Learning Courage and Changing Minds
Welcome to this installment of the carnival of depression, bipolar disorder, and mental health journeys. I really enjoyed your submissions. I thank you for sending them, and for your passion in what you write about.
JANE’S FEATURE PICK Scott Davis has a mission with his blog: he wants to provide informative, friendly and helpful advice and life tips to people suffering from mental illness. I visited Scott’s website and I love the pictures of the marbles and the honesty that Scott’s writing projects.
Scott’s article, How Winnie the Pooh Taught Me Courage, places our fears in the perspective of a lovable children’s character. Scott thought that by ignoring his fears, he could conquer them, only to realize that it didn’t work. Scott learned as Pooh had learned that courage is about asking for help and talking openly about your fears, and doing things you were afraid of, anyway. Congratulations for being my featured pick, Scott!
Walt said that Pain is a Highly Concentrated Thought and gave some examples of how our pain expands when we focus on the pain: “Think about the last time someone seriously mistreated you unfairly. After they did what they did, what did you do? Then after that? Then after that? I’m pretty sure you consistently thought about what that person did to you. You probably replayed that scene over and over again a countless number of times. Where does it leave you? Nowhere but feeling even more hurt. Any feeling we know comes from a thought first.”
I agree that thoughts are originators. However, a depressed person needs way more help than merely changing his thoughts, even if that person is very determined. In fact, a normal, non-depressed person has challenges changing his thoughts. What form of help a depressed person seeks should be a personal and health related choice, but I wanted to bring to attention that the principle of changing thoughts (”change your thoughts to change the degree of your pain”) is valid, but the actual process of how a person can change his or her thoughts requires a lot of work and discipline.
Along these lines, Talia Mana interviewed Therese Borchard, who blogs at BeliefNet. Therese talked about her experiences with depression, trial and error with scores of medications, and how blogging was helpful for her depression. Therese said, “I think some people make the mistake of not seeking treatment through medication because they feel as though they should be able to think themselves to better health, to control their thoughts. I also think people make a mistake when they expect their medication to do all the work for them.” I wanted to include this because it complements Walt’s entry on pain as a concentrated thought and what I said about principle (that pain is concentrated thought) is not the same as process (how you can change thought).
Therese “had no option but to get well. And to do it fast, because I hated crying and shaking around {my children}.” I enjoyed Therese’s frankness about her experiences with alcoholism and vivid descriptions of her depressive episodes. I also relate to what Therese said about meditation: “The real story: I suck at it. I really don’t like it at all. I try and try and try to just focus on the good, and God, and all my blessings.” I suck at it too. Sometimes I suck so bad that I skip it altogether - like this morning.
J Mitchell Parker wants to build a network of support for men, and his article on depression in men, “He’s Got the Blues - Signs of Depression in Men” is part of this process. Years ago I had reviewed a book on “irritable male syndrome” and the book also talked about how mental health conditions in men tend to get glossed over. If mental illness is linked to social stigma, the pressures for men to keep up a good act when they are battling depression is greater - dare I say - greater sometimes than for women? Depression is not only a health problem, but has social and cultural influences that causes higher hurdles for certain patient populations.
Alvaro Fernandez at Sharp Brains interviewed Professor Bradley Gibson about ADD/ADHD and how training the mind with a non-medication approach shows promise in increasing attention and reducing hyperactivity in 15 children. This would probably be considered a Phase I pilot clinical trial, because the sample size is so small, and the objective of a Phase I trial is usually safety (i.e. approach is safe to use in larger population). Also there was no comparator of non-treated children, which was listed as a study limitation. Still, I was intrigued with the suggestion that plasticity and trainability of the mind opens doors to additional modes of treatment for mental health conditions.
Alvaro also sent an article with his suggestion that learning protects against cognitive decline including dementia. Based on my reading of his summary, I propose that it is not just learning (the intellectual stimulation), but encompasses to “high leisure activities”, which I interpret as having a lot of fun and creativity in your life. Most geniuses are highly creative people and sometimes they can be a bit quirky, but they all immerse themselves in intensely pleasurable activities that for us look like “physics” or “writing music” but for the geniuses are pure joy.
Finally, Vahid Chaychi talks about how dealing with Depression and Cancer. I am not surprised that cancer patients can experience depression because getting a cancer diagnosis takes a person from stages of shock and disbelief to anger and mourning and then acceptance. Still, doctors can be so focused on treating the cancer that sometimes the onset of depression may be missed or perceived as part of the patient’s response to a devastating illness. Vahid reminds us of this important point: Depression is not Normal.
This concludes this carnival edition. To submit for the next edition, please use this link. Until next time!
Jane Chin
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3 Responses to “Learning Courage and Changing Minds”
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Hello Jane,
Very good comments.
yes, that was a small pilot. See this paper for a real study
you can read an interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg in our blog.
Regards
[...] Courage is one of those things that everyone tries to understand, but that nobody really gets. When most people talk about courage, what they really mean is “fearlessness.” The two concepts couldn’t be more different. [...]
Great selection of articles. I always enjoy your thoughts and comments