Chapter 57: A New Treatment of Depression and the Antibest Syndrome
Abstract: an account is given of a successful outcome over depression and a disadvantaged childhood, together with a theoretical derivation of the optimal treatment for depression through a mathematics of concepts that gives a different method of treatment to current practice.
This is a more personal chapter generally, and I’ll start with the reason for writing this book, and that is to understand modern life better, and I am quite happy to share it with anyone that aspires to the group that I call the ‘Best’. But there is another side that has to be called the Antibest syndrome because it is very prevalent and consists of two factors, firstly, an inability to see the forest for the trees and secondly a refusal to change their lifestyle, even when they know that the existing lifestyle is killing them.
The previous chapter saw the suggested use of proverbs to simplify thinking and to bring the thinking into line with society, and an organisational proverb might be ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’. The aim of this book is to simplify and ‘lump’ diseases such as (some) mental diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, heart, disease, cancer, diabetes etc. as ‘modern’ diseases and treat them through state of mind, nutrition and exercise of the body and mind/brain. On the other hand, disease in general tends to ‘concentrate’ the mind around that disease and the mind ‘focuses’ on that disease and ‘splits’ that disease from the overall reality. This is the first factor in the Antibest disease.
‘Before we move on to address other types of depression, I want to touch on the relationship between depression and anxiety. The fact is that most depressed and bipolar patients also experience a great deal of anxiety; often it’s difficult to tell which should be the primary diagnosis.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 51) This quotation shows the complexity of the subject and is a case in point that the author (Richard O’Connor) has suffered from depression. It is also relevant that the mother and daughter, below, suffer depression and anxiety respectively, although for simplicity, I will assume that they are the same. ‘Depression and anxiety are always closely inter-related; most patients have a combination of symptoms that could be diagnosed either way’. (p 52) Again, this is the first factor in the Antibest syndrome, a concentrating of the mind into channels associated with one modern disease
As an example of how strong is the second factor, ‘doctors tell their patients: If you want to keep the pain from coming back, and if you don’t want to have to repeat the surgery, and if you want to stop the course of your heart disease before it kills you, then you have to switch to a healthier lifestyle. You have to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop overeating, start exercising, and relieve your stress. But very few do. “If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, ninety percent of them have not changed their lifestyle”.’ (Change or Die, Alan Deutschman, p 4) “People go to great lengths to view the world in a way that maintains a sense of wellbeing. We are masterly spin doctors, rationalizers, and justifiers of threatening information.” Wilson and his colleague Daniel Gilbert have called this ability the “psychological immune system”. (p 208)
We consider that our bodies and minds are part of a modern reality, but our digestive system is really part of the Palaeolithic reality and has difficulty coping with modern ‘foods’. Likewise, our mind/brain can handle modern complexity, but it is starting to break down with mental illnesses such as depression. This chapter is designed to show how (some) of the modern problems can be overcome, and as an example, I will use my lovely dancing partner, whom I shall call DP. When DP was a child her mother was mentally ill with depression and DP had to stay home from school and help look after the family. As I mentioned previously, I believe that DP developed her own problems of anxiety and lack of stimulation from her home life, leading her to being considered borderline ‘disadvantaged’. Perhaps there is a genetic base, but I am assuming that the body is a component, if for no other reason than simplicity. She has had the same job in the hospital kitchens serving patients for 36 years, and whilst saying that she dislikes it, she hasn’t changed jobs in all those years. Her father put a house and investment property into a trust for her, she is married and secure, however, she is worried that she will follow her mother into a home with depression/anxiety.
I first met DP about 3 years ago, after splitting with my previous dance partner of 8 years, at a club, dancing on her own. She was on Long Service Leave because she had pain in her elbow from pushing heavy meal trolleys at the hospital. She had been ‘dumped’ by her dance partner after completing her ‘medals’, nine years before and wasn’t dancing except at that time, when she was on leave. So, we got together dancing a couple of nights a week and her elbow didn’t inconvenience her dancing, but was painful to the touch. I suggested that she change her breakfast to something much more healthy and the pain subsided quickly, but not so quickly that she didn’t go to doctor and get ‘compo’ with 3 months off. I am pointing out that nutrition is part of the second Law of Life, state of mind/exercise/nutrition (MEN).
