Chemical imbalance???

Question

according to those who believe clinical depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, does this chemical imbalance directly make us feel depressed or does it just cause us to think in ways that lead to us feeling depressed?

Answer 1

That same imbalance is supposed to also cause other things, such as anxiety and OCD. That leads one to believe that if this is the case, it causes us to think or process thoughts differently, leading to our disorders.

Answer 2

I think it's directly.

Answer 3

that is a very good question and i think the answer is the chemical imbalance is low serotonin levels i think it is just our emotions.  People with higher serotonin levels are much happier then lower ones.  The chemical imbalance causes the sadness in general which then leads to those bad thoughts.

Answer 4

Good question.

The way it was explained to me is that to the way messages are sent in the brain is with "chemical messengers" meaning, there is a certain chemical that is sent to a specific chemical receptor.

After the chemical makes it's journey to that specific receptor it is released to go back to where it started. This is a complex process, and several things can go wrong. Some medications  eg: anti-depressants, alter the process in a way to change  either the messenger chemicals, their journey, the receptor sites ect.

Different meds do different things. It can take some trial and error to find the medication to alter the process that is causing the problem.

Your question is difficult to answer its sort of like, " What came first the chicken or the egg?"

Stress can cause chemical inbalances to occur, the chemical messenger can get "pooped out" and unable to carry the message.

Thoughts create feelings.

Negative thoughts create negative feelings.

Sometimes it feels impossible to think positive thoughts when you are going through h**l.

Negative thoughts use different chemicals than positive thoughts.

The important thing to do if you are overcoming depression is to not just sit back and let the medication do all the work.

Allow the boost the med is giving to assist in making new thought habits.

Journaling the positives in you life is one way.

Improving lifestyle, such as increasing exercise, improving diet, addressing spiritual needs are good places to start.

These actions also assist the brain in becoming balanced but they take much longer than medication.Much longer that the response to anti-depressats( 2-6 weeks) to improve your mood.

Although positive thinking isn't the cure all it was thought to be in the 1950's it can help.

Answer 5

I believe the chemical imbalance directly makes us feel depressed.

Answer 6

I have a chemical imbalance. I went to the doctors and he put me on Lexapro thats supposed to balance things out over time.

Its the part of the brain that makes us think to much about things.