I was watching PBS a bit tonight after my walk, and caught a few minutes of a show about the brain hosted by Daniel Amen. He's written a book and claims that different parts of the brain need different treatments to help them work better, and to help heal problems like anxiety, depression, and even a highly-critical and disagreeable nature. I haven't read it yet (though it's only $9, so I will probably buy it soon), but the show offered some interesting insights.
The most fascinating to me was when he said that "diagnosing someone with depression is like diagnosing someone with chest pain." Doctors, he said, don't diagnose people with chest pain, because it's a symptom, not a cause. Depression can be a symptom with a variety of causes, like being emotionally overwhelmed, being over-stressed, or having financial or relationship problems.
The striking thing about all of the treatments that he offered for things like anxiety, depression, and even being disagreeable were that they were so similar.
He recommends exercise, strong social connections, fish oil, writing down and then challenging your negative thoughts, journaling, eating a healthy diet, and writing down your goals, posting the list, looking at it every day and checking to make sure your behaviors are consistent with what you want.
When I told people I had started to see a therapist, I got the sense from many of them that they thought I was being self-indulgent. Often, it was only after I told them why I'd started seeing one, which I wrote about here, that they acted glad that I'd started therapy, or that they began to express concern for me. I wonder if I would have gotten the same reaction if I'd told them that I'd gone to Dr. Amen's clinic in Fairfield, had a brain scan, and learned that the limbic part of my brain was overworked. Amen says that when this happens, depression, sadness and guilt are the result.
Growing up, I got the sense that being depressed was your own fault and that it meant something was wrong with you. You shouldn't be depressed, because then nobody would want to be around you. Of course, when you are depressed, the thing you need most is someone who will be there for you no matter what. There are a few of you out there who have been there for me no matter what, even when I've pushed you away. And since one of Dr. Amen's prescriptions is gratitude, I would like to say thank you to all of you. You probably don't know it yet, but you mean the world to me.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
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2 comments:
I met Dr. Amen at a lecture he gave and then participated in his brain study of injured and uninjured brains. I learned a lot about the damage that can occur even from normal children's bangs to the head - the kind that happen to most kids who engage in sports.
If you are interested in the brain and how it works, I highly recommend reading ""My Stroke of Insight"" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. It's on the NY Times Bestseller list and it's a wonderful book. Dr. Taylor's talk at TED dot com is also AMAZING! Oprah interviewed Dr. Taylor and you can check that out on Oprah.com. And Time Magazine named Dr. T one of the 100 Most Influential people in the world. Having read her book, I can see why all the attention.
Dr. Amen's book is brain science and it's great at that. Dr. Taylor is a Harvard Brain Scientist, but what she writes about is the science and much more. She really cracks the code to understand how our brains (right and left hemispheres) work and she explains how we can get into our right brain and be happier and more joyful. Aside from any of the science, My Stroke of Insight is also just a great story.
Frances, thanks very much for the recommendation. I will have to check out Dr. Taylor's book.
I knew a Frances my freshman year of college and I really admired her. Frances is such a good name.
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