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Chemicals pt. 2 - Neurotransmitting
Moscow Ringroad
"Once upon a time I wasn't human, and not much more than chemicals and electricity..."
Pink Pills, Orange Pills /Rational Youth

The above are still my favorite lyrics lines of all times, even though I nowadays realize there are two ways to interpret it: A human body without what we call a mind, may still work, driven by electrical impulses and chemical reactions and be referred to as soulless, but on the other hand at least the chemical factor is very relevant in deciding our minds, determining our psyches.

Previously, I used to dismiss every scientist, doctor, or other pointing out chemical imbalance as the cause of
depression and mental disorders, but later on I came to realize that they are not entirely incorrect: On the contrary they're correct, but similar to Schrödinger's opinion concerning the quantum mechanics theory, they don't have all the facts.

I will explain what I mean, as simple as possibly: When suffering from unattended chemical imbalance (meaning that no psychofarmacy is involved), a person (A) is most likely to develop completely differently from an equivalent who gets treated with psychofarmacy (B). How, and in what way, is of course impossible to say as it's here psychology enters the picture. Unaware of his/her condition, Person A will still try to compensate for the deficits because that's what the brain wants. This alone is enough to cause an addiction and an evidence of that is not only a number of great artists, authors and so on, obviously suffering from permanent depressions or mental disorders, also were abusers of drugs and alcohol. The brain wants chemical balance, but as human beings we can't just go out and pick a hand full of berries from the nearest dopamine/serotonin/noradrenaline bush, and all bi-effects of various psychofarmacy is evidence enough that not even that is sufficient.

If you don't get my point, just raise a hand, because I really must move ahead now.

In a previous post you can read about the nicotine patches I'm currently using.
Reading the leaflet that came in the package made it the first time I ever heard of that vivid dreams and nightmares can appear as a direct result of quitting smoking, and to me it appeared as quite clear why, because quitting smoking re-alters the chemical [im]balance which would logically be the reason to a change such as but still it makes me, as a curious explorer of the human psyche, skeptic as I'm not by far ready to accept that the nature of dreams is a direct result of the chemical state of our brains [although I admit that there are physical factors that indeed can affect our dreams. -Fever is an example.]:

Ever since I was a child, I've had recurring dreams that's been replacing each other over the years. The closest to that I can come nowadays is recurring nightmares which I can't relate to any chemical imbalance or other physical factors. Of course this makes me wonder what will happen with my dreams henceforth. To be honest, I doubt anything will happen, but if it does, I'll let you know.


This doesn't mean I don't suffer from it. Nowadays it should be beyond all doubt that my brain lacks of certain neurotransmitters, mainly serotonin and noradrenaline. Smoking increases the brain's production of dopamine and  -more importantly- noradrenaline. Both are neurotransmitters commonly also referred to as "stress hormones" that increase senses of pleasure and awareness, et cetera. On top of that, noradrenaline is a substance used for treatment of severe depressions.

Ergo: Quitting smoking will decrease my levels of noradrenaline even more.
Where will that leave me?

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serotonin is a bitch !


At least when you don't have enough of it.

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