Bipolar Medication – Why it Works and Why it Does Not Work

To understand the hows and whys of bipolar medication and bipolar symptoms, it is important to take a closer look at the brain, especially the cerebral cortex. It is a structure within the brain, a gray matter that plays a key role in how we see, touch hear, speak, remember and feel our emotions. It is the thinking part of the human system.

The Nerve Cells (neurons)

The Cortex is packed with nerve cells not larger than a pin head and houses 30,000 cells. Each neuron will communicate with other neuron, by chemicals and electric signals. These neurons (nerve cells) are separated by a gap called the synapse; this brain synapse is where neurons pass messages from one to the other. This simple chain of events, electric zap, followed by chemical changes, followed by another electrical zap is the basis of all brain activity. It is how neurons speak to each other.

Interconnecting System

There are 100 billion neurons in the brain, each neuron after receiving its information is hooked up to another 50, 000 neurons. One hundred billion neurons times 50 thousand connections = brainstorms. A neuron by itself cannot create ideas. To make it much easier to understand how bipolar medicine works or does not work we will try to give an example on a telephone network functions.

Our Telephone System Network

If you are trying to get in touch with somebody five hundred miles away all we have to do is take up a working telephone, dial their number and within minutes or seconds we are speaking and hearing each other. It sounds simple but it’s not. From one telephone to the other, it is connected by transmitters and these transmitters have three main things to keep it working. There is the generator (power source), the radio transmitter (receiving and giving radio signals) and the tower (to hold the radio transmitters). If one of these three goes wrong, signals cannot be received or be transmitted to the other transmitters.

Repairing Transmitting Stations and Medications

To repair these transmitting stations a repair person is sent to fix the problem. Let say the person sent can only fix one thing, the radio, but, the generator (electric power source) happens to be the culprit. You may have a person sent to fix but not in their power to fix it. When bipolar medications is taken, it then gets into the circulatory system and into the cells, once in the cells it operates to get the desired result, but if the medication enters the human system, like the repair man, who cannot fix the problem, bipolar symptoms will stay on.

Two or Three medications Into One

In some cases repair people can do the three tasks, fix the radio, generator and the tower. Some bipolar medications are put into one hoping like the repair man to be able to fix any of the three problems or all three.

Right Diagnosis

Doctors, like chief engineers have to pinpoint the actual problem before sending people to repair the problem. If let’s say they have identified correctly there is a bigger chance of the problem being fixed, but if there are lots of guess work, the odds against fixing the problem is great.

Finally

All of us think that all bipolar medications will fix the problem we want fixed. What we think and what actually happens in our human system is completely different. When one takes in bipolar medication there is always the hope that it will get the desired result.