L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. - Part I
Dennis K. Chong, M.D. and Jennifer K. Smith Chong, RN - Part II

Part I by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

When Dennis and Jennifer Chong invited Bob Bodenhamer and myself to dinner one evening in April this year in Ontario Canada, not far from their home, Dr. Chong commented about some of the current non-sense about "Chemical Imbalance" and human problems. This got Dr. Bobby's attention and then as a great delegator, he then and there suggested that Dennis get busy writing an article. He did. When that article came in¾ written as if to the medical community, Bob delegated to me the task of writing this introduction and then editing the other article so that "regular" people could read it. This is my feeble attempt at all of this.

In the following half of this monogram, the Chongs address and expose some of the current ideas about "human problems" with regard to our states, emotions, and experiences being created by "Chemical Imbalance." In their writing, they have strongly questioned the very presuppositions in the Medical Model that has led to such thinking. In doing so, they have highlighted the inadequacy of that model as an explanatory model. They have also provided insightful suggestions (which they snuck away in the Endnotes) about understanding "our way of being" as a "function of beliefs, myths, religion, culture, politics," etc.

Everyday we hear people describe their condition and "why" they do what they do as a case of chemical imbalance. This seems to get blamed for all kinds of things, from angry outrages, to depression, frustration, stress, etc. Now when we set out to model "human problems" apart from falling back by blaming genetics and chemistry, "Well, I have a chemical imbalance," then we need to start also with the fact of our mind-body states and some of the basic neuro-linguistic facts that we know from the field of neurology and the neuro-sciences.

With NLP, we begin with the realization that our mind-body states involve both "mind" and "body." Whenever we experience a mental-emotional state of awareness, we know that both our physiology (neurology, nervous system, etc.) and our ideas (representations, beliefs, values, understandings, frames, etc.) are involved. Korzybski put both of these together in his dynamic phrase, "neuro-linguistic."

That "mind" as representing information and signaling the higher cortex can elicit neurological and therefore neuro-transmitter activity serves as the basis for learning to run our own brains. It is the basis of hypnosis. The ideo-dynamic nature of "thoughts"¾ thoughts (ideo) evoke the energies (dynamics) of the body. It should be no surprise to anyone in this day and time then that our ideas of threat and danger can elicit Fight/Flight response (the General Arousal Syndrome). Nor should it surprise anyone that other kinds of "thoughts" should likewise effect neuro-transmitter activity.

So what?

Whenever we emotionally suffer a "problem," while we may register it first in our body as a somatic response and have somatic feelings ("emotions") about it¾ we also have corresponding thoughts or representations. Typically these are not as overt and obvious. Yet if we feel fear and experience contortions in our stomach or tightness in our neck muscles¾ you can count on some fear thoughts being nearby. If we experience somatic disturbances in our heart, lungs, bowels, muscles, etc. and we label such sensations as "anger," "stress," "anxiety," etc., you usually don't have to look around far in the mind for anger thoughts, stress thoughts, anxiety thoughts. They come as part of the package.

In this way, we have "two royal roads" to state: mind and body. We can act, move, activate our body, eat, sleep, ingest chemicals, etc. in such a way as to elicit the state. We can also think our way to the state, whether that of calm and relaxed, joyful and delighted, angry and upset, resourceful, etc.

In fact, "emotions" typically indicate that we have not only "thought" about some event or situation but that we have also thought about that thought-feeling. As a meta-cognition (a feeling about a feeling, a thought about a thought), an "emotion" already shows an advance beyond mere recognition of a "sensation" or primary level "feeling." Already we have loaded in higher level cognitions to the experience. The neuro-biology and the neuro-transmitters involved in anger, fear, sexual arousal, and excitement are all pretty much the same and operate as part of The General Arousal Syndrome. The difference between these different "emotions?" Cognitions.

In fear, we think, "I can't take that. I must get away. I'm out of here!" In anger, we think, "I don't like this and I'm not going to take it. Let me at 'em!'" In lust or sexual desire, we think, "I want." In excitement, we think, "I like that. Let them at 'em!"

