Brain Energy Movement
Welcome to the Brain Energy grassroots movement!
Here’s what we stand for:
1
Mental health is metabolic health.
Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. We need dramatic changes in mental health education, clinical care, and research. It is possible to put mental disorders into remission and this should be the goal of all treatments.
2
Mental health and physical health are inseparable.
Interrelated physical disorders – diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, Alzheimer’s Disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, and chronic pain — all have strong relationships with mental disorders. Treatments for all of these will overlap, even though there will be differences based on areas of the brain and body affected. Integration of these fields will lead to more rapid progress than continuing to treat them as unrelated, unique diagnoses. We need to treat whole people, not just individual symptoms or diagnoses.
3
Not every mental experience is a mental disorder.
Helping people cope with situations or experiences that cause anxiety, depression, or posttraumatic symptoms is different from helping people who are suffering from a metabolically malfunctioning brain.
4
Insurance should cover mental health and metabolic treatments.
Accessing quality care can be difficult and sometimes impossible. Insurance should provide appropriate reimbursement for clinicians, hospital care, residential care, dietitians, fitness trainers, health and wellness coaches, physical and occupational therapists, and rehabilitation specialists. These professionals and services target the root causes of mental and metabolic disorders.
5
Mental health research funding can affect every part of the health care cost curve.
From 2015 – 2019, only 4% of the global healthcare research funding was for mental health, even though mental disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide. The brain energy theory offers a new path for rapid progress in neuropsychiatric research and the development and validation of more effective treatments.
