[acb-hsp] Manic Nation

[peter altschul]

Manic Nation: Why Americans Are Anxious, Stressed, Depressed and 
Fat (And What We Can Do About X)
  Mary Fischer, Pacific Standard June 25, 2012
  Dr.  Peter Whybrow is lunching at a sushi bar near his office 
at the University of California, Los Angeles, but his attention 
is on the other diners.  Even while talking to their tablemates, 
they are constantly distracted.  They text, and repeatedly glance 
up at the wall-mounted TV screens.  Common habits, sure.  But to 
Whybrow, director of UCLA's Institute for Neuroscience and Human 
Behavior those jittery behaviors are prime examples of how modern 
American culture has outrun the biology of our brains.
  A British-born endocrinologist and psychiatrist, Whybrow has 
been fascinated with applying behavioral neuroscience to social 
issues since he took over the institute in 1998.  At the time, 
with the dot-com bubble swelling and the Internet expanding, he 
saw a dangerously rising tide of growing psychosocial stress and 
shrinking physiological balance.
  "Many of the usual constraints that prevented people from doing 
things 24 hours a day-like distance and darkness-were falling 
away," says Whybrow.  Our fast new lives reminded him of the 
symptoms of clinical mania: excitement over acquiring new things, 
high productivity, fast speech-followed by sleep loss, 
irritability, and depression.
  Whybrow believes the physiological consequences of this modern 
mania are dramatic, contributing to epidemic rates of obesity, 
anxiety, and depression.  In his forthcoming book, tentatively 
titled stThe Intuitive Mind: Common Sense for the Common Gdst, 
Whybrow explores how to repair the damage.  "Why is it that we've 
been railroaded down this path of continuous stimulation and 
can't seem to control ourselves?" he wonders.  "Why can't we just 
stop?"
  "The good news," he goes on, "is that we are now beginning to 
understand it from the perspective of brain science."
  "The computer is electronic cocaine for many people," says 
Whybrow.  "Our brains are wired for finding immediate reward.  
With technology, novelty is the reward.  You essentially become 
addicted to novelty."
  We can't stop because the brain has no built-in braking system.  
With most natural constraints gone, all we've got left is our own 
intelligence and the internal regulatory system in the frontal 
cortex, the most recent evolutionary addition to the brain.  This 
"executive brain" regulates impulse control and reasoning.  But, 
Whybrow notes, "despite our superior intelligence, we remain 
driven by our ancient desires."
  The most primitive part of our brain-the medulla and 
cerebellum-developed millennia ago when dinner tended to run or 
fly away.  It cradles the roots of the ancient dopamine reward 
pathways.  When an action has a good result, like snatching food 
before it escapes, or finding something new, dopamine 
neurotransmitters release chemicals that make us feel pleasure.  
And the more we get, the more we want.  When these reward 
circuits are overloaded with near-continuous spikes in dopamine, 
our craving for reward-be it drugs, sex, food, or incoming 
"exts-bbecomes a hunger that has no bounds," says Whybrow.
  While our brains' reward centers are in overdrive, so are their 
threat-warning systems.  The brain's hard-wired fight-or-flight 
response, buoyed by a rush of adrenaline, evolved as a response 
to acute emergencies, like fending off a charging lion.  Since 
the primitive "reptilian" brain can't distinguish between a real 
or potential threat, it responds to any psychosocial challenge, 
be it rush-hour traffic, overdue mortgage payments, or repeated 
deadlines, by triggering some measure of the fight/flight 
response.  "In the past, you either fought and won or you died, 
but either way the stress disappeared," explains Whybrow.  "Now 
the alarm bells go off much of the time as we encounter one 
prolonged threat."
  When the "threat" is ongoing, stress disrupts the communication 
network between the brain and immune system and accelerates the 
production of molecules called cytokines, the overproduction of 
which can result in inflammation and disease.  Prolonged stress 
also prompts the brainbs hypothalamus region to release cortisol, 
a hormone that raises blood sugar and blood pressure.  "When the 
stress response is continuously in play," explains Whybrow, "it 
causes us to become aggressive, hypervigilant, overreactive.
  Small wonder then that, according to the National Institute of 
Mental Health anxiety is now the nation's most common psychiatric 
complaint, affecting some 40 million people.  And the connection 
between mental stress and obesity has been well documented.
  So how does Whybrow himself cope, given the demands of running 
a huge institution with 400 faculty, a fast-approaching book 
deadline, and constant speaking engagements?
  In his office, during an hour-long interview, there was not a 
single interruption.  No email or text pings.  No ringing phones.  
His computer was closed.  His cell phone was turned off, as it 
usually is.  He sometimes works until 9 at night, but he doesn't 
work at home.  On weekends, he checks his email just once a day.
  "The idea is not that you don't work hard," Whybrow explains.  
"You do.  But you have to be able to switch it off and create 
space.  I've made a conscious decision to live a life that is not 
driven by someone else's priority." No matter how good that 
dopamine feels.
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