Could Your Gut Influence Fear Responses in PTSD? New Study Suggests the ‘Gut-Brain Axis’ May Provide Clues for Trauma Recovery

For many years, mental disorders were simplistically understood as imbalances or deficits in the neurotransmitters in the brain. Recent research has debunked the “chemical imbalance” theory, and has given rise to more complex understandings around how the various systems of the body interact to influence physical and mental health. For example, many people are unaware that 95% of the “feel-good” neurotransmitter serotonin in the body is produced in the intestinal tract.

In recent years, scientists have begun to study what is known as the “gut-brain axis,” or the system of communication between the brain and the gut. Scientists have discovered what could be called “a second brain,” located in the walls of the digestive system. This “second brain” is referred to in scientific literature as the enteric nervous system (ENS), made up of two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells that line the gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to rectum. Increasingly, science is coming to understand that the ENS interacts in complex and significant ways with the central nervous system (CNS) via the vagus nerve and what is known as the “adaptive immune system.”

The recognition of the complex and delicate interactions between different systems in the body has given rise to a new field called “psychoneuroimmunology.”

Who am I – Us or Them?

As several authorities* over time have researched, documented, and reported, there is no “mental illness.”  It is not an “illness”, as practitioners of psychiatry using the medical model, have long conjectured without evidence. There are no “them” with mental illness and “us” without.  How we interact with the world does not conform to the construct of illness in physical health, nor can it be treated using that construct to intervene when life challenges arise.

Instead, as I have experienced personally, with family members, and with those I have served, there appears to be a continuum of emotional vulnerability in play daily for all of us, with each of us experiencing fluctuating manifestations of those vulnerabilities in our unique and individual ways.  For example, some individuals can be seriously “thrown off” by a sequence of personal financial challenges; others by their spouses suddenly being inexplicably absent in the evenings from the home; or adolescents being bullied on social media, etc. 

A life worth living

We are all on a spectrum of mental health and everyone will struggle at some point in their life. Let’s build a toolbox for living better.

Beyond Well: Science With Sheila Hamilton is here to explore our understanding of mental health challenges and what we’re learning about ways to help ourselves and others navigate and grow through them.

In this episode, Sheila talks with Cindy Marty Hadge about how a Hearing Voices support group in her neighborhood helped her move from a place of despair to a life of purpose and connection.

Responding to “The Case Against AOT”

Next Steps for Change

Robert Whitaker and Michael Simonson produced an essential review and critique of forced outpatient interventions in their July 14 article, “Twenty Years After Kendra’s Law:  The Case Against AOT.”

Bob has sometimes been criticized for not advocating more on the issues he raises.  The way I see it, that is not his job as an investigative medical journalist.  That is the job of his readers.