How does antidepressant help a depressed person? I thought all of it are in the mind, how do drugs help?
In: Chemistry
First it’s important to understand that there are very real and large differences between Chronic Depression and feeling depressed temporarily because, for example, a loved one has died, or you lost your job, or your house burned down, or you failed a class. Both can be treated with certain medications, but everyday sadness-type depression is generally temporary, while Clinical Depression is a chronic disorder.
Antidepressants work by balancing chemicals in your brain, called neurotransmitters, that affect your mood and emotions. These medications can, in some people, help improve emotional stability, reduce feelings of sadness or hopelessness, help you sleep better, reduce anxiety, even improve your appetite.
There are five main categories of antidepressants, and each category uses different chemicals to treat whatever’s going wrong in your brain. Since we still have a lot to learn about depression and how it works, some people need to try a range of different medications before they find one, or a combination, that works well for them and their specific issues.
There are also different types of depression, so that’s also part of why it can be difficult to figure out just the right treatment for each individual. There’s Major Depressive Disorder, Persistent Depressive Disorder, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Situational Depression, Bipolar Depression, Postpartum Depression, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, and several others. Each of these conditions has a specific set of symptoms, and each person might experience these symptoms in slightly different ways than the next person, so that’s why it’s important to seek out someone who specialized in psychiatric medications, like Psychiatrists and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, who can also help you figure out if you perhaps need some sort of therapy rather than medications.
Your brain is like a delicious bowl of soup.
You have to have the right amount of ingredients to make the soup taste good, and your brain needs the right balance of chemicals to make it work well.
Anti depressants are like adding an ingredient that is missing.
So now your soup tastes great and your brain works well.
All your neurons have something called neuroreceptors, which gather a chemical called neurotransmitters, see the receptors as a keyhole and the transmitters as a key.
Your neurons will excrete some transmitters so the other one recieves it, if either the first one excretes too little or the receptor neuron has way too many receptors, the quantity of the chemical will be inufficient. If you have less keys than locks, you wont open the door.
So you require more chemical either because you have too many locks or too little keys. The meds help both of those problems, they dissolve some locks and create some keys so that the message can pass through easily.
It’s not “all in your head” as if you can just stop being depressed through willpower. If you imagine your brain to be like a machine, it’s as if part of that machine broke. Antidepressants help undo the damage
People seem to regard mental disorder as different from other medical problems, that drugs can’t help the person because it’s not something “physical” as they usually exist only within the mind of the person.
However, the brain is just as much of an organ as the liver or heart. If an organ isn’t working properly, medication can help. Doesn’t matter which one it is; it is mostly a stigmas because the symptoms of mental disorders don’t come up on blood results or an MRI so there’s no “proof” they’re real.
Your brain works by releasing certain chemicals that trigger reactions. Many depressed people have a problem where their brains aren’t working correctly, and the chemicals that trigger happiness aren’t being produced properly. Taking anti-depressants can help properly regulate the chemicals that produce emotions, so that you are able to have a more regular emotional condition.
When you digest medication (I’m talking about pills), it gets absorbed into the bloodstream after enzymes break it down in your stomach, which your brain cells also need. When the drugs hit your brain, which houses the mind, it is altered. This affects the neurons and synapses that are constantly active and moving your mind and thoughts. The drugs change the pattern in which these processes occur.
That’s how the drugs help. Same thing with smoking, the active ingredients in the smoke inhaled is absorbed by the lungs which is carrying blood that absorbs the oxygen (or smoke) in the air and that is carried to the brain for a nice high.
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