On What Tranquilizers Do

I often talk about our internal pharmacy. When pain enters the arena our brains go to that pharmacy and order what it needs; say, more serotonin for the synapses to help with repression. What the commercial pharmacies do is produce the precise molecules that we manufacture inside our brains; and they do it because we cannot manufacture enough ourselves. I am convinced that most of us manufacture what we need in the ordinary course of life. But we know that just as the brain is developing in the womb there are traumas that beset us that cause lower serotonin set-points; that is, we cannot secrete what we need because pain (noxious elements such as a mother very anxious or who smokes), has caused the brain to use up its reserves in the battle to stave off being overwhelmed. And this sets up a permanent deficit. And then what happens is that the offspring/now adult, is also chronically anxious because her gating mechanisms are faulty; and so the cycle goes on.

There is a debate going on now about the advisability of using tranquilizers in the womb to normalize the mother’s system. There are minuses in both directions. If there is no medication given to the mother than she is anxious or depressed, and will pass it on to the baby. If we do give tranquilizers while the fetus is still in his womb-life, then that can be transmitted into the baby, as well. We are overloading the fetus’ serotonin levels with medication. There is no great solution except one: normalize the system before getting pregnant. That can be done, and we have shown in any number of studies that we tend to normalize the brain system after one year of primal therapy. This is preferable to messing with our inner manufacturing plant.

Frederich van der Veen presented his findings on serotonin to the Forum of European Neuroscience (July 2010). They gave one dose of a serotonin enhancer to subjects. They then watched sad films. Those on medication cried much less. It effectively brought down the levels of pain and opened some access to tears and the sad feelings. We are not normally low in serotonin except for trauma; and those traumas that occur the earliest in our lives are the most powerful, dealing as they do with life-and-death matters. Crying less doesn’t just mean less flowing tears; it also means less access to ourselves and our feelings. The purpose of serotonin enhancers is to numb out some of our feelings and reactions to them.

Taking shots or pills does not eliminate the pain or the churning of the system; it hides it all, making us more unconscious. But that unconsciousness can kill; what you don’t know can hurt you. Taking medication needs to be seen as a stop-gap method and not a cure.