WHAT Chemicals in brain causes these probs

Serotonin is one chemical our body makes (I think it is made in stomach and head) but sometimes needs topping upup hence the SSRI tablets.

Then panic/anxiety is caused by excess adrenaline and the way it was described to me was as cavemen we needed to be ready to run away from danger for example so the body was ready for it by producing excess adrenaline over the years we dont need this so have to re train our brains to stop this...... flight of fight or something

Scientists are still scratching around in the sandpit in terms of their understanding of the human brain and what causes mood disorders such as depression, anxiety etc and the chemical imbalances that can cause these. It seems that Seretonin is one of many chemicals in the brain and is quite likely that this is the key one that impacts your mood. Seretonin is mostly found in our stomach alongside the brain. Think about how the health of your gut impacts the health of your mind or your mood.

When we are in a positive mood, happy, for want of a better word we usually have a good appetite and a healthy metabolism of eating and defecating, for want of a better word.

However, when we are in a negative mood, depressed, anxious etc we often lose our appetite, and get loose bowels and stomach churning, butterflies etc.

Hence, it would make sense that Seretonin could be one of the key chemicals that impacts our mood and gut health.

In someone with a mood disorder, their thought process becomes distorted into a negative thinking circle that is fuelled by the anxious / depressed feelings and becomes a very hard cycle to break. Drugs like SSRi's can help to improve the amount of Seretonin and alongside talking therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) can offer substantial relief and sometimes cure.

This is a very good question and we have been advised by professionals regarding Seretonin and why meds like antidepressants are used to help us.

In all honesty I don't think there is inly one answer to the problem. We are affected in different ways.

In the past I spent so much time trying to find out why this was happening to me and how it happened. In the end I realized that I wont find the perfect answer and by thinking so much about it, I made myself so much more ill.

I was feeding the negativity in me including my anxiety. So many unanswered questions and fears.

I have now told myself that sometimes things just happen and we wont always find the answers. I have accepted the fact that I have anxiety and depression and want to move forward to get better. Otherwise I will continue to fall back and never move forward.

Agree with all above. Did lots of research when my daughter became depressed. To me, it mirrors a physical illness in that sometimes you know why you get, say, the flu (like, your spouse had it and you got it from them), other times you don't know why you got it.

With depression (I'm not as clear on anxiety) you sometimes know what triggered it (a traumatic or upsetting event) and other times there doesn't appear to be a cause. But just like with a physical illness, once you are sick, the symptoms get worse until you get treatment (like antibiotics with a physical illness and anti-depressant meds and therapy with depression).

As said above, and what I witnessed with my daughter, the seratonin chemical in the brain stops functioning properly when you are depressed. It's complicated but apparently ssri, which is the class of drug that sertraline is, stands for selective seratonin reupatake inhibitor. The seratonin apparently needs to be just outside the brain to function, but in depressed people it is absorbed (or "uptaken") by the brain so it isn't doing its job. So the ssri "inhibits" it from being absorbed by the brain.

They don't really know why ssri's take so long to work or why it can be so difficult to determine the correct dosage and correct med for each person - everyone reacts differently. But it is an illness, and it is a brain chemical issue. And just like sometimes when you are sick, in addition to meds you also need physical therapy (PT) to re-train your body, with depression you need therapy with a psychologist, psychiatrist, clinical social worker or other mental health professional to re-train your brain to prevent the intrusive and negative thoughts which have taken over your brain. The meds, when they kick in, can help your mood enough so that you are able to work with your mental health professional.

Just remember two things: that depression and anxiety are not your fault and that you WILL get better with treatment. Whatever triggered it, it's an illness that you don't have control over and like with any illness, it isn't your fault that you got it. It will take meds to re-calibrate your brain chemicals and therapy to re-train your thinking but you WILL recover.

They are doing a lot of research to develop drugs that work faster and more efficiently than ssri's. Hopefully in the future we'll have those.

Don't lose hope. I watched my daughter emerge from a very deep and dark depression. She went through 3 months of hell, was home with us (she's 25) and was suicidal. But her sertraline finally kicked in, she is working with a therapist and is back to her life in a different city - seeing friends, working, happy. She still has down days but is on a great path.

Sending positive, healing thoughts to you. xoxo

The companies that make AD s spend a lot of money proving that it can reduce symptoms after a certain length of time. That's about all they are interested in funding. big pharma definitely didn't spend any money on dependence in long term use.

and they haven't bothered here really. they don't really care what's up.

so info is scarce. what we do know is that serotonin is notbrhe happy drug they told us it was. it's more complicated.

for anxiety increases, there is evidence that it's because serotonin in the hippocampus makes you feel better, but serotonin in the amygdala triggers anxiety.

We know that serotonin levels increase within hours of taking your first pill. the problem is that serotonin increases equally. but that's not our problem, we don't have a body wide serotonin deficiency. we have deficiency in key areas. we also lack some of the things that healthy serotonin helps make, glutamate, and that take about 4 weeks to start working.

but we still don't know basically. antidepressants aren't well understood. each person is difficult. My brother found sertraline a breeze, I am finding it very difficult.

an interesting thought experiment though. Sertraline is one of the drugs with the least side effects. this is one of the most advanced drugs we have. and we still don't know much.