Stress, Trauma, and More Takes Central Role in Against Her Will

Stress, Trauma, and More Takes Central Role in Against Her Will - A Closer Look, Belatedly...

Serotonin-3D-vdW (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Original caption states, "Dem. Rep. Congo: Meeting for Rape Victims Rape victims who have been successfully reintegrated into their communities assemble in a "peace hut" near Walungu, South Kivu in DRC. USAID-supported health programs have assisted rape victims with counseling, training, employment, and safe living environments." (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I Got Major Depressive Disorder (Photo credit: Jean Big Cat)

Against Her Will I just discovered this draft...It was meant to be a followup to a review of this book which ran last October. That's about the time I started having major problems with my computer. No matter what trauma we face, there are some basic changes that result to a greater or lesser extend to those who are ultimately diagnosed with Clinical Depression. I thought this book helped show the trauma, if any of you are interested... So I decided to go ahead and publish what I discovered in research...

The subject matter, about a rape victim and coming to terms with this terrible act, needs to be handled with dignity and care. No woman, unless it happens to them, can know how harrowing and horrific this is. I can only imagine, myself.

The book is full of emotion, such pain, love, greed, obsession, death, hate, as it delves into the life of one young woman. I hope you like it.

As a neurotransmitter, serotonin helps to relay messages from one area of the brain to another. Because of the widespread distribution of its cells, it is believed to influence a variety of psychological and other body functions. Of the approximately 40 million brain cells, most are influenced either directly or indirectly by serotonin. This includes brain cells related to mood, sexual desire and function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, and some social behavior.

There are many researchers who believe that an imbalance in serotonin levels may influence mood in a way that leads to depression. Possible problems include low brain cell production of serotonin, a lack of receptor sites able to receive the serotonin that is made, inability of serotonin to reach the receptor sites, or a shortage in tryptophan, the chemical from which serotonin is made. If any of these biochemical glitches occur, researchers believe it can lead to depression, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, panic, and even excess anger.

Although it is widely believed that a serotonin deficiency plays a role in depression, there is no way to measure its levels in the living brain. Therefore, there have not been any studies proving that brain levels of this or any neurotransmitter are in short supply when depression or any mental illness develops. Blood levels of serotonin are measurable -- and have been shown to be lower in people who suffer from depression – but researchers don't know if blood levels reflect the brain's level of serotonin.

Also, researchers don't know whether the dip in serotonin causes the depression, or the depression causes serotonin levels to drop.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, major depressive disorder is characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person's ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once-pleasurable activities.

There are times you may feel sad, lonely, or hopeless for a few days. But major depression -- clinical depression -- lasts longer and is disabling. It can prevent you from functioning normally. An episode of clinical depression may occur only once in a person's lifetime. More often, though, it recurs throughout a person's life.

In addition, with major depression, one of the symptoms must be either depressed mood or loss of interest. The symptoms should be present daily or for most of the day or nearly daily for at least two weeks. Also, the depressive symptoms must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. The symptoms cannot be due to the direct effects of a substance -- drug abuse, medications -- or a medical condition, such as hypothyroidism, nor occur within two months of the loss of a loved one.

English: REGULATION OF SEROTONIN SUPPLY IN THE BRAIN 10 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article is not meant to provide any type of medical guidance or advice. It is merely helping to show that whether it is a soldier who is traumatically affected on the fields of wars...
or a village of women who have been repeatedly raped by one or multiple criminals...
or whether it is a single rape by a single individual...
or any other type of trauma such as my becoming so mentally, physically and emotional burned out that I could no longer function... while people may look like they are the same individuals, they are not!

For myself, I have been on medication close to 10 years. I have tried to get off of it many times, until I finally accepted that I have been permanently changed by trauma, in my case, a buildup of countless problems...
In rape victims, the trauma experienced can be as individual or unique as the number of women involved (or men)

Many have been emotionally, mentally and physically changed through some change that occurs in the complicated processes shown in the last chart...even though we have no idea what or how it occurred...it has... and I know
I am changed in some way because of it...for the rest of my life...
Those who are raped, I imagine, also feel damaged and sometimes cannot face it...
Get help if you face some trauma which has affected your thinking in some harmful way!
There are ways to help you through what you sometimes experience--Don't Give Up!