3 ms·

My understanding is that it has gone out of favor as a theory. It wasn’t ever developed into much of a robust model and is sorely lacking in many ways. But thi

My understanding is that it has gone out of favor as a theory. It wasn’t ever developed into much of a robust model and is sorely lacking in many ways. But this is a layman understanding so I could be missing something.

BizarroLand 5y ago
I've been reading a little about epigenetics, the systems by which your body's genetic code responds to your environment. For instance, people with scalp psoriasis can change the epigenetic structure of the skin on their scalp by using anti-psoriatic shampoos, so that the body itself, being freed of the irritance response of psoriasis stops acting like it is psoriatic. Of course, as soon as the medication stops, the psoriasis returns, so it's not a permanent fix, nothing in epigenetics is. The fact that you can alter your genetic representation in real time is an amazing thing to me nevertheless. I said all of that to say that there's a chance that any "chemical imbalances in the brain" might be the reaction to the underlying mental illness, and not the cause of or solution to the mental illness in the first place, and that treating the mental imbalance may give the person time away from the effects of their illness. That, combined with therapy and validation, can conceivably result in "curing" the illness in people that had a chance to recover in the first place by giving them the boost they needed to get over the hump. Not a one-size-fits-all solution, of course, we don't know enough about the brain to know what would be a permanent solution, but in your case, finding your own path and having uplifting experiences thanks to psychedelics might have been all that you needed to put that chapter of your life behind you. This is all armchair conjecture but it's a thought I've been having so I figured I would share.

3 ms·

My understanding is that it has gone out of favor as a theory. It wasn’t ever developed into much of a robust model and is sorely lacking in many ways. But thi

by dwaltrip 5y ago

BizarroLand 5y ago
I've been reading a little about epigenetics, the systems by which your body's genetic code responds to your environment. For instance, people with scalp psoriasis can change the epigenetic structure of the skin on their scalp by using anti-psoriatic shampoos, so that the body itself, being freed of the irritance response of psoriasis stops acting like it is psoriatic. Of course, as soon as the medication stops, the psoriasis returns, so it's not a permanent fix, nothing in epigenetics is. The fact that you can alter your genetic representation in real time is an amazing thing to me nevertheless. I said all of that to say that there's a chance that any "chemical imbalances in the brain" might be the reaction to the underlying mental illness, and not the cause of or solution to the mental illness in the first place, and that treating the mental imbalance may give the person time away from the effects of their illness. That, combined with therapy and validation, can conceivably result in "curing" the illness in people that had a chance to recover in the first place by giving them the boost they needed to get over the hump. Not a one-size-fits-all solution, of course, we don't know enough about the brain to know what would be a permanent solution, but in your case, finding your own path and having uplifting experiences thanks to psychedelics might have been all that you needed to put that chapter of your life behind you. This is all armchair conjecture but it's a thought I've been having so I figured I would share.