How psychotherapy works if depression is due to a chemical imbalance

Psychotherapy and depression due to a chemical imbalance

Every thought, feeling, and behavior is assigned to a chemical change in the brain. If thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur having a repeated pattern, structural changes can occur in the brain as well.

Learning and memory involve complex chemical changes that result in permanent structural changes in brain anatomy.

For example, consider the first time that one learns how to drive a car. It requires conscious processing of complex pieces of information and integrating the information into an organized behavioral pattern.The powers of concentration at that time might be exhausting.

However, with practice, the skill becomes second nature as the brain adapts the skill so that much of it occurs unconsciously.

Chemistry and structure of the brain

Over-learned behavior for example that ultimately leads to structural and biochemical changes in the brain.

The chemistry and structure of the brain can change via one of three methods: (1) change in the environment, (2) change in brain chemistry via chemical modification by using psychotropic medication, and (3) learning how you can modify the environment or perception of the environment by developing additional skills.

Moving, changing jobs, and becoming married or divorced are types of the first method, whereas psychopharmacology is the second. Psychotherapy may be the third method.

Brain-imaging studies have repeatedly demonstrated, for instance, that changes occur in the same brain parts of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder on fluoxetine as those receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Each of these methods features its own inherent costs and benefits, and for that reason, none can be considered inherently better or worse than another.

The effects of three methods are usually cumulative; thus, in order for one to have the best possibility of recovery from depression, a mix of two to three methods is usually warranted.

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