NY psychotherapist Colette Dowling, LMSW, author of the following article on mood and the brain, has written eight books, including The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence, which was published in 23 languages.
Mood and the BrainColette Dowling, LMSWWhen it comes to mood disorders such as depression, the split psychology and psychiatry is basically this: therapists influenced by Freud’s psychology see depression as a product of the mind and talk about it in terms of drives, defenses, regressions, and problems of identification and self-esteem. Those influenced by biological psychiatry see mood disorders as caused by shifts in the levels of hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain.Shephard Kantor, a psychiatrist on the faculty of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, looks for ways of bringing the two approaches to mood disorders--biological and psychological--together. Kantor believes the mental "productions" of depressed patients--the negative thoughts and sometimes even, in the case of psychotics, hallucinations--come from chemical changes in the central nervous system. He doesn't believes that the crazy thinking that sometimes accompanies depression is triggered by external events or is the result of childhood interactions with parents. Dr. Kantor believes the crazy thinking that can go along with depression and anxiety is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. But what about the effects of trauma? you might wonder. Surely disturbing, traumatic events of childhood can’t be totally unrelated to mood problems we have as adults. Kantor has suggested that the mental changes produced by depression may be due to certain sensations and memory traces that go back to "the calamities of childhood". Such calamities, he theorizes, produce changes in the brain--in the neurotransmitter levels or receptor sites. And it isn’t just childhood trauma that produces such changes. Emotional wounds at any point along the way, from childhood through adulthood, might create mood-changing alterations in the brain. One of the breakthroughs of modern neurology was Wilder Penfield’s discovery that stimulating certain areas of the brain with electrical impulses produces visual and auditory images and memories. Dr. Shephard Kantor asks this provocative question: Isn’t it possible that the signals generated by brain neurotransmitters might function as "the internal equivalents" of Penfield’s externally applied stimulating electrodes? If so, he says, it "would cause patients to report feelings, recollections and ideas generated not by conflict, fantasy, or drive derivatives, but by chemical stimuli." There are differences in all of us--differences in the amount of trauma or stress we experience and in the degree of chemical vulnerability we inherit. No one exists in a perfect state of chemical balance. Where, then, should the line be drawn with respect to neurotransmitter deficits? Do they exist in all who become mood disordered or only in those suffering from severe forms of these illnesses? These are questions neuroscientists continue to wrestle with. The answers, when finally developed, will go a long way to explaining the biological undepinnings of mood disorders. Those suffering from depression and anxiety can get medical help in the form of antidepressants. Or they can get help from psychotherapy. Often, a combination of the two is ideal.
Click here for Colette's article on anxiety.
AUTHOR BIO AND CONTACT INFORMATION NY psychotherapist Colette Dowling, LMSW, HAS a private practice in Manhattan. Books she's written are "You Mean I Don't Have to Feel this Way?": New Help for Depression, Anxiety and Addiction, The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence, Red Hot Mamas: Coming Into Our Own at Fifty, and the Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls. Colette completed her graduate studies at The Smith College School for Social Work and did advanced training at The Institue for Contemporary Psychotherapy, in New York. She can be reached for for further information, or to schedule a consultation at 718-594-0201, or by e-mailing dowlingcolette@earthlink.net. To hear Colette speaking about what it's like starting therapy with someone new, click on the audio button.
For information on Colette's psychotherapy practice see her profile at Psychology Today.
See Colette's articles on women's mental health.
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