Brain Chemistry

     Hope is a positive emotion that releases brain chemicals, such as endorphins and enkephalins, which, in turn, reduce pain and promote healing. Wow! Let’s get more of that!

     Yet brain chemicals change when solutions to challenges fail or appear nonexistent; and when that in which we’ve put confidence, meaning, and purpose is removed, such as health, work, home, relationships…

     Loss, fear, and helplessness produce an imbalance in brain chemicals (such as neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine). That is a normal response for everyone.

     But without healthy intervention and without a solid source of hope, we can spiral down and down into a dark pit of hopelessness. Numbing addictions and thoughts of suicide result. A rather dark but common reality for a growing number of people, statistics report.

     What intervention is needed? Counseling and medications to correct brain hormone balance are recommended.

     Even more, we need answers: In what can we confidently place our worth and hope? What is immovable and unchanging? Where did that amazing, life-preserving link between hope and healthy brain hormones originate?

     The complexity and design of our bodies points in only one direction: The Creator, the All-powerful, All-wise, and Ever-present One, the Lover of our souls, the Rock of Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lean on Him for confidence! Grow in confidence as you know Him more and more deeply!