Of all the many symptoms that can be attributed to Bipolar Disorder, the tricks it plays with memory and focus are at the top of many people's complaint list. With mania comes the speeding thoughts, the far fetched ideas, the inability to zero in on any one thought in order to make any sense out of the madness. The average brain produces approximately 70,000 thoughts per day, but during a manic episode, it can often feel as if that amount is occurring by the minute! During depression, quite the opposite happens. Suddenly, tying your shoes makes for confusion. Remembering your niece's birthday? Forget it. That kid's going to get a belated card, if anything. The brain feels like it's having to churn through molasses just to figure out what to wear that day.
Weighing less than 5lb, our brains take on an excessive job of keeping our entire body functioning. It keeps the heart pumping, the lungs breathing, and regulates body temperature and blood pressure. It controls your ability to walk, talk, and sense the world around you through sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch. It gives you the means to think critically, make decisions, and feel emotions. There's not a single element of your body that the brain is not the head master of.
So, when there's a malfunction in the brain, it makes life a lot harder, eh?
Apart from the additional struggle that mental disorder can place on the mind and body, an average adult between the ages 20-60 will lose around 0.04 to 0.11oz. of brain tissue per year. After the age of 60, this amount increases to 0.14oz. per year. To understand a little more about how the brain works, allow me to share an excerpt from The Odd Brain by Dr. Stephen Juan:
"As clean, trim, strong, and fit as any athlete, the brain maintains its continuous high level of top performance by 'washing' itself. It keeps itself immaculately free of the slightest contaminating impurity, that is, of anything that could rob it of efficiency.
Our brain is at its largest in early adulthood, when it has approximately 100 billion neurons (brain cells). Most scientists agree that we lose between 10,000 and 100,000 neurons per day. When neurons die through old age, disease, or injury, they are rapidly consumed and digested by special glial cells attached to neurons. You might say they are the brain's wonderful little housekeepers. In addition to being cleaners, these glial cells also serve as nurses by providing sustenance to healthy neurons.
This washing process helps the brain store, along with its more than 100 billion neurons, more than 100 billion items of information. This is five hundred time the amount of information in a set of encyclopedias. And the glial cells may help account for the fact that the brain is still able to send out electrical impulses thirty-seven hours after death."If that makes you feel like the deceased may have more wits about them than you, then you are not alone. And it's understandable to feel that way, as the brain often gets neglected. Like our stomachs crave food, our minds crave intellectual stimulation. To build a muscle, you must work the muscle. You must also give it the loving care that it deserves. Proper nutrition and physical exercise go a long way in keeping the mind at optimum function. Likewise, challenging the brain and learning how to manage stress and other neuron-depleting emotions will aid in a healthier brain, and a happier you.
My goal for this series on remastering your mind is to shed light on many of the reasons why our ability to think and reason are affected by our lifestyles, and the role mental illness plays on the issue. I will also address some fundamental ways to regain control over your brain's functioning powers. In the next segment of this series, we will look at a few of the most common brain funks we fall captive to.
-Amy Purdy
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