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A colloquialism/ meme has arisen in the last 5 years or so. You hear it everywhere:

My brain tells me that I need to …

my brain has me thinking …

my brain makes me…

Though most people would not care and thereby let themselves to use and see various words and phrases passively, the reason why you might attribute your experience to your brain is due to a belief supported by faith.

Mind/ Brain

I’ve been researching about the various epistemological foundations of mental disorder and mental disease. To me the evidence shows that there is no significant correlation between brain states and mental disorder. As well, that mental disease has likewise contenteous parameters.

My advice: You are better finding a good therapist who understands that your brain is not entirely responsible for your mental condition.

A brain has something to do with your mental state, but it is not determinate of your mental condition.

Proof of … what?

Consider this example from our modern scientific approach of mental issue:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02857-w

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02857-w

I feel that science relies on people not thinking too much about what they are presenting to people, by the way. This is why I call it ‘faith’.

Nonetheless, we only need take one step into thinking to see that (for this article) the ‘Depression’ that they are finding linked to brain structure is not the same ‘depression’ that people experience. The link is only upheld within an assumed semantic world.

Of course, we do have to deal with people’s faith when it comes to helping with mental issue because to not do so simply causes the person to defend their faith, which for our case would be to risk emphasizing a condition which would sink deeper into depression.

• For example; try arguing with a believer in Jesus or Allah that the universe can be explained differently. Or a Biden supporter that Trump is better.

Nonetheless, let us look at a simple thought that brings into question the whole thing Nature seems to be providing.

• How are able to make the correlation between depression and neurological states?

“The largest imaging study¹ of its kind has found that a certain brain network involved in directing attention to stimuli is nearly twice as big in people with depression as it is in the rest of the population…” (from the article)

• Who are the people with depression?
  • They are the people who are coming in saying that they suffer from depression.
  • The scientisits then looked at brains of people who complain of depression and those who do not and found a difference.

Does this show that there is a link between depression and neurological states?

No, and –

• We do not know of the experiential state of the person who is saying they are depressed nor of what the scientific data is expressing, by the simple criteria that two different ways of ascertaining what a measure is are being compared.
• The statement or expression “I am depressed” is a known arbitrary term of phrase for a state of being.
  • When we actually ask the person and get into what the person is actually experiencing, the variance between the term ‘depression’ and the individual experience supposed by the term is too great to be able to find a thing that people are experiencing to call it a single name.
  • Depression is more like an identity than a disease. (maybe it is a disease of identity??)
• We do not know what the ‘evidence’ is showing. It could be that there are plenty of people who do not complain of depression who have similar brain structures.
  • What of people who have not had their brains scanned? What if I don’t care what the brain scans show?
• The neurological structure is not telling any one that their depression is caused by their brain.
  • At best, It is only showing us that people who say certain things have a brain that reflects what they talk about.

Being Careful Not To Assume

Now, I am not saying that there is not a correlation. I am saying that we do not know what the correlation is actually showing us or what it means.

And: the article says it is only toward information that could help to show who is at risk.

• What cold that possibly mean to me?
• Does it mean I need be careful about what I expose myself to if I am at increased risk?
  • Living that way in itself could put me at risk for depression. Then what would the study actually have told us?

THIS means that the experiential state of a person who says they are experiencing depression can be altered despite what science would tell us. It may well be that if I start saying other things, my neurology will likewise reflect that change.

That is called neuroplasticity.

It could be that I’ve just tried to explain my experience through other people’s ideas of what I should be.

That is called agency.

Validation

It is not a simple thing. I am not saying that people just need to change their beliefs.

I am saying that faith functions to supply simple answers, such as, ‘my brain is made to be depressed’, for deeply complex situations.

…and that most people don’t really want to think about this stuff.

…they got lives to live, for Christ’s sake!!

That is why we have therapists.

agencymatters.org

“To be empowered is not normal.” – cid Nate.

🛸