Posted by Tomatheus on January 30, 2006, at 0:01:30 [reposted on January 30, 2006, at 0:34:59 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Help!! Bipolar, off meds, losing it, posted by fenix on January 29, 2006, at 18:50:05
Fenix,
I'm going to respond to your post by quoting something that Racer said earlier in this thread:
[=====beginning of quote=====]
"Since we know that other metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, are caused by chemical imbalances in the body, I will believe that mood disorders are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Unless or until someone *proves* that the brain is *not* subject to the same sorts of metabolic disruptions as other organs of the body, it just makes more sense to me to assume that the brain *is* subject to those disruptions, and therefore that mood disorders include a chemical imbalance in the brain as part of their etiology."
Simple as can be: until you prove the brain is fundamentally different from other organs, let's assume that it's fundamentally similar, and thus subject to metabolic disruptions that cause chemical imbalances."
[=====end of quote=====]
So, similar to what Racer said, it makes just as much sense to believe that a person's brain can function in a less-than-optimal way because of one or more genetic factors (which can be compounded by environmental stresses, normal hormonal changes, and other factors) as it does to believe that any other organ or bodily system could also function less than optimally for reasons that are at least partially genetic. And with respect to less-than-optimal brain functioning, nobody seems to ever question the fact that conditions such as mental retardation and autism are genuine brain disorders. Mental retardation would certainly seem to contradict the "importance survival of the species," as you put it, and so would any genetically mediated physical illnesses. So why should psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder be any different?
Tomatheus
poster:Tomatheus
thread:604370
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060124/msgs/604381.html