Instruction Manual 1: Design Features





First of all, let’s look at how your brain is designed.  I am of the opinion that we are a well-designed, efficient, functional unit – even though we don’t come with a manual or schematics.  I think that our bodies WORK.  Perfectly.  Until we get in our own way. 

Years ago, I attended a lecture in which the presenter … who had my full attention because I was about 5 minutes out of graduate school and eating ramen and he was presiding over a catered drug-company sponsored luncheon.  Read:  FREE REALLY GOOD FOOD.  I would have gone to a lecture on watching paint dry… Ahem – so this presenter talked about a study out of Auburn University (and if anyone has a reference to this study I would LOVE to have it.  I’ve lost the paper) in which it was discovered that a decrease in serotonin levels was associated with the human immune response.  So much so, in fact that some physicians had begun getting an antidepressant on board PRIOR to major surgical procedures (like open heart surgery) to combat the post-surgical depression that created problems.  I thought that was SO COOL!!!  So let me get this straight . . . when we are trying fight off illness, our bodies respond chemically with depression.  “Depression” tells us to get under the covers and stay there.  That’s just good thinking when we’re trying to heal.  Pull back, lay low.  We don’t do it, of course.  We just keep going . . . and going . . . and going . . . 

Check this out.  What are the things we just simply can’t do without?  Heart rate, respiration, blinking, sweating, digestion – things we never consciously think about, but without which we would not last long.  Where are these things located in your brain?  In the very absolute center.  Far away from the outside where it can be bonked and damaged by a blow to the head.  Now that’s good design!  This red part of the diagram is called our reptilian brain.  We share these basic functions with just about every other living creature.  It is the most primitive and least developed part of the brain.  If this part of your brain is damaged, you’re pretty much toast. 

The next layer of the onion is the limbic system.  Here lies the heart of our fight or flight response.  Notice, still VERY WELL PROTECTED, which tells me that the engineers thought these functions were worth protecting.  Here lies reaction, not response.  On the outside is where higher order thinking happens.  We can live for a long time without speech, the ability to distinguish colors, or without logic and reasoning . . . not so much without breathing.  So if we’re going to get whacked in the noggin, this is the part that takes a licking and we keep on ticking.  (Someday perhaps I’ll write about the humiliation of the fact that only time I’ve been knocked out in a horse accident I was riding a PONY.  Insert helmet safety lecture here.  Without protective headgear, I wouldn’t be writing this blog).   

If our bodies are designed so perfectly, and are working correctly, how come I have a job?  How come people are flocking to their doctors and psychiatrists and therapists struggling with the debilitating impact of anxiety and depression?  For my money, it’s because we don’t know how to work the equipment.  We haven’t read the manual.  Ever tried to put together “ready to assemble” furniture without the directions?  Good luck!  Once we understand how our brains work, we can stop feeling like we are at the mercy of our emotions and reactions, and start making progress. 

Next up:  Is this going to eat me or not?