Putting the Soul
back in Psychology!
An Intellectual Soul problem...cannot be solved with a material brain solution.
The "chemical imbalance theory", is the assumption that those who are psychologically irrational/dysfunctional with a diagnosable "mental illness" label (correctly named, psychological disorder), listed in the "Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders" (DSM), have an "imbalance" within their brain chemistry patterns, which is claimed (supposedly as a result of genetics) to be the primary sole cause of the psychological irrational dysfunction.
This assumptive theory is solely based on the philosophical assumptions that: the human intellect is the brain, there is no immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will to choose that can function apart from the brain, and psychological disorders are caused by the brain and are in no way chosen by the sufferer's intellect (mind) and free will.
If the "chemical imbalance theory" were true, that would mean when any person without a diagnosable so called "mental illness" changes from being functional/rational to dysfunctional/irrational, which almost all human beings do in some psychological (aka intellectual) way and degree at most several times a day, much less at least once a day, they would have no coinciding brain chemistry change "imbalances". That is absolutely inconsistent; making it illogical.
For when, at any moment that we are psychologically (intellectually) healthy, we are psychologically balanced, and our brain chemistry has to rightly reflect this. And when, at any moment that we are psychologically irrational/dysfunctional, we are psychologically imbalanced, and then our brain chemistry rightly has to reflect this. We are irrational every time we are wrongly or falsely: attracted to, like, dislike, want/desire, expect, believe, think, and/or emotionally feel something. Therefore either no one has, or everyone has, some natural necessary brain chemistry "imbalance" every time they are, (aka choose to be) psychologically irrational, which would make the "brain chemistry imbalance" not a problem and not the cause of labeled psychological disorders, because a "chemical imbalance" would be a correct natural necessary physical reflection of our irrational psychological dysfunction; freely chosen by our immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will. As a result, if someone being any type or degree of psychological disorder; aka so called "mental illness" has a brain chemistry imbalance, then their brain chemistry is correctly doing exactly what it is supposed to do when one has chosen to be intellectually dysfunctional/irrational; aka psychologically imbalanced in any particular manner and degree.
[Prediction: To rationalize their assumptions, rather than be open to the Truth, expect those in power within "Big Pharma", the medical arms of the government, and the modern Psychology and Psychiatry professions lead by the APA's (American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association), to either change the vocabulary word "imbalance" related to the brain chemistry to some other word, or change their definition of "brain chemistry imbalance", just as they have already been doing for the definition of "mental illness" to try and include the mentally retarded (for example those with Down Syndrome) so they can sell more psychotropic medications.]
Furthermore, it is a known fact that people suffering with behaviors (aka symptoms) of Schizophrenia or Bipolar with psychotic features are not always irrational; they are not always suffering from these symptoms (aka behaviors). Therefore, for the "chemical imbalance theory" to be logical and consistent, the person's brain chemistry would have to be "in balance" every time the person functioned rationally. This would further support that the brain chemistry is not the cause but rather the affect of the person's soul: intellect (mind) and free will where we all freely choose our both abstract irrational and rational intellectual acts of: attractions, likes, dislikes, wants, desires, expectations, beliefs, and thoughts...all of which cause all psychological emotions and feelings. [For further explanation see the blog article "True Psychology"].
https://www.theologyofthesoul.org/blog-portal-2-answers/true-psychology
This is a primary reason why it is harmful and dangerous to use psychotropic medications, just as with any other "self-medicating", which try and change the brain chemistry from doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing in reaction to our intellectual, including emotional, choices, while we change nothing regarding what the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will has been choosing that is causing the brain chemistry imbalance in the first place.
This also helps to explain why the psychotropic medications make many people feel and function like zombies. When someone drugs their brain with any substance, be it an illicit drug, alcohol, or psychotropic medications, in order to prevent themselves from feeling emotional discomfort or suffering and/or thinking and by extension exteriorly acting irrationally, then the drug has to be strong enough to block the person from fully and clear headedly consciously using his or her intellect (mind) and free will to choose of their immaterial soul, from where are freely chosen all of the psychological emotions and their causes: thoughts, beliefs, expectations, want/desires, likes, dislikes, and attractions. These are not going away, they are simply being temporarily "inhibited" (aka clouded / masked), by the effects of the drug. Effecting the functioning of the lesser; i.e. the brain, can hinder the use of the greater; i.e. the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will to choose.
Doing this is bad, because then the person can never permanently change through working to receive 'Lasting Healing', because they are too "drugged up" to choose to work on themselves properly in order to become self-aware of, reject/repent, and seek proper healing for all of the hundreds and hundreds of stored irrational intellectual actions that they have been choosing and are still choosing with their intellect since young childhood. Since we don't stay the same, the person failing to properly work on themselves, continues to grow worse under the medication "band-aid"; assuring that the person remains "mentally ill", thereby attempting to secure the profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry.
