» Depression

Caffeine and Sugar

kevin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:56:32 +0000

Of all the things one can do to improve his or her mood, reducing or eliminating sugar and caffeine is at once one of the easiest and the most difficult. There is no question that caffeine and sugar, alone or in combination, cause dramatic mood swings, especially in larger quantities. Eliminating them can help with mood in just a few weeks, but their addictive qualities make them difficult to give up.

The brain becomes dependent on the lift from the drug and “forgets” how to function without it. It can take several weeks for the body’s natural processes to take over as the drug is withdrawn. I suggest reducing the amount of caffeine and sugar in your diet over a three week period and keeping a log of your mood as you do. Your goal should be to get to zero and just commit to that for a week to notice the difference it makes for you.

Medication

kevin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:12:50 +0000

There is no doubt that there are indeed expressions of mental illness that are diagnosable as organic problems that can only be treated with medication. Yet even in some severe cases, there seems to some room for cognitive intervention. I was reading a case study this morning about someone with severe anxiety disorder. It was so severe that the patient removed an IV twice during an attempt to treat her. The interesting comment made by the physician though was that “her sister calmed her down by talking to her and they were able to get the IV in the third time.” Do you see the paradox here?

The Power of Words

kevin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:55:17 +0000

The language we use is directly connected to the way we feel. Words respresent the associations we’ve made with our experience with the outside world and our responses to them. This is obvious when we think of major events in our lives. Someone who has lived through a major earthquake will respond with a different set of emotions when they hear the word “earthquake” than someone who hasn’t. Those emotions will vary widely among people who have had the same experience. It depends on the meaning given to that word at the time of the event.

Words that have common cultural meaning, however, can evoke remarkably similar emotional responses. And each emotional response has a corresponding physiological response, so this is easy to test.

In this exercise, pay close attention to your body and slowly repeat out loud the following phrases:

- I can’t
- I’m not
- I wish
- I have to
- I must
- I’ll try

Most people describe their body as feeling stiff or tight when repeating these simple words. Their breathing is shallow and their awareness is limited. These phrases presuppose lack, scarcity and uncertainty, things most people like to avoid. Now repeat the following alternative phrases aloud and notice what your body does.

- I can
- I am
- I have
- I choose
- I claim
- I will

This time you may have even spoken a little louder. Your breathing was a little deeper, and there was a lightness in your body that felt uplifting. Your brain did this for you automatically, the same way it created the feelings with the first group of phrases. These phrases presuppose power, confidence and control over one’s destiny. Presuppositions are great tools for pursuasion – especially with yourself.

So for the next 30 days, choose to eliminate the negative phrases in the first group and replace them with the positive phrases in the second group. Just doing this will reduce some of the stress in your life.

A New Look at Alcohol

kevin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:40:13 +0000

One of the major principles of sobriety support groups like AA and SOS is maintenance of confidentiality and anonymity. While I realize that it is possible that harm can come from certain people knowing that one has an addiction, there is also harm done in keeping the condition a secret.

One of the driving factors in any addiction is shame. And it’s shame that keeps the disorder out of sight and therefore out of support. Naturally there are people who are judgemental whose attitudes and words can increase the persons feellings of worthlessness, but for the most part, admitting the condition openly will REDUCE the shame. The person can now be okay and still have the condition without BEING the condition.

The whole idea of labeling someone an “alcoholic” is contrary to helping someone overcome shame. By wearing the label, the person now sees themselves as flawed, and in being flawed, one feels inadequate and less than human. How could being addicted to a substance not required for human survival be a flaw? It’s crazy.

Only by being accepted as one is can one overcome shame. If there is always something to hide, the shame will persist, and so will the addiction.

Your Environment and Depression

kevin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:57:54 +0000

Your environment is a critical component in how you feel. It is important to note that there are three components – the external reality, your perception of it, and your reaction to it. So while one person can be surrounded by tragedy and sadness and emerge seemingly unscathed, another may experience life changing trauma that can take years to undo. This can be very complex, but there are some simple things one can control that can make a noticeable difference in the way one feels.

Television news is perhaps one of the most pernicious sources of ideas that one can feed his or her brain. Here is a medium that by design deletes any evidence of life being good and then dramatizes the bad news that is left. And you can have this 24 hours a day. Unless you are able to be truly objective when viewing this, there is little doubt that over time, it begins to make you cynical and you will begin to globalize the what you see and hear. Even if it is only on in the background, your brain is picking up the words and ideas and forming opinions and views based on this input. It is a form of subtle programming. I strongly recommend you give up all TV news for at least one week just to notice how you feel and to never watch the late night news before going to bed.
This one step can make a profound difference for most people.

What else makes up your environment? Your friends, family and co-workers are key ingredients in the environmental soup of your life. And they are things that you have surprising control over. It is very important to understand what I mean by control. You cannot change anything about the people you surround yourself with, but you can change who you surround yourself with or how your react to them.

There are two kinds of people you do not want to surround yourself with. Those who bring you down, and those who keep you down. The ones who bring you down are those whose behaviors and view on life are consistently negative. The ones who keep you down are those that listen to you when you’re feeling down and then sympathize with you! I know that you may value these people, and certainly there is a time for them, but if you have someone whose shoulder you have been leaning on time and time again, and they don’t offer you any alternatives to your negative thinking, they are not helping you!

Thinking and Depression

kevin — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:07:36 +0000

Martin Seligman is a psychologist who has done extensive work on learning and behavior. Specifically, he discovered through animal and human studies, that people can learn to become helpless. Through his work, he determined that the way people explain events to themselves and others, not only affects how they feel, it predicts how they will perform.

