Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression • Hacker News Board

Re: Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression

#31

Post by JamesBarney » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 3:46 AM UTC

lifeformed wrote: post #26

JamesBarney wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common misconception about mindfulness meditation. The goal of mindfulness meditation is not to quiet mind(though this happens with practice). It's to learn how to notice when your mind is unquiet. So when you notice your mind wandering this is mindfulness. Imagine you're coding all day long, and then you have this moment where you notice that you're not paying attention to coding, but instead thinking about…

What would mindful meditation be like then? Setting aside a moment to remind yourself to notice?

Most common forms of meditation are mindfulness meditations.

A common form of meditation is focusing on your breath. This meditation is composed of two parts, trying to pay attention to breath, and noticing when your mind wanders.

Most people think the most important portion of that exercise is focusing on breath. But in truth it's the second part, the noticing.. The first part is growing your attention, but the second part is practicing your mindfulness.

Re: Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression

#32

Post by eltoozero » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:59 AM UTC

chimen wrote: post #9

lemonberry wrote: post #5

This is interesting. On a recent Kevin Rose podcast he and his guest talked about targeted treatment for ADHD, dementia, etc. using video games. At one point they also discussed people using self-built gadgets to stimulate their own brain using electric current ( they do not recommend it though ). https://www.kevinrose.com/single-post/Adam-Gazzaley As an aside, I've found meditation to be very helpful in treating my…

Would love to be able to meditate. My brain just goes all over the place and it feels like I'm wasting my time.

You don’t need an app, a timer, or anything whatsoever; that’s the point:

Follow your breath, count each breath from 1-10, repeat.

Start over if you lose count.

Continue for 2-200 minutes.

You’re meditating.

If you need more help try the Urban Dharma podcast, Kusala is a great guy.

Re: Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression

#33

Post by jackaroe78 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:06 AM UTC

eltoozero wrote: post #32

chimen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to be able to meditate. My brain just goes all over the place and it feels like I'm wasting my time.

You don’t need an app, a timer, or anything whatsoever; that’s the point: Follow your breath, count each breath from 1-10, repeat. Start over if you lose count. Continue for 2-200 minutes. You’re meditating. If you need more help try the Urban Dharma podcast, Kusala is a great guy.

Thank you

Re: Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression

#34

Post by fitzroy » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 6:39 AM UTC

chimen wrote: post #9

lemonberry wrote: post #5

This is interesting. On a recent Kevin Rose podcast he and his guest talked about targeted treatment for ADHD, dementia, etc. using video games. At one point they also discussed people using self-built gadgets to stimulate their own brain using electric current ( they do not recommend it though ). https://www.kevinrose.com/single-post/Adam-Gazzaley As an aside, I've found meditation to be very helpful in treating my…

Would love to be able to meditate. My brain just goes all over the place and it feels like I'm wasting my time.

I felt the same way for a long time. It's like trying to train a cat to sit and stay.

You might want to check out the book, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The free Headspace meditations are also a good lightweight introduction IMO.

Re: Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression

#35

Post by MDib » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 10:33 AM UTC

leggomylibro wrote: post #14

I once saw a presentation at a BCI conference about using DBS to treat depression. They basically installed a 'happy button' in someone's brain, and it worked. On the one hand, it's sort of scary. On the other hand, what are you supposed to do when nothing, not art nor work nor drugs nor thought, does anything to ameliorate the pain?

I think it's scary too, but maybe for different reasons. It's a step towards building an experience machine [1]. Whilst I fully empathise with DBS as a treatment to otherwise incurable atypically negative mental states, much as I am on-board with VR enabling physically or financially limited persons to enjoy the full gamut of human experience, I baulk at the idea of this becoming mainstream.

Why? Because the implication of a 'happy button' in the hands of everyone and anyone horrifies me. Sure, you and I might have better things to do than to hold that sucker down and experience unending monotone bliss for the remainder of days, but how sure are you that the majority of humanity won't? How many lives might be wasted because someone's instinct was to go for immediate bliss instead of trying to make things better in the long run? It'd be the final drug.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_machine