Focus on the physical functioning of your brain for better mental health

Today, I’ve just finished my appointment with my psychiatrist. I initiated the suggestion to cut my daily dosage of medication by half. For the better part of my adulthood, I had always insisted on taking high dosages of psychiatric drugs. This was not because high dosages effectively helped contain my symptoms, but simply because I had no alternative, scientifically grounded approaches to relieve my stress.

For those who know me well enough, earlier this year I saw an audiologist and was prescribed a pair of hearing aids for my tinnitus and misophonia. Since then, my mental disorder symptoms have been largely contained. For over a dozen years, I had tried to contain my psychiatric symptoms, like fixing the programming code of my software. However, I had never fixed the hardware in the first place. Without functioning hardware, “programming bugs” cannot be fully rooted out. That’s why I like what Dr. Daniel Adam said, that the physical functioning of our brains determines our mental health; and when the brain is not right, the mind is not right.

As someone recently cured of social anxiety disorder after a 15-year battle, the hardware-software analogy from Dr. Daniel Adam is just on point. We all have triggers that cause us anxiety, anger, aggression or otherwise. Taking psychiatric medication or receiving psychological therapy is like intervening and suppressing our symptoms. However, the root causes are rarely addressed. We should ask ourselves what our triggers are and whether we are able to overcome or avoid them in everyday life.

Without addressing the root causes, paying for costly psychiatric or psychological services does little to fix the “programming bugs”. The “bugs” may be fixed tentatively, but they will surely reappear again and again when we are triggered. According to Dr. Daniel Adam, brain health and our habits are the hardware — they are the core. For those who are psychiatrically triggered repeatedly, their brains are damaged. We need to fix our brains, such as by changing our lifestyles and confronting and addressing our triggers, in order to alter how our brains function.

Without ensuring that the hardware is well-functioning, mental health issues will continue to annoyingly erode our lives. I know this is easier said than done. Otherwise, I would not have suffered from mental disorders for 15 years before finding my way out. But once you find your way out by making sure that you have a well-functioning brain and follow a disciplined lifestyle, then you will be amazed how much better you will become mentally.

It’s as simple as that.

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