Neuroplasticity and Mental Health Recovery: How the Brain Heals and Rewires
Living with a mental illness can be scary, and not knowing what to do about it can be equally frightening.
However, many of the brain changes associated with mental illness are not necessarily permanent. Research into neuroplasticity shows that the brain retains the capacity to change and adapt, meaning recovery is possible for many people. Just knowing this can provide enormous hope, whether you have already begun treatment or have just started looking at your options
In this guide, we build on that hope by exploring:
- The science of neuroplasticity and mental health
- How the brain rewires itself
- How the brain heals after trauma
- How treatment can help with brain healing
- How therapy changes the brain
- Daily activities that promote brain change
How the Brain Rewires Itself
Until recently, scientists believed our brains stopped growing and changing once we reached adulthood. We now understand that this isn’t accurate.[1]
Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to strengthen weak neural connections, form new ones, and reorganize itself accordingly, is heavily involved in this process. It enables our brains to grow and heal throughout our lifetimes.2 Each time we learn something new, practice a skill, or have a meaningful life experience, patterns of neural activity change and connections between neurons are adjusted.
There is a phrase for this: neurons that fire together, wire together.[2]
In other words, repeated experiences strengthen neural pathways for future use. Learning to play an instrument is a great example of this. As a beginner, you have to think purposefully about where to place your fingers and when to move them. As you practice, though, your fingers move automatically because those movements have been ingrained in your brain’s circuits.
However, the body of mental health recovery neuroscience demonstrates that this process isn’t just involved in learning new skills.
For example, if you grew up in an unsafe household, your brain may have learned to stay in a state of high alert, constantly ready for danger. This type of neural hypervigilance is a function of what the brain is supposed to do: wiring pathways based on your experiences. Importantly, this same process works in reverse, so as you have new, safe experiences, your brain can build new pathways.[3],[4] It’s an example of resilience and brain plasticity.
What Happens in the Brain During Mental Illness
Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety don’t just alter your mood; they cause physical changes to your brain’s structure:
- The hippocampus (which is involved in memory and emotion) is smaller in people with depression, and the amount of shrinkage typically corresponds with the severity of the symptoms and the duration of the illness.[5],[6]
- The amygdala (the brain’s alarm system) becomes overactive, which makes situations feel more emotionally overwhelming or threatening than they actually are.[6],[7]
- Cortisol, which can have harmful effects on neurons, floods the brain during chronic stress, which leads to shrunken brain tissue and suppressed growth of new brain cells.[6]
- The brain’s idle state becomes overreactive in depression, which increases negative self-focus and rumination.[7]
Because of these physical changes, mental health recovery isn’t as simple as “getting over it” or “moving on.” Instead, recovery requires rewiring your brain to address the real, physical damage it’s sustained. Understanding these trauma recovery brain changes is a big part of why healing takes time and why treatment is so important.
What the Research Shows About Brain Healing After Trauma
When the brain sustains physical damage from trauma, it begins a process called synaptogenesis, during which new neurons and new neuronal connections are formed. You can think of it as your brain’s repair mode.[3]
During synaptogenesis, the brain works to reroute damaged pathways. Here’s an analogy: when construction crews are fixing a roadway, you have to take a detour around the damage to get where you need to go. A similar thing happens during synaptogenesis: the brain builds detours to restore functionality.[1],[3]
But just as everyone’s trauma is different, so too are the physical changes that occur in the brain. For example, two people may have similar experiences with verbal abuse from their spouse, but the neurological effects will be unique to both individuals.[3]
The Issue of Neuroinflammation
Another element to consider is neuroinflammation. When the brain experiences trauma, its immune system activates. This is a normal and necessary part of the healing process.[3]
The issue is that while short-term inflammation is normal, chronic inflammation is not. When immune cells in the brain remain active for too long, they can impede recovery. Not only that, but neuroinflammation can damage healthy tissue.[3],[8] For example, in instances of long-term stress, the brain’s immune cells have diminished neuroplasticity. Furthermore, activation of these cells is linked to depression.[5],[7]
Building Cognitive Reserve
Fortunately, your brain has a safety net called cognitive reserve. This term refers to the totality of neural connections your brain has built over its lifetime. This works as something of a buffer. The more cognitive reserve you have, the more likely your brain is to recover more quickly and thoroughly from trauma. Moreover, higher cognitive reserve is associated with greater resistance to age-related brain decline.[9],[10]
Building cognitive reserve doesn’t require you to undertake complex tasks, either. Just as everyday experiences like learning a new skill or participating in social activities benefit neuroplasticity, they also help build the density of connections that your brain can tap into when it needs to draw on your cognitive reserve.[4]
Supporting your brain’s health isn’t something that only happens when things go awry, like a mental health issue. Instead, it’s a lifelong process. Meeting new people, learning how to knit, taking a class, journaling; it all contributes to your brain’s resiliency.
Neuroplasticity Therapy for Depression: Treatment That Rewires the Brain
Brain growth and emotional healing go hand in hand. A good case study is treatment for depression. When you participate in therapy, it changes how you feel, your outlook on life, and your ability to function normally again. But it also ushers in physical changes in the structure and connectivity of your brain.[5],[6]
From a neuroplasticity standpoint, the goal of treatment is to roll back the damage depression has caused in your brain. This takes many forms, including rebuilding synaptic connections, restoring volume to your brain’s grey matter, and helping the brain achieve a better balance between overactive and underactive neural networks.[6],[7]
Neuroplasticity therapy for depression works with your brain’s natural mechanisms to heal, not separately from them.[6] This is why brain rewiring techniques in therapy are so effective, because they harness processes your brain already uses.
