M LaVora Perry
Aug 28, 2017 · 1 min read

And in my original response to your article, I said that in my readings and personal experiences psychiatric researchers and clinical practitioners always make it clear that mental illnesses typically have both a biological and environmental cause. The issue is which is the most problematic in the case of a particular illness and individual— nature or nuture — or are they more or less equally so.

What I may not have made clear is that the medical community typically holds that nature and nuture affect one another. Our experiences literally alter our brain, which, in turn, alters or thinking and behaviors. So the study of an individual’s brain — i.e. biology — and the study of one’s past and present environmental influences (here, I’m defining environment as everything that is not one’s brain, including other parts of one’s body) are not generally thought to be mutually exclusive by psychatirc researchers and physicians — at least in theory they aren’t so. In practice, you’re probably right — too often psychiatric illness are treated as if the biology of the brain is the sole cause of them.

Here, I’ll tout Dr. Daniel Amen once again. His treatment plans are holistic. Brain imaging is a key component of them but not the only one.

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M LaVora Perry

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I'm a mother, actor, and author of “Taneesha Never Disparaging,” a humorous book about a black Buddhist 5th grader| ig, tw, li @mlavoraperry mlavoraperry.com

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