Understanding 5HTP

Today I stopped by the Alive health food store to purchase their 5-htp (5-hydroxytryptophan). After ingesting 200 mg I felt the anxiety that stress induces in me to dissipate.

Even though that could be the strong placebo effect that happens when I am bathed in the glow of healthy living after visiting Alive, it's been said by researchers that 5-HTP is useful in maintenance of mood balance, sedation that promotes sleep, reduces pain and relieves migraines.

Yet serotonin is also associated with anxiety, nausea and vomiting, which are side effects of the antidepressant SSRI drugs.

For it is actually dopamine, associated with the reward system that actually result in relaxation, contrary to the assumption that dopamine is only associated with mania and pyschosis.

The truth is, dopamine and serotonin receptors are associated with those physiological effect and is the rise and fall of neurotransmitter levels that lead to the symptoms.

As I mentioned early, serotonin promotes sedation but also the anxiety-nausea-vomiting triad when stress oppresses us.

Mania and psychosis are only evidence that the dopamine receptors are involved in their etiology. When we treat these effects as evidence of the neurotransmitters, we are under the misconception that only one neurotransmitter is involved, which leads to misconceptions about them.

It is actually the sum total of stress and its effect on the brain, especially in morphing harmless schizotypies in their various manifestations (schizo-affective, the myriad schizophrenias, and even bipolar disorders type I and II).

Since 5-HTP sedates me, it could a cascade effect beginning with serotonin receptors, which in turn affect histamine receptors and the mast cells that are associated with histamine. Hence the sedation.

All in al, I still feel this is a placebo effect. Meditation helps me to remain sensitive to my environment, both mental and physical. Since I believe in what it is used on to treat (migraines, pain, and mood balance), that affects its result, sedation.

Musings on Anti-Oedipus

According to Anti-Oedipus authors Guattari and Deleuze, "schizophrenia is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself and capitalism keeps enforcing neurosis as a way of maintaining normality."

The suggestion here is that enforcing neurosis is the path to maintaining normality, and capitalism is the enforcer.

As welll, the unconscious undercurrent played out through forces of capitalism (jobs) may have a pseudo-schizophregenic component, of which schizophrenia is an extreme outcome.

My question is, why can't the root cause and effect of the anxiety-insomnia-hypomania-mania-psychoses pathway be properly managed?

I'm referring to stress, which initially causes insomnia due to the effect of anxiety but later evolves into the indirect cause of hypomania, mania and ultimately psychoses.

However, it is stress that activates schizotypies, which are originally benign eccentricities of personality, that may evolve into one of several different forms of schizophrenia, due to the effects of extreme stress and resultant anxiety.

Depression and mania are just expressions of the extreme spectrum of bathos and pathos which both plague and inspire creativity on anyone of suitable fortitude to live with their neuroses.

Of course, the cheap preventative and/or solution for mental illness is to get regular exercise, sleep the optimal 9 hours, and if need be, take the medication suited to a person's personality type to reduce anxiety and/or promote sleep.

If necessary, a few people will respond to something as safe as prescribed medication, provided that the patient BELIEVES that medication works. He also has FAITH that they do work, which strongly implies a placebo effect facilitated by his belief and faith.

Please note that the patient does need to believe in what his psychiatrist or family doctor says regarding medication, and must be positive toward medication using drugs which do the least harm to the patient.

Additionally, the prudent mental health consumer may substitute meditation for medication if the use of stronger medication is counterindicated, be it for ethical, financial, moral, political and/or religious reasons, provide that his belief that meditation works reinforces his faith in meditation and vice versa.

YMMV

References:
Wikipedia article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Oedipus

Magical thinking and religion

One magical thinking myth about religion concerns the belief that praying a little harder will make a situation better. What more prayer does is relieve anxiety and other feelings when one is stressed. Yet prayer does not save a person from harm; that may be attributed to one's quick thinking.

Such magical thinking could be applied to recovery as well. When we think that going to meetings will stop us from alcohol or other drug use, that is a form of positive magical thinking. Its negative aspects may arise when we believe that if only a person remains clean and sober, then she will have wonderful friends to share with. This myth of recovery as a solution to life's problems is a form of magical thinking.

For recovery is a continuing process where you learn to stay clean and sober whilst facing the challenges of change and handling a crisis.

It is not religion that is the mental impairment; rather, it is the mind that practices magical thinking which is impaired. Yet spirituality is a continuing process of discovering the deeper understanding of God as I know him.

This deeper understanding of Him leads me to find solace in the Bible, in Buddhism, and in the works of other authors such as Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other writers.

To solely rely on the Bible or other religious texts is a conservative approach to religion. Yet I see no harm in religion so long as it does not endorse the use of violence or condone it.

Sometimes magical thinking even blinds doctors, lawyers and politicians.

Political ideologies include cronyism and other forms of political corruption.

A doctor who owns a successful chain of medical clinics also subscribes to the ideology that healthcare can be corporately managed to bring it to the masses.

Yet when it leads to long wait times to get that care, then such ideology may sometimes conflict with the doctor's obligation to do no harm.

As for lawyers, the ideology of taking advantage of the law for gain without consideration of the rights of justice is equally reprehensible. Yet sometimes such white collar crime goes on because any damage to the reputation of that lawyer leads to less business for him. This ideology involves placing gain and game above justice and respect for the law.

