Chemical Imbalance, Bad DNA, or Difficult Life Experience? YES!

“Isn’t it just a chemical imbalance, shouldn’t I take medication to fix it?”  Constantly hearing the thousands of commercials selling drugs for all kinds of problems, you can fully understand where we get this notion! Better living through chemistry, right?  You feel down, take a pill. You have a headache, take a pill. Your child is annoying, give em’ a pill. And in many cases, drugs have made our lives easier and have eased the suffering of millions. But are mental health issues really just a result of a brain chemistry?

What is the cause of mental illness? Is it a chemical imbalance? Perhaps a genetic predisposition, or maybe the result of life experience? While we need more research, a picture is beginning to emerge that the answer is Yes! All three! In order to develop a mental illness you probably will have some sort of genetic predisposition, have had a negative life experience (i.e. trauma, difficult childhood) that turned on those genes, and then a resulting chemical imbalance in the brain that we can actually measure. But is it in fact the chemical imbalance that is the problem and the best target for intervention?

Lets look to mother nature for some clarity here. Take any plant. If the leaves are turning brown and falling off, we know the plant is sick. We can see it, measure it (just like a lack of serotonin in the brain). Is then the best course of action to stick on some new leaves, or to inject some chlorophyll into the stem? That might work for a bit. The leaves might look healthier, and as long as we keep injecting chlorophyll, all will be well. But what is at the “root” (pardon the pun) of the problem. A lack of chlorophyll? Or is it perhaps something to do with this particular plant being planted in the wrong place? Perhaps a lack of nutrients in the soil, not enough water or sunlight! 

Depression and its accompanying shift in neurochemistry is a result of a lack of nutrients in our lives. Something is wrong, and our body tells us this via depression. We can take a med and feel better, but the nutrient is still missing. We will still feel depressed if we stop taking it. Depression, anxiety, addictions, phobias, and obsessions are our body/mind/spirit’s way of getting our attention that something needs to change. We need to be fed!

By just treating the symptoms, we miss the real origin of the problem. At Tree of Life Healing, we treat the whole person, body, mind and spirit. While relieving symptoms is paramount, we also work to heal the real cause of your problem. Drop by on November 10 for our Healing Arts Salon and sample up to five 15-minute healing sessions with some of Pasadena’s most talented healing practitioners including Somatic Psychology, Reiki, Massage, EFT, and Sound Healing.

Chris Tickner, MFT (at Tree of Life Healing) is a Pasadena psychotherapist, child therapist, and clinical supervisor practicing holistic psychotherapy, combining mindfulness psychotherapy, somatic psychotherapy, neuroscience, and good old fashion humor and compassion to form a powerful treatment that is transformative and holistic. At Tree of Life Healing, Pasadena’s Holistic and Alternative Healing Resource, we provide an array of treatment approaches including Somatic Psychology, Jungian Psychotherapy, group therapy, Hakomi Psychotherapy, Reiki Energy Therapy, Shamanic Healing, Intuitive Counseling, and more.