“The true opposite of depression is not gaiety or absence of pain, but vitality: the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings.” (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 36) I pointed out in the last chapter that ‘vitality’ must be an attractor when talking about depression because there has to be the ‘opposite’ to measure from. Remember that nothing exists until it is measured because it is indeterminate until measured, and measurement is the fifth dimension (mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM)) and to measure depression we need a measuring stick, and that could be ‘vitality’, or the distance from vitality. Now, from above, DP suffers from anxiety, that I believe originated from her home-life, so, DP is ‘self-medicating’ herself by dancing and using her anxiety/ hyper-activeness in the best possible way by dancing, and it must be what she needs because she LOVES dancing. Rationalizing this, the placebo effect is apparent because her mind is, apparently, telling her body that she should dance, and dancing fast is exercise and moving fast uses her mind and adds ‘pleasure’ to her life, the opposite of depression, as shown in the next paragraph.
Apart from this ‘internal’ effect there is the ‘external’ effect of dancing fast and well, in front of an appreciative crowd, often on our own on the floor between brackets of music if the ‘canned’ music is suitable. Usually, once a night someone complements her on her dancing. She is a ‘show pony’ and loves showing off on the dance-floor. ‘The hallmark of depression is a persistent sad or “empty” mood, sometimes experienced as tension or anxiety. Life lacks pleasure.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 28) DP seems to have a maximum of vitality and life doesn’t lack pleasure at a dance and yet she complains of anxiety during the week, so is dancing helping her in general?
When I met her 3 years ago, I met some of her friends and saw pictures and she pointed out that this one had schizophrenia, this one epilepsy etc., and when she met someone that I knew, she would communicate by showing pictures of her pet rabbits. She mentioned that in 2 years, she would give up work, so I asked ‘how, when the pension age is 67 not 57?’. I suspect that she thought that being borderline ‘disadvantaged’ she would get a disability pension if she wanted it. However, she is in for a shock, because she is now ‘normal’ and communicates with ‘normal’ people as friends.
DP still has anxiety attacks and I tell her to ‘count her blessings’ when they occur, and she has many blessings to count:
A: her anxiety can and is being improved by ‘counting her blessings’,
B: her social skills have reached the point where she visits other tables during the breaks in the music, much to my displeasure, as I’m left alone.
C: She has a family, son and house (in a trust).
D: She has job of only about 25 hours a week.
E: She has a dancing partner two nights a week that can show her off.
F: She has a ‘rock-hard’ body and goes to the gym.
G: She ‘more or less’ eats the foods that I advise, and so, shouldn’t get sick from the modern diseases. And so on.
I have given an example of what I believe is a ‘self-help’ means of turning a ‘disadvantaged’ life into a personal triumph because several very important points are exposed. I shall number them to try to keep them distinct.
A: the first part of the antibest syndrome is a natural focussing of the mind to a problem, but in this case the problem is a change in reality from the Palaeolithic to the modern, and this means that it is a change ‘across the board’ and the focussing of the mind is the opposite to ‘expanding’ our mind to approach the problem through the second Law of Life (state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN)).
B: the second part of the antibest syndrome is the resistance to change in patients’ behaviour, and I put that down to the death orgene where it is necessary that the older, higher risk breeders be eliminated in favour of the younger breeders, and that is an organisational necessity for evolution. I will repeat a quotation ‘Why do people persist in self-destructive behavior when they can see that it does them no good. Freud had to invent theories as elaborate and arcane as the death instinct to answer this question. (p 3) It is interesting that Freud’s ‘death instinct’ and the death orgene are similar, but, Freud’s interpretation is confusing, whereas the death orgene is required by logic.
C: the Mathematics of the Mind (a general mathematics of concepts) is necessary to arrange the concepts surrounding the problem, in this case depression, so that we can examine the attractors, and the most important in this case, appears to be ‘vitality’ and ‘happiness’. You can’t fix something unless you know where you want to go, and that is measurement. This simple point is the very basis of our universe, which is reality (mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM)) and that is the purpose of this book to put a mathematical basis to social problems through the Mathematics of the Mind that will give a better solution. In other words, you have to find a target to aim for and that requires knowledge that only comes from measurement (otherwise it is indeterminate). Remember that reality is not existence because we ‘evolved reality out of the possibility of existence’.
D: DP is ‘self-medicating’ and using two specific means that are the opposite of depression, namely, from above, gaiety and pleasure, and are apparent in her love of dancing two nights a week with me.
