Anorexia, depression, autism… Faced with an increasing number of mental illnesses and various terms, people find themselves helpless yet unable to ignore their existence. Some individuals, when confronted with mental illness, choose to deny, stigmatize, discriminate, and belittle the conditions and those affected, attempting to keep their lives and surroundings stable and away from these unsettling factors.
If we view the brain as a stable machine, typically, the brain functions in a similar manner. When individuals experience the world in ways different from others, although they may exhibit different behaviors, they generally operate within a “reasonable” logic.
However, this machine, the brain, cannot always remain stable; it often faces stimuli and disruptions, both big and small, which can lead the brain into a state of disorder and instability. For those controlled by this machine, the disorder and instability do not completely dissipate; instead, the brain enters into a different operating state, altering their perception of the world and their surroundings to conform to the current operational logic. This can result in individuals being unaware of their issues, failing to recognize the disorder until it deviates further off course or suddenly stops altogether, leading to a sense of inexplicable fear and anxiety, prompting them to escape this state. Yet, when accustomed to the flawed, unstable operational logic of the brain, individuals find it challenging to forcibly change under the brain’s influence, requiring continuous reminders at the conscious level to correct their course. The first step toward emerging from the haze is recognizing one’s presence within it. Confronting fear begins with understanding fear itself, wherein individuals need to take the first step towards change through cognitive understanding of mental illnesses and psychological issues.
Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, renowned neuroscientist Eric Kandel, dedicated his life to psychiatric and physiological research, exploring human behavior from a biophysical perspective. While literary figures, historians, and philosophers interpret human nature through various rational analyses and artistic creations, Kandel’s contemplation of human nature revolves around how it emerges from the material brain. All this stems from the precise interactions among the brain’s 86 billion neurons, enabling the brain to achieve various precise recognitions and self-awareness. However, if neurons are damaged or altered due to disease, some neurons may fail to connect or even form, leading to brain disorders. Following this line of thought, Kandel wrote “The Neurobiology of our Era and Mental Illness,” delving deeper into the relationship between the mental illnesses discussed by people and us.
Throughout history, people have been sensitive to pain and have vivid memories; intense pain can evoke feelings of depression. Shakespeare, through Hamlet, once described depression as such: “Why seems it so particular with thee?” The most common symptoms of depression include persistent sadness, intense mental anguish, feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness.
In neuroscience, depression is closely linked to cortisol. Typically, depression and stress activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of the neuroendocrine system, prompting the adrenal gland to release the body’s primary stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol release is beneficial, enhancing alertness to perceived threats; however, prolonged uncontrolled release can lead to changes in appetite, sleep, and energy levels for individuals experiencing depression and high stress. Damage to the hippocampus affects people’s memory, damage to the prefrontal cortex and disrupted connections between neurons impact individuals’ will to survive and decision-making ability. Poor neuron connections result in emotional flatness, leading to depressive disorders.
Our emotions are governed by the amygdala located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain. The amygdala is connected to other brain structures like the hypothalamus, regulating heart rate, blood pressure, sleep cycles, and governing emotional responses such as joy, sadness, aggression, and sorrow. The amygdala is also linked to the prefrontal cortex, controlling executive functions and self-esteem, adjusting emotions and their impact on thoughts and memories based on instructions. Emotions are stimulated in the hypothalamus while regulated in the prefrontal cortex; the transmission of signals between these areas depends on the interaction of nerve cells. If a neural connection is incorrect or fails, emotional inner turmoil ensues, leading to unrestrained emotional outbursts or suppressed emotions, preventing their release.
The hypothalamus is the central core of brain tissue that activates the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system, unifying control over our heart rate, blood pressure, and hormone secretion. When regulating depression, the hypothalamus sends new signals to activate the sympathetic nervous system to increase heart rate, blood pressure, and hormone secretion in response to the low mood of depression. However, when the brain is not in a stable and healthy state and the amygdala’s regulation or termination commands fail to reach the hypothalamus or prefrontal cortex, this increased reverse stimulation can lead patients into manic states. This explains the “bipolar disorder,” the high degree of correlation between depression and mania, sometimes being separated by just a thin line.
Communication issues in the prefrontal cortex lead people to be unaware or resistant to their self-state. A considerable number of individuals endure symptoms that others perceive as psychological disorders but choose not to eliminate them. Our sense of self helps maintain our integrity, with the prefrontal lobe serving as the storage site for self-awareness and self-esteem. Once painful experiences infiltrate your self, individuals often resist giving up the part causing them pain. Acknowledgment may harm our self-esteem, medication weakens our willpower, alertness, and thinking processes, ultimately making us aware of our shortcomings. This process is inherently painful, activating our sense of self to resist the appearance of these circumstances, opposing and facing the discomfort. Just as in the logic of bipolar disorder, during moments of emotional lows, individuals madly inject themselves with stimulants to resist, only to later find themselves fervently affirming and attributing external factors to their mania, continuously adjusting and struggling to regain their initial stable state.
As terms like depression, mania, autism, and anxiety become widely known and discussed, with more people seriously exploring these topics and realizing they too may experience these issues to some extent, awareness of mental illnesses and psychological well-being shifts from theoretical to increasingly prevalent in our surroundings. Kandel addresses this society, using the development of psychiatric medicine to help people understand these conditions, no longer fearing and evading them.