And this explains why psychotropic medications never work permanently if at all; aka never heal anything and sooner or later stop blocking the irrational emotional suffering and other intellectual irrational acts that the person is continuing to choose and store in both the brain and the memories of their immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will....because the person is still choosing to be irrational/dysfunctional through the choices of their intellect (mind) and free will of their immaterial soul, while they are taking psychotropic chemicals (so called "medications") to try to stop their brain chemistry from doing what it is supposed to be doing. This would explain why there is never and will never be Lasting Healing through taking any psychotropic medication, regardless of the Psychological Disorder; including all addictions (vices) and all forms of gender and attraction confusion.
The immaterial Soul: intellect (mind) and free will choices to be irrational/dysfunctional, being the sole primary cause of any possible psychological "brain chemistry changes" (aka the "chemical imbalance") of all Psychological Disorders; including all addictions (vices) and all forms of gender and attraction confusion, is the reason why taking psychotropic medications is always covering up the true problem. Taking psychotropic medications encourages failure to choose proper interior and exterior behavioral education and change implementation, because the person is either made to intellectually function like a zombie, or isn’t experiencing his/her natural chosen emotional "suffering" consequences in order to become self-aware of and be willing to accept that there is a personal problem they are causing themselves. Furthermore, psychotropic medications inhibit proper healthy emotional responses such as: guilt/sadness for wrong doing, sadness/grieving of a loss, and crying, thereby inhibiting the process for Lasting Healing.
To reiterate, psychotropic medications, just like any illicit drug or alcohol, temporarily distract or cloud the brain and thereby block and prevent the brain’s healthy cooperation with the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, in order for the person to experience and correctly process the necessary emotional suffering consequences being caused by the person’s intellectual free will choices of their immaterial soul, so that Lasting Healing change has the opportunity to occur. Emotional suffering consequences are good and necessary in order to help make the person self-aware that they have a particular problem in a particular moment that the person is causing themselves by their freely chosen irrational; i.e. wrong intellectual choices of their immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will to choose, and subsequent exterior behaviors. Taking psychotropic medications to try to stop or prevent emotional suffering is self-medicating in the same manner as when one gets drunk or high in order to try to stop or prevent emotional suffering.
For if a person isn’t suffering any or "enough" consequences for their bad intellectual (mind) and free will choices, then they will have little to no desire or motivation to work on helping themselves; change themselves and their lifestyle for the better. As a result, their irrationality and suffering will increase underneath the "pharmaceutical band-aid" until the next emotional break-down, psychotic break, or hallucination occurs and the psychotropic cocktail is either increased and/or remixed and served by the doctor-bartender, with no self-improvement occurring within the person. And failure to recognize and change all of the irrational interior intellectual acts chosen by the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, is the real reason why the symptoms; a.k.a. interior and exterior behavioral choices of Psychological Disorders suddenly manifest and worsen while the patient is on psychotropic medication.
Modern Psychology and Psychiatry and their research assume and project that particular worsening interior and exterior behavioral symptoms of the Psychological Disorders, such as but not limited to "suicidal thoughts" or "homicidal thoughts", are "side effects" of the medication, simply based on the assumptive miscorrelation that because the person is taking psychotropic medications and the "symptoms"; i.e. behaviors of Psychological Disorders occur during that time, that the medication is the "cause", with no scientific facts to prove this, while ignoring or negating any other more logical possibilities.
For example, it is even more plausible and can be corroborated, that the interior and exterior behaviors either were already occurring and/or would have occurred anyway, because the person is psychologically dysfunctional/irrational in the first place and is doing nothing correctly to help themselves stop or prevent themselves from choosing these dysfunctional/irrational interior and exterior behaviors, because taking psychotropic medication helps no one to freely choose to stop, aka heal from, any interior or exterior behavior. The drugs simply create the "zombie effect" by interfering with or inhibiting the brain’s ability to process information, both spiritual and material. Both the spiritual coming from the immaterial Soul: intellect (mind) and free will, as well as the spiritual and physical coming from the environment respectively.
In other words, psychotropic medications heal nothing, and are only about trying to maintain permanent "symptom control", which they also fail to do. By default psychotropic medications automatically create an environment where the person becomes worse and suffers more in the long term, because the person does nothing correctly to help themselves because they cannot become self-aware of their irrational intellectual choices, including irrational emotions, and cannot process them correctly, and instead "stuff" them all, under the influence of the psychotropic medication, which is no different than using an illicit drug or alcohol in order to avoid and "self-medicate". All of which is "bad coping".
The "bad coping" of using psychotropic medications is no different than using any other vice to try and make ourselves feel better. And when we use material means to try and make ourselves psychologically emotionally feel better or stop psychologically emotionally feeling bad and act more rational, rather than properly working to correct and change their non-material causes that are within ourselves in our immaterial Soul: intellect (mind) and free will, then we automatically harm ourselves even more while failing to help ourselves at all. For a physical material solution cannot and never will solve what is a non-material spiritual problem.
