Brain Chemicals

The exciting discoveries began in the spring of 1977. Tools had been discovered. Tools that were enabling scientists to penetrate the very interior of single nerve cells in the brain. Important discoveries were being made almost daily about the inner workings of the brain. We now know that vital chemicals carry messages between brain cells. In essence, they allow brain cells to “talk to” one another.

On a typical day in the brain, trillions of messages are sent and received. The messages that are happy, up beat messages are carried by the brain’s “HAPPY MESSENGERS” (technically known as Biogenic Amine/Endorphin System). Other messages are somber and quieting. They are carried by the brain’s “SAD MESSENGERS”. Most nerve centers receive input from both types of messengers. As long as this input is balanced, everything runs along on an even keel.

Stress, however, causes problems with the brain’s Happy Messengers. When life is smooth, the happy messages keep up with demand. But when too much stress is placed on the brain, the Happy Messengers begin to fall behind on their deliveries. As the stress continues, the happy messages begin to fail. Important nerve centers then receive mostly SAD MESSAGES, and the whole brain becomes distressed. The person enters a state of brain chemical imbalance known as – OVERSTRESS.

OVERSTRESS makes people feel terrible. With SAD MESSAGES overwhelming the happy messages, a person feels “overwhelmed” by life. People complain of being tired, unable to fall asleep or to obtain a restful night’s sleep. They have plagues of aches and pains, lack of energy, lack of enjoyment of life. They feel depressed, anxious, or just unable to cope with life.

Too many SAD messages will cause:

• Fatigue
• Aches
• Depression
• Agony
• Sleepiness
• Overwhelmed

Low Stress Tolerance; The Inherited Factor

Everyone inherits a certain ability to make and use Happy Messengers in the brain. As long as you can make enough Happy Messengers to keep up with the stress in your life, you will find stress to be fun, exciting, challenging. In fact, without it you would be bored.

However, when the amount of stress in your life is so great that you begin to run out of Happy Messengers, then bad things being to happen. You may have sleep disturbances, aches and pains, lack of enjoyment of life and even panic attacks.

The amount of stress that you can tolerate before your Happy Messengers malfunction is referred to as your “Stress Tolerance”. Your Stress Tolerance is set by your genetic inheritance. Most of us have inherited sufficient Stress Tolerance to allow us to whether the stresses of daily living. We still feel well and enjoy life. Yet, each of us, at some time has experienced short periods of brain chemical imbalance.

• The night you couldn't’t sleep before your big test at school, or your important job interview, or your “fabulous date”.…..
• The sadness and crying you may have felt when a friend or relative passed away, or a girlfriend or boyfriend left……
• The chest pains or the headaches that you may have thought were heart problems or migraine, but your doctor said came from too much stress and strain….

We have all experienced such brief episodes of happy messenger malfunction, but, fully 10% of our population feels like this all of the time!

You see, one in ten people has inherited a LOW STRESS TOLERANCE. This means that his/her Happy Messengers “poop out” at stress levels which the rest of us would consider “normal, everyday stress”. The result of inheriting such a Low Stress Tolerance may be a disaster. Such a person will be operating his or her life in practically permanent OVERSTRESS. Sleep disturbances, aches and pain, fatigue, depression, mood swings, anxiety attacks, and even drug addiction can become life long problems.

Since one in ten persons has inherited a Low Stress Tolerance, we are describing an enormous number of people.

Ten percent of your friends, your acquaintances, your employees, your co-workers, your employers….everywhere around you there are people who are not able to cope with the stress of daily life.

To understand how stress results in this disastrous condition for so many people, let us begin by examining the brain’s HAPPY MESSENGERS.