The Science Behind Bad Mental Health

Learning more about the science behind mental illness and emotional processing is a big step to figuring out your feelings, and how your recovery might look like. Several factors can contribute to mental illness such as genetics, trauma, brain chemistry, and so on. Sometimes it can even be a combination of these factors. We know this through stories from others and their experience with anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses. One thing to remember is that every experience and individual is unique through their mental health journey and recovery. Keeping that in mind, we can be more open and mindful of everyone’s experience.  

The brain is one if not the most complex organ in your body. Although it’s small, the amygdala is a crucial part of your brain as it’s the process of emotion. This means that the amygdala is the part of your brain that helps you sense emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness and so on. With the lack of amygdala development, it leads to individuals becoming emotionally immature and more emotionally vulnerable which could lead to one of the reasons as a cause to mental health.

One of the leading factors to bad mental health is genetics. Genes carry out your characteristics and personality traits which is also one of the main factors of emotion and mental health. Since your parents and family members carry their genes onto you when you’re born, although this may not be certain, you may have some leading mental illnesses that your parents may have. Another factor can be dopamine overload. Dopamine helps us improve our motivation, learning ability, mood, attention span, and sleep. Too much dopamine, however, can likely cause depression. Environments individuals grew up in and trauma or stressful events are also one of the leading causes of depression and other types of mental illnesses. 

Overall, These factors don't just affect the individual who will develop a mental illness, but will also affect how severe their symptoms can be and when, where, and how they will experience those symptoms. There are many ways to resolve mental health. Taking action by talking to someone, a therapist, or even a friend can be a massive step in guiding your way to seek mental health treatment.