These "thoughts," however, become so quickly and thoroughly connected to the sensation, that they "collapse" into the primary state. In NLP, however, when we tease out the logical levels within an emotion, we call an "emotion" a Kinesthetic^meta. A mere sensation or one without a cognitive "meaning" exists as what we call a kinesthetic awareness (warm/cold; tense/loose; etc.).

Yet, because we can reflect back onto our previous states (thoughts-feelings, somatic experiences), we create Meta-States. And these cannot but help to generate more complex and layered forms of consciousness. In this way, we become afraid of our fear. Then we feel angry at our fear of our fear. Then we feel incompetent or inadequate about our guilt over our fear-of-fear. As this negative spiraling of thoughts-and-feelings about previous states continues, it sets off all kinds of higher level messages (information) via the neuro-transmitters in the cerebral cortex which then sends commands and messages to the more primitive parts of the brain. That's why people can go into primitive Fight/Flight responses by just thinking about something and then scaring the hell out of themselves. Actually, they scare themselves into a hell of terrifying and looping emotions. And we can count on the body obeying and responding. In this way, we can get into all kinds of Chemical Imbalances!

Yet were we a victim of our genetics in this? Were we just fated to this rush of neuro-chemicals that "made" us feel this way and get into this funk? Did our "chemical imbalance" make or force or cause us to do whatever we did?

I don't think so.

Sure our bio-chemistry can get messed up. Just drink too much wine and you can discover that. And sure, during times of growth and development, we can experience various hormonal imbalances. Yet just because I feel lustful doesn't "make" me go out and grab a woman to have sex with. Testosterone levels may get way out of whack. I may really feel horny, but that doesn't exclusively "cause" misbehavior. So with the adrenaline rush that comes with the Fight/Flight reactions. I may "feel like" killing someone. I may feel" as mad as hell" and want to punish someone. But I also have a brain and can learn anger management skills. To live otherwise is to live as a beast, not a human.

There is no doubt that our bodies need a constant supply of salt to replenish the physiological balance of the body, to maintain the internal water metabolism, and to keep up the electric potential across cell membranes that's necessary for the heart to pump blood. The balance of trace salts also effect our states. Yet this does not deprive us of choice or consciousness.

We do not have to stay at the level of feeling a victim to our internal biochemistry. That's the power and elegance of learning to "run our own brains." We can learn to interrupt our mind-body states that don't serve us well. We can access more resourceful states, especially Relaxation states that embed us in a set of higher frames of Acceptance, Appreciation, Esteem, etc. We can also learn to utilize our self-reflexive consciousness to set new and more empowering frames-of-references (Meta-States) that will outframe (taking the brain outside the original thought) us with higher and more productive messages to our neurology.

Dr. Chong quoted the wisdom of the old Jewish proverb. "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is." This summarizes the Cognitive-Behavioral Model, which stands at odds with the Medical Model. And it offers us much more hope, personal responsibility, initiation, proactivity, and empowerment.

Has your "chemistry" gotten messed up by the way you've been living? By the things you been eating, the lack of exercise, the lack of relaxation, the things you've been thinking, the poor coping skills that you've been using, the stupid things you've been saying to yourself, the toxic ideas and beliefs you've been entertaining in your mind, etc.? Then stop. Also stop blaming your chemistry. Yes, you may now have a body out-of-balance in terms of the chemistry that's been activated. But that doesn't make you a victim of it -- anymore than you think it does.

The current theory among doctors is that a chemical balance¹ /imbalance generates our ontology², i.e. our subjective reality. This medical model implies that it does this totally or exclusively. This theory apparently has the say regarding how the weft and woof of the fabric of our subjective reality is woven.