E: The body is composed of cells that have combined together to access the benefits of lensed eyes and allowed the creation of a mind to access the new reality that took place in the Cambrian. The placebo/nocebo continuum uses this ‘contract’ between the cells and the mind to communicate both ways, and we are familiar with the body repairing itself when damaged, as well as the mind changing the brain to record thoughts, but it appears that the mind can repair itself by using the body’s (including the brain’s) ability to repair itself. Or is it DP’s mind fighting against her situation? Perhaps a little of each, but the important part is the completeness of her attitude in using the three parts of the second Law of Life (state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN)).
F: the second Law of Life combines the three areas that must be ‘correct’ if we want to function in the way that we evolved to do because everything is connected, as shown by the interconnectedness of the three Laws of Life, and indeed interconnectedness of the universe itself (CEM).
G: the Mathematics of the Mind, as used above, can never give a unique or exact answer because there are (or may be) things that we don’t know that might affect the result. Only a God, that knows everything could give a unique answer, bearing in mind that mathematics is a special case. As more attractors or concepts are brought into the discussion, the better or more accurate will be the answer (probably). I have brought the antibest syndrome into the discussion to show how the current situation is lacking in essential ways. However, it would be nice to help everyone, but it must be held in mind that compassion is an addiction and so any solution must be in line with Survival of the Best to limit and give direction to our compassion (see previously).
H: It should be noted that the Mathematics of the Mind is a mechanism of comparison and does not make a decision, and that requires iteration or a mind/brain, and in practical terms, a 50/50 vote, or 70/30 vote, or by an appointed person etc. These restrictions may seem unnecessary, but if the social sciences are to be ‘solidly’ based, there must be cognisance of the reality/laws behind the social sciences, and there appeared to be little formalism to the social sciences before this book because a mathematics of concepts was needed.
I: Who determines treatment? A doctor does and he/she learns from (somewhat) specialist medical courses based on research papers that are based on specialists, but this book is based on an over-arching generalist approach, and that is ‘foreign’ to the current methods and will probably be slow to be appreciated, and even slower to be used.
J: When DP arrives at a dance and complains that she is agitated/depressed, I say, wait until the music starts and you’ll be OK. I am using a proverb along the lines that ‘if you are depressed, exercise!’, or, ‘when you hear the music, you will perk up!’. It is well known that exercise is good for anxiety/depression, and that her mood will change when she starts dancing. I realize that ‘this is where we came in’, but the proverb above is similar to all of the derivation, above, and supports the idea of using proverbs, but, it is nice to use more attractors to be more sure of the answer. In other words, the above is ‘similar’ to what is known about depression, and so it should be, because this derivation is correct, but it goes a lot further, and crucially, has a logical ‘basis’.
K: The above is an account of a successful outcome over depression and a disadvantaged childhood, but the theory appears complicated because I have gone back to first principles so that it can be fully understood by those interested, but the antibest syndrome makes it unlikely that the depressed will ‘self-help’ or ‘do it yourself’, so the next chapter will give a method that should (possibly) ‘instantaneously’ ‘cure’ depression in (some of) those attempting it.
Conclusion: the above is a logical derivation using the Mathematics of the Mind and if the concepts were bricks, they would make an interlocking wall, but the result is reasonably close to what we think now, about the treatment of depression (as one would expect) and aligns with the proverbs, but if we only look at the bricks that we know, we fall into the antibest syndrome. The strange concepts, such a MEN, CEM, Laws of Life, death orgene etc have been derived in earlier chapters as well as strange assertions such as that compassion is a modern disease/addiction etc. and show the areas that lack current understanding.
The specialist area of mental health needs to be broadened as I have shown to cover existence (CEM), evolution (death orgene), the body/mind (MEN) etc., if we are to offer ‘the best’ cure/help to people, as they have a right to expect from the medical system. The body can help itself overcome the modern diseases and modern mental problems, but, I believe that it has to be put on the correct path with due consideration (especially) given to state of mind, exercise and nutrition (MEN), that is a reality problem.
It is apparent that many concepts are necessary to the discussion and I should remind readers that these are only the major attractors and in fact, everything is linked throughout the universe through the mathematics of concepts/entanglement/measurement (CEM).
Prediction: a prediction is necessary from the Mathematics of the Mind because there is no one/exact answer, and I am pleased that the Best is emerging as a concept that is attainable with determination and can be used by the disadvantaged and the advantaged because mental health is (principally) derived from our upbringing and life experiences. Survival of the Best tries to improve mental health of children by fostering family security and the payment of social security to childless couples promotes determination, as derived previously.
darrylpenney 