Treating Stress and Mood Disorders

How stress and mood disorders affect you

Why is it that one person can become stressed, anxious or depressed from life’s daily challenges while others seem to cope with an even greater load?? The answer is that a lack of social, psychological and/or biological resources can lower an individual’s resilience and increase vulnerability to mood disorders.

Reshaping the Brain – Adaptive vs Maladaptive Causes

A key discovery in neurology is that during times of stress, changes can occur in the structure and function of particular parts of the brain. Depending on the circumstances the brain can reshape these areas to promote resilience to stress (Adaptive) or can reinforce negative pathways that worsen the presentation of stress related conditions (Maladaptive).

These are the reasons that appear to determine whether a person is resilient, or vulnerable to stress and mood disorders. A key to treating stress and anxiety issues is understanding that greater exposure to nerve restorative factors optimise resilience, whereas if there is a dominance of nerve destructive factors can result in one of the many clinical manifestations of stress related disorders such as low mood, anxiety and depression.

Mood Disorders and Maladaptive Plasticity

The main contributor of neurotoxicity is the excessive amount of a hormone called Cortisol induced by chronic stress.

Cortisol concentrates its action in 2 areas of the brain which are the Hippocampus and the Prefrontal cortex. The Hippocampus is essential for memory and emotional context, and the prefrontal cortex is an area responsible for stable emotions and executive function.

Under chronic stress nerve cells in these areas retract and eventually die off which results in reduction in the size of both the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex leading to a loss in nerve cells and subsequent effects to emotional and rational thinking ability. This form of maladaptive plasticity, or negative reshaping of the brain, can result in a state of excessive worry and sadness. Mood disorders are not the only source of this reshaping but inflammation can also cause negative effects on the brain.

Achieving a Resilient State of Mind

By offsetting the formation of negative reshaping and negative pathways in the affected brain regions, vulnerability to stress and mood disorders can be reduced.

Promoting brain reshaping for resilience by using brain restorative/protective factors are renowned in their role for promoting resilience, memory, learning and healthy cognition. One way of creating these conditions is to improve cellular energy.

How I Improve Mental Resilience in My Clinic

After assessing each person by their individual case presentation, my wholistic treatment of stress and mood disorders is aimed at minimising nerve destructive (neuro toxic) drivers and to promote nerve restorative support. Social, counselling and exercise may be combined with natural ingredients to create a comprehensive treatment strategy. These could include targeted herbal support, specific micro nutrients and condition specific formulas.

If a person is under stress, but has adequate neurotrophic support, the person should be able to cope with the stress load without causing unnecessary sadness or worry.