Depressed? Try This One Simple Tip

<p>Depression is insidious. You feel sad, you lose your concentration, nothing is interesting to you anymore, and – to top it all off – your thoughts become stuck in an endless loop of self-criticism. There are many ways to address depression. Researchers interested in decreasing depression and increasing resilience have found that using a number of intentional activities creates positive emotions and helps reduce feelings of depression. The first step, though, is to work toward letting go of the critical rumination going on in your head. Why? Because it is very difficult to even consider pursuing intentional activities with thoughts such as: “It won’t help.” “Why even bother?” “I’ll just screw it up.” These thoughts make your mood bleaker and keep you on the sofa rather than feeling up for trying a new activity or intervention. So, what to do? Use mindfulness. Now, to a depressed person, even the encouragement to be mindful can sound like a daunting challenge. “Oh, great. Something else to learn and mess up.” But wait. Here’s all you have to do: Just notice something and have no judgment about it. So, when you hear yourself think something like, “Why even bother?” you just notice the thought. You don’t decide if it’s good or bad, you just take note and then let it go. Life coach Rick Carson calls these negative thoughts “gremlins.” In his book, Taming Your Gremlin, Carson refers to the wise words of the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu: Simply notice the natural order of things. Work with it rather than against it. For to try to change what is only sets up resistance. Carson bases much of his work on this idea: Simply notice. Don’t judge. Don’t place meaning. Just notice your thoughts and let them go. Same with your moods. Simply notice that you’re depressed. No need to place any particular import or opinion on it. Just notice it. This practice of simply noticing is very freeing. One of the key ideas in Carson’s book is don’t grapple with your gremlins. As soon as you start wrestling with the critical thought in your head – your gremlin – it wins. The gremlin gets bigger and more powerful the longer you grapple with it. Just noticing your thought or mood and having no judgment about it takes all the power away from it. The authors of The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, encourage us to view thoughts as “passing mental events” that come and go and that don’t necessarily equate to true reality. They write: Thoughts involve interpretations and judgments, which are not in themselves facts; they are merely more thoughts . . . This ever-so-simple, yet challenging, shift in the way we relate to thoughts releases us from their control. For when we have thoughts such as ‘This unhappiness will always be with me’ or ‘I am an unlovable person,’ we don’t have to take them as realities. When we do, we succumb to endlessly struggling with them. (pp. 59-60) Want to take the important first step in bouncing back from depression? Simply notice your thoughts and moods without judgment. The sense of freedom will be worth it.</p>

Depressed? Try This One Simple Tip

Depression is insidious. You feel sad, you lose your concentration, nothing is interesting to you anymore, and – to top it all off – your thoughts become stuck in an endless loop of self-criticism. …

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Brain circuitry is different for women with anorexia and obesity

<p>Why does one person become anorexic and another obese? A study recently published by a University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher shows that reward circuits in the brain are sensitized in anorexic women and desensitized in obese women. The findings also suggest that eating behavior is related to brain dopamine pathways involved in addictions. See Also: Health & Medicine Obesity Brain Tumor Eating Disorder Research Mind & Brain Brain Injury Intelligence Eating Disorders Reference Functional neuroimaging Appetite Sleep deprivation Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia Guido Frank, MD, assistant professor director of the Developmental Brain Research Program at the CU School of Medicine and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain activity in 63 women who were either anorexic or obese. Scientists compared them to women considered "normal" weight. The participants were visually conditioned to associate certain shapes with either a sweet or a non-sweet solution and then received the taste solutions as expected or unexpectedly. This task has been associated with brain dopamine function in the past. The authors found that during these fMRI sessions, an unexpected sweet-tasting solution resulted in increased neural activation of reward systems in the anorexic patients and diminished activation in obese individuals. In rodents, food restriction and weight loss have been associated with greater dopamine-related reward responses in the brain. "It is clear that in humans the brain's reward system helps to regulate food intake" said Frank. "The specific role of these networks in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and, conversely, obesity, remains unclear."</p>

Brain circuitry is different for women with anorexia and obesity

Why does one person become anorexic and another obese? A study recently published by a University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher shows that reward circuits in the brain are sensitized in an…

Read more »