Medicate or Not to Medicate
I was raised with the belief of not using medicine to heal my ailments, but practice the power of mind over matter to remedy the illness. That is not to say I did not take medication, but saw it as a last resort, and those are still my personal thoughts and feelings towards the use of medication on clients or myself. But in today’s society, medication appears to be the first and easy solution to most of our problems. If the medication that was prescribed to the client does not solve the problem, then up the dosage or switch medications until the client does feel better. I see this as treating the symptom, and not the underlying issue. It is sort of like giving a man a fish, he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a life. If you give a man drugs to activate neurotransmitters, he will be happy for a day, but if you teach a man to activate neurotransmitters, he will be happy for a life.
My understanding of medication is it is a passive way for the body to release neurotransmitters to have a desire effect on the neuron. I will describe this process in layman’s terms later, but if this is the case, why don’t we find an active way for the body to release the desired neurotransmitter. By altering the client’s behavior and cognition, I believe one can learn to regulate their own body to maintain homeostasis at or near optimum levels. But through lack of use, many people have lost this ability or never learned it, so they have begun to rely more and more on the passive way of healing themselves. I feel western society actually encourages people to be on medication now because of the huge success we have seen in the field of pharmacology.
People use to be skeptical of medicine, but realized the powerful and very beneficial effects with the discovery of vaccines. Antibiotics made the general public believe one can go to the doctor and get cured when they became ill. With the introduction of oral contraceptive, healthy people were now starting to take medication, not because of an illness but to control their body. People have realized drugs are an easy, but generally a temporary fix to the problems they are facing, and end up either continue taking the medication or trying another approach. So I would rather start with another approach first and try every avenue possible before using medication, and if we can’t find some alternative behaviors and cognitions to help relieve the symptoms, then use medication when all else has failed.
Even though I am wary of using drugs, they have been proven to be very effective, and by comprehending how the brain and other parts of the nervous system function, one will understand how medication interacts with our body. It all begins with a cell, known as a neuron, sending an electrical pulse down its axon to the terminal. The electrical pulse the neuron fires is a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical messengers, that is carried down the axon, which is an extension of the nerve cell, similar in shape to a thread, in a small sac known as a vesicles. The vesicle reaches the end of the axon terminal, and releases the neurotransmitter into the synapse. The synapse is the space between the two cells, and the molecules of the neurotransmitter cross the synapse to receptors in the membrane of the next neuron, known as a dendrite. One analogy that has been used to describe the interaction between the neurotransmitter and its receptor is that of a lock and key: the neurotransmitter fits into a receptor as a key fits into a lock. Once the neurotransmitter connects with a receptor, a channel opens through the membrane of the second cell allowing the flow of electrically charged ions into the neuron, thus initiating another electrical impulse down the axon of the second cell to continue the flow to the third cell and so forth, thus completing the complicated yet sophisticated way our body communicates. Knowing how the body communicates enabled scientist to create meds that mimic this process to create the desire effect on the body.
One should appreciate this whole process, because I believe this is how the mind is form. There are several different theories about the brain/mind, and I think the mind is slowly developed overtime through the action potential of the neurons in the brain. Through these interactions of the cells, schemas are formed which allows the individual to think. Through repetitive firing of cells, connections are made in the brain which links neurons together that permits the body to communicate, also known as thinking or the mind. These connections are critically forming in the early years on through adolescence of an individual, which is the reason it is so important to activate and establish these bonds as soon as possible. If no link is formed, it is believed the neuron will shrivel and wither away from lack of use, thus making that cell no longer able to function, which may explain why some people are able to think faster than others.
Because meds act the way neurotransmitters work, it is important not to become too reliant on medication or the body/brain might stop producing the necessary chemistry to continue the process. As stated earlier, meds are a passive way to create the effects the body normally activates, and through lack of active usage, the body might start to depend on the drug and stop producing the desired result on its own.
Although I personally don’t like taking any drug manufactured in a laboratory to mimic a naturally occurring chemistry in my own body, I understand and have experience the beneficial effects of medicine. I can attest to the effects of drugs, but I still believe the mind is more powerful than brain. I feel the mind can create any desired affect on the brain, but either the individual has yet to learn how to use these awesome powers or is unwilling to believe the possibility of possessing the ability, skill, or capacity to cure oneself. The latter tends to prevent the former, but through modeling one can build the faith and confidence of this achievable strength. I know as a kid, I had a hard time understanding this concept, but through maturation and studying, I have begun to master this abstract idea. It’s not to say I don’t take the easy way out sometimes, because immediate gratification is always tempting, but knowing that there is an alternative to medication is comforting. Knowing I have the ability to cure myself gives me the knowledge and power to determine my own health, and not rely on the view that physical matter is the only reality.
Having been raised in a culture that promotes this type of thinking has given me the confidence in sticking with my beliefs even when the society that I live in does not endorse it. If one watches any television, it is amazing how much advertisement is used to prompt drugs. If western society would incite mental and physical health through positive thinking rather than an easy fix, maybe there would not be as many people on drugs. My goal in my therapy is to help clients comprehend this possibility and implement this practice. If this goal is unattained by the individual, then other means will be taken.
Ray, O. & Ksir, C. (1996). Drugs, Society, and Human Behavior 7th Edition. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby –Year Book, Inc.