In an article, Divya Krishnakumar and her colleague describe different anxiety disorders and neurotransmitters related to that. General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) a disorder that causes the sufferer to worry tremendously. OCD aka Obsessive Compulsive Disorder where the sufferer feels an obsession and compulsion to do something as an act to reduce the anxiety. PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder seen in the trauma victims. Social anxiety where a person fears to be present in a social events. The different ways of meditation including mindfulness have been well seen as a way to manage anxieties.
As good as it feels to know the path of managing anxieties, it is even better to understand the mechanism behind it. It helps us to get the best out of it. Lets see what the science has to give us for the topic of the relation of meditating with neurotransmitter to anxiety.
First thing to understand is, “Anxiety” is a disorder not disease. That means we can not cure it like any other viral fever or bacterial infections. But we can manage it, put it back in the order. As a metaphor lets take my wardrobe. When my wardrobe is little east, west, north and south implying, my clothes are everywhere. What do I do in that situation? I start folding my clothes, putting them back where they belong.
Anxiety disorders are the same, our mind is disordered. We start getting scared of things that normally wouldn’t worry us. To overcome that, we have to first recognize it. We see our wardrobe is in chaos, we start folding our clothes and start with the smallest we can find.
Neurotransmitters: Serotonin and Dopamine
A person who have not heard about meditation is barely found. Even though, western civilization are more familiar with neurotransmitters, there is still a large population worldwide, who do not know about it.
Serotonin, one of the neurotransmitter is a chemical in human body responsible for our daily behaviors. From mood to sex, serotonin is there for us. Even though serotonin is good, nothing more than needed is. For our balanced state of life, balanced level serotonin definitely fills in as a piece.
Bujjati performed an experiment that showed, meditation practitioners’ urine sample had higher concentration of serotonin as compared to non practitioners. In addition, another experiment showed 33 percent less serotonin in patients with panic disorder as compared to normal controls. For the same reason, mice with low serotonin level also portrayed more fear.
Secondly, Dopamine is said to be associated with reward-motivated behavior and social anxiety. A research showed that people who are not comfortable with social situations tend to have lower dopamine level. In another research, the level of dopamine increased in sub cortical region of meditation participants after the meditation.
Melatonin is the next neurotransmitter, it aids the quality of sleep in human beings. A study reported, Melatonin as anxiety reducer in rats where they spent more than usual time in the maze. This indicates Melatonin makes them more calm. Similar results were found in the subjects, where they were provided with Melatonin instead of placebo.
Meditation and its relation to Neurotransmitters
Meditation is a way of placing your attention where you want to. It is a practice, same as every other sport practice. It takes time to play as you wish. Our attention is very agile and involuntary. Therefore, an average human has more than 6000 thoughts per day. So many of them we can’t remember all of it.
Meditation and mindfulness is a path where we try to voluntarily engage into one specific object or person or breathing and stay with it. Additionally, It is a practice that helps us to not get lost in our head and, pay conscious and full attention to what we want.
Several studies have show the connection of meditation to reduced stress level. For example, Mindfulness and meditation practice just for eight weeks showed significant decrease in the PTSD symptoms of victim abused as children. Furthermore, a scientist Shannahoff-Khalsa and her colleagues ran an experiment where within one year of practicing yoga reduced the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive scale for the participants from 19.8 to 8.8. There is still a lot to study about the relationships of neurotransmitter, meditation, yoga and anxiety. Nevertheless, it is always ideal to practice meditation and mindfulness.
Conclusion
Personally I have first hand experience with that, being the reason for me to start this blog. Focusing on my breathing is my favorite mindfulness practice. It is cost nothing and gives an instantaneous outcome. With deep breathes in and -out, I have been able to cope up with most the stress and make it through the day. It helps me put away the reasons causing stress. With every breath I feel fresh oxygen getting into my blood system and providing me energy that I need.
Of course it is not as easy it sounds and that is a reason why it is called meditation practice. You do it everyday and with every try it gets better. You would not find that everything is fixed at once, but after time passes, one day you realize you are more calm and not worrying. That is the day you will know, it can be done.
Key takeaways
- Anxiety is not a disease but disorder.
- Anxiety can be put back in order or managed.
- Managing anxiety is a repetitive and continuous process.
- Practicing mindfulness is always a good idea.
- Breath and pay attention to every breath that goes in and out
I hope you do not give up, and find your peace one day.
Love,