A Biology of Mental Disorder

If we could pinpoint with fair accuracy neurotransmitter levels of key neurotransmitters, at any given point, that would be a breakthrough to begin with. Depression hits the hardest in the early morning hours. Perhaps metabolism of electrolytes monitored on a 24 hour basis could also provide a clue.

I once dug a pit and filled it with clouds....or was it clowns.... come to think of it, it began to smell... must have been clowns. Clouds don't smell, they taste of butter. And tears. How can I be sure? Maybe I'm smarter because I know cats can be bats can be rats can be hats can be gnats can be thats can be thises. And that doors can be boars can be snores can be floors can be roars can be spores can be yours can be mine. I must be smart, for the interconnective system is very clear to me. Then why, or wherefore do people keep calling me mad?

My son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year or so after he graduated from high school. Two months ago he committed suicide. We have grade school age children who climb into my lap crying almost daily and ask some variation of the question, "Why can't they fix bipolar?" We loved and accepted and supported him just as he was, but that didn't keep him living and breathing. Thank the Lord for medical breakthroughs for bipolor and other devastating mental disorders.

Perhaps the problem is our materialistic perspective of mental disorders. As a mental health worker, it is largely apparent that environment (nurture, to some) is a far better predictor/determinant of mental illness than biology. It is sad to me the way we in this culture want everything to have a biological explanation, which seems to me an easy way to continue avoiding taking responsibility for our own lives. This is not to say that I believe there is no genetic component to mental illness (some in particular). However, I do believe our world would be a much better, and certainly more interesting, place if we learned to accept people as they are rather than trying to get them to conform to our idea of "normal." Numbers will never replace a living, breathing, loving human being... even when the intent is said to be for the good of the person.