Ever wondered what's going on in the brain of someone struggling with depression? In this video, we'll delve into the complex world of neuroscience to explore the fascinating and often misunderstood world of depression. From neurotransmitters to brain regions, we'll break down the latest research to give you a deeper understanding of what happens in the depressed brain. Whether you're looking to learn more about your own mental health or want to support a loved one, this video is for you. So, let's dive in and uncover the intricacies of the depressed brain together!
SADNESS vs DEPRESSION:
Depression, a complex mental health condition, affects millions of individuals worldwide, manifesting in various forms and intensities. Understanding the multifaceted nature of depression is crucial in identifying effective solutions that can lead to recovery and improved quality of life. The solutions to depression are not one-size-fits-all; rather, they encompass a wide array of therapeutic approaches, lifestyle changes, and supportive measures that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of each individual.
SADNESS can be momentary or for a short period of time. DEPRESSION is nothing but continual extreme sadness over longer periods of time. It is important to recognize that depression is not a disease but a syndrome. Unlike a cold or fever, it is highly subjective and can only be understood by analyzing the symptoms described by the patient.
Your DEPRESSION to be qualified as CLINICAL DEPRESSION, it must last long for more than 2-weeks.
Most patients suffering from chronic do not engage themselves busily. They prefer to remain free from formal work, which contributes to their sadness. Idleness permits the free flow of thoughts, sad ones. They derive pleasure from feeling sad, often referred to as 'melancholic ecstasy'.
Medical professionals explain a variety of reasons for the cause of depression, such as hormonal imbalances, genetics, changes in the environment, high stress levels. Hormones such as Dopamine & Serotonin are responsible for various vital functions like mood, motivation, cognitive abilities or self-confidence and so on.
Now, let us examine the fundamental causes of sadness or depression.
COGNITIVE ERROR- THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF DEPRESSION:
Cognitive error (bias) is basically a distorted perception of reality. It's a faulty assessment of reality. This includes excessive focusing on either the positives or negatives of life, situation, person or anything. Cognitive error (bias) deludes your perspective, and makes you stay away from the ground reality.
Ex.- If you are experiencing intense negative emotions, triggered due to an undesirable event, immediately you come to the conclusion - 'It's over! I'm all f*cked up!' or 'I'm dead.!"
Cognitive errors lead to a catastrophizing attitude where the mind prepares itself for the worst possible outcome and fails to recognize other possible, including positive or neutral ones.
NEUROLOGY OF A DEPRESSED BRAIN:
Credits: Encyclopedia Britannica.inc
A neuron is basically a pathway for the nerve impulse through neural transmitters(others) through neural synapse, to reach the pre-frontal cortex of our brain where the rational decision making happens. This is a natural involuntary function that(should) happen routinely whenever we hear or receive any neural impulses.
Synapse is the junction between two neurons. It is a physiological continuity between two nerve cells. Thus, synapse is a part of the nervous system. It serves as structural basis of communication between the neurons in the central nervous system and between muscle cells and neurons in the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system consists of the nerves that branch out from the brain and spinal cord. These nerves form the communication network between the central nervous system and the body parts. The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord: The brain controls how we think, learn, move, and feel. The spinal cord carries messages back and forth between the brain and the nerves that run throughout the body.
As per National Library of Medicine -
"The best evidence that serotonin plays a role in the pathophysiology of depression comes from studies of “tryptophan depletion”, where an acute dietary manipulation is employed to produce a transient lowering in brain serotonin activity through diminishing availability of its precursor amino acid, tryptophan."
Serotonin in the brain regulates and is often referred to as the body's natural "feel good" chemical. When serotonin levels are normal, one feels more focused, emotionally stable, happier, and calmer. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain. It plays a role as a “reward center” and in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention and more. Low levels of serotonin and dopamine are associated with depression.
Sadness or happiness are essentially emotions, and emotions driven by thoughts. Thoughts are a form of energy. There is a minute gap between neurons known as neural synapse, which is filled by thoughts (energy), providing a similar to an electric current. This energy is picked up by neural transmitters, supplemented by the serotonin and dopamine hormones combined with thoughts (energy), to transfer the neural impulses across the neurological system. Serotonin and dopamine hormones play a crucial role in transferring the neural impulse, through neural transmitters across neurological system. Neural transmitters (with serotonin and dopamine) are responsible for cognitive functions.
