By its very nature, the brain is the most powerful organ of the body, but at the same time the most fragile one, as what separates if from the outside world, are 10mm of bone, even less depending on which side of the head the measurement is made.
Its fragility though, is not only a “physical” one. I realized that the human body can take a lot, everything heals more or less fast, scars are left, but overall, it can still function, the circuits reassemble. Preserving our physical integrity is something we all try to do, and manage most of the time, except when accidents occur.
The brain is influenced by everything that happens outside of us and its functioning can be altered forever if the environment we live in and if the interactions we have, are negative ones…and then there are mental ilnesses
I am talking here about mental traumas, not physical ones.
This kind of injury is not or very difficultly, repairable. And this is where I’m getting to with all of it, this is why I got into analyzing the brain. The mental traumas are invisible and that makes it very difficult to get help and treatment…so coping mechanism develop, not the healthiest ones, and we change, as persons. And on the top of it all, as the brain is the “master “ of the body, its traumas influence a lot of the body’s functions (digestion, muscle tension and so on) rendering it more vulnerable to diseases.
And then there are mental ilnesses, that we are born with and the ones we have to cope with our entire life…
So, in order to understand how the brain’s functions can be disturbed, I have to understand how the neurons “talk” to each other, and by that I mean, what types of messages they can send to each other and what the expected results can be.
Welcome : the neurotransmitters.
We are getting back to the chemistry of it all. The neurons talk to each other through neurotransmitters, and these neurotransmitters are created by the neurons themselves, they are endogenous. They are the chemicals sending the messages…to other neurons.
The effect of the message is determined by the targeted neuron’s receptor
So certain neurons create certain neurotransmitters which are then integrated by certain receptors. There is nothing more complex and fragile than this process in the whole human body, as it can be influenced by literally ANYTHING that goes on around us.
The real strength of a human being is to be able to keep their mental health, above it all. Because it all starts there, in the head, in how we manage and handle ourselves and our actions. We say “it’s all in the head”, every more often as a joke. But this is the plain truth: IT IS ALL in the head. If we’re good “in there”, we’re good “out there” and we can face and handle all other illnesses in the best way possible.
To sum it up, the way I see it, this process shapes us and our lives as we go along, and we are constantly changing, even if we’re not conscious about it.
First of all, neurotransmitters are of three types: excitatory, inhibitory and modulatory. They can either “incite “ (excitatory), the other neuron to pass on the message, stop it (inhibitory) from doing so or, once inside the neuron, trigger second messengers (modulatory), through other chemicals, therefore allowing certain information to be processed longer. The image I have in my mind when I think of this is that of a control panel…which cannot be touched.
Second of all, the receptors (that part of the neuron that receives the neurotransmitter), are of two types: Ionotropic, as they contain an opened ionic channel and metabotropic as they trigger the opening of an ionic channel.
I have purposely avoided any scientific terms (chemical and others), because I have absolutely no scientific training. But I guess I have to explain this one (even if it still remains unclear to me): the ion is an atom that gains an electrical charge by losing or acquiring electrons. This is the “electricity” part at the end of the communication chain between two neurons.
So neurons’ receptors can act differently depending on the types of ion channels they have and this can loosely translate into: messages can be sent as such, through an already opened channel, or they can create second type messages which can trigger the opening of a channel.
Of course, after reading about what it is sent and how it’s processed, there is an obvious first assessment: modulatory neurotransmitters and metabotropic receptors both have the same mission: keeping the information longer. It’s interesting to know that this is how solid neurological paths are being…shaped.
I mentioned before that the nervous system was the one composed of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (nerves). That covers literally the whole body, inside and out, through neurons. They are the messengers, while neurotransmitters are the messages, the brain being the main “source”. Depending on their types, neurotransmitters “lead” our behavior, they decide our mood swings, so they basically shape our life, as we take decisions and act upon them.
I don’t believe in destiny. I believe in instinct and power, and everything that those two concepts imply. Deciding to follow your inner self, the unaltered one, is crucial to one’s life, so by understanding what neurotransmitters do, we can have a “map” that could help us make the best of our lives.