The argument goes as follows. Neuro-chemical transmitters, by crossing the synaptic space, activate the succeeding set of neurons. The argument then continues to say that when these succeeding neurons are activated, the condition of "Depression" (known in DSM-III-R as Dysthymia or Depressive Neurosis) comes into existence in our ontology. This condition is described as a:

"disturbance of mood involving depressed mood (or possibly an irritable mood in children or adolescents). In addition, during these periods of depressed mood these are some of the following associated symptoms: poor appetite or overeating, insomnia or hypersomnia, low energy or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, and feelings of hopelessness."

The American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Third Edition - Revised) 1987 page 230-231.

From this modest premise, the theory then goes on to propose that if you can effectively block either the release (or the passage) of the transmitters across the synaptic space, you will pre-empt the condition of Depression. It will not arise. This is achieved because the pool of neurons, whose neurological activity subserve to cull out all the features of the depressive state will be suborned. This is reflected in the diagram below:

Figure 1
This picture is produced by the manufacturer of the drug, Zoloft™, as alos Figure 2. They are part of their distribution pamphlet about Zoloft™

So, by blocking the neuro-transmitters, these succeeding neurons are now left in their resting base state³. Therefore, "Depression" will not be possible.

If this is so, by the logic of this argument, we are compelled to conclude that in the normal resting base state this very pool of neurones DO NOT ENGENDER:

1. a depressed mood (nor possibly an irritable mood in children or adolescents).
2. poor appetite or overeating
3. insomnia or hypersomnia
4. low energy or fatigue
5. low self-esteem
 
6. poor concentration
7. or difficulty making decisions
8. and feelings of hopelessness.

Instead, in the normal resting base state we are left to infer that this very pool of neurons will be associated with a:

1. a cheerful mood
2. excellent appetite
3. normal sleep
4. high energy
5. lofty self-esteem
6. excellent concentration
7. easy making decisions
8. and feelings of confidence.

Now the question we pose about all of this is:

Is it really likely, or even probable, that a pool of neurons regardless of whatever their distribution can be the mother of the above list of ontological phenomena by merely being in the normal resting base state?

We infer that it is not logical or even probable. Something else has to happen for such a wonderful scan of events to arise or emerge in human experience.

However, the current fashion in medicine is not concordant with our concerns. It is to understand what is going on is indexed by the diagram below:

Figure 2

However, we are not sure about the scientific accuracy for the claim implicit to it. It is our view that to:

1. not get a depress mood (nor possibly an irritable mood in children or adolescents), i.e. a mood opposite to it, a cheerful mood, implies neuronal activity since something is being done
2. not have diminish the appetite, i.e. have excellent appetite or to not be overeating, i.e. to eat normally also logically implies neuronal activity since something is being done
3. not get insomnia or hypersomnia, i.e. to be sleeping normally also implies neuronal activity since something is being done
4. not depress the energy level in a person is to have normal energy level which implies neuronal activity since something is being done; and to not have fatigue implies neuronal activity since something is being done
5. not depress one's self-esteem implies having normal self esteem is a condition that also implies neuronal activity since something is being done
6. not depress the level of concentration is about having a normal effective concentration. This implies neuronal activity since something is being done
7. to not have difficulty in deciding suggest conflict of choices and that it can be implies neuronal activity since something is being done
8. to not feel hopeless and have a sense of gaiety and happiness implies neuronal activity since something is being done.

Neurons, according to the experimental facts of neuro-physiology obey an all or none law. They are either active or they are not. If they are not active they are doing nothing. 

Now additionally, in this theory, it has also somehow become necessary to postulate the idea of "MODULATION" in the activity of neurons. This idea is intended to explicate the gradations in mood alteration as implied in the semantics of the word appended to this condition -"Dysthymia." Using the concept MODULATION in the chemical balance/imbalance, you can see how transitions in the range of the swing of the balance can account for the gradations in the mood alteration. It accounts for how a patient may feel more and more depressed; or he may feel less and less depressed.

However, in the science of Neuro-physiology there is no chapter that is devoted to the examination of chemical balances in the brain!

