Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More

Yes: we have arrived at our common thread, the underpinning factor that lets us answer our tangled questions about causes and treatments, symptoms and overlaps. Mental disorders—all of them—are metabolic disorders of the brain.

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. -Alexander den Heijer

Do human cells have “drivers” making the cells stop and go? It turns out that they do. The drivers of human cells, and human metabolism, are called mitochondria. And they are the common pathway to mental and metabolic disorders

shocking conclusion. It suggested that there appears to be one common pathway to all mental illnesses. Caspi and Moffitt called it the p-factor, in which the p stands for general psychopathology. They argued that this factor appears to predict a person’s liability to develop a mental disorder, to have more than one disorder, to have a chronic disorder, and it can even predict the severity of symptoms. This p-factor is common to hundreds of different psychiatric symptoms and every psychiatric diagnosis. Subsequent research using different sets of people and different methods confirmed the existence of this p-factor.25 However, this research was not designed to tell us what the p-factor is. It only suggests that it exists—that there is an unidentified variable that plays a role in all mental disorders.

Still others argue that the attention span of the American population has decreased across the board, likely due to increased time spent in front of screens, and this is being mistaken for ADHD.

Reduced levels of ATP have been found in a wide variety of disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, alcoholism, PTSD, autism, OCD, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

When stressful life events occur, people will experience a stress response. This is normal and expected. But when the threatening situation is no longer a danger, reducing the stress response can have powerful, beneficial effects. Stress-reduction practices have been used for millennia. Some of these are not usually thought of as “stress-reduction techniques,” but instead as longstanding religious practices, such as meditation, praying, and chanting. Additional practices include yoga, Pilates, tai chi, qigong, mindfulness, and breathing techniques. Many of these interventions have been shown to

mitochondria are directly involved in making some of the hormones, such as cortisol, estrogen, and testosterone, so if they are dysfunctional or dysregulated, these hormone levels may be dysregulated, too.

The specific psychiatric disorders in which mitochrondrial dysfunction has been identified include the following: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, autism, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anorexia nervosa, alcohol use disorder (aka alcoholism), marijuana use disorder, opioid use disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Dementia and delirium, often thought of an neurological illnesses, also included.

In 2005, Dr. Ronald Kessler and colleagues reported the results of the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a household survey that included a diagnostic interview of more than nine thousand representative people across the United States.16 Overall, 26 percent of people surveyed met criteria for a mental disorder in the last twelve months—that’s one in four Americans! Of those disorders, 22 percent were serious, 37 percent were moderate, and 40 percent were mild. Anxiety disorders were most common, followed by mood disorders, then impulse control disorders, which include diagnoses like ADHD. Of note, 55 percent of people had only one diagnosis, 22 percent had two diagnoses, and the rest had three or more psychiatric diagnoses. That means almost half the people met criteria for more than one disorder.

In some cases, structural defects in cells can lead to a positive feedback cycle that affects metablolism and can make it harder for cells to work. One specific example is myelin, which is an utter protective coating for neurons made by support cells called oligodendrocytes. Myelin makes it easier for neurons to send electrical signals

Additional practices include yoga, Pilates, tai chi, qigong, mindfulness, and breathing techniques. Many of these interventions have been shown to

Stress Reduction Reducing stress is an important part of treatment. In addition to all the ways that psychotherapy and talking with other people can help reduce stress, there are two ways that people can do this on their own: (1) reduce or eliminate stressful environmental factors or

The easiest way to manage stress is to reduce or eliminate stressors when possible. For some, this is a realistic goal. A highly demanding work or school environment that is overwhelmingly stressful can be managed. The employee can find a new job, or the student and parents can reduce course load, seek academic accommodations for a disability, or change schools to find a better fit. Creating a life that is manageable, pleasurable, and rewarding is something we should all strive to do.

If you are using any of these heavily, it could be an important contributing cause to any metabolic or mental symptoms you are having. You will likely need to address this before trying other interventions. If you have trouble doing this on your own, consider seeking professional help.

Depression in children, adolescents, and young adults is increasing as well. From 2006 to 2917, rates of depression the US increased by 68 percent in children ages twelve to seventeen. In people ages eighteen to twenty-five, there was an increase of 49 percent. For adults over the age of twenty-five, the rate of depression supposedly stayed stable.