During one of our usual summer gatherings at tophers place, I met Dr Catherine Harrison, a neuropsychologist working at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). We had a very interesting conversation about how the human mind and brain works and how one affects the other.
1. Physiological changes in your brain changes your psychological behavior.
This is evident and most people have witnessed such things with wounded soldiers and accident victims. Apart from the loss of the use of some sensory organs, brain damage definitely affects the way you think and behave.
2. Psychological changes causes physiological changes in your brain.
This is the new bit and seemed somewhat weird to me. Being a nerd I always thought of the linkage between the brain and mind as similar to computer hardware and software. The brain being the hardware and the mind being the software. Obviously a hardware failure will render the software useless but the software cannot make changes to the hardware. Seems it is not so simple when it comes to the human brain. According to Dr. Harrison your psychi causes the neurological connections of your brain to change. If you suffer from a psychological disorder it is very much likely that your brain gets hard wired for it after some time. The analogy Dr Harrison gave was a canyon. An occasional flood will not leave a mark in the canyon but a river flowing through it would make permanent changes , even to the hard rock.
The problem is that most people (at least in Sri Lanka) do not see psychological disorders as things that can be (or should be) cured by a doctor. Yes, the extreme cases of insanity will definitely find their way to the mental institute but other common cases such as stress or depression are rarely identified and brought to the attention of a psychologist [Instead there are a number of other 'methods' that they believe to bring a cure, such as getting the help of unknown forces] . According to Dr Harrison even a case of stress, if left without a remedy for a few months, would make almost permanent neurological changes in your brain. In fact the remedy in such a case can be a few sessions with a counsellor and it is easy to find and talk to a psychologist since all major hospitals have one [ Unlike in US, health care is provided by the government and free to all citizens in Sri Lanka. Inevitably there is some level of bureacracy (after all, its a government institute) but almost all hospitals are well equipped and capable of providing a good level of service. unfortunately health care being a free commodity has made people not realize how valuable it is]. Despite many attempts to improve the public knowledge about psychological disorders its still an often ignored branch of medicine in Sri Lanka.
The most important take home message for me is that both physiological and psychological illnesses have similar importance to your health. It may not be obvious but its always good to a keep a good mental health and seek the help of a professional if the need arises.
1 comments:
i got gravitated to your blog after a random hit on "neuropsychologist".
just felt compelled to write something, my father has shown some signs of psychological behaviour which corroborates your (dr. harrison's, rather) point no.2.
unfortunately he was properly diagnosed after a screening done at a private hospital in cmb. the government hospital's report somehow escaped the major finding.
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