Plain Speak

By: Carol Maxym, Ph.D.

Please, please read this article. It’s short and well-written and really important.

Last week I caught just part of a radio discussion about “new research” that demonstrates how the context of one’s life matters in how one acts, reacts, etc., that connections among people and communities effects how one lives in the world. Well, my first reaction was a sort of “duh?”  I mean who didn’t know that. Then I thought for a moment more and realized that as we have created a [false] idea that behavior problems, “mental health” issues, depression, anxiety, bi-polar “disorder” –well, really all the so-called disorders, are intrinsic to the individual, we have created an illusion that we all act and react in the vacuum of ourselves and some rather loosely defined neurotransmitters that create a so-called chemical imbalance (for which there is zero real data, but it’s been a fabulously successful marketing tool) and that drive our feelings, emotions, attitudes, behavior, social behavior, and our being in the world.

Ok, so, really, let’s get serious.  Do you really—from your own life experience—believe that life, situations in life have no effect on how you feel emotionally, how you act and react?  I mean, anecdotally from your life and the lives of those you know (and forgetting all the advertising hype you’ve heard), do you really believe that what happens in your life is less important than neurotransmitters in how you feel.  I mean does this make sense?  One day your lover tells you he doesn’t ever want to hear from you and somehow simultaneously your chemical imbalance takes over and you feel depressed?  Or your son brings home a report card full of Fs, but it’s all about chemical imbalance?  And, your reaction is also just those neurotransmitters? 

Life happens, and we all act and react in ways we’ve learned.  If you come from a family where difficulties were met with anxiety, probably you learned to react with anxiety.  It isn’t about genetic material that makes your neurotransmitters fire, blah, blah, blah.  Think of this:  Schools have cultures.  In some schools, being “cool” means that you work really hard academically. In others it means being particularly kind.  Etc., etc.  Corporate cultures are exactly the same. So, yes and obviously, we do mimic the culture in which we live. It isn’t your neurotransmitters that are deciding to be kind or smart or snarky or depressed or anxious. It’s your life, your world, your experience and how you interpret your life and world and experience. 

Let’s not pretend that the brain has nothing to do with how we feel and emote and act and react. Let’s also not pretend that very much is known about that. Let’s free ourselves from the tiny, simplistic, false world or diagnosis of disorders. 

Think about it. Think how much richer your life could be minus disorders. Think about starting the discussion about your feelings not stopping it with a foolish disorder diagnosis.