I study this subject way too much. But what I discovered could be very interesting. Over the last year I have been doing a lot of seeking God which has helped me in my process of self-examination (steps 4 & 10 in the 12-steps). I noticed that meds don’t usually work on me. Although when I take an antidepressant I get really happy. I didn’t realize this was mania until the last month. And it’s probably the only real symptom of manic-depression I have. I never really thought that there was a such thing as “excessive happiness.” If there is would you really want to medicate it? We need more of this type of “mania” or madness.

Someone once told me that during the climax of sex (there I said it shoot me) a person’s dopamine goes up. While serotonin is the neurotransmitter that deals with depression & anxiety, dopamine has to do with the body’s way of experiencing pleasure. People with low dopamine have an inability to experience pleasure. People with too much dopamine tend to give in to their “addictions” more because it increases their dopamine receptors (I don’t think I understand a word I just said).

Be careful your dopamine doesn’t get so high that you lose touch with reality. This is where paranoid delusions & hallucinations come in. But to me mild mania/madness doesn’t seem to be a problem as long as you don’t hurt anybody. I’ve noticed that when I get depressed or feel anxious I crack jokes and it pulls me out of my funk which is why I don’t stay down very long. The Book of Proverbs says :”laughter is the best medicine. It brings healing to the bones.”

To sum it up, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our Creator, our bodies have a tendency to heal themselves if we let them. The only reason you would need medication is if you can’t control yourself. So mental illness is just the body’s inability to control it’s emotions and all medicine does is relieve the symptoms. If you want to get off meds sometime in your life you have to learn how to control your own emotions. This is the wake-up call I got from a couple friends of mine that aided me in my healing process.

Of course I don’t recommend stepping out in faith without talking to your Doctor first unless your Pdoc doesn’t agree and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is calling you to step out in faith. When He does, if you are in tune with Him, you will know. He will make sure you know.