Chemical imbalance
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Chemical Imbalance-What makes you you?
70% of our body mass is water. That is kind of hard to believe when we feel like such a solid state and must be composed of something more special besides simple elements of the earth.
http://www.neosoft.com/~uthman/elements_of_body.html
I read a book by a Doctor Ronald Fieve called 'Moodswing.'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553279831/themeadowlarkpre/002-3403841-0032801
It raised more questions in my head. Namely: what makes you you? What constitutes you or I? And I'm sure that every personage or being has to wrestle with that thought: what am I? That question is the theme of an excellent Japanese animation called 'Ghost in the shell' a Manga production. It involved highly advanced computer cyborgs who assumed a personality of their own-their own identity through choice and thought process and raised the question of what exactly we were. Trying to separate mind and body and spirit and identifying all the people and personages moving through us and trying to isolate and define what a single individual is and what is the sum composition.
So our physical bodies are composed of the earth’s elements. A good deal of the population suffers from depression and a common form of treatment is medication. This is to alter the chemical composition of our body and it’s processes. To create sufficiency’s or act as supplements or create a balance in the body for the mind to function better. So then we try to isolate the word emotion. What is emotion and what is feeling? I read that you can't experience an emotion without first experiencing a thought. The emotion is the reaction to the thought. I will identify where my questions come in.
When you start altering your body composition for you to reach a mental and stable equilibrium you are changing 'you' in many complex ways. For example, the cause of this unstable mood state is likely a traumatic change or event in your life setting you off kilter. (Unless you were born with a chemical imbalance and struggled with meds from childhood. Reactive depression is the result of an event. Manic depression is the sever mood swings most commonly controlled by the drug lithium.) The ultimate goal is to achieve a stable mood. A stable mood makes for rational thought processes and good judgment preventing you from killing people spontaneously or spending all of the family finances on something crazy. But more is changing than simply your mood. 'You' are changing. You as a person. Your character is being altered. Example: You are now thinking different. Therefore feeling different. Acting different. Speaking different. Making different decisions. This is now raising the question: who am I? What was I before? What constitutes me? What am I?
Alot of things change people and there behavior. When you are growing up peers have a strong influence on your character. A big influence: Parents who give their children the attention they need notice when they come home from school and something completely foreign comes out of their mouth and our first reaction is "who did you learn that from?" Or someone who has had a stable marriage for numerous years and 10 years after living as a single person they are completely different. They've changed. Sometimes they are almost unrecognizable. "You aren't the same person you used to be. You've changed you know." Or the death of someone we love. That changes us. People and relationships and other factors that alter our life drastically and dramatically change us. Alcohol, drugs alter our mood and thought processes too.
So if you and I are simply a composition of elements and reactive and controlled by chemicals, people and events, we almost have no control over our lives aside from the thoughts we either choose to dwell on and attempt to act on. The greater we understand the effect that chemicals, people and events have on our personal mind and body the greater control we have over destinies.
Picture this. You have gone from circle of friend to circle of friends over time. Some have been with you from the beginning, seeing you, seeing you change and they have their own interpretation and understanding of what changed you. And then there are those circles of friends who don't know your complete past or the people you have been connected to and they have their own sense of recognition with regards you. They have no past to compare you with. They can't really say, "you've changed. You're not the same anymore." They can't compare you to the premeditated 'you' before the tragic events and former life you lived shattered.
So what are you? Is it fair to say the chemically off balanced person is you? Or the person in a high state is you? Or the person in the middle of a crisis is you? At which chemical and mental state are we acting "normal”? What is the balance and equilibrium we are striving for? When we are changing and altering so much where can we isolate and put a finger over and say "There! That’s the real You." All the others representations were false and distorted.
70% of our body mass is water. That is kind of hard to believe when we feel like such a solid state and must be composed of something more special besides simple elements of the earth.
http://www.neosoft.com/~uthman/elements_of_body.html
I read a book by a Doctor Ronald Fieve called 'Moodswing.'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553279831/themeadowlarkpre/002-3403841-0032801
It raised more questions in my head. Namely: what makes you you? What constitutes you or I? And I'm sure that every personage or being has to wrestle with that thought: what am I? That question is the theme of an excellent Japanese animation called 'Ghost in the shell' a Manga production. It involved highly advanced computer cyborgs who assumed a personality of their own-their own identity through choice and thought process and raised the question of what exactly we were. Trying to separate mind and body and spirit and identifying all the people and personages moving through us and trying to isolate and define what a single individual is and what is the sum composition.
So our physical bodies are composed of the earth’s elements. A good deal of the population suffers from depression and a common form of treatment is medication. This is to alter the chemical composition of our body and it’s processes. To create sufficiency’s or act as supplements or create a balance in the body for the mind to function better. So then we try to isolate the word emotion. What is emotion and what is feeling? I read that you can't experience an emotion without first experiencing a thought. The emotion is the reaction to the thought. I will identify where my questions come in.
When you start altering your body composition for you to reach a mental and stable equilibrium you are changing 'you' in many complex ways. For example, the cause of this unstable mood state is likely a traumatic change or event in your life setting you off kilter. (Unless you were born with a chemical imbalance and struggled with meds from childhood. Reactive depression is the result of an event. Manic depression is the sever mood swings most commonly controlled by the drug lithium.) The ultimate goal is to achieve a stable mood. A stable mood makes for rational thought processes and good judgment preventing you from killing people spontaneously or spending all of the family finances on something crazy. But more is changing than simply your mood. 'You' are changing. You as a person. Your character is being altered. Example: You are now thinking different. Therefore feeling different. Acting different. Speaking different. Making different decisions. This is now raising the question: who am I? What was I before? What constitutes me? What am I?
Alot of things change people and there behavior. When you are growing up peers have a strong influence on your character. A big influence: Parents who give their children the attention they need notice when they come home from school and something completely foreign comes out of their mouth and our first reaction is "who did you learn that from?" Or someone who has had a stable marriage for numerous years and 10 years after living as a single person they are completely different. They've changed. Sometimes they are almost unrecognizable. "You aren't the same person you used to be. You've changed you know." Or the death of someone we love. That changes us. People and relationships and other factors that alter our life drastically and dramatically change us. Alcohol, drugs alter our mood and thought processes too.
So if you and I are simply a composition of elements and reactive and controlled by chemicals, people and events, we almost have no control over our lives aside from the thoughts we either choose to dwell on and attempt to act on. The greater we understand the effect that chemicals, people and events have on our personal mind and body the greater control we have over destinies.
Picture this. You have gone from circle of friend to circle of friends over time. Some have been with you from the beginning, seeing you, seeing you change and they have their own interpretation and understanding of what changed you. And then there are those circles of friends who don't know your complete past or the people you have been connected to and they have their own sense of recognition with regards you. They have no past to compare you with. They can't really say, "you've changed. You're not the same anymore." They can't compare you to the premeditated 'you' before the tragic events and former life you lived shattered.
So what are you? Is it fair to say the chemically off balanced person is you? Or the person in a high state is you? Or the person in the middle of a crisis is you? At which chemical and mental state are we acting "normal”? What is the balance and equilibrium we are striving for? When we are changing and altering so much where can we isolate and put a finger over and say "There! That’s the real You." All the others representations were false and distorted.
