In the four months since this blog started, thirty four posts have published on this site. That breaks down to about two posts a week. In the first months of 2009, I’d like to increase that number to about five posts a week.
I hope to improve the quality of the posts as well. Right now, I’m still experimenting with this site (expect a new redesign in the near future), trying to find a good work flow. I guess Steve Pavlina said it best in his essay on creating value: beginners always suck.
And this blog is just beginning, so it’s got far too many rough edges that will have to be smoothed out. However, looking back over some of the entries I’ve made, and a few of them show promise. The following are my favorite posts of 2008 — in no particular order.
1. Mimicry, social beloging, and automatic behavior
In this article, I examined how people constantly and unconsciously mimic the people they’re around. This automatic behavior poses certain interesting questions that have yet to be answered. The one I’m most intrigued by is that, if people are constantly responding to their environment in ways they’re not consciously aware of, what does that say about the control they have over their lives? I believe misery is built on a solid foundation of ignorance, and cultivating self-awareness is the key to living a happy, meaningful life.
2. A Holistic Guide to Dealing With Emotional Vampires
When you considerhow we unconsciously ape the people we’re surrounded by, you begin to appreciate how important it is to avoid emotional vampires. The quality of the people in our lives determines the quality of our lives. We’re not immortals, so we shouldn’t waste what precious time we do have on people who are disrespectful and destructive.
3. Searching Your Way To Better Health: How I cured myself of panic attacks
Five years ago, I started having panic attacks. At the time, I didn’t know what they were, and I sought out medical advice. Unfortunately, the doctors I saw were complete idiots, and I returned home determined to do what they couldn’t — cure myself of whatever it was that I had. I turned to google, typed in my symptoms, and within minutes I had a name for what I was experiencing. Once I had a name, it was as if I had established some degree of control over my experiences, and within a short amount of time, my panic attacks went away. I can’t recommend that other people will share my luck, but in my case, Google was a better health care provider than any of the medical professionals I spoke with.
4. The Five Factors of Depression
In this essay, I break depression down into five different areas of concern: genetics, environments, relationships, physical health, and internal states. Deficiencies and problems in any one of these areas can contribute to depression, and usually several problems across all five areas exist. The interesting thing is that each area is like the leg of a table, and if you knock down a couple legs, the whole thing comes crashing down. Improving conditions in a couple of these areas will usually end up improving conditions in all of them. Change your environment and internal states, and you’ll often find your physical health and relationships improve, and so on.
5. Beating Seasonal Affective Disorder
SAD is a condition that hits people in the winter months. Human beings need sunlight, and when the sun is in hiding, people often come down with the blues. This post lists a variety of ways of dealing with the energy zapping condition: light boxes, dawn simulation, vitamin supplements, and pharmaceutical interventions among the therapeutic possibilities. It’s a good overview of the condition and the possible treatments available to those who have it.
6. Why do depressed people wake up exhausted?
A short but sweet video post about a question that has always baffled me: why do the depressed wake up exhausted? According to the video in this post, depressed people have different sleeping patterns then healthy people. They spend more time in the more active REM phase of sleep, where dreaming frequently occurs. The depressed dream more than healthy people because they have more emotional issues that need to be resolved, and since this emotional debris isn’t being cleared out during their waking hour, the brain takes it upon itself do this while people sleep. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do that great a job. I’m not sure how much weight this theory holds, but it’s an intriguing line of thought and it’s definitely worth investigating. Having seen the video, I now try not to carry any emotional baggage to bed.
7. Ten Illusion Clips
This has to be my favorite round-up of the year. It’s a collection of ten optical illusion videos, and each illusion shows just how wonky the human mind can be. The importance of this list is that it emphasizes how unreal our interpretation of the world often is. Visual trickery isn’t the only kind of illusions we end up experiencing — there are emotional, psychological illusions galore in the gallery of our personal experiences. We all have to be wary of automatically assuming something to be real simply because it seems real. Appearances can deceive, so we need to approach life with the possibility that our knowledge about the world and ourselves is faulty. Certainty is a dangerous thing.
In my opinion, these are the seven most interesting posts I’ve made this year. That works out to roughly one good post every two or so weeks. That’s a number I plan on improving this year!
The American College of Physicians recently released guidelines for treating depression, and it hasn’t gone down well with psychiatrists.
Newsweek reports that the rate of suicides among young black men went up 83% over the eighties and early nineties.
Recent research shows that people are better at spotting fake smiles after they’ve been rejected. More proof that the worse you feel, the more realistic your world view.
New York magazine reports that urban loneliness might be a myth, according to researchers. It’s long been assumed that people in cities are lonelier than people living in more rural environments, but this assumption of urban alienation may not hold under closer inspection.
Coronary heart disease and depression are a deadly combo, and a recent study suggests that this deadliness is tied to behavioral changes in those afflicted by the pair. Being depressed causes people to stop taking care of themselves, which increases their chance of dying.
In a study of 102 female and 50 male African Americans teenagers, researchers found that mothers who played mental games increased the presence of depressive symptoms in their daughters. The boys showed no changes in wellbeing.
