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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

MEN­TAL HEALTH MAT­TERS

Taking medication requires balance

by

20130423

Why they ask, "You take your meds?"

Peo­ple al­ways ask about the side ef­fects of the con­tin­u­al in­take of med­ica­tion and as well, I've of­ten had con­ver­sa­tions with rel­a­tives of in­di­vid­u­als who refuse to take med­ica­tions for fear of the al­leged or re­al con­se­quences.

In re­sponse to the in­jury that long-term in­ges­tion can have on the body, I anal­o­gise sim­ply by say­ing some­thing like, "You do know the wa­ter you drink can kill you, right?"

As I slid in­to de­spair the past few weeks, at the first op­por­tu­ni­ty, my sis­ter asked (by text, of course, since I re­al­ly do not care to speak in those times), "You're eat­ing? You tak­ing your meds?" That's the peren­ni­al in­quiry in my life from those who know and care.

Some­times I feel I can cope with­out med­ica­tion, but the last time I at­tempt­ed that, with­out ad­vice, it re­sult­ed in al­most a year of non­be­ing. I've not since felt in­clined to try and my doc­tors agree with me, so I'm good. I will deal with what­ev­er may come lat­er, but for now, I'm "on drugs" and here's why.

I was in­tro­duced to sero­tonin in 1999. Ac­tu­al­ly, I walked up to him and said hel­lo be­cause I want­ed to know the char­ac­ter of he who would storm in­to my life and in­hab­it my body–mas­culin­i­ty was at­trib­uted af­ter I saw and felt the ef­fect it has on my mind and be­ing.

I'd been giv­en a pre­scrip­tion for the an­ti-de­pres­sant Zoloft, and with some con­cerned opin­ions about its side ef­fects, in­clud­ing an Oprah in­ter­view, which was not com­pli­men­ta­ry to the drug, I de­cid­ed to form my judg­ment.

Ini­tial­ly, the abun­dance of acronyms as MAOI, SS­RI, PMDD, and then some, be­mused me.

The read­ing, while en­light­en­ing, was scar­i­fy­ing, so I be­came more de­ter­mined to be au courant with the sub­ject. Monoamine ox­i­dase in­hibitors (MAOI), se­lec­tive sero­tonin re­up­take in­hibitors (SS­RI), pre­men­stru­al dys­phor­ic dis­or­der (PMDD), all will ap­pear in my writ­ings in the course of time since they are in­ter­re­lat­ed. To­day, sero­tonin leads the way of re­cov­ery.

From re­search, I've learned that sero­tonin is a hor­mone and al­so a neu­ro­trans­mit­ter, the lat­ter be­ing a chem­i­cal sub­stance in the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem that trans­mits nerve im­puls­es across the space be­tween nerve cells.

These synaps­es called "chem­i­cal mes­sen­gers" are thought to mod­u­late de­pres­sion, anger, sleep, sex­u­al­i­ty and even vom­it­ing. They're im­por­tant for the reg­u­la­tion of learn­ing and mood, pro­vide re­lief from pain by con­strict­ing blood ves­sels in the area of in­jury, and are linked to anx­i­ety, mi­graine, mem­o­ry, and ap­petite.

Sero­tonin is al­so found in the pineal gland (in the brain), the di­ges­tive tract, and in blood platelets.

De­fi­cien­cies of sero­tonin are as­so­ci­at­ed with var­i­ous med­ical con­di­tions and psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders such as obe­si­ty, anorex­ia, de­pres­sion, and in­som­nia. Low lev­els in the brain oc­cur from di­etary in­suf­fi­cien­cy of cer­tain nu­tri­ents, as well as psy­cho­log­i­cal fac­tors that oc­cur in child­hood, among oth­er rea­sons.

"Sci­en­tists at the New York State Psy­chi­atric In­sti­tute dis­cov­ered that phys­i­cal or psy­cho­log­i­cal ad­ver­si­ty in child­hood abuse pre­dis­pos­es a per­son to de­vel­op­ment of sero­tonin ab­nor­mal­i­ties and con­se­quent psy­chi­atric ill­ness such as de­pres­sion in adult­hood," says live­strong.com.

Sero­tonin pro­duc­tion is sen­si­tive to a di­etary sup­ply of tryp­to­phan, an es­sen­tial amino acid found in many pro­tein foods. One way to raise your lev­els nat­u­ral­ly is to find the ap­pro­pri­ate bal­ance of pro­tein and car­bo­hy­drates in your di­et.

When you eat car­bo­hy­drates it re­sults in a rise in in­sulin lev­els that acts to ush­er the amino acid tryp­to­phan in­to the brain. Tryp­to­phan is the pre­cur­sor to sero­tonin. One-and-a-half ounces of car­bo­hy­drate (about 1/4 cup of oat­meal) will sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost brain lev­els of sero­tonin (live­strong.com).

It's im­por­tant then to learn what foods are best for aid­ing the pro­duc­tion of trytp­to­phan since some foods and in­cor­rect bal­ance im­pact neg­a­tive­ly on the body's sero­tonin pro­duc­tion.

I've learned to in­clude in my meals brown rice, chick­en, corn, eggs, green leaf veg­eta­bles, meat, nuts, peas, and cru­cif­er­ous veg­eta­bles–broc­coli, cau­li­flower, broc­coflower, wa­ter­cress, cab­bage, and Brus­sels sprouts.

Foods high in Omega 3s, a nec­es­sary fat­ty acid for sero­tonin pro­duc­tion, such as salmon, mack­er­el, tu­na, av­o­ca­do oil, and flax oil, as well as foods high in B Vi­t­a­mins, work to im­prove lev­els.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, my bal­ance comes with the med­i­cine ser­tra­line (Zoloft is the brand), which I've tak­en dili­gent­ly for some time and which my son de­scribes as the "hap­py pills."

Ser­tra­line be­longs to the class of an­ti­de­pres­sants called se­lec­tive sero­tonin re­up­take in­hibitors (SS­RIs).

It works the bal­anc­ing act of in­creas­ing sero­tonin in the brain by in­hibit­ing its up­take by neu­rons of the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem.

Hav­ing seen the pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive ef­fect of hav­ing or not hav­ing the cor­rect bal­ance of sero­tonin prompts Jo­van, my sis­ter De­bra, and sis­ter-friend Sal­ly-Ann to al­ways ask, "You tak­ing your meds?"

And even though I ap­pre­ci­ate and need their con­cern, and I re­spond civil­ly, that does not stop me from feel­ing like stuff­ing some­thing in their mouth when I'm in the zone–that's just the tex­ture of noth­ing­ness.

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