What Neuro-physiology has found is that it is the number of active neurons at any moment in time that determines the state of the tone of any muscle. As more neurons fire, the tone increases. As less do so then the muscle becomes more flaccid as illustrated below:

Figure 3
The muscle tension increases or falls from A <-> B <-> C according to the total number of neurones that are activated. At C it is 2 + 3 + 4 = 9.

The question is whether mood states may be thought of being similar to changes in neuro-motor tone.

It is for this, that we are not sure that the idea of some chemical balance/imbalance to explicate the gradations in the mood of a Depression is tenable. In the case of gradations in neuro-motor tone, either in the way of increases in tone or vice versa, the phenomenon is a function of the NUMBER of active neurons in the neuron pool.

Is it necessary to postulate the concept of a chemical balance/imbalance to explicate the gradations in mood intensity? After all, here we have a model to explicate gradations in muscular intensity or tone; and it is one that is corroborated by experiment. We remain suspicious that there is any extant experiment that proves the existence of this chemical balance/imbalance.

If the chemical balance/imbalance is NOT the basis to explicate the ontology of Depression, the scientific community should seek a better ways to understand what is going on in these "depressed" patients. We feel that the incredible mysteries of human ontology clearly go beyond such an utterly simplistic and ridiculously reductionistic way of understanding as a chemical balance.

What we have all now latched onto has the possibility of being a mental departure. To compound the problem, there other potential costs that the patient unfortunately has to carry:

It is obviously absurd to say that doctors should never prescribe pharmacologically active drugs. There are times when medication is absolutely essential. But the good doctor is always mindful of its power. No greater popular fallacy exists about medicine than that a drug is like an arrow that can be shot at a particularized target. Its actual effect is more like a shower of porcupine quills. Any drug - or food, for that matter - goes through a process in which the human system breaks it down for use by the whole.

There is almost no drug, therefore, that does not have some side effects.

Norman Cousin: Anatomy of an Illness Bantam Books 1979 page 52

Endnotes

¹Chemical imbalance:

²Ontology is the study of the fabric of human subjective reality. It was initiated by the Greek philosophers within the branch of philosophy known as Metaphysics. It is for this that to this day philosophers have a interest in Psychotherapy. There is extant an international organization that connects these two fields. Of course Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Religion, Medicine and Psychiatry, General Semantics, Psychology. and Neuro-Semantic Programming have an ongoing interest in it.

³Resting state is the condition that all neurones revert to if the are not stimulated.

The American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Third Edition - Revised) 1987

Alfred Korzybski: Science and Sanity The International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Co. 1980

David G. Mandelbaum, Editor: Selected writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, Personality University of California Press 1949

Dennis K. Chong & Jennifer K. Smith Chong: Power and Elegance in Communication C-Jade Publications Inc. 1993

Dennis K. Chong an Jennifer K. Smith Chong: Don't Ask WHY?! C-Jade Publications Inc. 1991

Dennis K. Chong & Jennifer K. Smith Chong: HYPNOSIS, The Science and The Art, Volume 1 (manuscript in preparation)

Dennis K. Chong & Jennifer K. Smith Chong: The Knife Without Pain C-Jade Publications Inc. 1994

Dennis K. Chong & Jennifer K. Smith Chong: THE METALANGUAGE of Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland and Richard Fisch, THE META MODEL of John Grinder and Richard Bandler The NLP Connection Volume XI No 1

Dennis K. Chong an Jennifer K. Smith Chong: THE METAPROGRAMS and THE EMPs ANCHOR POINT Vol. XI No. 11 page 41 -44

Elliot Slater & Martin Roth: Clinical Psychiatry Bailliere, Tindall & Cassell Ltd. 1970

Jerry A. Fodor: The Modularity of Mind The MIT Press 1987

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Michael Hall: META-STATES Empowerment Technologies 1996

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Richard Bandler, John Grinder & Judith DeLozier: The Hypnotic Patterns of Milton H. Erickson M.D. Vol. 2 Meta Publications 1988

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Ronald Langacker: Language and its Structure Harcourt, Brace and World Inc. 1968