Chapter 58: An ‘Instant Cure’ for Depression, a ‘Do It Yourself’ Personality Change and the Armageddon Corner
Abstract: depression is a modern ‘disease’ brought about by our lifestyle, and represents deficiencies in state of mind/exercise/nutrition that lead the mind to move to the nocebo end of the placebo/nocebo continuum, whereas recognising that vitality and happiness are ‘opposites’ to depression, anti aging can use the placebo effect to restore hope until an anti aging regime can permanently change the mind and body to want a long healthy life. This manipulation of the plasticity of the mind allows us to ‘tailor’ our personalities to what we want to be, and save us from what we don’t want to be. Compassion can be good or bad and lead the world into the Armageddon Corner.
This chapter is concerned with helping depression and changing personality, but I am not talking about serious cases, that need specialist help. This procedure will help them because it is based on sound principles, but I am seeking people that want to improve their depression and personality without the need of professionals and when the list of the depressives’ ‘skills’ (below) is consulted, it will be seen that there is ample room for the odd ‘tweak’ to one’s character. This chapter allows a lot of change or a little change or anything in between and anything that comes from it will be positive to the lifestyle and the health of the mind.
‘The World Bank and the World Health Organization estimate that depression soon will be the single most costly disease there is – more costly than AIDS, cancer, or TB.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p vii) I need to point out that AIDS and TB are caused by organisms, whilst cancer is, I believe, a ‘modern’ disease caused by ‘modern’ lifestyle factors and depression is similar. ‘Many people with depression seem to have been primed for it by trauma, deprivation, or loss in childhood. Most people with depression describe difficulties in their childhood or later in life that have contributed to low self-esteem and a sensitivity to rejection, an uncertainty about the self and an inability to enjoy life. But these observations are not true for everyone with depression: some people who have no history of stress, who appear very stable and well integrated, develop it suddenly, unexpectedly, in response to a life change.’ (p 9)
Depression is clearly a ‘something’ of the mind, and certainly not a disease because the mind is a product of the architecture of the brain/body and has no substance, so medication is changing the brain and thus influencing the mind. ‘Many people with depression seem to have been primed for it by trauma, deprivation, or loss in childhood’ and this follows from my view that the brain is ‘a blank slate’ at birth and its structure grows and records ‘childhood or later in life’. The group of people that ‘develop it suddenly, unexpectedly, in response to a life change’ could be reacting to ‘modern’ situations, that fit into state of mind/exercise/nutrition (MEN) and this will appear often because it is the second Law of Life. This paragraph is saying to me that depression is a ‘modern’ disease and can be helped by a reality (or lifestyle) change incorporating ALL components of MEN.
‘We are used to trial and error and the common sense approach, but science works by a much more formal process that leads often to counter-intuitive conclusions’ (The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, Peter Doherty, p 26) The Mathematics of the Mind (or general mathematics of concepts) is a new way of looking at the social sciences, and as above, the application of science can lead to ‘counter-intuitive conclusions’ and in this case to a treatment of depression where some startling results are produced that differ from the ‘common sense approach’ that is currently being used.
‘I’m convinced that the major reason why people with depression stay depressed despite therapy, medication, and support from loved ones is that we are simply unable to imagine an alternative. We know how to “do” depression. We are experts at it. Our feelings about ourselves and the way we see the world have forced us over the years to develop a special set of skills.’ (Undoing Depression, Richard O’Connor, p 3) This is the antibest syndrome where continually looking at a problem focuses the mind on that problem ‘over the years’ and if the depressive is ‘simply unable to imagine an alternative’ how can I help that person overcome the antibest syndrome and to do something constructive about their lifestyle?
The above paragraph provides the answer that ‘science works by a much more formal process that leads often to counterintuitive conclusions’ and that has occurred in this case and will justify the title of this chapter: “An ‘Instant Cure’ for Depression, a ‘Do It Yourself’ Personality Change and the Armageddon Corner”. I believe that this can be done by a ‘sleight of mind’! Depressives complain when they are told to get over it and ‘buck up’, and the quotation above tells how they don’t know how to do that.
The following quotation shows it again, ‘the standard reaction that “depression” evokes, something akin to “So what?” or “You’ll pull out of it” or “We all have bad days”’. (p 23) This chapter gives a method (and reasons why it works) to get the depressive to change their outlook and ‘pull out of it’, that is the reason that the word ‘Instant’ is used in the title, and further, the ‘standard reaction’ to depressives appears to be the most efficient one in terms of resources used, considering that depression is ‘the single most costly disease’.
In the last chapter, I spent a lot of time talking about state of mind/exercise/nutrition (MEN) and I can imagine readers saying to themselves questions such as ‘what has eating got to do with depression?’, or ‘what has exercise got to do with depression?’. These questions will be answered as a framework is built up, but a foundation will be set up if I say that I believe that depression is a result of modern life that is ‘stretching’ our body’s ‘components’ beyond their capabilities. The monetary saving from ‘curing’ depression would be huge, without considering the contribution of the other modern ‘diseases’, such as Alzheimer’s ‘disease’, heart ‘disease’, cancer etc. that are also helped by lifestyle changes.
