Courtesy : Thanks to Quora and Thanks to Dr R N Sreenathan, Director Chinmaya International Foundation, Vedantin;
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Are you really serious to know ‘what is depression?’
Then brace up, let me first explain what is depression according to the latest neuroscience research. At the end of this post, I offer some tips for its cure.
Let me explain the mechanism in such a way that even a neuroscience-illiterate can understand the process. If you want to learn something new and very valuable, you have to invest some attention and curiosity!
The action of the brain depends on chemicals called neurotransmitters. The important neurotransmitters are: Acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, Glutamate, GABA, and endorphin. The balance between these neurotransmitters create a sense of well being and homeostasis. Maybe, that is the reason, why we say, the chemistry of love!
Let me take the important neurotransmitters that are useful to describe the mechanism of depression.
- Dopamine (reward and pleasure)
- Serotonin (well being and happiness) (There is considerable overlap in functions and you shouldn’t consider that this is the only function of serotonin. I am simplifying it. Otherwise, you may have to study six years of Medicine or Neuroscience!)
- Glutamate (Excitatory; too much activity of glutamate results in convulsions, for example: seizures)
- GABA (Inhibitory): too much activity results in sleep as in the case of action of tranquilizers.
- Endorphins: natural pain killers. No pain, means more comfort
The list is becoming too long and let us avoid other neurotransmitters.
Dopamine helps to keep us rewarded. If we start expecting that reward in each and everything, it becomes a mental sickness, called psychiatric illness. We are not able to control our thoughts as the excitation to get rewarded is always pounding on us. We become mentally ill and when we go to the psychiatrist, he gives dopamine-antagonist (meaning the drug which stops the action of dopamine).
However, the psychiatrist knows that if dopamine is reduced in the body, we will develop slowness of movements and therefore he supplements with another drug that fights the slowness. He does not want to take the risk. He will also prescribe one more drug that increases the stay-time of serotonin in the synapse so that we enjoy the sense of well being and get somewhat motivated.
Believe me this is what a psychiatrist will do after hearing our history for hours!
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) which increases the stay-time of serotonin in the synapse for a longer duration is a multibillion dollar industry!
We have developed a habit of loving things, possessing them and then showing them to others to get a pseudo-buoyancy out of it. Our brain is trained for this pleasure seeking manoeuvre through objects and praise. Parallel to the release of dopamine, serotonin is also released as a close ally.
Remember that all our struggles are not aimed at living naturally and happily but to live artificially as dictated by the whims and fancies of dopamine and serotonin demands!
However nature is so compassionate, it has put a check over this. There is a nucleus very close to pineal gland called lateral Habenular nucleus. It controls the secretion of these two neurotransmitters and tells, “Hi guys, that is not fair, be under your limits, it is harmful to you.”
LHb -Lateral Habenular nucleus controls serotonin and dopamine.
Because of increased stress of satiating the desires, the lateral habenular nucleus may go out of control and start acting erratically. It bursts its signals endlessly resulting in the stoppage of dopamine and serotonin. This condition results in depression.
The depression is nothing but the shutting down of release of dopamine and serotonin which are responsible for the pleasure and well being.
Why lateral habenular nucleus fires erratically?
Potassium ions are supposed to surround the lateral habenular nucleus which reduce the firing. However increased stress steadily depletes the potassium around the lateral habenular nucleus which results in rapid firing of the nucleus. This ‘burst firing’ will stop the release of dopamine and serotonin leading to depression.
This is the mechanism of depression.
How to treat this depression?
Develop nauseating sickness to objects. Develop love to live healthily. Regular meditation stimulates pineal gland, placed very close to the lateral Habenular nucleus, which perhaps cools it down!
Meditation will bring down the excitation of lateral habenular nucleus and depression is controlled thereby!
If you are suffering from depression, please remember the following:
- Make an unswerving decision to be healthy. Don’t bother whether the world likes you or not and do not compete with others to possess objects. Enjoy whatever objects that come in your way, but do not leave the urge to enjoy life at any cost. This enjoyment should not depend on the objects, name or fame but on your discrimination and healthy life.
- Meditate daily so that rapid firing of lateral Habenular nucleus is controlled.
- How should you meditate? As usual, withdraw to the state when you were in your mother’s womb and stay there enjoying the ‘just being’ which is pure and thoughtless! This equipoise state will set right the erring lateral Habenular nucles.
- Control Habenular, you enjoy Happy New Year!(This is how I used to give a mnemonic to my students while teaching this.) If they read this now, they will surely enjoy!
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