Mission Statement: This website, www.gammaaminobutyricacid.org, strives to be a useful resource for individuals seeking more information on how the neurotransmitter GABA (and other things tangentially related) can improve their lives by tackling problems such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and epilepsy.
Why?
Depression is a serious issue. So serious, in fact, that more than 4% of the world’s population has been diagnosed with it. You might be thinking, “4% doesn’t sound like much. After all, the other 96% of the world is doing fine, right?” From that perspective, it really doesn’t sound that bad. But when you do the math, 4% of the entire world is still 280 million people who are being affected by this terrible problem, and that should be setting off some alarm bells.
What’s truly damning about depression is that it tortures its victims. It makes them feel like life isn’t worth living, that their actions are pointless, that there is no hope, even if they try to think otherwise. It does this over a long period of time, causing people’s lives to crumble around them while they’re helpless to do anything. People can suffer from depression for decades. It ruins their social life, their work life, their love life, and it can eventually take their life if the depression is severe enough.
As someone who has suffered intense social anxiety leading to mild depression, I can empathize. I also found out that some of my friends and family have depression and it broke my heart seeing their potential being squandered away by something infecting their mind, just like myself. And as I asked them about it and did some research on my own, I found out that some forms of depression can’t be willed away (e.g. depression from a chemical imbalance, such as a lack of GABA). You can’t just “man up” from it. There is no on or off switch that can be flipped on a whim. But there are ways to treat it.
And, almost as if by miracle, I was able to discover GABA and how it was showing evidence that could possibly support the treatment of depression and anxiety, as well as other problems like insomnia and epilepsy. I won’t be going into how it does this during the about page, but below I will provide some links to articles I have already researched and written on this subject.
And for those who have no idea what depression is like, there is a great interactive non-fiction game by the name of Depression Quest that you can try out. I have tried it myself and can personally vouch that it is worth your time. Many who suffer from depression have tried it out also and have commented on how eerily accurate it is to their lives and thought processes, though I do not recommend it if you think it might trigger episodes.
At the end of the day, I sincerely hope this website will help people on their quest to overcome their depression, anxiety, etc., and that ultimately the world will be a happier place because of that.
Some articles I wrote:
This should serve as a good starting place for people who have absolutely no idea what GABA is and wants to get up to speed.