related to spiritual, not a physical part of body. 

Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you very much for any suggestions :>
wrote...
Educator
7 years ago
Ok, let's start by defining consciousness. You defined it in terms of spirituality, which I disagree. Also, keep in mind that stress and depression and totally different. If you experience stress, that's a good thing, anxiety is a bad thing.

Consciousness is the awareness of ourselves and our environment. It's a process which allows us to exert voluntary control over ourselves; a way of communicating mental states.

We direct our consciousness through attentional mechanisms. Consciousness consists of several levels or layers, and we can obtain some insight into how the conscious mind works by looking at how humans perform certain types of tasks. For example, when we first engage in a task like driving a car, our conscious mind focuses on variables such as the traffic, pedestrians, the operation of the vehicle, the feel of the car on the road, etc. As we become more practiced at driving, the task becomes more automatic and requires less conscious effort (skilled behaviour). Becoming a skilled performer leads to the conscious mind becoming less and less burdened by the task. The task becomes under the control of subconscious processes

This freeing up the conscious mind allows us to parallel process e.g. daydreaming, reading while driving the car. When behaviour becomes skilled, the conscious mind is free to monitor behaviour, do other things and to deal with novel situations. Therefore, less familiar tasks and situations require more conscious effort or attention. This division of labour (conscious / unconscious) is seen as a way that allows our mind to use it’s resources more efficiently
oemBiology Author
wrote...
7 years ago Edited: 7 years ago, oem7110

This freeing up the conscious mind allows us to parallel process e.g. daydreaming, reading while driving the car. When behaviour becomes skilled, the conscious mind is free to monitor behaviour, do other things and to deal with novel situations. Therefore, less familiar tasks and situations require more conscious effort or attention. This division of labour (conscious / unconscious) is seen as a way that allows our mind to use it’s resources more efficiently


If I am stress or depressed mentally, I try to increase the workload of conscious mind, so there is no more resource to handle any stress / depressed memory.  It can shift my focus and require attention on other area (it must be interesting and require a lot of attention), this trick seems work well on forgetting any depressed feeling.  "FOCUS ON REALITY" is the magic approach to handle any depress situation, that is what monk do daily. Once my focus is shifted, my muscle begin to relax and get less stressful feeling in physical body.  When people feel depressed, they go travel in somewhere to shift their focus / attention, that is one approach.

Once muscle is relax, serotonin can get through the blood-brain barrier, I would like to know on what barrier is about within our physical body, could you please describe more?

Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you very much for any suggestions :>



wrote...
Educator
7 years ago
Hi, apologies for the late response.

Once muscle is relax, serotonin can get through the blood-brain barrier,

Serotonin generated elsewhere in the body cannot pass the blood-brain barrier.

I understand what you're saying, that if you shift your focus to something else, you'll forget your stressful situation and it will go away temporarily. However, clinical depression is different. It's not the same as depressed mood. Clinical depression lasts a long time and it doesn't go away no matter what it is you do - that's what clinically depressed individuals report.

These are the symptoms of clinical depression:

- Depressed mood, sadness, or an "empty" feeling, or appearing sad or tearful to others
- Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you once enjoyed
- Significant weight loss when not dieting, or significant weight gain (for example, more than 5% of body weight in a month)
- Inability to sleep or excessive sleeping
- Restlessness or irritation (irritable mood may be a symptom in children or adolescents too), or feelings of “dragging”
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt
- Difficulty thinking or concentrating, or indecisiveness
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or specific plan for committing suicide

Now, there's a reason why serotonin generated elsewhere in the body cannot pass the blood-brain barrier. The blood–brain barrier allows the passage of water, some gases, and lipid-soluble molecules by passive diffusion, as well as the selective transport of molecules such as glucose and amino acids that are crucial to neural function. Serotonin is manufactured in the brain and the intestines. The majority of the body's serotonin, between 80-90%, can be found in the gastrointestinal tract.
oemBiology Author
wrote...
7 years ago

These are the symptoms of clinical depression:

...
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt
- Difficulty thinking or concentrating, or indecisiveness
...


Referring to following video on Neurons and Memory formation, I get an idea on where depression come from if you can tell me on how long to remove long-term memory between neurons.  



For example, our education system teaches us the number system: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, which store on our long term memory.
Case 1 Calculation
1 + 1 = 2
3 + 4 = 7

What if I modified the symbol within number system: 5, 2, 7, 8, 9, 1, 3, 6, 4,
Case 2 Calculation
5 + 5 = 2
7 + 8 = 3

For both cases, all calculation are correct, but for the second case, we need to unlearn the original number system (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) first, stress come from the external fact not matching with our long term memory, if we do not able to adapt this change quickly, then we face with a lot of failure, which cause depression.

Does it make any sense? How can we change our long-term memory faster?

Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you very much for any suggestions :>
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