Depression – Getting Out and Staying Out
I’m about to make a statement which may cause major conflict, and have me earn a barrage of hate-mail. So I’ll just say it straight, but then read on before throwing the first stone.
Ready? Here it goes.
For many people getting out of depression is easy.
There I said it. Let the stoning begin. But before you do, if you’re not totally spitting venom yet, thinking “this guy has no idea what he’s talking about”, please bear with me.
Getting out of depression is easy in the sense that it is easier than what most people often realize. How do we know this? Because people do it all the time. Here’s the disclaimer. It’s easy… even if it’s getting out of depression for literally just a few minutes or seconds.
What’s the difference between sadness and depression? Being sad has been defined as being sorrowful, unhappy, downhearted, broken-hearted and just grief-stricken. Yet depressed means that, while a person might go through those emotions, she is likely to fall into a state of numbness where little or nothing brings her joy. That state of sadness transfers from, being a healthy vehicle to express unhappiness, right through to a state of being disconnected from others, and even self.
For the scientifically minded, when your slow wave in the left frontal area of the brain is over-activated, we now have an imbalance; and the right frontal area will become dominant, producing fear,or withdrawal,or anxiety. Thus, in that aspect, it is accurate to say that depression is chemical. (Even if it’s not totally accurate to say that the “culprit” is this “chemical imbalance in the brain”.
The sad thing is that, in repeating that depression is chemical, we rarely see it mentioned that those chemical imbalances can and regularly are, created by many things including diet and… thoughts. If we want to understand fully how depression is chemical it is of benefit to also understand how happiness is chemical.
So, on the one hand we have a bunch of people promoting pharmaceuticals, despite the growing evidence that these do little more than a placebo. On the other hand, and equally dangerous, we have a community voice that calls for the “psychological” approach on the basis that, just talking to a person that is down, will remove their depression. Anyone who has attended therapy for over 20 years with little improvement will likely agree that such “therapy” is not enough.
Do you know any such examples? Do you know people who have found a “good” therapist (in their perception) and who will feel immensely relieved after their session? But have you also noticed how these people oftenmention the dark clouds returning just three or four days after?In some cases, the darkness revisitsjust the day after.
Then the mood might have a slight upward climb, a day before the next session or, on the day of the session, simply on the expectation that “my therapist will make me feel good”. I know I am oversimplifying here but I am just trying to transmit the following. Yes, there is a place for such therapy and it can be highly valuable. But more often than not… it is not enough.
Therefore, what’s the next phase of helping the ever increasing number of people with depression? In the US alone it is estimated up to 25% of the population has some kind of mental illness. These are often provoked by physiological changes through other illnesses like diabetes, heart conditions, and other life-threatening illnesses. Many of that 25% end up specifically with depression.
One small light at the end of the tunnel is the increasing awareness of neuroscience’s role in dealing with depression. In brief, brain chemistry causes changes in emotions and… the good part… brain chemistry can be changed. And this is just one of a few examples of what I mean:
Here’s a short video that explains how biofeedback including neurofeedback can give a person information on measurements that combined with simple tools can allow a person to change those measurements of how they feel. (http://www.centerforbrain.com/)
Perhaps my biggest issue with the above is that it requires an external measure of those readers when—incases of depression—an individual himself, is the best guide of where he feels he is at emotionally. In other words, a simple question like “On a scale of 1-10 how happy do you feel?” will allow people to evaluate their own emotional reactions.
Which is perhaps why I have sung the praises of strategic intervention or activation method coaching for a while now. Having refused to take medication during a chronic depression in my own life I learnt how to change the neuro-chemistry of my brain through choosing my thinking patterns—and practising them!!
I practised them often when I felt up to it… but when I didn’t feel up to it I practised them twice as much. Huh? Yep. You read right. When I didn’t feel like it, I practised a whole lot more. Because ultimately I had understood that, if I focused on my negative emotion and on what I “felt” like doing, my negative emotions would grow and take over. I understood early that motivation was not going to come first and save me. Rather, I would need to do what I was unmotivated to do so that perhaps, one day, I may feel motivation.
Decades ago when depression hit me, I found that many times my negative emotions did just that thing of growing and taking over. Like a malevolent boss never satisfied with just treating his workers cruelly the voice would just domineer: “Ok Axel… that’s enough trying to do something positive. I order you to go into self-pity. Now stay in bed. Stop doing stuff… Doing stuff, especially productive things, may get you out of my control. So just sit and stay paralysed. That’s better.”
Thus, once I recognised the voice, I made a point of practising brain-chemistry-changing-tools, whether I felt like it, or not. Mind you… I had to do it without the full benefit of structured tools and strategies. To this day I am still amazed at, and grateful for, our brains’ ability to change itself, and in so doing, change our mind and our life.
Do not miss my next article, we will continue talking about the subject...
