why can't I feel good?

Why Can’t I Feel Good?
Dear Readers: Sorry for the delay. I went to Missouri to spend a few days with my dad. Weather prevented me from getting back to my computer.

Sometimes a person will have problems that all the Biblical advice in the world cannot help. It is hard to draw a line between a spiritual problem and a physical one, because spirit, mind, and body are interconnected. If a person has a physical problem, it can cause a spiritual problem and vice versa.

At any rate, the helper sometimes must learn to diagnose a physical problem and work in tandem with medical treatment.

Things happen in a person’s life that make them susceptible to problems of the mind that need medical attention. Some of these are genetic. Some are caused by diet, pregnancy, aging, menopause, trauma, use of alcohol and illegal drugs, vitamin deficiency, chronic dehydration, even a lack of exposure to sunlight, or an overexposure to wind.



I will be very succinct with the technical stuff, as well as I can understand it as a layman. Skip this and the next two paragraphs if you are not into mechanics; but knowing a little about it has helped me understand "why" people can’t feel good, and why a physical problem may be at the root.

The brain is basically an electrical device. As an aside, I hasten to say that it is not a computer, for a computer can only process in linear fashion, following a system where a certain input must elicit a programmed response before it can continue. Brains think "laterally", not being bound to a railroad track, as it were. The brain can go off in any direction. Mine often goes off the tracks. My point is not to state that one is better, but to state that they are not even the same animal.

The brain is bathed in a naturally produced mixture including perhaps 100 chemical neurotransmitters; the principals of which are dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. This mixture provides an electrical gradient through which nerve impulses flow along cell (neuron) appendages called "dendrites" into the cell body. The cell body has an "axon" which branches out and ends in terminals. These feed the input back out. Through this route, one cell can pass the impulse along to another cell’s dendrites, and so on. The brain is now "thinking" laterally. These axon branches are not "hard wired" to the next cell’s dendrites, but have gaps from the branches of one axon to the ends of the next cell’s dendrites. These gaps are called "synaptic clefts". There are approx. 100 billion of these cell structures in the average human brain. I am probably a couple of billion short. In order for accurate thinking to take place normally, the electrical nerve impulses must "jump" across millions of clefts. If the neurotransmitters are not in precise balance, they will tend to "re-uptake" (hide) in the axon branch terminal and the impulse will not be relayed to the next cell’s dendrites with normal efficiency. This inefficiency can cause depression, mania, "free floating" anxiety (that which has no rational cause), forebodings, unreasonable paranoia, even psychoses. Most antidepressant medications prevent the neurotransmitters from abnormally re-uptaking (sic) into the terminal of the axon branch. They make them stay out in the cleft and do their job normally.

In the case of an imbalance, drug therapy is a valid option, perhaps a necessity to functional mental health. If the minister, or any brother or sister who wants to help another suspects that an imbalance is the case, he should encourage the troubled one to have a full medical checkup. The doctor has more expertise in diagnosis, and has the capability to do scans on various organs which produce natural mood stabilizers.

If people are in trouble, they will usually seek the advice of a minister or Christian brother first. We are free, and we should give freely, because we have received freely. The big question is: how does the helper know when to recommend a Doctor?

I have a series of questions I ask about sleep patterns, diet (eating too little or too much), rapid weight gain or loss, caffeine or amphetamine stimulants, depressants such as alcohol, illegal drug use, life situations that may understandably cause anxiety, paranoia, and depression. I ask about suicidal thoughts or actions. (Many have suicidal thoughts, but one in serious trouble will tell you the exact method by which he intends to do away with himself. He may have tried it.) One crucial query is "do you enjoy the things you always used to?" Lack of ability to enjoy things that always brought pleasure is the hallmark of clinical problems. I ask the troubled one about the severity (scale of 1-10) and the duration of their symptoms. Usually, if the severity is over 5 and has been sustained for over 2 months, I recommend a physical. Admittedly, severity is a subjective estimate; but if the patient doesn’t feel good, bless his heart, he doesn’t feel good! Everyone has normal ups and downs. It is abnormal for a person to be depressed or anxious without a cause for 2 months or more. Note that this is my method. I’m sure there are other valid techniques that I don’t know about. I know ministers who have doctorates in psychology. I don’t. I usually recommend an MD. A Dr. of Psychology can offer an educated diagnosis, but cannot prescribe medicine. M.D.’s can prescribe medicine, but many will want to recommend a Psychiatrist who specializes in mood disorders and can prescribe medicine. The Psychologist is usually most effective in carrying on the behavioral therapy. Medicines have proven most effective when coupled with behavioral therapy.

