There are many routes to mental well-being. In this groundbreaking book, neuroscientist Camilla Nord offers a fascinating tour of the scientific developments that are revolutionising the way we think about mental health, showing why and how events鈥攁nd treatments鈥攃an affect people in such different ways.
In The Balanced Brain, Nord explains how our brain constructs our sense of mental health鈥攁ctively striving to maintain balance in response to our changing circumstances. While a mentally healthy brain deals well with life鈥檚 turbulence, poor mental health results when the brain struggles with disruption. But just what is the brain trying to balance? Nord describes the foundations of mental health in the brain鈥攆rom the neurobiology of pleasure, pain and desire to the role of mood-mediating chemicals like dopamine, serotonin and opioids. She then pivots to interventions, revealing how antidepressants, placebos and even recreational drugs work; how psychotherapy changes brain chemistry; and how the brain and body interact to make us feel physically (as well as mentally) healthy. Along the way, Nord explains how the seemingly small things we use to lift our moods鈥攁 piece of chocolate, a walk, a chat with a friend鈥攚ork on the same pathways in our brains as the latest treatments for mental health disorders.
About the Author
Camilla Nord leads the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge. Her research has been featured in the New Statesman, the Daily Mail and the British Journal of Psychiatry, and on the BBC.