The butterflies in your stomach before a first date, the lump in your throat as you watch a sad commercial on TV, that mid-day energy crash at the office, those all too frequent glances at the clock from two until five o'clock in the morning, the need to re-read the same paragraph over and over because you can't seem to focus, quickened breathing and sweat beads before delivering your big presentation, reaching for that perfect combination of salty-n-sweet as the cure all...the list goes on and on.
But those feelings aren't just in your head. Happiness, anger, sadness, frustration, dysphoria, sleep, appetite, libido, sense of pleasure, ability to focus, cognitive function, sense of personal and professional drive, anxiety, pain tolerance, and others are due to brain chemicals.
Thanks to modern science, those brain chemicals along with specific genes linked to risk taking, impulse control, addiction, depression, and anxiety are now measurable in your body.
Objective diagnostics have been lacking in mental healthcare for too long and it's what has led to low rates of recovery, negative or ineffective reactions to pharmaceuticals, and has paved the way for chronic relapse among many individuals suffering from alcoholism, prescription drug addiction, illicit drug addiction, problematic sexual behaviors, disordered eating, and a host of other addictions such as gambling, shopping, and video games.
What does Wired For Addiction® mean by "objectivity" in mental health care? If an individual meets the DSM-5 criteria for Major Depressive Disorder, that does not objectively indicate to the diagnosing clinician what specific brain chemicals and genes are responsible for the individual's feelings of depression.
Simply put, there is no way to determine what and which brain chemicals and genes require support when relying on vocabulary and subjective interpretation of behaviors to determine a treatment plan. That behavioral health inequity is what makes the inclusion of the objective diagnostic panel provided by Wired For Addiction® so valuable in mental health and addiction recovery treatment planning.
So when someone tries to tell you, "It's all in your head," you're now armed with the facts to educate them about mental health and substance misuse. Next step, arm yourself with the facts of your biology with a Wired For Addiction® Biomarker Evaluation Report.