Antidepressants and Slow Rewiring Response
The most common complement to therapy for depression is antidepressants. This class of drugs helps regulate neurotransmitter levels in your brain[6][7], the result of which is a relief of some of depression’s most common symptoms, like feelings of hopelessness and despair, low mood, and inability to concentrate.
But their effects go much deeper. For example, certain antidepressants like serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) enhance the process of neurogenesis and have a positive effect on synaptic remodeling. They also increase the level of BDNF, a protein in the brain that’s critical for the growth of new neurons and the survival of existing ones.[7]
These processes take time, though. Usually, antidepressants take weeks at a minimum to begin having measurable changes in your brain. In many instances, months are needed for antidepressants to rebuild your brain tissue.[6]
Fast-Acting Treatments
In some cases, faster options than therapy or antidepressants are needed to rebuild the brain’s neural networks.
In recent years, ketamine has become a popular drug treatment that produces positive effects within hours of first administration. It does so by activating glutamate in the brain, which in turn stimulates the development of new neural structures and connections.[5] A good analogy is jumpstarting your car when the battery is dead; it might not fix the long-term issue, but it gets the process going quickly.
Additional fast-acting options include the following:[6],[7]
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) uses targeted magnetic pulses to stimulate specific areas of the brain, triggering neuroplastic activity. You’re awake during administration and feel only a light tapping sensation on your head.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is performed while you’re asleep, and involves highly controlled electrical pulses to your brain, again, to stimulate neural recovery. ECT carries a lot of stigma from outdated portrayals in the media, but it is a safe and effective option, especially for treatment-resistant depression.
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical procedure in which small electrodes are strategically placed inside your brain. These electrodes are connected to a control device under your skin, much like a pacemaker. The device sends continuous signals to your brain to help regulate abnormal neural activity. Since it involves surgery, it is usually the option of last resort.
These medical interventions show how effectively your brain can be rebuilt. But they aren’t the only options. Therapy can be just as powerful.
How Therapy Changes the Brain
Though psychotherapy is often portrayed as just talking through your feelings, it’s actually a neurological act. You’re putting your feelings and experiences into words and bringing your unconscious thoughts into conscious awareness. Doing so helps unlock parts of your brain that trauma has shut down.[2]
Brain imaging studies support this finding. For example, brain scans show that therapy helps normalize overactive brain structures, activate inhibited cortical circuits, and bind emotional and sensory experiences into integrated neural networks.[2],[11]
CBT is effective in addressing the symptoms of mental health conditions like anxiety, as well as the structural changes needed to bring the brain back to normal functioning. When used to treat social anxiety disorder, CBT helps normalize brain responses so that brain functionality is indistinguishable from that of people without anxiety.
[11]
The Therapeutic Relationship as a Neuroplasticity Tool
Considering how therapy changes the brain requires a look at the therapeutic relationship as well. It isn’t just a supportive, empathic relationship; it’s also a mechanism for enhancing neuroplasticity.
When you develop a trusting, safe relationship with your therapist, many of the same brain systems involved in early attachment bonding (e.g., with your parents or other caregivers) are activated. This is critical, as these systems are highly connected to neural development.[2] Additionally, the connection with your therapist enhances your capacity for emotional regulation, something necessary for recovery from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
The changes your brain experiences in therapy don’t stop there. Research shows that psychotherapy strengthens synaptic connections, which enhances communication between brain regions and stabilizes neural pathways. Beyond that, effective psychotherapy even alters gene expression, meaning it changes your brain on a molecular level. If you’ve had a good experience in therapy before, this is why.[2]
Neuroplasticity Exercises for Mental Health
Neuroplasticity and mental health recovery aren’t something that only occurs in a hospital or therapist’s office. Instead, your lifestyle can significantly impact how your brain rewires itself. The following aren’t silver bullets, but each one demonstrates how habits change the brain:
- Aerobic exercise promotes the release of BDNF, the protein discussed earlier. It reduces inflammation, improves blood flow, and helps reverse shrinking in the hippocampus.[4]
- Sleep is essential for repairing neural pathways in the brain. You should get at least seven hours of sleep each night.[1]
- Nutrition determines how well your brain can recover and repair itself. A Mediterranean diet is one option for supporting brain health, potentially reducing the risk of cognitive decline, and reversing the negative effects of eating processed foods and refined sugars.[4]
- Mindfulness exercises facilitate structural changes in brain regions responsible for memory, attention, and emotional regulation. They also minimize damage from stress and help reduce cortisol levels in the brain.[4],[6]
- Social connections are key to reinforcing neural connections and building cognitive reserves. By comparison, social isolation is associated with diminished neuroplasticity and a greater likelihood of mental illness.[4],[1]
- Lifelong learning produces new synaptic connections in the brain. And, like having strong social connections, it helps build up cognitive reserve.[4],[2]
- Aerobic exercise promotes the release of BDNF, the protein discussed earlier. It reduces inflammation, improves blood flow, and helps reverse shrinking in the hippocampus.[4]
Each of these habits is a reminder that healing takes place each day, often in the course of normal activities. Your brain is already wired to heal; it’s a matter of giving it the appropriate context to do so.
Your Brain Was Built to Heal, and Mission Connection Can Help
Neuroplasticity and mental health recovery have a close relationship. While trauma does real damage to your brain, that damage can be reversed thanks to the biological mechanisms that make the brain such a remarkable organ in the first place. But your brain’s biology needs help, and supportive treatment is the ideal partner. Starting that process takes courage, though.
Mission Connection provides the kinds of neuroplasticity-informed care explored above: CBT, trauma-informed care, and medication management, to name a few. You don’t have to understand how these services work, nor do you need to fully grasp the neuroscience of brain rewiring. Can the brain recover from mental illness? Absolutely! Reach out to us today, and we can discuss the next steps.
