Is it possible I need to be on medication forever? Like does my brain have less serotonin than it's meant to

Chemical imbalance is a myth. Look it up. Your brain can change and is malleable through therapy. Medication helps take the edge off but therapy can really change your brain and thinking oatterns

I’m in nursing school and I just want to say that chemicals in our brains DO effect us, it isn’t a myth. It’s the reason for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and a lot of types of anxiety and other diseases and disorders. I’m not sure how much you know about human biology, but we are made up of cells and cells have receptors on them. These receptors bind with neurotransmitters like serotonin. Sometimes there isn’t enough made or for other reasons serotonin is just not being bound to the receptors. Medication can activate receptors that are already there and make them more “awake” and bind to more serotonin. They can mimic the actions of receptors so serontonine has something to bind to. There’s a lot more details but I’ll save you the pharmacology lecture. The point of this my post is that lack of serotonin DOES effect anxiety and other things which is why doctors prescribe these medications and why my prescription of Zoloft has helped me immensely. Some people have to be on medications for a while, some don’t, it just depends on individual people ? if you’re currently taking medication and feel like you’re ready to be taken off, talk to your doctor! And if you feel like you need to go back on you always can!

Thank u! This helped a lot ?

Thank u!

https://www.healthline.com/health/chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain#causes Please read this as well as countless other reliable sources. Chemical imbalance is simply a theory. It is not proven. Now we're not talking about ailments such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's or schizophrenia. Of course those deal with certain imbalances in the brain. We are talking about anxiety and depression here which deals more with environmental factors. If I'm stressed at work or my loved one dies. I don't wake up the next day with an imbalance in my brain. I wake up with circumstantial anxiety and depression which can worked through with a therapist. Is medication bad? No. But it certainly shouldn't be a fix all for anxiety and depression. CBT is much more useful than medication. If you don't get correct therapy while on medication. Guess what is coming back when you get off of it? Anxiety and depression.

https://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety/chemical-imbalance.shtml To be completely honest with you. This should give us all hope. Why? Because we now know we don't need to rely on medication to heal from this disease known as anxiety. We can work through it and use the neuroplasticity of our brain to our advantage. Medication helps take the edge off. However true relief comes from good therapy. Remember the same ones pushing the medication are the same ones that profit off of it. That's why it takes so many years for those with OCD to be diagnosed properly. I went to the doctor and told them I had thoughts of suicide, lack of interest in things, high anxiety, and guess what they gave me? Medication. They didn't ask any further questions. I knew that wasn't it so I went to an actual psychologist and got diagnosed with pure o specifically around suicide. And was prescribed no medication. Doctors are pushed to sell drugs from pharmaceutical companies. Again we're not discussing diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or things that are actually neurodegenerative diseases and loss of brain cells.

It depends. OCD and some other anxiety disorders can be genetic. This would mean a chemical imbalance genetically. Sometimes anxiety is not genetic, which wouldn’t be from a chemical imbalance but environment. Some people are genetically PREDISPOSED to certain mental disorders triggered by an environmental disruption. They already have an issue with neurotransmitters but no anxiety symptoms, then an environmental issue occurs and it triggers an anxiety response. That’s what happened with me. I was predisposed, something happened to trigger the disorder, I now have a disorder.

Therapy didn’t work for me but medication is. It’s a preference. Some like therapy, some don’t some like medication some don’t. I’m not saying medication is better it’s about what helps the individual person because helping the person is the ultimate goal.