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Just published is a new book focusing on helping people deal with a loved one suffering depression. The book is Reviewed in theListener.
In a Times Article Matthew Johnstone talks about how he hid his experience of depression. At age 42 when the former Christchurch man wrote ‘I Had a Black Dog’ book he no longer kept his experience a secret, he tells us. From his book we can then better understand the inner world of his and other depression sufferers. Johnstone tells us this about the writing of the book:
“… in the space of an afternoon I wrote the book you have in your hand. It was the easiest thing I have ever done. It fell out of me like a boulder. It was like putting my lifetime’s experience on to the page.”
The Times has a clever little sideshow of I Had a Black Dog.
The Practical Philosopher by Donna Duggan
Article from MindFood.
Dr Dorothy Rowe, an Australian psychologist and author based in London, was listed in November 2007 as one of the top 100 living geniuses by global research firm Creators Synectics. Rowe is known mostly for her groundbreaking and often controversial work on depression.
Depression is Not a Physical Illness
She believes depression is not a physical illness to be treated with medication but a self-made prison you can leave, if you choose to change the way you interpret your life. Rowe also supports the growing research that shows not all people diagnosed with depression are in fact depressed – more often than not, “dispirited” would be a better term to describe how they feel.
What is depression, MindFood asked Rowe during her recent visit to Australia. “Depression is clear-cut. It’s very specific,” she says. “You’re in a prison with an invisible wall around you; no one can get in and you
can’t get out. I recently met a man who described his experience of depression as being covered by a big wet blanket he couldn’t remove.
People Able to Talk About Depression
“People who feel dispirited can be comforted. They may feel low or irritated but they can still talk about their feelings. However, talking to someone who is depressed is like talking to a brick wall. They’ve lost interest in life. Depression can come on quickly, but many people are slow to realise that’s what they’re experiencing. What usually happens is one day they notice that the strange feelings they’re having aren’t passing.”
The work of charities and government initiatives has brought depression into the open. initiatives such as Out of the Blue (New Zealand) and Beyondblue (Australia) are doing exceptional work to bring awareness to the issue of depression and to let people know help is available.
“Today people feel they’re able to talk about depression,” says Rowe. “It has lost its stigma and shame, whereas in the past women were written off as’depressives’ and men were labelled ‘alcoholics’.”
Now that there’s awareness, Rowe says we need to take another look at the treatments available. “There is an ever-increasing number of people heading to the doctor, being told they are depressed and given a prescription for an antidepressant,” she says. “Antidepressants can give a person breathing space but they offer only short-term relief. Depression tells you that there’s something wrong with the way you’re living your life, that there’s something wrong with the way you make sense of the world. But drugs don’t turn an unhappy marriage into a happy marriage; they don’t turn an unhappy childhood into a happy childhood.”
Much to Rowe’s relief, the treatment for depression is finally starting to change. Treatments are starting to focus more on ‘talking therapies’, such as psychotherapy and counselling, rather than just relying on antidepressants. Read the rest of this entry »
On Friday, April 4, the Press had an article by Christopher Lane entitled “The Blues: a failure of diagnosis?” Lane is Herman and Beulah Pearce Miller Research Professor at Northwestern University, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship to study psychopharmacology and ethics.
In his October 2007 book
Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness Lane asks the questions: What’s wrong with being shy? Just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders? What is the inside story on how the DSM got to be what it is? And is it really necessary to prescribe such powerful and potentially dangerous drugs?
Lane talks about what he calls the “highly unscientific and often arbitrary way” in which widespread revisions were made to the DSM, a publication known as the bible of psychiatry. It is consulted on a regular basis by insurance companies, courts, prisons and schools, as well as by physicians and mental health workers.
In the Press article Lane gives a summary of his investigations:
The way we act influences the way we feel. Charlie Brown, the unhappy in love character from the cartoon strip Peanuts, has the odd bad day. Of this he says “I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.”
