In: Nursing
how do chemical imbalances affect moods?
Bipolar disorder is widely believed to be the result of chemical imbalances in the brain.
The chemicals responsible for controlling the brain's functions are called neurotransmitters and include noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine.
There's some evidence that if there's an imbalance in the levels of 1 or more neurotransmitters, a person may develop some symptoms of bipolar disorder.
For example, there's evidence that episodes of mania may occur when levels of noradrenaline are too high, and episodes of depression may be the result of noradrenaline levels becoming too low.
Research at the time had focused on the role that chemicals in the brain play in depression and anxiety. These researchers hypothesized that lower than normal levels of neurotransmitters can lead to symptoms such as feelings of sadness, helplessness, worthlessness, or emptiness. overeating or loss of appetite.
The body is filled with numerous chemicals of various types, such as hormones, enzymes, and neurotransmitters. Chemical imbalances happen due to diseases, injuries, aging, chronic stress, and poor nutrition. When most people talk of chemical imbalance, especially doctors and researchers, they’re referring to an imbalance of neurotransmitters or chemical messengers of the brain.
Chemical imbalances exist because the neural pathway systems of the brain sometimes lead to emotional pain (such as anxiety) and irrational conclusions. We can say that no one is “born” with social anxiety. You may remember circumstances and events from very early in life, but there is no “gene” that codes for social anxiety, and there is not an immutable set of genes that cause social anxiety to occur.
We can also say that some people have a predisposition toward anxiety symptoms in general. From what we know, this is not a predisposition to social anxiety, but rather a predisposition to be anxious in general. Why you develop social anxiety has more to do with the environment than it has to do with genetics. However, there are always interactive combinations occurring.