#brain chemistry

[escuerzoresucitado]

[ipsey]

PSA: Don't cold turkey psych meds. Or any meds that have anything to do with your brain.

Ideally, stopping any medication should be done under the instructions of a doctor. You are ultimately responsible for your own body and if you tell your doctor "I understand the risks, but I don't want to take this anymore" they will help you stop taking the meds. If you cannot get in contact with your doctor for whatever reasons, CALL THE PHARMACY. In the US, you can call any pharmacy, even if you do not have anything to do with them, and ask them any medication question, and they are legally required to answer as a matter of public safety. They cannot charge you. Most countries should have similar laws but I am not a lawyer, just someone who worked at a pharmacy in the States and now works with medications in Denmark. If you are running low and cannot reach a doctor to renew your prescription, or have lost insurance or whatever reason you have that you do not have enough medication, CALL THE PHARMACY. They will give you instructions on how to safely manage until you CAN get in touch with the pharmacy. Some places in the US they have the discretion to issue you a two week supply, which should be enough to talk to a doctor. You may have to pay for this, but if you have a prescription on record and it shows that you're out of refills, they can sometimes give you enough to get by. Otherwise, they will give you instructions on how to safely manage your remaining medication to reduce any withdrawal effects.

Quitting any medication that affects brain chemistry has very serious consequences. When I worked at the pharmacy I had my own database of professional information to look up, but when I stopped I started using www.drugs.com to look up any medication questions I had. It also has a handy pill identifier so you can look up any pills you're uncertain about. I once called CVS from Denmark in the middle of the night, and they took my call. I used the Walgreens chat service from Germany and they still answered my questions. It does not matter, they do not check. Just call or use the chat, and ask to speak to a pharmacist. This does not just apply to psych meds like antidepressants and anti anxiety. You cannot stop seizure medication cold turkey either! I am obsessive about my anti epileptics and am religious about getting renewals because the withdrawals can include increased seizures, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts.

If you are a professional and have more information, PLEASE add it to the post. My information is out of date and mostly related to a country I don't live in anymore. I have just seen too many beloved people talk about quitting their meds cold turkey - or just plain stopping it without letting anyone know and experiencing horrific withdrawals. I love you all too much to let you suffer. Please take care of yourself.

[batwynn]

I had a pretty bad day yesterday (too sick to push through read the news dreading going back to bigot land to live in a tent) so I grumped around in bed most of the day until I couldn’t stand even that anymore and stomped outside into the night to spend an hour looking for frogs and hanging out with the perpetually single Woodcock.

100/10 experience and highly recommended. Did not cure me, but snapped me out of the trapped feeling for a while. So, you know, touching grass hunting for frogs and chillin with a bird should definitely be a part of your mental health tool kit.

[pisceanpharies]

"Love at first sight"? That's a strange and quick way to describe loneliness, libido, lack of clarity, and lack of logic, which all too commonly result in toxic co-dependency.

[mouthtapedguy]

Humanity invented philosophy, religion, and international law just to keep losing arguments to one random chemical reaction

[windudemon]

JUNGIAN COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS ARE REALLY NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Dopamine (Ne) is all about exploration, novelty, and active engagement with the world. It’s testing, experimenting, seeing what works, and staying open to multiple perspectives in real time. It’s "what if" thinking, bouncing between ideas, trying them out, and learning through trial and error. This is why the dopamine pathway is short and reactive, driving people to act quickly and be highly responsive to stimuli.

Acetylcholine (Ni) is much more about conception, depth, and refinement. It’s about filtering through possibilities, refining, and finding the most efficient path. This is more about a long-term vision, where you discount distractions and focus on what’s likely to work based on deep internal understanding. Like Ni, acetylcholine works with refined material, builds on past knowledge, and strives for clarity over time. Quality control over quantity. The pathway is longer, as it requires more time for reflection and synthesis.

Norepinephrine (Se) = Sensory Engagement / External Stimulation: Norepinephrine is often about stimulation, arousal, and action in the present moment, which matches Se's focus on immediate sensory input and the world outside. Se engages directly with external stimuli, maximizing the sensory experience—seeing, hearing, touching, and reacting to what's right in front of them, seeking novel or impactful experiences. Norepinephrine similarly drives people to engage with their surroundings, often seeking intensity and excitement. Both want to be in the moment and responsive to the environment.

GABA = Si (Introverted Sensing): GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it calms down neural activity and contributes to a sense of stability, relaxation, and grounding. This is highly similar to Si, which is about internal sensory recall, stability, and creating a grounded mental state based on past experiences. Just like Si helps us process and stabilize memories and experiences, GABA contributes to calmness and internal balance.

--------

Ooops. Clickbait. Only the perceiving functions can be directly associated with neurotransmitters but here is why:

Perceiving functions (Ne, Ni, Se, Si) are more fundamental in terms of information gathering and conceptualizing because they deal with raw data, sensory input, and ongoing experience. These are processes that happen almost automatically and are more closely tied to the REACTIONS of the brain to immediate stimuli, which is where neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, and serotonin come into play.

Judging functions, on the other hand, are higher-order, more abstract, and deal with organizing, categorizing, and deciding how to act on the information the perceiving functions gather. These processes tend to be more cognitive, involving more logical, computational thinking (yes, fi too!), which requires less direct chemical input and is mediated by higher-level brain areas like the prefrontal cortex. They are more internalized, less reactive to real-time input, and more about evaluating and controlling the data.

-----------

But hey! If you really twist my arm, I could associate Fi with serotonin and Fe with oxytocin.

When it comes to Te and Ti, all I can think of is the lack of serotonin and oxytocin. You lack love, you are less moody, you think more robotic, sticking to the facts as opposed to idealistic or personal or communal values.

[another-young-wallflower]

caffeine, sertraline and self-isolation >>