In one well known comic-strip Charlie Brown is demonstrating his “depressed stance” to Lucy. He’s standing with his head bent towards the ground and shoulders slumped. He’s explaining to Lucy that when you are depressed, it makes a difference how you stand. “The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better,” he says as he stands erect, shoulders squared and his head held high. The last frame of the cartoon shows Charlie Brown resuming his “depressed stance” while saying, “If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.”
The following websites have lots of useful information about mental health and other youth issues.
Depression Helpline is a site where you can talk with a trained counsellor and get Self-Help strategies for Youth Depression.
Orygen is a unique organisation made up of a specialist youth mental health service, a research centre and a range of education, training, advocacy and health promotion activities.
Aware Is an Irish voluntary organisation that aims to assist people who are directly affected by depression.
Reach Out is a comprehensive and interactive internet site for young people. This site has heaps of factsheets with practical advice about issues ranging from self-harm through to leaving home.
Ybblue is a community awareness campaign designed to reduce the stigma associated with depression and assist in young people aged 17 to 25 to get help.
MoodGYM is an Internet-based therapy program designed to prevent depression in young people. It consists of five modules, a workbook and some interactive extras, including a game. It includes assessments of anxiety and depression, information about life-event stress, parental relationships and pleasant event scheduling.
Headroom aims to inform young people, their caregivers and service providers about positive mental health.
Somazone is an interactive Internet site for young people that focuses on general health and wellbeing. It includes personal stories, and a question and answer section.
Itsallright is a site for young people who have a friend or family member affected by mental illness. You can read the diaries of four fictional teenagers touched by mental illness.
Dawn Simulation is a technique used in the treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as winter depression. Typically, the treatment involves timed lights in the bedroom to come on gradually, over a period of 30 minutes to 2 hours, before awakening.
Dawn simulation was developed in the 1980s at Columbia University following a long line of basic laboratory research that showed animals’ circadian rhythms to be exquisitely sensitive to the dim, gradually rising dawn signal at the end of the night.
Have a look at this method and also bright light therapy at the Center for Environmental Therapeutics.
SAD affects people during the winter months. It is caused by a lack of sunlight and is particularly prevalent in countries where winter days are extremely short and winter nights are long. SAD generally develops in adulthood, is more common in women and relatively uncommon in people aged under 20. However some children and teenagers can be affected.
SAD is currently being popularised on the TV show Men in Trees which features an Alaskan policewoman spending part of each day in front of her light box to help combat SADness.
There have also been particular concerns raised in New Zealand recently, about our children not getting enough sunshine and hence developing vitamin D deficiency as well as signs of SAD. This is being caused by children spending too much time indoors, wearing long sleeved “hoodies” outside, and by some parents being overzealous in protecting their children from the damaging effects of the sun.
A range of physical and emotional problems are attributed to SAD, including trouble sleeping, being depressed and anxious, craving sweets and carbohydrates and mood changes. Some sufferers describe the condition as “an energy crisis”. There also seems to be a family link – many people with SAD have a parent or other close relative with the condition
The main response to SAD is increasing the daily intake of light by going outdoors or using artificial means.
SAD was first noted in Scandinavia. It’s been estimated about 20% of Swedes suffer with the problem due to their long, dark winters.
What can I do to help the winter blues?
- Exercise regularly – including walking outdoors to increase your sun exposure
- Bring more light into your home – trim back trees, open curtains, install a skylight
- Sit by windows during the winter to increase sun exposure
- Eat a nutritious diet and cut back on caffeine, sugar and refined products
- If you can afford to, take a winter holiday somewhere bright and warm
Supplement your diet with a good multi-mineral including magnesium and multi-vitamin, including the B vitamins. A natural healer is likely to also suggest other supplements and remedies that will be helpful.
Youth Week 2008 is all about relationships. Young people thrive when there are supportive, encouraging and positive people in their lives.
Get involved in Youth Week. Turn up to an event, wear a hoodie on Hoodie Day, plan an activity, or just be a great example of a young person (or a great adult that cares about young people).
Keep up-to-date with all the latest Youth Week news by subscribing to Youth Week e-news.
