tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post523490824382009510..comments2023-06-05T11:51:38.383-04:00Comments on Evolutionary Psychiatry: Depression: A Cosmetic Cure?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04429177284200775781noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-85460412532171047342012-11-11T09:40:47.587-05:002012-11-11T09:40:47.587-05:00I just discovered your blog. Thank you for your in...I just discovered your blog. Thank you for your insightful posts. I found this one particularly interesting.I work with the geriatric population (OT) and treat patients with all kinds of diagnoses. Many patients have depression as a secondary but I find that until you address it you cannot truly make gains. One of the first steps I take is to get them on a program to structure their day: their first goal is to get up and get dressed and groomed daily as if they were going out to meet someone at restaurant or office. If you can get them on board to do that their whole world turns around, same as botox but without the injections! :)The other approach from positive psychology that I find really helpful with my patients is keeping a "3 things that went well" journal.Alexahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05409237977061384453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-75323521293591670852012-11-07T17:54:12.173-05:002012-11-07T17:54:12.173-05:00Emily,
I'm also beginning to give talks to g...Emily, <br /><br />I'm also beginning to give talks to graduate students in social work in addiction counseling at Loyola here in Chicago about the use of self-awareness, born from meditation, as a tool for self-mediation in noticing habituated negative thoughts, thinking and impulses in real-time, in the recovery from addiction, as well as depression -since they both have a common root in the mind. My first talk at Loyola University went over pretty well and I've been asked if I would come back at the start of classes in January to give adjunct talks about how using self-awareness allows us to do this, as well as the role that self-awareness can play in dissolving distance between therapist and client, and through a keen awareness of self and the causes of suffering, allow the therapist to enter an empathic communication with the client, directly making the client feel both heard and understood, connected. Uakokoha'olahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02110592219735457733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-69469464417769890132012-11-07T14:34:50.401-05:002012-11-07T14:34:50.401-05:00I was hospitalized for psychosis and manic/depress...I was hospitalized for psychosis and manic/depression the first time in 1981 when I was 19. I was hospitalized 6 more times and have lived in halfway houses, nursing homes and on the street, until 1988 when I'd been clean and sober for 5 years and went back to school at Purdue University to get my engineering degree. I experienced depression so bonecrushingly severe that I lost weight and sometimes couldn't sleep, experiencing nightmares. The one thing all of them had in common is the incessant and often unending ruminating in my mind, the non-stop thinking usually involving negative conceptions about the past or the future.<br /><br />In 1994, after being clean for over 11 years I was introduced to Tibetan Buddhism and, in particular, the practice of self-awareness and recovery mediated by self awareness-based intervention, born from meditation, that allows one to be aware of their own thoughts and risings of the mind in real-time. Though I'd seen numerous psychiatrists and been on a host of drugs, including haldol, trilifon, and thorazine (80's) to lithium (90's) [i know the former are not antidepressants], the severe bouts of depression hadn't gone away. In fact, one of the most severe was still to come in 1998. <br /><br />At this point, a turning began to happen. Through having more self-awareness of my own thoughts, formed conceptions and feelings, I began to wonder whether it was brain chemistry that was causing my depressions, ...or whether it was habituated patterns of thinking that caused brain chemistry to appear the way it did. It was clear that after being bludgeoned unendedly with one's own negative thoughts and thinking, and the thick dark feelings and conceptions of 'reality' it creates, that my body also took the toll in the form of the loss of appetite and weight, my ghoulish appearance, non-existant sexual energy and creative thinking. <br /><br />Using mediation based on selfawareness-based intervention, I was able to see the very negative thoughts and thinking that were making me feel 'bad'. In fact, I had a ground breaking moment in 1995 when on the way home from work, I was ruminating and replaying scenarios in my mind about the day, what I’d said to coworkers and my managers, self justifications and judgements, when suddenly I simply came back into the present moment and realized, with some shock, what I’d been doing in my mind, and particularly the dark, heavy depression-like atmosphere it had put me in. It was like being in a cramped, dark, stuffy room when suddenly the walls and ceiling disappeared and I found myself in the fresh, open air. I’ve never forgotten this moment because it was the first time I really noticed how negative thinking ravages the thinker, and I was so happy because it confirmed that I was on the right track, practicing meditation, beginning to have awareness around the actions of my mind.<br /><br />This experience confirmed for me both that awareness born from meditation is the root intervention and that it is the habituated negative thinking and ruminating that is the cause. <br /><br />I continue to practice meditation daily, but not as a tonic for my mind and the further development of self-awareness, but as part of a way I've found increasingly opens my mind and heart to the wisdom and compassion that is abundant, beyond conditions, within us.<br /><br />In the depth of depression, I agree that drugs are needed to help soften the rage of depressions deepest scourge upon our mind, but after the storm is done, we must become familiar with our own mind, notice it's habits and learn to cut through the dark life-blood of depression's hold on us through self-awareness of our own mind. <br /><br />I've been married for 13 years now and have held successful jobs at two large corporations, having left them and now doing therapeutic bodywork and talking to others about the usefulness of getting to know our own mind to reduce the stress in our own lives.