People who are optimistic tend to view bad events as temporary, specific and external. They tend to view good events as lasting, general and personal. Pessimists do just the opposite. They view bad events as permanent, global and personal and they view good events as temporary, specific and impersonal. When the ultimate pessimist and the ultimate optimist get together, the pessimist sees the optimist as an irresponsible jerk. What is the optimist’s view of the pessimist? He may not have any view at all because he is not influenced by the negativity of outside sources. If he does form an opinion, he’ll likely see the pessimist as an unmotivated loser.

This is important because extreme pessimism is an indicator for depression. Being aware of, and if necessary changing your explanatory style is an important factor in mental health. Of course it can go too far, and it is pessimism is sometimes necessary. If Captain Sullenberger thought he could get his airplane back to the airport instead of plunging it into the Hudson, the outcome would have been quite different.

Your explanatory style is something you have been practicing for years, and one the consequences of this is that over time you believe what you’re saying! This is the principal behind affirmations but with added horsepower. The things you tell yourself you also tell others, so there is constant reinforcement and an illusion of evidence to support what you’re saying. Notice I said illusion of evidence because in order to believe some of the things we say, we distort reality. It’s a matter of whether we distort it in our favor or not.

So if you’re telling yourself that “bad things always happen to you” then to believe that you must delete a whole lot of evidence to the contrary. Now this belief becomes more deeply rooted and your behavior as a result will create more bad events thereby creating more evidence. The only way out is to dispute these irrational thoughts and come up with evidence to support the opposite.

(You can use your new explanatory style to redefine your past. If you tend to ruminate on some past event or events, it’s likely that you’re telling yourself that it was your fault and that because of that, everything that cascaded from that event could have been prevented, “if only…” Hogwash! If those thoughts return, visit them with an inquisitive mind. Challenge their validity and find evidence to support the view that it was not your fault, that it was indeed the fault of something outside of you. Then look at it as an isolated event. It may appear that because of X, Y happened, but probably isn’t something you can prove – so why bother?)

Seven Components of Depressive Moods

kevin — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:30:07 +0000

Although certain life events can lead to depressive moods, there are seven things that are commonly present regardless of the external event. I will outline them here, and explore them in detail in future blogs.

1. Thinking. When you’re feeling depressed, you’re thinking depressing thoughts. But where do these come from?

2. Language. Your thoughts are made up of language and there is some key language that is connected with depressing thoughts. These are habits developed in childhood that can be changed and will make a major difference in every area of your life. (semantics)

3. Philosophy. Your beliefs and generalizations about the world around you creates rules for how you respond to things in your environment. Your rules about what should be and how you, and the people around you are expected to behave influence the way you feel. This is somewhat related to language, but it goes deeper than that.

4. Physiology and Behavior. As we just saw, your body has a lot to do with the way you feel. The way you hold yourself and the way you move affect the way you feel. How much sleep and exercise you get will also affect your body and therefore you mood. The things you do and the way you engage with others are also a critical components.

5. Triggers. Adverse events that one has learned to associate with the feeling of being depressed. The association can be triggered by a symbol, a sound or even a physical sensation. Once again, these can be changed.

6. Environment. You’ve probably heard at some point that you’re responsible for your thoughts. Well you’re also responsible for your environment and that includes the TV you watch, the things your read, and the people you hang out with. It also includes your job and your daily routine and activities. Some of the things in your environment either condition you and reinforce your mood, or are the source the triggers as I mentioned before.

7. Bio/Chemicals. This includes food, alcohol, legal and illegal drugs and nicotine. I will also include here the chemicals that naturally swim around in your brain.

Feeling Scarcity

kevin — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:49:32 +0000

One of the principles of Neuro Linguistic Programming is that emotions are stored in our bodies, as well as our brains. One of the places this shows up is when people fall on hard times economically and have trouble meeting their basic needs, or even need to shut down their greater desires. Scare-city is an appropriate word for what the brain goes through during this times, and it is common for people to feel constricted in their bodies as well as their wallets. People describe a tightness in their stomachs, or a restriction in the movement of their limbs. They may even experience high blood pressure as their arteries constrict in response to the brains perception of “danger” from not having enough. It’s important to recognize these physical feelings because they can make you ill. Take time to relax and be present, as difficult as that may seem. If you focus on NOW, you are likely to realize that in this moment, at this very time, you have everything you need. From this place, you can be more resourceful in solving problems and deciding on alternatives.

Pangs

kevin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:13:11 +0000

Yep, even me, the professor of positive attitude, has some pangs of a down mood today. The slower economy is causing me to contract, and I feel it in my body when I give it my attention. Then, I was reading about some successful CEOs this morning and found myself COMPARING - a slippery slope that can only lead to feelings of diminish self-worth. I caught myself, and shook it off, but wanted to take this opportunity to caution readers against the temptation to compare. The thoughts that spill out of that kind of thinking sometimes begin with “If only I’d…” The only way from there is down.

Depression and Weight Loss

kevin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:38:22 +0000

The economy may have you down, and for some that means the possibility of gaining weight. Some people react to stress by eating more and they describe being “out of control” as they do. It’s almost like they are unconscious, and to some degree they are.

If you find yourself mindlessly going to the fridge and grazing when you’re not hungry, the first thing to do is gain awareness. What kinds of things are happening immediately before you decide to eat? Look for patterns; then set up ways to interrupt that pattern. If you get the mail, see the bills and then head for the potato chips, then you know what the trigger is. Now you need to consciously change your response. Decide in advance that the next time you get the bills you will immediately do something constructive after reading it. Go for a walk, do some sit ups, check Facebook, or call a friend to say hi.

This will eliminate the behavior, but changing the way you feel in response to seeing the mail is the bigger solution. We’ll talk about that in a future blog.