A scientist may believe in the Big Bang theory, despite the fact that it is a theory. Indeed, much of quantum mechanics is based on theory. The only people convinced that it has been proven might still be blinded by personal biases. As well, although I have a bias that endorses situational ethics, that bias influences me to view the Milgram experiment and the related Stanford prison experiment as validating my own ideology that each and every situation presents itself with ethical challenges.

Thus magical thinking is a condition of the human mind which involve an ideology, be it religious, political or scientific. It can be used to delude a person about how life really works. However, magical thinking also can be used creatively to see the whole picture about life.

Religion may be an opium of the people. When practiced mindfully it could open one's eyes to reality as it is.

As well, whether or not God exists is a either-or fallacy. Faith in him and belief that Christ died for my sins is a personal form of magical thinking which does comfort me.

This is because for me, its deep spiritual meaning cannot be described. I also get the same experience when reading Rumi and from the Buddhist sutras. This cannot be solely magical thinking at work. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that it is a form of self-hypnosis and may be related to the placebo effect as well.

Rethinking My Meds

After reading Doctor Daniel G. Amen's book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, I learned that gabapentin would improve temporal lobe function and control any possible seizures and aggression, as well as maintain emotional stability, relieve headaches, treat depression, and bipolar disorder.

Like mirtazapine, gabapentin has a good safety profile. While the former drug acts as a major sedative without the risk of benzodiazepine addiction, gabapentin has only moderate potential for the human body to develop a tolerance to it.

Indeed, this new psycho-pharmaceutical drug increases my ability to improve my mood by keeping it stable and thus improves my mental health.

After I chose mirtazapine because of its safety profile, I later was able to receive a prescription for gabapentin from my doctor after stating to him that I needed to manage pain and emotional stability.

After adding gabapentin to my medication regime of mirtazapine I've notice a change in my behavior and productivity.

To give you an idea of productivity, I'll list some things I got done in a day:

• created four videos to upload to Youtube.
  
• uploaded a couple pictures to Flickr and Picasa.
  
• created 3 songs for my new music album at Mix.DJ.

With the motivation and drive that gabapentin has given me, I believe that my darkest days in December are now over, for Friday (yesterday) is when I saw the light of day as a new beginning. As a result, I am inspired to change my life by improving my social skills so that they may be used to help others. Although this inspiration may be due to me experiencing the placebo effect, it is my strong belief that life has become brighter due to self-hypnosis with affirmations to uplift mood and aid in making positive choices to help and be of service to others. Such self-hypnosis is necessary to my recovery with the aid of mirtazapine and gabapentin.

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References:

Wikipedia on Daniel G. Amen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_G._Amen

Meet Doctor Amen: http://www.amenclinics.com/meet-dr-amen/ - Doctor Amen has a chain of clinics which use SPECT brain scans to get see in real-time the brain in action.

For people who are leery of having radio-nucleotides (radioactive markers used by medical specialists for making medical diagnoses) put in their blood stream, the Quackwatch website will confirm their fears: http://www.quackwatch.com/06ResearchProjects/amen.html

See also http://www.quackwatch.com/06ResearchProjects/amen_response.html

Disclaimer: the decision to ask for a month's supply of gabapentin was not originally due to reading Doctor Amen's book. In fact, I had been researching and studying many of the medications listed in the Appendix of his book on pages 307-313 (paperback edition) since 2006. Gabapentin showed up several times as having a high safety profile like mirtazapine.

For Mental Unrest, the Remedy is to "Know Thyself"

It has been said that most neuropharmaceutical drugs work by amplifying the placebo effect.

However, you can improve the placebo effect by choosing drugs and/or therapy and/or exercise to beat depression, provided you believe strongly in the power of the mind augmented by drugs, therapy or exercise will help you overcome mental unrest, specifically when expressed as anxiety and depression.

As for anxiety, all that one requires is the motivation and willingness to address a group of people in group therapy. Later, if one is willing, it is possible to abandon anxiety completely in a comedy club. Though, the preferred choice to resolve depression and anxiety would be daily exercise outside.

Sadly most morbidly anxious people tend towards social isolation which may lead to depression and attendant psychoses. However, most anxious people suffer needlessly.

Some of them have bought the propaganda that nothing works. They are so jaded about religion that they believe the myth that Buddhist meditation is primarily a religion and thus, is suspect.

Contrary to their suspicion about meditation, two of the new psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy and didactic behavioral therapy use mindfulness techniques, and even translate the basic teaching into language that is nonsectarian.

Thus the Four Noble Truths become:

1. Stress in Life causes mental unrest.
   
2. The cause of that mental unrest is an unhealthy ego i.e. clinging to a permanent self in a egoistic and selfish manner.
   
3. The solution is to detach oneself from such an idea through meditation.
   

Most new therapies basically teach one to control one's mind, of which most people are ignorant in regard to how it arises.

When applied to oneself, a book on basic psychology is useful to study, and one will learn to apply knowledge gained from reading it to study one's own mind.

Most anxiety and depression is due to the delusion that one's external environment is the cause of one's anxiety and depression.

The truth is, anxiety and depression is due to delusions one has chosen about oneself, and that contrary to one's assertion that the world is the cause of anxiety and depression, that each of us is both the cause of one's mental unrest and the solution to that unrest.

Hence, the adage, "Know thyself".