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Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

med.stanford.edu

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Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#91

Post by ajmurmann »

SoftTalker wrote: post #55
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the related concept of "catastrophizing" comes up so much in the context of therapy: > Catastrophizing is a cognitive distortion that prompts people to jump to the worst possible conclusion, usually with very limited information or objective reason to despair. When a situation is upsetting, but not necessarily catastrophic, they still feel like they are in the midst of a crisis. Anecdotally, many of the p…

This is why the news has always been bad, since way before social media. Disasters, war, scandal, and death have always been more engaging. Also why gossip is almost always negative. Our brains evolved to deal with what was happening in our immediate vicinity. This was usually fairly neutral to pleasant, with maybe some moments of sadness, loss, alarm and danger. We just aren't mentally equipped to process an unendin…

I think there also is a factor where good things move slowly. I always liked the thought experiment of imagining newspapers that are published at increasingly long intervals. What would the content be in a newspaper that's published every 50 or 100 years? Sure you'd cover major wars, but so much more space than we dedicate right now would go to phenomenal improvements that took a long time. Incredible advances of medical improvements, including eradication of entire diseases, much higher life expectancy and so many fewer famines, massively increased literacy rates. One could go on and on. Yet, few of these things, unless they are discreet events which is rare, ever go into a daily newspaper and certainly don't make headlines.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#92

Post by reaperman »

munificent wrote: post #88
asdfman123 wrote: post #5

> “It’s almost as if you’d already decided how you were going to feel, and then everything you were sensing was filtered through that,” he said. “The mood has become primary.” This is 1000% what depression feels like, once you've properly come to terms with it. Your brain seems absolutely compelled to apply the most horrific, negative interpretation to everything that happens to you. Even when you understand it's wro…

Anxiety feels similarly. The most valuable thing I've gotten from the past several years of therapy is a better model for how humans actually process information. The simple model a lot of people have is: 1. Receive some stimulus, input, or experience. 2. Process and understand it. 3. Respond to that emotionally. What we actually do is more like: 1. Receive some stimulus, input, or experience. 2. This data is way too…

Thank you for detailing / summarizing your exploration on this topic. You've phrased it very well / precisely.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#93

Post by asdfman123 »

hirvi74 wrote: post #70
asdfman123 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has more or less successfully learned to deal with depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc., the trick is basically doing everything considered "healthy." We don't understand all of the mechanisms of long-term illnesses like depression, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, etc. but we do know how to fight them: exercise and good diet. * Some processes in the human body obviously get disrupted under modern cond…

My issue is that the disorders/symptoms interfere with my ability to do "everything considered healthy." The ADHD makes it impossible for me to stick to exercise routines as well as other routines. The depressive symptoms make me feel like I am carrying a ball and chain and every little thing requires so much energy. The worst part is that I am treated for ADHD, and even that has basically any negligible difference a…

Does your ADHD make you feel antsy, like you need to get up and move around?

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#94

Post by asdfman123 »

amelius wrote: post #89
asdfman123 wrote: post #5

> “It’s almost as if you’d already decided how you were going to feel, and then everything you were sensing was filtered through that,” he said. “The mood has become primary.” This is 1000% what depression feels like, once you've properly come to terms with it. Your brain seems absolutely compelled to apply the most horrific, negative interpretation to everything that happens to you. Even when you understand it's wro…

I sometimes get this when I'm tired. The solution is not to think about it more, but instead to just have some sleep.

Right. A good approach to depression is to learn to simply "turn the TV off" and quiet your brain, but it takes practice to learn how to do that.

More broadly speaking though, depression is partially like being stuck in your foulest possible mood for years, with the full knowledge that it's not going away, at least in the near term.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#95

Post by asdfman123 »

detourdog wrote: post #90
asdfman123 wrote: post #5

> “It’s almost as if you’d already decided how you were going to feel, and then everything you were sensing was filtered through that,” he said. “The mood has become primary.” This is 1000% what depression feels like, once you've properly come to terms with it. Your brain seems absolutely compelled to apply the most horrific, negative interpretation to everything that happens to you. Even when you understand it's wro…

wild, this explains a particular relationship. I deliver what I perceive as good news and the response is consistently the worst interpretation of every detail.

That actually sounds more like anxiety about the relationship, and now that I think of it what I'm describing is more like a (very common) combination of depression and anxiety.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#96

Post by detourdog »

asdfman123 wrote: post #95
detourdog wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wild, this explains a particular relationship. I deliver what I perceive as good news and the response is consistently the worst interpretation of every detail.

That actually sounds more like anxiety about the relationship, and now that I think of it what I'm describing is more like a (very common) combination of depression and anxiety.

Probably true. Thank you. Could it be anxiety driven by their own commitment?

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#97

Post by d_tr »

endisneigh wrote: post #21

disclaimer: I acknowledge depression as an illness and state of being. that being said, if you take someone who is objectively "not depressed" and apply these same depression treatments, what would happen? some state of euphoria? heightened mood? happiness? suppose that new state is now the normal state in which people are judged against. now, the before-mentioned person who was not depressed, may be considered depre…

Some symptoms are not OK in an absolute sense. For example, the exhaustion. It can be disabling (along with all the other nice things that go on inside your head) and go on for months without a break.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#98

Post by endisneigh »

fpgaminer wrote: post #79
endisneigh wrote: post #21

disclaimer: I acknowledge depression as an illness and state of being. that being said, if you take someone who is objectively "not depressed" and apply these same depression treatments, what would happen? some state of euphoria? heightened mood? happiness? suppose that new state is now the normal state in which people are judged against. now, the before-mentioned person who was not depressed, may be considered depre…

This line of reasoning reminds me of a common misunderstanding of depression I've seen from people who've never been clinically depressed (1). It's an understandable mistake, albeit potentially dangerous (2). Depression isn't on the happiness-sadness scale. It's quite tangential to that. In fact, perhaps quizzically, you can be happy and depressed. It's fairly common for people who learn about the loss of a loved one…

The point I was trying to make isn’t about happiness or sadness per se, rather they depression has mental analogs that presumably are improved after treatment.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#99

Post by dandanua »

robotburrito wrote: post #53

We are always trying to solve this problem while avoiding the elephant in the room, the current state of society is not very healthy for most people.

Messing the brain to solve a problem caused by outer factors looks like a new iteration of lobotomy to me.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#100

Post by endisneigh »

johnfn wrote: post #48
endisneigh wrote: post #21

disclaimer: I acknowledge depression as an illness and state of being. that being said, if you take someone who is objectively "not depressed" and apply these same depression treatments, what would happen? some state of euphoria? heightened mood? happiness? suppose that new state is now the normal state in which people are judged against. now, the before-mentioned person who was not depressed, may be considered depre…

Analogously, what if we took someone who was already full, and then fed them food? > what if it's ok to be depressed? I dunno, what if it was _ok_ to be hungry? I don't think this question makes much sense.

But it is ok to be hungry. What’s the depression equivalent of having a completely, literally, full stomach?
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