However, Psychiatrists and others will go so far as to rationalize that "permanent healing" means that the person can have subjectively and varying "long" periods of freedom from psychotic behaviors and/or emotional suffering while nothing is permanently healed and the person always cycles through to a "relapse". The assumptions that: "it’s the brain and genetics", "there is no other solution", "this is as good as it gets", and "there is no such thing as lasting healing", are why people continue to prescribe or use psychotropic medications over and over again, while at the same time expecting different results and nothing changes for the better. This is the definition of insanity with the blind leading the blind down into the psych ward.
The bottom line is that while under the psychotropic "band-aid", the true problems (irrational intellectual acts and their manifested psychological irrational emotions and feelings) in the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will to choose, grow worse and worse by the own fault of the individual; be it "ignorantly" and "unawaringly", until not even the level of psychotropic medication being taken can "cover up" or "suppress" the person’s; i.e. the immaterial soul’s: intellect (mind) and free will to choose, increased higher level of irrationality and consequent emotional suffering, much less any exterior spiritually evil influences.
The only constant is change. To fail to make a choice, is a choice. We are either actively choosing to get better or we are automatically getting worse. No human being ever stays the same, we are either passively choosing to slowly and subtly grow worse or we are actively choosing to do what is necessary to receive Lasting Healing. We are either actively working to grow wiser or we are becoming more foolish, actively working to grow more loving or becoming more evil, actively working to grow psychologically healthier or becoming more dysfunctional. In every moment we breath, we are either actively making the choice to grow into a better person, or we are automatically becoming worse.
Being on medication (whether it feels like being a zombie or not) in order to avoid and hide symptoms (i.e. control behaviors) is not actively working on oneself to become a healthier better person. Being on medication (whether it feels like being a zombie or not) in order to avoid and hide symptoms (i.e. control behaviors) is not the definition of Lasting Healing, and is completely counterproductive with all Psychological Disorders. But since humanity in general cares only and/or primarily about the instant gratification of "instant pain relief", and "instant symptom control", without correcting ourselves, (whether that be emotionally and/or physically), which are the underlying philosophies of the medical fields, those bad priorities, among other erroneous beliefs, are also discrediting the Psychology and Psychiatry fields.
But if Psychological Disorders; aka all that is intellectually irrational, including emotionally irrational, is primarily caused by the immaterial soul, and the immaterial soul is the intellect (mind) and free will, then why and how can: illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, and other chemicals such as but not limited to alcohol and nicotine temporarily change the person, including their level of rationality or irrationality as the case may be?
Answer: There is no change occurring within the actual chosen intellectual rationality or irrationality, including the emotional effects, of the individual from any ingested chemical substance. There is only the temporary distraction of the person from themselves (thereby making what was "conscious" temporarily "subconscious", including intellectual memory), and creating a temporary clouding in some degree of the imagination and the physical senses, including material memory. This type of temporary distraction from ourselves is a hindrance from being able to be self-aware of and/or experience and properly discern, what we are already: attracted to, like, dislike, want/desire, expect, believe, think, and emotionally feel, and all of our memories that these entail. In other words, the only "change" occurring is the temporary distraction of the person: the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, from his or her ability to think and emotionally feel, to some degree, by chemically affecting the brain. And even though the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will is primary to the brain and body, is the form of the entire body, and animates the brain and body, this temporary distraction is possible because, as Dr. St. Thomas Aquinas states: "A lesser cause suffices to hinder the use of reason,".
The term "reason" in general means the entire cognitive faculty, which is of the intellect as Aquinas also states, which he declares is a power of the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will only. More specifically, "to reason" means to critically think about, to consider, and how one understands, which brute animals cannot do; thereby proving it is not our brain. So what does it mean, "a lesser cause suffices to hinder the use of reason"? In other words, a less powerful influence that is not in primary control (aka the brain/body), can effect (hinder) in particular ways and particular degrees the more powerful primary cause which is the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will.
[Taken from: First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundæ Partis), Question 37. The effects of pain or sorrow, Article 4. Whether sorrow is more harmful to the body than the other passions of the soul?, The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas, Second and Revised Edition, 1920, Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Online Edition Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Knight]
Second, just because a chemical substance is affecting the brain/body, does NOT mean that the chemical substance is affecting what is rationally or irrationally being chosen by the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, which is proven by the fact that people with Psychological Disorders who do nothing but take psychotropic medications do not become permanently free from their disorders and as described above, choose to make themselves worse by making the same and worse interior and exterior intellectual choices, while doing nothing other than taking psychotropic medications. For example, many people still believe, think, and feel suicidal or homicidal, or still hear voices, or still feel depressed or anxious, etc. while on the psychotropic medications that are "supposed" to make these behaviors stop.
To believe that any chemical substances are helpful in effecting what is irrationally psychologically, including emotionally and psychotically, being chosen by a person, you first have to philosophically believe that: the soul is the brain, or the brain is the intellect, or the brain is the mind which is the intellect, or the brain is primary to the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will, or the immaterial soul: intellect (mind) and free will to choose does not exist in humans. If you believe any of these philosophical lies, your entire basis for all science about human functioning is wrong.