Brain Fuel Depletion is one book that has had a profound effect on me. It was written by Peter Symons with Dr Clyde Jumeaux and in many ways describes the importance of neuro transmitters, depression and the need for appropriate intervention and change to create positive results.
For me it explained how to better support the brain body connection and to take action faster to help oneself and get assistance from the right sources.
The book helped to understand the differences between adrenaline levels and natural serotonin levels and why we sometimes we feel lethargic with no desire or energy to do much of anything and how this is sometimes confused with depression.
Dr Clyde is a medical practitioner and associate professor at the University of Australia’s rural clinical school who says that he saw patients who did not fit the usual depression or anxiety ‘pidgeon holed example’ but who had similar symptoms and claims. He and Peter collaborated to write this interesting and informative book.
Peter Symons is an accomplished veterinarian and sportsman who over the years has recovered well from three brain haemorrhages and subsequent surgery as well as cardiac arrests and suffered from severe depression and contemplated suicide.
The powerful collaboration of these two people and the messages in this book makes it a great read and reference point to understanding neurotransmitters, and making sense of anxiety and depression.
They describe physical symptoms that appear in depression can be confusing and, primarily due to excess adrenaline as;
· Lethargy and fatigue
· Insomnia
· Incomplete muscle relations
In its basic terms it describes how sometimes something in our lives (he writes within our psyche) and it brings about a change in our normal resting neurochemical balance. This neurochemical change then brings about a change in our psycho-physiology, that we may or may not know it originated but that this thing or incident, anything from a trauma or event or situation can bring about significant changes and be confused as depression.
Here they show how when recovering from this situation that we can suffer from what they call 'Brain-Fuel Depletion' and sustaining good mental health depends upon two simple yet critical factors – raising the neurotrophin level and reducing the level of distress.
Reducing the level of distress is where we here at RSN seek to help the individual to reduce the symptoms and level of anxiety and help focus on behaviours and other motivating factors to find relief and to move forward.
Adapting and changes seems to be a significant key in life itself and in the recovery process where we at RSN feel that coaching and hypnotherapy can be beneficial.
The book explains in simple terms why people who are stressed, or prone to ‘busyness’ or who are high achievers, can adversely affect their brain-fuel levels in two ways via excessive depletion and insufficient repletion of what is required to supply their brains in healthy ways.
They mention that our most common neurotrophin is described as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and it is vital for all aspects of life of our neurones, including their;
· Genesis
· Survival
· Maturation – development into a more specialised form
· Plasticity – the ability to form new connections.
The importance of BDNF and the brain plasticity it promotes, is highlighting in the inspiring ‘The Brain The Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, mentioned in previous blogs on RSN.
Here we find plasticity the most interesting as it is vital to help us cope with stress. It goes on to state that, “the neurones’ ability to form new, robust connections is what allows us to adapt to changes in our physical or psychological environment, or to injury.
Here adaption is key as they explain how the depletion process can be quick or slow; takes days, months or years and the end results can be severe long-term stress or worse.
Once a significant change occurs, it can make depression much, much worse and what they also call the ‘depressive space, and here people are caught in a spiral where before their thoughts were positive, they (their thoughts and persona per say) now become negative.
It was here that I first read that sometimes physical symptoms have psychological consequences and also where Peter describes having gone through so much in his life that it made me feel ok to have had similar thoughts.
It made me realise that sometimes the body just needs time to recover, time away from work and that a holiday is not such a bad thing.
They mention that it is predicted that over 15% of Australian more than three million – will eventually suffer major depression, although the time period was not stipulated. Here he goes on to state that 'the system' (our medical system) has to follow certain criteria and this is where people are often ‘pidgeon holded’.
There is a very interesting point they made when describing depression and claim, ‘Why should they be allowed to deteriorate until they meet the criteria for major depression’? - referring to the medical system they state it would be more sensible that they had the right for help in early stages when:
· Assistance would be more effective
· Lifestyle changes, without the need for medication might be sufficient
· Suffering would be relieved sooner and it could prevent a suicide scenario.
Here the claim is where it becomes important to intervene and address possible lifestyle changes early on and where we believe that regular life coaching can be enormously beneficial.
It says that we know that depression can be related to a low level of chemicals called serotonin which is a transmittal, a chemical message that goes from one brain cell to another. And we know that the drug Prozac helps elevate levels of serotonin. We know that Prozac helps some people who are depressed.
But it goes on to state;
“But if you ask me the big question: How come levels of serotonin change your subjective state or mood? We don’t’ know that at all.
The exciting issue is bridging between the behaviours…the large-scale kind of cognitive patterns and (things at) the molecular level. That is the level I work on – how to bridge the one to the other.
How levels of chemicals and configurations of brain cells translate into a subjective state, or a mood, or the desire to move, or the ability to move. That we don’t know.”
It continues with stating that it’s hard because of how much we don’t know and that we don’t have the structure yet, and yet, we just don’t know.
With so many unknowns it makes it essential to look at our nutrition, habits, behaviours and whether our bodies can actually cope with what we are trying to put it through.
They also describe where the three most researched neuro-transmittters are serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine. It’s suggested that the depletion of:
Serotonin is likely to cause insomnia and anxiety
Noradrenaline is likely to cause lack of energy
Dopamine is likely to cause lack of motivation, inertia.
Here they are quite blatant and state;
“medication has an important role but is not a panacea. I would like to emphasise this important concept, a little brutally: There’s no point in taking medication to ‘prop up’ a stupid lifestyle. Use it to feel better, then examine and change the lifestyle that caused the problem”
In order to examine and change a lifestyle that caused the problems we need to see someone who can assist and in this regard we believe that utilising the services of a life coach can be a fantastic way to examine how you can change and transform your way of living and identify the problems and find solutions.
They also recite a passage from the book ‘The Peace of Mind Prescription’ where they stating;
“Research shows that more than four out of every five people with depressive disorders will improve when they receive appropriate treatment.
But finding the best treatment – whether medication, psychotherapy, or both – demands patience and commitment on the part of both the patient and care-giver.”
Finally they also mention 14 principles for the successful use of medication whereby the 14th principle outlines why medication might not work. Here it explains over seven pages why medication might not work in a lot of detail.
The entire book is primarily about making sense of anxiety and depression and how we can approach our understanding to find better solutions faster. I strongly suggest it as a great read.
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