We found that the two major concepts (attractors) that were opposite to depression were vitality and happiness and we used these to measure depression because if something is not measured (CEM), it does not exist, and using the ‘trial and error and the common sense approach’, as above, is going to give us something that only ‘half exists’, speaking metaphorically. Something that ‘half exists’ leaves room for error, whilst measurement brings existence (CEM) and reality, again metaphorically speaking in ways similar to proverbs. However, these same two attractors (vitality and happiness) are attractors that are important in anti ageing and indeed are crucial to living a long time, as has been discussed at length previously.
Is this coincidence, or is there a deeper relationship between depression and anti ageing? It was shown in the previous chapter that they are, in fact, opposites and thus (probably) directly related, but on a ‘deeper’ level it has been discussed before that everything is related (CEM) and no unique solution exists unless everything is considered. Thus, for simplicity, I am going to limit the discussion to three main attractors, depression and (the opposites) vitality and happiness, but as mentioned all of the factors in the book are attractors, principally MEN.
It has been said that a happy person (or optimist) lives, on average seven years longer than an unhappy person (or pessimist), also, vitality is very close to ‘the faster that you move, the younger that you are’. These have been covered previously and contribute to anti aging. Vitality is both a mental and physical property and aligns with the idea of exercise for BOTH the body and the mind and this was discussed in chapter 50: The ‘Death Gene’ and How to Reset it, Alzheimer’s Disease and the Placebo Connection.
Chapter 48: Depression, Fish-stocks, Fatty Acids and Anti Ageing contains the following list of ‘skills’ that show how widespread is the ‘disease’ of depression and so, as well as above, it suggests that depression is a ‘modern disease’ such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, cancer, etc. Notice that Alzheimer’s disease is a ‘disease’ of the body, not of the mind (I believe), and as the mind ‘overlays’ the brain/body, the body is probably involved in depression. This starts to answer the questions above, about the need for diet and exercise, because the mind is an abstraction produced by the architecture of the brain and doesn’t exist physically and changes to the mind come about through changes in the body and the brain, which is part of the body.
‘Depressed Emotional Skills: isolation of…. emotion, … somatization, … denial, … repression, … intellectualisation; projection, externalisation, and internalisation … ; rageaholism …; and anhedonia … , hopelessness, and apathy.
Depressed Behavioral Skills: procrastination, … lethargy, work till you drop, inability to prioritise, pushing yourself mindlessly, … obsessive and compulsive behavior, … victimizing, violence, and acting out, … victimization and self-mutilation.
Depressed Cognitive Skills: pessimism, … negative self-talk, … passivity, … selective attention, … depressed logic.
Depressed Interpersonal Skills: recruiting accomplices, … social isolation, … dependency, … counterdependency, … passive aggression, … porous boundaries.
Depressed Treatment of the Self: impossible goals, low expectations, … no goals, lots of guilt, … passive aggression against the self.
Depressed Treatment of the Body: the cycle of exhaustion/collapse, … lack of exercise, … neglecting medical care/succumbing to quacks, … defensive eating, … abuse of drugs and alcohol. (p 32)
‘Depression is the replacement of parts of the self that are natural, spontaneous, and honest with these self-destructive skills. It’s the loss of the parts of the self, the gradual numbing of feelings and experiences that we gradually come to believe are unacceptable and banish from experience. Cure comes from the recovery of the missing pieces.’ (p 36) This is the antibest syndrome.
Depression is clearly not caused by an organism, nor a physical trauma because the spread is so wide and, I believe that the cause must lie within the second Law of life, which deals with our place in the environment, keeping in mind that the three Laws of Life are inter-related. In fact, childhood is contained within the third law, but as I am assuming that childhood lay in the past, the second law is where we will find the solution that we are looking for. This is a positive statement because the Laws of Life are all-embracing and must contain the answer, and two factors will become apparent, firstly we are dealing with the placebo/nocebo continuum where we get good results from being positive (placebo) and bad results from being negative (nocebo).
Notice that this assertion is based on previous chapters and the effects are real and observable and arise from the ‘contract’ between the cells of a multi-cellular organism that leads to the creation of a mind and a new reality for the organism. We are turning the nocebo (negativity) of depression to the placebo (positivity) of anti ageing. This is a very important point that we are changing a negative to a positive! To repeat this once more, we are turning the antibest syndrome to the anti-antibest syndrome by the use of the placebo/nocebo continuum.
The second point is that MEN is the second Law of Life that is integrated with the three Laws of Life, and is state of mind/exercise/nutrition and there is a relationship between the three factors that cannot be ignored. In fact, the LACK of realization of this dependency is responsible for the modern ‘diseases’ of cancer, depression, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease etc. as the body and mind is increasingly finding it difficult to function in a modern reality when it evolved in the reality of the Palaeolithic. Many previous chapters have been devoted to this subject matter and can be accessed, but a quick summation is that the ‘design’ scope/width of the components within the body are being exceeded in the modern world and creating ‘modern diseases’.
