Paper 2

 The brain is a truly extraordinary organ, one that makes up all of our consciousness, governs our actions, and creates our perceptions of the world. Despite the brain being so small, it is responsible for everything that makes us, well us. Things like our thoughts, our emotions, our decisions, and even our relationships are all from the brain. Yet, despite its central role, it can be a fragile thing, and the effects of imbalances, whether caused by injury, diseases, or drug use, can dramatically alter the course of a person’s life. My personal relationship to both brain related injuries, both physical and mental, have led me down a path of discovery of how imbalances in the brain can also have a large effect on others as well.

Growing up I was a three sport athlete in all collision sports. I always thought they were a joke. Every year we had to spend an hour or so doing concussion protocol testing and it always seemed to be a waste of time. I had one concussion in my life and it wasn’t that big a deal. Some freshman was messing around and was swinging around a defensive lacrosse stick and it hit me in the back of the head and made me stumble. I experienced a slight mood swing while I tried to chase him down for hitting me until my coach got to him before I did. The concussion then just became an excuse for me to get out of school.

I guess I finally realized that they were a serious issue when one day I accidentally made a kid go blind in one eye for a while because his brain had swelled up. The freshman had just gotten off of concussion protocol and was back at practice. He was goofing off with his friends on the sidelines while the coach was talking so I came up behind them and hit their helmets yelling at them to pay attention. I didn’t know that he had just gotten a concussion, because if I did, I wouldn't have done it. But, sure enough, that kid went blind in one of his eyes because of the hit to the helmet and had to get rushed to the hospital.

This event really impacted me, especially when I started coaching wrestling. As a coach, the responsibility for the safety and well-being of my young athletes became even more important. I have seen how athletes dismiss concussion protocols as a stupid protocol that is a waste of time, but that mindset can have life-altering consequences. The brain, even though it is a powerful original, requires care, and it's important that we as a society, and in our sporting communities, normalize taking proper care and protocols. following concussion protocols shouldn’t be just a formality; it's a matter of protecting something that essentially makes us who we are.

Concussions are not the only way that the brain can get jumbled up. For me, the issue of brain imbalances hits very close to home due to my family's history with schizophrenia. This psychotic disorder causes hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking. It has also taken the lives of a couple of my family members. The more I learned about the illness, the more I found out how complexly it’s connected to imbalances in the brain, especially imbalances in the neurotransmitters called dopamine, which plays an important role in mood regulation and decision-making .

Schizophrenia is caused by a bunch of different factors like genetic and environmental factors, but the main catalyst for the disease is actually dopamine imbalances. Larger amounts of dopamine in certain parts of the brain cause delusions and hallucinations while too little dopamine in others can result in lack of motivation and inability to feel pleasure. 

One of the worst problems that is hurting modern society is drug addiction. Having grown up in Oregon, which was one of the first states to legalize weed, it was easy to see the effect that drugs took on people around me. Drugs are mostly associated with ways of escaping from the pain being experienced in life or relaxing and having fun.. In reality, drugs throw the brain's chemicals into an imbalance in such a manner that may lead to drug addiction, mental health issues, and long-term damage to the user.

One example of how drugs cause imbalances: substances such as opioids end up flooding the brain with dopamine, creating a feeling of temporary euphoria, which goes hand in hand with a harsh crash that will leave the person clinically depressed and wanting for more. With stimulants, it gives energy for a short time, but the after effects include anxiety and paranoia, plus severe health consequences in the long run. The most tragic part is that drug addiction doesn't only destroy an individual; it destroys families and communities. Children grow up without parents, relationships get shattered, and the sense of safety and security within the community crumbles.

I have literally watched friends that were once full of promise get completely consumed by it. Friends who had the potential to be great athletes end up getting "perma-baked" and simply waste away. I've watched people's mental and physical deterioration, their lives completely spiraling out of control. The effects that it does to mental health are terrible: drugs take over the brains of users, rewarding them for taking the drug by creating long-term changes in mood, perception, and behavior. These changes can make recovery difficult and, in many cases, impossible.

Drug abuse and mental health disorders are not solely personal issues, but problems of society. The costs to society permeate throughout: torn families from drugs, stigmatized or misunderstood mental health disorders, and entire communities falling into addiction and violence. These issues demand much more than punitive responses; they call for a compassionate, multifaceted approach.

As a society, we need to provide education, access to mental health, and resources for addictive or mentally ill behavior. I think that the involvement of psychology could be a huge asset to biologists in the pursuit of how best to help people caught in these behaviors because what we have now isn’t working too great. Don’t get me wrong, there has been a ton done already that has been proven to help, i am just saying we could do so much more.

There are several stories of people who have come out of an addiction problem, stories of those who find their way back from the edge. It is such stories that give hope, reminding us that recovery is possible, provided we extend the support and understanding necessary. This means making a commitment to using our skills and knowledge to help others, to not judge but rather emphasize empathy, and also to be aware that imbalances of the brain-whatever the cause of an injury, an illness, or drugs-are not anybody's fault, yet again a result of fragile, intrusive systems at work inside the brain. 

The brain is central to who we are. It governs our thoughts, actions, and feelings; if it becomes imbalanced, the effect can be disastrous. Concussions, other mental disorders, and drug addiction all involve disruption in normal chemistry, with suffering and loss the result. Understanding, compassion, and a commitment to protecting and healing the brain hold the key to mitigating the suffering of those afflicted. We need to follow concussion protocols, seek better treatments for our mental health issues, and find the root of addictions if we want, slowly, to be able to balance not only within ourselves but also in our families, communities, and overall society. The brain is just too important to neglect, and every step toward ensuring its health should be taken, not just for us but also for generations to come.