<br /> Uakokoha'olahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02110592219735457733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-14409940269318390842012-10-28T17:07:31.193-04:002012-10-28T17:07:31.193-04:00I tried this about five years ago, just twice in s...I tried this about five years ago, just twice in six months I think. I liked the effects the first time, not so much the second. Exercise (heavy, endurance-style) made it wear off quicker than most, I heard. My fairly subtle but consistent depression seemed less but I became too suspicious of the toxins to do it thereafter. <br />Then I found primal eating, the love of my life and now I get cross occasionally when our son (or husband) irritate me beyond endurance, but no more depression at all.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13637668031389174838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-46705208352258657802012-10-23T21:29:44.362-04:002012-10-23T21:29:44.362-04:00To control for this, inject it under skin elsewher...To control for this, inject it under skin elsewhere in the placebo group...somewhere that immobile skin won't be so flattering.Puddleghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00953398103675945541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-89008282559239524082012-10-23T21:26:15.018-04:002012-10-23T21:26:15.018-04:00Can we rule out a "hygiene hypothesis" t...Can we rule out a "hygiene hypothesis" type reaction to a bacterial toxin? What about antidepressant mycobacteria vaccae? http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the-new-prozac<br />Is this why botox is addictive?Puddleghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00953398103675945541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-42094404765754285202012-10-22T17:33:34.041-04:002012-10-22T17:33:34.041-04:00I have personally tried acupressure which uses sim...I have personally tried acupressure which uses similar points like acupuncture and noticed a reduction in stress. Somewhat interesting also is that the acupressure points in between the eyes are believed to be related to visual acuity and my vision started to decline around the time my chronic depression started.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-66577347995804904572012-10-21T07:56:46.962-04:002012-10-21T07:56:46.962-04:00There are some people who naturally have only hori...There are some people who naturally have only horisontal wrinkles close to their hair line (like me)and no vertical wrinkles between brows. Could it be the marker for the low depression probability?Galina L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09156132815504279615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-4655386179190412022012-10-19T09:58:10.432-04:002012-10-19T09:58:10.432-04:00Insurance is dealing with such issues without any ...Insurance is dealing with such issues without any hesitations - only FDA approved treatments are covered. I found it out because I thought botox may be helpful for my migraines and investigateg the possibility of the coverage.Galina L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09156132815504279615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-9296770642600092852012-10-19T09:56:43.486-04:002012-10-19T09:56:43.486-04:00Could there be an evolutionary connection?
One th...Could there be an evolutionary connection?<br /><br />One thing that strikes me (I didn't do any pubmed searches this time) is the possible relationship between the facial muscles off CNVII and the adjacent muscles handled by the vagus nerve. Could a botox treatment ostensibly aimed at facial muscles actually be spilling over to the nearby vagus? And thereby be a similar MOA to VNS? And one has to wonder, how much of the improvement via both methods comes from stimulating the brain (CNS) vs the gut (ENS)?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06571125588778516777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-61447965487457892542012-10-19T08:58:55.431-04:002012-10-19T08:58:55.431-04:00Fun paper! Will keep an eye out for Psyche Clinics...Fun paper! Will keep an eye out for Psyche Clinics/Botox Spas popping up in the near future! I wonder how insurance companies will take to Botox being classified as a "medical necessity". <br /><br />Have you seen the TED talk on smiling? http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_gutman_the_hidden_power_of_smiling.htmlvlprincehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17599039244716203792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-41960363212311768812012-10-18T18:29:35.731-04:002012-10-18T18:29:35.731-04:00I've gained insight and some relief of my own ...I've gained insight and some relief of my own generalized anxiety disorder and depression through cognitive-behavioral therapy and adopting a paleolithic lifestyle (honestly, exercising vigorously everyday and eating paleo has been THE most important factor in my mood change, CBT is a distant second), but the underlying causes of what I call my 'stalling' in life are still there. I may not be anxious all the time or feel horribly depressed about my past indiscretions, but I'm still apathetic and indecisive about my future, I can't get excited about a particular direction to take my career which is holding me back from jump-starting my life again.<br /><br />All that said, to rectify this last problem of making important major life choices and following-through on a life path, I've been reading as much positive psychology as I can. What I want to know is how much is 'Solution-Based' therapy affiliated with the newer positive psychology movement? I've never heard of it before, but the positive psychology focus is very similar, identifying what it would be like to live a good life and then changing mental habits to get you there. Seligman's learned optimism (contrasted with learned helplessness) was a majore eye-opener for me, and 'acting as if' or 'fake it till you make it' seems like a good way to become more optimistic. But, and here I get to my main point, how can you make this sustainable and resilient, because it may take long before your outward life starts to resemble your inner 'fake' attitude. Thanks!nonzerohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05525282772791590837noreply@blogger.com