Neurotransmitters are indispensable chemical messengers that facilitate bodily functions. Their primary role is to convey signals ("messages from one neuron (nerve cell to the subsequent target cell, which can be another nerve, a muscle cell, or a gland.
Credits - Cleveland Clinic.
Your body has a vast network of nerves (your nervous system) that send and receive electrical signals from nerve cells and their target cells all over your body. Your nervous system controls everything from your mind to your muscles, as well as organ functions. In other words, nerves are involved in everything you do, think and feel. Your nerve cells send and receive information from all body sources. This constant feedback is essential to your body’s optimal function.
As Serotonin, Dopamine and Neural Transmitter combined with thoughts (energy) facilitate COGNITION through neural synapse. Reduction of Serotonin and Dopamine affects cognition, leading to cognitive error, supplemented with catastrophizing thought patterns.
Thoughts are very powerful! They play a critical role in maintaining the vital functions of the body. Every physical illness has a psychological component that causes inflammation and pain. Pain caused due to psychological component is called 'psycho-somatic pain'.
If you are stressed & worried for longer periods, you develop ulcers or and wide variety of disorders like heart palpitations and so on. It's proven scientifically that negative thoughts like sadness, hate or envy affect physical health. Depression affects your physical health, too!
Healthy thoughts like love and gratitude add to your health; unhealthy thoughts like grudges and anger add to your sickness.
THE COGNITIVE EMOTIVE LOOP, NEURAL LOOP AND DEPRESSED STATE OF MIND:
A cognitive/emotive loop is a recurring pattern in which thoughts and beliefs generate feelings that reinforce our conviction in our narratives, further intensifying those feelings in a continuous cycle. These loops drain energy and hinder progress, a common way in which humans become stuck.
Neural feedback loops or neural loops are circuits within the brain that enable neurons to regulate their activity by transmitting and receiving signals, thereby promoting stability and adaptability in networks. Neural pathways are the elemental blocks of a neural loop.
Cognitive loops and neural loops create states of mind.
A state of mind can be defined as the sum of millions of neurological processes happening within us—the sum total of our experience at any moment in time. - Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within You.
Neural and Cognitive loops are akin to a computer program that you have created, which periodically repeats itself, creating states of mind.
Depression is a program as well as a state of sadness and a tendency to feel self-pity, hosting pity parties with your loved ones, therapists, and doctors. Depression can have triggers such as interacting with certain individuals, experiencing specific weather conditions, being exposed to certain stimuli, or one's own thoughts and reflections. These trigger points repeatedly evoke the emotions of sadness by activating identical cognitive & neural loops. This results in the same effect as the initial experience of extreme sadness. Through trigger points, the frequency of sadness increases, and it becomes a strong 'neural highway loop'. Now it's more or less like an algorithm which runs periodically or repeatedly whenever there are inputs. This cycle is so powerful that it might appear unbreakable; however, it's not!
One thing to be noted is a depressed person won't be feeling sad with the same intensity, as reported, they have brief moments of happiness in between depressed states.
Techniques for Interrupting Depressive Neural and Cognitive Emotional Cycles:
Neural Pathways, Neural Loops and Cognitive Loops, collectively called Neuro-Associations are basically created by subconscious tagging to each feeling or activity as either 'pain' or 'pleasure'. Since you developed the perception that being depressed is a pleasurable activity, you subconsciously tend to enter or create state of mind repeatedly. The word 'Melancholic Ecstasy' indicates this.
Direct Method (Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC):
Thoughts that run through your day are programmed by the creation of numerous neural pathways, neural loops and cognitive loops. They are programmed by your parents or guardians, your friends, surroundings and you yourself by thinking in different ways or unique ways on certain occasions. If others can change your thoughts or behavior, then you can change it by yourself by being aware and modify your mood or even your physiology.