Personal Stories and Interviews, a round-up
Filed Under Personal Stories, Round-ups | Dec 1, MST 11:05 am
Unfortunately, suicide is a far too common occurence in our own society. In this story from the village of Lisbellaw, a man who lost his brother to suicide discusses how it’s affected his family.
Andrea Hammit tests out the Foresight institutes five-a-day mood boost plan. Her verdict? Small changes can have a big impact on the quality of your life.
Joe Donovan an ex-marine and computer programmer who has hit several rough patches in his life. Despite his complicated medical history and his bouts with depression, he still looks at the world through optimistic eyes.
The Dr. Jim Marshall Farms Foundation was born from the good doctor’s own experiences fighting depression and suicidal thoughts. He opened an 84 acre farm that is dedicated to helping people overcome their own fight with depression.
Andy McNab shares some devastating stories about soldiers with PTSD. Many of them committed suicide, some are in prison, all of them are coping with demons.
The talented musician Juliana Hatfield discusses her battle with anorexia and depression . She put it rather well — a heart that hurts is a heart that works.
Finally, Sharp Brains interviews Prof. Robert Emmons, otherwise known as Father Gratitude. Like his name suggests, he studies positive psychology. The work he’s done studying the practice of gratitude is astounding. This interview is worth reading, since if you practice the advice he gives, you’re almost guaranteed to change your life. Of all the exercises I’ve covered on this blog, his gratitude journal is the one that I’ve made a daily habit.
Dealing with Depression, A few personal stories
Filed Under Personal Stories, Round-ups | Oct 29, MDT 12:13 pm
When you’re suffering through a depression, you often find yourself cut off from the rest of the world. It’s difficult to relate to people who don’t understand what you’re going through. For this reason, it’s important to seek out and learn from the experiences of people who have gone through similar trials as yours — otherwise, you risk becoming increasingly alienated from society. The more you understand how common your problems are, the more confident you’ll feel that they can be overcome.
Today, I’d like to point you towards the stories of people who’ve struggled with mental health problems. These individuals have seen the pit of despair and lived to talk about it. Some have overcome their problems, others are simply managing them.
Stories of Depression
Gayathri Ramprasad, spent a decade tackling suicidal thoughts, hospital visits, and electro-shock therapy before she found peace and became an international advocate for mental health.
The story of Y. Euny Hong doesn’t end on as positive a note as Ramprasad’s. Her struggles with being bipolar were complicated by the fact that her husband was also bipolar. Their marriage didn’t last.
Over in Afghanistan, Sher Mohammed has been chained to a tree for a month as part of a treatment for his illness. His story provides an example of how culture filters the way we approach mental health. The more we appreciate this fact, the more flexibility we’ll have when dealing with mental illness.
In Vietnam, Mai Huong Day Psychiatric Hospital is the only hospital in the country to provide outpatient psychiatric care. Their doctors struggle with the lack of awareness that people have of mental illness, a problem that also exists in the West. Some issues seem to be universal.
Students at the University of California, San Francisco share their own struggles with depression during a panel titled “Living With Depression“. A recurring theme during the panel was how important it was for people to come forward about their problem. Living with depression is easier if you don’t try to tackle it all by yourself.
The british TV personality Fern Britton discusses her struggles with post-partum depression. Her story highlights how people from all walks of life can fall victim to mental illness.
Next comes the story of Nicola Leggat. She’s a talented singer living with bipolar disorder. She’s come a long way since her early manic episodes, where she felt disconnected from the world. Her story is one of triumph over adversity, of moving forward and wresting control over her life away from her condition.
Finally, we hit on the story of Lynn Johnson, who fell into a deep depression after the death of her daughter. This depression spiralled out of control, until Johnson was left homeless. She turned to professionals for help, and managed to build a new life for herself.
One of the recurring themes from all these stories, the good ones and the bad ones, is that recovery came after turning to other people for help. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to pull yoursef out of your misery, but you are more likely to succeed with a helping hand.
I know some of you are dealing with stress. With the economy in turmoil, an unresponsive political class, and a culture that places a fairly low price on the value of a human life, it’s only natural for some of us to buckle under the weight of a harsh world. Not everyone succumbs to depression, but everyone has to cope with stress now and then.
To help you out, I’ve pulled up my sleeves and dug through the internet to provide you with some of the latest stress related articles. Hopefully some of these will help you out. You’ll find a few studies, a few stories, and a few self-help pieces. A little bit of everything, really.
And now for the round-up…
- The Posts of 2008
- In 2009, I resolve to be…
- A diet of happy thoughts
- Misery Around The Web
- Daily meditation stops wandering thoughts
- Quackery, Pseudoscience, and You.
- Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
- Personal Stories and Interviews, a round-up
- The Power of Posture
- Beating Seasonal Affective Disorder
anti-depressants buddhism celexa childhood abuse citalopram depression drugs FKBP5 genes genetics lithium loneliness mania meditation misanthropy misery nlp pharmacogenetics relationships SLC6A4 studies suicide Treatments and Therapies for Better Health videos website