Untitled Document

The Unified Theory of the Nervous System
and Behavior

Cognitive Philosophy /Brain Theory by Steven Michael Harris

Comments on Current Events: Wednesday, December 15, 2004

The Real World: Recognizing Mental Illness in Young Adults (ABC News Healthology 12/3/2004) (link retired)

The first episodes of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder tend to appear in the late teens and early 20s. Researchers suspect that people are predisposed to develop these conditions from birth or childhood, but that they don't exhibit symptoms until they hit a particular phase of development and/or certain stressors.

This theory that you are predisposed to develop various disorders during certain stages of development is wrong. It is just as wrong as the defense that a pharmaceutical treatment used to treat one disorder but that causes decline until a new constellation of symptoms appears and thus a new diagnosis of another more severe disorder, is a pharmaceutical that just “unmasked” another underlying disorder that was already there.

In a sense it is possible to be predisposed to develop a disorder, because you have a high level of stress in your system caused by environment and health and genetics, but the underlying cause of disorders is something that, when truly understood, will much better explain (and predict) the decline that often accelerates during puberty. Stress is a big part of nervous system communication and is an important factor in how our bodies develop. Stress causes growth and causes the movement from greater flexibility to greater rigidity. In the conflict between greater growth and greater rigidity the rigidity wins out eventually (therefore we stop growing in some ways). The factors behind puberty amplify the amount of stress in the system and the declining ability of the nervous system to learn (change) causes more flaws in the system to develop.

As far as stress goes, the younger you are the less stress there is in your system. Stress collects so that all of these disorders increase in likelihood the older you get. Puberty is a watershed time of development as far as stress is concerned.

What mental illnesses tend to develop in the late teens or 20s?

Schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder can develop in early adulthood. The onset of schizophrenia is typically in the late teens, early 20s. Men will usually develop schizophrenia between the ages of 18 and 25. Women tend to develop it about five years later. Bipolar disorder usually begins in early adulthood, although there are some children and adolescents who develop bipolar disorder. And there is an increase in the incidence of major depressive disorder after the age when puberty is reached.

I mentioned elsewhere that men have a greater amount of stress in their system: they develop more mental illness (especially the developmental disorders which are really just like other disorders but that they manifest differently because of the earlier age of development in which they appear), die younger, peak youngerÉ So that explains why men develop these disorders younger.

Bipolar disorder is the same as depressive disorder, but at a higher level of stress which causes some flips and changes to occur, so bipolar disorder would statistically appear at a later age than depressive disorder. Because bipolar disorder is depressive disorder but at a higher level of stress, this explains why the anti-depressants which get their results by adding stress to the system often cause patients to develop bipolar disorder for the first time by going into a manic phase. (When this happens, the doctors claim that the anti-depressant “unmasked” the underlying bipolar disorder that was already thereÉ to avoid malpractice claims, of course.)

Why do these illnesses tend to emerge at this time?

It's not well understood. We think that certain people have a higher biological risk of developing these disorders. Risk factors may include a family history, prenatal illnesses, obstetrical incidents, or head injuries in early childhood. It is not yet known how genes, the environment and brain development interact to trigger the disorder in young people. However, people tend not to develop symptoms of the disorder until they reach the teen years.

I just explained why these illnesses emerge at this time. And note that all of the risk factors mentioned are major stresses.

Can stress trigger the first episode?

In many cases, there are stressors that precipitate the onset of mental illness in people who are predisposed to it, but stressors are not thought to be the actual cause of the illnesses. For example, sometimes people will report to their mental health professional that the onset of their first episode followed a stressor, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a job, or even positive events, like getting married or getting a promotion.

There are many stresses associated with young adulthood that might serve as a trigger, such as going to college, forming romantic relationships, living away from home, and having to make big decisions and take responsibility for oneself.

Once again they support my point with evidence but they interpret the evidence by throwing it out and saying that stressors are not thought to be the actual cause of the illness. The reason they say this is because there is a statistically better chance that you will develop any of these things if it is in the family (something like 20-30% chance of developing the same disorder if you are an identical twin separated at birth). This is giving too much power to the “God” of genetics in the design and function of our bodies (“it is too complex to understand but genetics does it all”). Remember that all genetics needs to do in order to increase the likelihood of similar mental characteristics in twins is to lay out a similar amount of stress in the two persons in the beginning. [Read my essay Look For Patterns and think of how laying out a different level of stress will lead to a different possibility in disorders on that chart.]

Can drug and alcohol abuse trigger an episode?

Absolutely. Hallucinogenic drugs, such as cannabis and cocaine, frequently trigger or exacerbate psychotic symptoms associated with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Of course because drugs severely stress the system.

How is schizophrenia recognized in young adults?

What we look for is people losing their ability to function. If, for example, an adolescent was previously doing very well in school and socially, and then he or she regresses, that is concerning. So we look for a marked change in social or family functioning or their ability to get good grades or do well at work.

I've mentioned that schizophrenia is the way autism looks when it occurs later in life (the same high level of stress in the system) and note here the description of how you recognize the schizophrenia by loss of social and intellectual function, both major factors in autism.

What is your advice to young adults concerned about their mental health?

It's important for young people to recognize what mental illness is, that it's treatable and that they should not delay treatment because of stigma and the belief that that having a mental illness means that there's something inherently bad or wrong about you.

My response to this excerpt is both yes and no. You might be saving your life by seeking treatment with our current medical establishment, but you are not helping your health very much. One study has shown that if you take the drugs in a mental institution, and you don't get better in the first seven months or so, then you are likely to spend the rest of your life in institutions or, at least, bound for the rest of your life to the drugs they prescribe. But those who never take the drugs and who somehow manage to hold on until they get better have a much better chance of avoiding the problem in the future.

[Click to Go Back to Unified Theory More Essays Page]

[Click to Go Back to Unified Theory Directory Page]