The Impact of Mental Health on the Brain

Sabeen Sabir

While the brain influences mental health, the reverse is also true: Mental health plays a very crucial role in the overall well-being of an individual’s brain. Stress, often experienced in people with mental health disorders, drastically alters the structure and function of an individual’s brain. Chronic stress leads to the production of cortisol a hormone that is toxic to the neurons which leads to shrinkage of brain areas like the hippocampus. This can also dissociate cognitive activities including memory and decision making thereby worsening mental health problems.

Chronic stress can also impair the functionality of prefrontal cortex that is the area of the brain that is used to make decisions, solve problems and regulate emotions. This disruption can cause problems such as focusing, decision making, and would make someone more vulnerable to mental ailments. As people age, their brain cannot easily adjust to new conditions and recover from stress causing worsening of mental health disorders.

The amygdala which is both the right and left hemisphere responsible for processing of emotions like fear and anxiety becomes hypertrophic. This hyperactivity can result in increased fear reactions thus making people more susceptible to anxiety disorders. The brain gets hyper aroused to real danger and this is manifested in excessive concern, panic disorder and withdraws from society.

Depression: Depression, which is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders, has been established to affect brain function in some way. It can reduce the level of activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain responsible for regulating emotions and therefore making it a challenge for people to regulate their emotions as well as engage in positive thinking. This usually results in a vicious circle whereby the emotions create a loop which makes it hard for the person to get better.

Anxiety disorders: Even anxiety disorders affect the brain very closely. They can alter the structure of the neural circuits responsible for fear and therefore make an individual over-sensitive towards any potential things which he/she perceives to be dangerous. In the long run, this can make the brain become hypersensitive to stress hence making it hard for people to feel safe and relaxed even in situations that do not pose any danger.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): It is a psychiatric disorder, where the patient harbors intrusive and disturbing thoughts, and then performs ritualistic behaviors to manage these thoughts. However, OCD impacts different areas of the brain, especially those responsible for error signaling and habit development. The orbitofrontal cortex together with the caudate nucleus and the thalamus is significant for error detection and response. In OCD, the same circuit gets over-active and the person feels there is something ‘not quite right’ or something is left undone. This hyperactivity is what leads to these compulsive as people with OCD have to correct mistakes which they believe are present over and over again.

Moreover, it is suggested that the OCD people may have less effective inhibition by prefrontal cortex which encourages such inappropriate act. Cognitively this results in poor self-control and this is characterized by poor ability to stop doing something even when one is aware that it is illogical.