Introduction
While I was researching information about psychiatric medication, I came across this one article that was talking about the brain and the body and how psychiatric medications affect them.
One of the sections that caught my attention was the one that was talking about certain things used for anxiety and depression. These things being different kinds of medication that people can take to help with their anxiety and depression. One part of that section claims that these types of medication help keep the brain’s concentration of neurotransmitters at levels that help improve mood.
When you hear that description, it sounds like these psychiatric medications are a great thing that people should look forward to. Medications that don’t require a lot of work and can help someone deal with their mental health problems sounds like the best of both worlds. Even though this sounds like a positive thing, but when you look at it, it’s really not.
Usually, I talk about common mental health problems when I write these blog posts or make a video. However, the topic of psychiatric medications relates to the more serious kinds of problems out there.
Trauma & Psychiatric Medications
On Instagram, I decided to do some research and ask my followers a question through a poll I made. I asked my followers, what is the root of all mental health problems? I gave my followers two answer choices that were the most accurate and relevant answers to the question. The first answer choice was “childhood trauma” and the other answer choice was “prejudice and discrimination”. Most of my followers and even the people reading this article can agree that childhood trauma was the clear answer. It doesn’t even have to be specific as childhood trauma as it can be any form of unresolved trauma in our lives.
When you go through that sort of trauma, it’s not necessary to go through different kinds of coping mechanisms or certain resources even though they may help you at first.
The first thing you have to do is you have to learn how to deal with that unresolved trauma that you’ve been holding on to for so long. Most of the time when we do those coping mechanisms or look at different resources, they are used to repress those feelings that we’ve had in the past. This leads to the issue of never doing the heavy work required to heal through the things that we’ve been through in our lives. We go through our everyday lives like nothing has affected us even though they are carried deep down inside of us.
Process of Healing Unresolved Trauma
Usually, the process to deal with unresolved trauma is a long, exhaustive, and intensive process. During that process, you have to unpack all of the trauma that you’ve been through. The best way to do that is by working on it one by one to heal.
Now, if you look at the role the psychiatric medication plays on the brain and body, it keeps your mood at a constant state. If you’re feeling down or in a negative mood state, it will help increase your mood. By doing that, it will keep you in a constant mood. However, that’s kind of the opposite effect of what you want when you’re dealing with unresolved trauma.
Once you start to unpack all of that trauma, you’re going to end up feeling worse. When you deal with trauma and you’re trying to resolve it, you’re going to feel worse at first because you have to unpack everything.
When you’re unpacking everything, you’re letting it all out. You may be writing everything out in a journal or just self-reflecting. This allows you to actually discover your thoughts and look at it on a deeper level.
You’re going to feel worse at first and then as you work through it, you’re going to eventually feel better. You’ve tackled the trauma that you’ve been through.
Conclusion: Do Psychiatric Medications Help People?
If you’re someone that using psychiatric medication, it blocks you from ever feeling that negative state of mind. Therefore, you can’t really unpack and deal with the trauma. You’re simply never going to get to that negative state, which you need in order to heal.
Psychiatric medications simply take away any feelings or emotions that you have, which puts you in a state of atrophy. The kind of atrophy I am referring to here is brain atrophy. Brain atrophy occurs when the neurons in your brain are lost along with its connections. If you’re experiencing no feelings or emotions, it will be difficult to impossible to deal with the problems that you’re dealing with.
These medications are just another way to repress everything that you’re going through. These medications make you potentially “feel better” for the short-term. The keyword here in this is “short-term” just as most solutions that are given to people.
There have been many studies conducted to show the effects of these psychiatric medications. However, very few of them really demonstrate how they work in the brain. In fact, those studies forget to show how they’ve affected the development and neuroplasticity of the brain.