If we sense that the problem is physical, under no circumstances should we question the individual’s level of "spirituality". Many well meaning people will say, "Read your Bible and pray more." "Get more involved in church activities." This will do more harm than good if there is a physical imbalance. When doing these things does not relieve the symptoms, the person may be tempted to say "Lord, Lord, why hast Thou forsaken me?" His problem will be exacerbated by the thought that God has turned His back. He will conclude on his own that he is headed for eternal Hell fire. (One should be careful in speaking of Hell. The threat of Hell is not a deterrent to suicide. In severe cases, it may be the last stressor that pushes the clinically imbalanced individual to irrational acts that may prove fatal). Instead, we should be full of reassurance that God cares deeply and will never leave nor forsake us. They must know that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and was tempted in all points as we are. We can feel confident in telling the sufferer that his suffering will not last forever. God will not allow the Christian to go under, but He will provide grace sufficient unto the need. No matter how bleak the weather, we are never more than a few miles from brilliant sunshine. It is straight above us. The clouds will move away. They will come again. They will move away again. Being normal may be only an infinitesimal amount of Serotonin away.

God has allowed or possibly even guided professionals to become skilled at diagnoses and pharmacologists to develop their trade to the point that we have some tremendously effective medicines on the market now that are successful in 90% of cases. 60 years ago, I couldn’t have said this. Institutionalization and ECT (shock) therapy were our only options. ECT is seldom used now but it is still a valid treatment for temporary relief because it breaks the cycle of "ruminatory" thought patterns that become obsessive. ECT is not the monster that pop culture has made it out to be. The patient is anesthetized and a few minutes later he wakes up feeling better, although he may have some sore muscles. His short term memory is gone, but will return. He doesn’t remember the procedure. The fact that his recent memory is gone is the reason he is feeling better. He has forgotten the irrational thoughts that were causing his anxiety or depression. If I ever have a need for ECT, I would not hesitate to undergo it. Sweden was the leader in developing medications that have largely replaced ECT, but they were not approved for use in the U. S. until the ‘50s. The good ol’ Swedes have already done the "guinea pig" work.

I am told by the reading I have done that drug therapy is appropriate for one out of five people at some point in their lives. From experience in counseling, I would say more than that. The physical and emotional environments we live in now make people with imbalances less able to cope. Some resist taking medicine. They feel it is like taking an illegal mood altering drug. It is not. I see medicine as a providence of God. Illegal drugs are taken so that a person might feel abnormal. Legal medicines are taken to restore normality. Also; most legally prescribed medicines for mood disorders take weeks to build up to therapeutic levels in the system. They also take weeks to go out of the system and should always be terminated gradually under a physician’s guidance. One does not get an immediate "high" or sudden "crash" with them. If they did, they would be addictive. They can have a few mild side effects but these are gone within two weeks. Illegal substances are only temporarily effective. Soon, one is taking them just to avoid feeling like he is in Hell, and he is addicted. There is a big difference in legitimate medicine. The only people I have seen who have trouble with them are those who quit abruptly without a Dr’s guidance. This is because they feel normal again, and they think they are well. They sink back into their old patterns so gradually that they do not connect it with the fact that they have quit the medicine.

Most chemically imbalanced people are not psychotic. I knew one lady who was. She benefited from a medicine called an "MAOI" (monoamine oxidase inhibitor) She was fine as long as she would take her medicine, but she kept quitting. One night her husband awoke to the shaking of the bed. She was straddling him with a butcher knife, ready to plunge into his chest. Fortunately, he dodged and was only grazed in the shoulder. He subdued her and reluctantly dialed 911. The husband would not press charges, nevertheless she was forcibly placed in an institution for the criminally insane. After she was on medicine for a while, she was well enough to be released with a court order that she undergo random blood tests to verify that she was still taking the medicine. She now leads a normal life and is a very pleasant and trustworthy person to be around. Our church motorcycle club has had some very enjoyable rides with the couple.

3 out of 4 will need medicine called TCAs (tricyclic antidepressants) or SSRIs (Serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors) temporarily. Some will need a permanent "therapeutic" dose, usually lower than the initial treatment, to keep them balanced. There should be no shame in this nor is it a sin. I am a type 2 diabetic and will be impaling myself with needles permanently. When I found this out, the thought crossed my mind: "What about all the people who died from diabetes before insulin was synthesized and methods of delivery were developed? Am I "cheating" fate? Would anyone say I was addicted to insulin? Yes, I am and so are you. The medicine I take helps my cells metabolize glucose normally. I would have died long ago if I had decided to quit it. Once I got stuck away from home and the drugstores wouldn’t take my insurance. My glucose levels without insulin became lethal in about 3 days, regardless of whether or what I ate. Medicine like insulin or antidepressants for those who need it allows them to keep being productive and paying taxes. Otherwise, we taxpayers have to satisfy their disability claims. Are you listening now?

Chemical imbalances are not that uncommon and those who are troubled should know that they are far from alone. Anyone who would help need only know a little about the symptoms to make a reasonable request that someone see a Dr. It can’t hurt.