The solution is to tag 'pain' by understanding that it's extremely painful to get depressed. Explain to yourself how painful it's to have those down-movements. How embarrassing it's to feel helpless. It is important to recognize that experiencing depression ultimately affects your immunity and physical health. It is indeed frustrating to endure such suffering. Conversely, engaging in work, conversing with others, or assisting someone can bring immense joy. Being healthy and happy brings a sense of peace. You need to reaffirm continually until you stop creating depressed states of mind. This technique is called Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC).
Indirect Method:
The other solution is to break this neural loop & cognitive loops through the indirect method, you can break the loop by developing a new routine (moderately busy initially & sequentially increasing the busyness,). Furthermore, you have to avoid certain places or persons who activate the same neural pathways, neural loops and cognitive loops. You need to replace the old neural loops and cognitive loops with new ones, by creating new routines and habits. New empowering routine and habits can lift you out of the shit hole called 'Depression.' This is applicable to even Anxiety Neurosis or PTSD.
THE CURE TO DEPRESSION - CBT & REBT:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychological treatment proven to be effective for various issues, such as depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital issues, eating disorders, and severe mental illnesses.
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), created by psychologist Albert Ellis, is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This action-oriented method aims to assist individuals in addressing irrational beliefs and in learning to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors more healthily and realistically.
When individuals possess irrational beliefs about themselves or the world, it can lead to problems. REBT assists people in identifying and changing these beliefs and negative thought patterns to address psychological issues and mental distress.
If you are depressed and having intense emotions of self-harm (SH), please contact a psychiatrist and start psychotherapy with a qualified psychologist.
Antidepressants aid the body in the secretion dopamine and serotonin hormones which prevent frequent swings and promote calmness. One needs to promptly consume medication, as prescribed by the psychiatrist.
For all these therapies to work effectively, you need understand these fundamental concepts of living:
You have a choice to choose happiness or depression, misery or abundance.
Always remember! You are absolutely under your own control, you have absolute control to choose your thoughts, program your mind. In our previous post, we explained about subconscious mind programming, you can learn to tackle depression by programming your subconscious mind. Please take a look at it.
You cannot tolerate a 'vacuum' in life; get bored. Therefore, you create various problems by changing your attitude towards life. I have personally experienced this. Problems motivate everyone!
If one the trend in individuals suffering from depression, they tend to feel sad when they are 'free' or have no work.
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. - Jim Rohn
To maintain all types of health - mental, emotional, physical and spiritual, it's extremely important to be active all day. Ancient Japanese technique - Ikigai; it's first commandment to lead a healthy, happy life is to be active all day long.
To be healthy, it's extremely important to be active both mentally and physically.
In support of this, there's a saying- "Idle man's mind is a devil's workshop."
You will be happy, healthy & peaceful if you don't have time to think about whether you are happy, healthy or anything. You should understand that your thoughts affect both mental and physical health. Happy & Enthusiastic thoughts produce endorphins which assist in pain tolerance and stress bearing ability. They are released during exercises, sexual intercourse and any adventure activities. Therefore, hormonal imbalances, pain, or the ability to bear stress can be handled by choosing to be happy. Humans are superior because of their ability to think, analyze, reason rationally and choose. Each negative thought is like a virus, it is capable enough to disrupt the proper functioning of mind & body.
Sad thoughts produce illness; happy thoughts produce health.
It is humans to encounter challenges, tasks, or issues that need to be resolved. This is the nature of human existence. Instead of creating problems like depression and anxiety, it is better to focus on solving real-world problems and adding value to society.
Stay busy! Be active! Choose your thoughts! Have a vision! Solve problems! Be successful!!
Remember, motivation is not the cause of action but a by-product of action.
You can't be motivated all the time to do the work. But it's the commitment and most importantly, the necessity to work, that makes anyone work on something. It's important to start with physical activity, join a gym or start doing Yoga. Then practice mindfulness meditation. It's scientifically proven that meditation assists the creation of 'Grey Matter' in the brain, which is critical for better cognitive functioning and enhances cognitive abilities.
Once you start the work, if you carefully observe, you derive pleasure from it, there's a sense of accomplishment and a boost of self-esteem, after the accomplishment or at the end of the work or the project. This boosts the secretion of Serotonin and Dopamine hormones, which cures DEPRESSION.
Hope this inspires you!!
Thanks!
YaDu,
On behalf of Get Inspired Spiritually
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