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Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

171–180 of 261 posts

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#171

> Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a core symptom of a number of common psychological disorders and may be a modifiable process shared by many psychological risk factors that contribute to the development of cognitive impairment. The core assumption (or insight?) of Cognitive Therapy (and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is that our thoughts shape the way we feel. In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are act…

> In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are actually a main cause of depression, not a symptom. Wouldn‘t it be both? While the repeated negative thoughts are the cause, they‘re also the symptom how it show up and the reason why people seek out a diagnosis

Yes. "not just a symptom" would have been more accurate.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#172
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does someone have a medicine for negative thinking?

https://www.psypost.org/psilocybin-therapy-linked-to-lasting... https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2025.00461

“The findings were published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies.”

Whoa. Far out.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#173

I already knew my best friend from childhood was a terminal cynical bastard. But now this! He has less time than I thought. I will have to forward it to him, and cross my fingers that he doesn't spiral. Thoughts and prayers, man. Before you suggest it, I can't tell him to just "think positive". He would physically explode. Implode? Something. Matter, antimatter.

"think positive"

To be honest, I don't think that line ever helped someone who sees himself in the middle of deep shit. There is nothing positive about being in shit. The only thing that can help people stuck in such a mindset is somehow change their perspective. And yes, maybe that study will help in a way.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#175
post #174

How do politicians and people in the business world maintain a normal life? There are constant attacks, backstabbing, sues, etc.

They mostly don't, that's why they look 10+ years older than they are and are stressed as fuck

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not true. Evidence of rigorous differences exist. The "explanations" are not supported by rigorous evidence. They are just "explanations" for a correlation. One explanation is environment, another is genetics. Realistically Both are factors. >The current observed gap is much smaller than gains than have been observed within racial communities over time as a result of environmental changes. Yes environment is a factor…

> Yes environment is a factor but given a prime environment to foster intelligence, you can see that among races there are still differences in intelligence. You cannot. And the smoking gun is, again, that we have seen massive rises in intelligence scores within racial subgroups over time correlating with environmental changes that are much larger than current spreads and still unevenly distributed.

Right and again, when you maximize environmental factors there ARE STILL differences in intelligence. While Environment plays a massive role, genetics does as well. It's not as if environment is a smoking gun that makes the other factor disappear even when environment accounts for a much greater rise.

Obviously a starving, stressed out person is going to have a much lower IQ score then someone who is happy and well fed. You think because that obvious fact is true it completely eliminates genetics? No.

This is what I'm talking about. The mass delusion. The positive cognitive bias. You grasp for evidence that supports the conclusion you want.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#177

I'm not seeing where they are coming up with RNT as a cause, other than a lot of theory. Wouldn't it be a symptom of cognitive decline instead? Dementia patients, particularly those with Alzheimers, tend to become depressed because of confusion and memory loss. Wouldn't it be more likely that these depression symptoms are being caused by deteriotating brain function rather than the other way around?

True, but it still might be a good proxy to estimate how well a client is doing.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#178

> Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a core symptom of a number of common psychological disorders and may be a modifiable process shared by many psychological risk factors that contribute to the development of cognitive impairment. The core assumption (or insight?) of Cognitive Therapy (and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is that our thoughts shape the way we feel. In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are act…

I came here to say: read this book, it's really great.

I think if your depression is very deeply buried, it surely isn't enough to read it, but still it can open up quit some insights regarding the connection of what you think and how you feel. It makes it visible.

There can also be other causes for depression is course.

While studying and testing the exercises described in the book I discovered one other thing I'd like to share: to me it seems, to come out of a reappearing mental dip, you need to be very consistent in your efforts (mental / physical exercises and other habits you try to establish or change, to feel better). Anyone else?

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#179

I saw this with a family member. In their 60s, they started getting stuck on small worries and always assumed the worst. At first it just seemed like anxiety, but over time their memory and focus started slipping too. It was like their mind got stuck in a loop. What helped the most wasn’t medicine. It was little things, like going for walks together or having simple conversations. Just giving the brain something new…

This is in my family too. One person always had a tendency of being overly worried and after children moved out and social life thinned or a bit, this became more prevalent.

After years of trying to push that person towards trying out new things and enriching their life, I kind of gave up. You simply cannot convince someone about a medicine if they don't feel there is a problem. Still it's hard to see believing the person could be enjoying life more, especially during their retirement.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is such a controversial livewire of a topic and borderline taboo, but the evidence is pretty substantial. That being said, the intra-group variation is also extremely substantial (IE the variation between genius/median in any particular group is simultaneously a) far more than median in one group and median in another group and b) far less than genius in one group vs genius in another group). All that bei…

I disagree. It strongly detracts from the GP’s claim. If we see huge variation in intelligence scores intra group, that strongly suggests that there are social/cultural/environmental factors in play driving a large part of this. It may be true that some racial backgrounds offer an advantage; but there is no evidence to suggest that this advantage is materially large relative to many of the social structural drivers t…

>If we see huge variation in intelligence scores intra group, that strongly suggests that there are social/cultural/environmental factors in play driving a large part of this.

Correlation does not equal causation. Variation in genetics in a group can realistically be a factor as well. Three probable possibilities here: Only environment, Only genetics, both genetics and environment. Common sense says it's both genetics and environment.

>It may be true that some racial backgrounds offer an advantage; but there is no evidence to suggest that this advantage is materially large relative to many of the social structural drivers that are obvious.

I never commented how large this advantage was relative to the social driver. I agree with you... the social structure likely the greater driver. But the genetic driver is not insignificant.

>The subtext of the claim is not that a statistically significant effect exists. It’s that there is a big important difference in intelligence across races intrinsically derived from genetics. And there’s no compelling evidence to support that.

There is evidence. But there is huge political debate and attacks around the evidence. There are many studies that study IQ among races independent of environment and many of those studies show there is a statistically significant difference. Those studies suffer from the replication crisis, but so do all conflicting studies within psychology as well.

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