Young people around NZ have shared their stories about important relationship in their lives in a Youth Week competition. Here are some exerts from some of the winners.
A BBC health news item about a new study is of interest. It seems that depressed men are less likely to be engaged with their children. Not really a surprise.
The study looked at vocabulary development. The researchers, led by paediatric psychologist James Paulson, surveyed about 5,000 families. When the children were nine months old, 14% of the mothers and 10% of the fathers were clinically depressed. They studied the use of 50 common words and found that children whose fathers were depressed when they were nine months old used an average of 1.5 fewer words than those whose fathers were fine.
This difference might seem small, but is statistically significant.
Men may not be likely to seek help for themselves but when other people who depend on them become affected, that may change the landscape.
James Paulson – Eastern Virginia Medical School
A person who knows of our interest in articles about depression lent us a magazine called MindFood. The May 2008 edition has a very youthful looking Madonna (the musician not the Mother of God) on the cover.
There were a couple of great articles in the latest version. A very good one by Findlay Macdonald telling how he succumbed to depression, which hopefully they will publish on their website later (we’ll link to it if they do).
Another was an interview with “genius” psychologist Dr. Dorothy Rowe who specialises in depression. She believes that depression is “not a physical illness to be treated with medication but a self-made prison you can leave, if you change the way you interpret your life.”
We had a look at the MindFood website and found this self-help article called Beat the Blues, by Donna Duggan. The article starts off:
There are myriad natural ways to beat the blues, lift your mood and improve your outlook, ranging from aroma-psychology to vitamins and minerals.
The section on breathing involves minimal equipment and makes the following suggestion:
No special technique is required – just take a few deep breaths when you need a break or can’t find the solution to a problem. Take a deep breath right into your stomach, hold it for a few moments, and then let the air go with a loud sigh. Deep breathing is one of the most effective mood boosters. In stressful situations many people hold their breath, or their breathing is very shallow, which restricts the flow of oxygen throughout the body and reduces mental function.
Why do scientists say ‘Its a chemical soup’ so often? Do they think we can’t understand complexity?
Despite that I like the idea in this article that we can get more control over how we feel. Thats pretty important news. A group member brought print-outs of this article along for us to have a look at
New Research Shows That Humans Have More Control Over Their Happiness Than Previously Thought
There is a video of the ABC Show here.
By MICHAEL MENDELSOHN — ABC News
Jan. 11, 2008
What exactly is happening inside the brains of people experiencing joy and happiness?
“It’s a very complicated chemical soup,” explained Dr. Richard Davidson, who has made a life’s work out of studying “happy brains.” His lab at the University of Wisconsin is devoted to understanding how much of our joy level is set at birth, and how much we can control.
With a skull cap containing 128 sensors, Davidson’s team can watch a subject’s brain respond to a series of photographs, some pleasant, some distressing.
“We can challenge the brain by presenting these emotional images and look to see how you respond to them,” Davidson said.
ABC News’ Bill Weir underwent the test, and by studying the activity in his left prefrontal cortex, Davidson discovered that Weir’s brain was “more positive than not.”
“Now, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have episodes of negative emotion,” he explained. “But those negative emotions don’t linger.”
People with happy brains have their parents to thank, to a certain extent, not only for happy genes, but also for loving childhoods. Studies have shown that angry or critical parents can actually alter a child’s happiness level until it’s set around age 16. But can adults adjust their own feelings of happiness?
Happiness Interventions
Until recently, most research psychologists were more interested in what made people depressed than what made them happy, and pharmaceutical companies have played a crucial role in promoting happiness by developing very successful anti-depressants. But evolving research in a field known as positive psychology is getting people to ask themselves how they can become happier, not through drugs, but by making changes in how they act and think.
“Antidepressants don’t make people happier, they just decrease negative emotions,” says University of California-Riverside psychology professor Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky. In her new book, “The How of Happiness,” Lyubomirksy argues that as much as 40 percent of our happiness “is left for the intentional activities that we can choose to engage in — the things that we do and think every day of our lives.”
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
