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Both of these states hit all of us from time to time for legitimate reasons, but what we’re referring to here is that overwhelming sense of dread known as depression and the “Oh, my God, I’m just freaking out, but I don’t know why…” free-floating anxiety that the whole country seems to be being medicated for right now. The whole country – meaning Baby Boomers – are being prescribed AmbienSR®, Lunesta®, Sonata®, Prozac®, Zoloft®, Paxil®, Seraquel®, , Sarafem®, Effexor®, Celexa®, Cipramil®, Seroxat®, Aropax®, Lexapro®, Cipralex®, Luvox®, Faverin®, Cymbalta®, Wellbutrin®, Zyban®, Elavil® and Ativan®, Xanax® and Valium®. All of these drugs have soporific side-effects and some of them are just garden variety sleeping pills.
Mid-life means broken sleep and broken sleep means high serotonin levels that never had the chance to convert to melatonin in the dark and drop while you slept, because you didn’t. Serotonin that can’t convert in normal daily rhythms up and down will enact a fear response – like paranoia, panic or that feeling of trying to wade through peanut butter. In nature, serotonin goes up in response to “fight or flight” scenarios because serotonin is needed to metabolize stress hormones like cortisol.
The drugs mentioned above are predominantly SSRIs, some with a little nor-epinephrine effector added as a “chaser”. SSRIs are medications that evolve their effects at the serotonin transporter. They increase the level of serotonin by inhibiting its reuptake into the presynaptic void. Why would we need drugs to increase our serotonin, when we never sleep and it can’t drop? Because the range serotonin is in matters more than if it’s high or low. Low serotonin means no impulse control, high serotonin means numb or no effect. It’s an unrelenting static mid-range that means “frozen” stiff – it’s too hard to move, think or act; and the paranoia is crushing because in that fear state (see Lights Out for more about serotonin) you have free-floating anxiety. The more carbohydrate you eat the higher your serotonin goes. Self-medicating with cake or pasta is just as effective as Paxil. That’s also why most SSRIs cause weight gain. Doctors prescribe and the drug companies relentlessly research, but no one ever asks the big question: why can’t Baby Boomers sleep? The answer is in the fall-off of sex hormones. Sleep happens when HGH (human growth hormone) hits its own receptor and creates Slow Wave Sleep – the kind that keeps you asleep all night. HGH doesn’t have a receptor when estrogen goes missing. Estrogen hits its own receptor and provokes an HGH receptor. In men, testosterone converts to estrogen right in the brain. So when men hit andropause, they stop sleeping, too and have night sweats and stinky pillows. BHRT can restore mood, reverse depression and erase anxiety by letting you take back the night.
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