As we are dealing with the placebo/nocebo continuum, it is crucial that it be understood that the contract of the cells produced a mind and changed the reality of the organism (as it came about through evolution), and the cells ‘obey’ the mind that resulted, because the mind, and the mind alone could enter the new reality of decision-making in the fast paced world of lensed eyes that evolved in the Cambrian. I am saying that the reader should believe that what I am putting forward will work and if there is any doubt, I suggest dipping into the previous 57 chapters until it is believed.
This might sound like ‘tough love’ but that is the basis of the cell’s contract and cells will die if required by the mind for the good of the organism. Let me repeat that, the depressed mind is causing sickness in all of the cells in the body! It can be seen that the ‘disease’ of depression is sending the wrong message to the cells and we, our mind, has to change the message that is being sent. ‘First the bad news: Depression causes brain damage. Then the good news: we can undo that damage with focused practice and attention. (p 5)
We saw previously that it did not matter which method was used to treat depression, it was the ‘hope’ that caused the improvement, and that state of mind is what we are trying to achieve. In other words, to move the mind from the depressed (nocebo end) to the optimistic (placebo end) and change the message to the cells (body), we need to change our state of mind, but as state of mind is linked to exercise and nutrition, we need to change all three.
The ‘instant’ that we decide to do this ‘triple whammy’, our mind uses ‘hope’ to flip from the depressed thoughts (nocebo thoughts) to ‘hope’ thoughts (placebo thoughts) and then we follow through this state of mind to exercise and nutrition as outlined in this book. To repeat, from the negative thoughts of depression, we look to anti ageing to take us to the opposite (placebo) end where anti aging emphasises vitality and happiness and the desire for a long life that is attainable through MEN.
This explanation above is essentially how my dancing partner (DP) threw off the effects of her disadvantaged childhood, but the question of why it worked has not been answered and that lies in the fact that our brains are plastic and every second are changing to keep us, and the cells in our body, ready for whatever we will meet in the new reality that is continually revealed to us. We create our reality with and by our minds and under Survival of the Fittest (Palaeolithic), if it is not good enough, we are eaten, whilst in our present reality (Survival of the Best (mind/body, mathematics) we may function poorly and be depressed, but continue to exist. We need to move to Survival of the Best (mind/body, Mathematics of the Mind) to understand what we are doing (globally) before global problems overwhelm us.
The ‘Do It Yourself’ Personality Change that is promised above, is easy in the light of the above, just hold a thought in your mind, such as a ‘line in the sand’ that your actions will not cross and your mind/body will absorb that instruction and make it easier and easier every time that you resist temptation to resist temptation in the future. Look at the ‘skills’ given above, and you will probably find personality traits that you would like to eliminate.
This change can be done because determination is the driver of evolution, and the mind is very ‘plastic’ and using ‘patterns’ of thought strengthens those ‘patterns. On the other hand, exploring sites such as pornography may lead to a ‘resonance’ and the temptation to seek out more, which is not advisable, and this leads to the advisability of ‘a line in the sand’ and a determination to aspire to the Best.
Conclusion: I believe that modern ‘diseases’ are the result of the body operating outside of its evolved ‘design-scope’ in trying to function in a modern environment. Evolution uses iteration and/or the mind and neither is functioning in the case of depression and the antibest syndrome ‘locks’ the depressed mind into inaction. At the same time, poor exercise and poor nutrition are causing the cells to send negative signals to the mind and the depressed mind is sending negative signals to the cells, and that results in a ‘bad’ feedback cycle.
We can convert this to a ‘good’ feedback cycle by hope of a new treatment by the mind and better exercise and nutrition to the cells. Note that conventional treatment only offers treatment to the mind and a result, barely improves the state of the mind and offers recurrence of symptoms. The above method takes the ‘hope’ that comes with treatment, calls it placebo, which it is, and it affects the cells positively, then we change the cell’s message by exercise and nutrition and that provides a good feedback cycle and presents a ‘rosy’ future.
The future of the depressive is through anti ageing that promises a long happy, healthy life without depression and this method provides the impetus and method to reach it. It is not an easy path to follow and requires determination to learn facts and change lifestyle and determination is needed to ignore the marketers of unhealthy products and gradually become part of the Best.
Using the idea that something may ‘resonate’ with the mind, a shorter conclusion is that the ‘normal’ world was so unreal and mentally and spiritually poor that it produced depression in the mind (and body), so why would the depressive want to go back to it? A goal of a long happy life is in reach for those with the determination to achieve it by learning about vitality and happiness through MEN. Determination is the essence of evolution, and without it, a depressive will have problems in the long run.
prediction: the above shows that we set up the opposites to depression (vitality and happiness) as an aim or target (CEM) and used the hope from treatment on the mind and the reinforcing of MEN on the body to push/pull the mind into a new reality (of anti aging). The more attractors that we consider, the better the answer and our understanding. MEN is part of the three Laws of Life, which are interconnected and compassion is at the core of the world’s biggest problems, such as over-population, global warming, deforestation etc. and they form, what I call, Armageddon Corner along with its opposite (and solution), Survival of the Best (mind/body, Mathematics of the Mind) and these will have to be looked at in the near future, but like many attractors, such as compassion, they are there, but we ignore them.
darrylpenney 