The reverse causation here is obvious. It's perfectly normal to be depressed about losing one's cognitive faculties.
Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
111–120 of 261 posts
Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've talked about how intergenerational trauma has affected my family before, although I didn't mention it started in 1918 when my great great grandfather killed my great great grandmother in a murder suicide, leaving my great grandmother an orphan who would one day abuse my grandma. [1] I think there are patterns to abuse regardless of the cause. Abuse is essentially addiction to control or anger (the seven deadly s…
> Abuse is essentially addiction to control or anger That's an interesting formulation. I have someone in my family who could be described by these words. Is this your own description or does this come from somewhere?
It is my own description, based on patterns I've seen over my lifetime.
Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#113Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only thing I'd add to this (as someone with stupidly depressive and negative thought patterns), is that there are techniques that can help. The parent comment comes off as flippant, but I am going to assume it's not intended that way. Learning to think more positively takes an incredible amount of effort. An effort which seemingly never goes away. It just never gets easier. It's like my brain is simply wired to a…
I have a really hard time doing gratitude. Most days are pretty much like any other day, especially with work. If I journal the same thing over and over ("lunch was fine" "the podcast I listened to was slightly interesting") it feels grim. I feel like I'm already aware of the good things in my life. I'm actually quite fortunate. But even that forms a baseline: "I was healthy today in a world where not everyone is" gr…
I'm not the person you replied to but their list of strategies (gratitude practice, evoking joy, exercise) pretty much mirrors what I've been trying to employ.
> Saying it every day means little even if I write it down, and the writing itself feels more like a burden than a help.
Perhaps an obvious statement but our experience with any type of practice varies in infinite ways from moment to moment. At times things just click or maybe we've built up enough momentum that it could feel effortless, but on just as many occasions it can feel like wading through sludge. When it's the latter I have to ask myself just how am I showing up for the activity. How mindful am I? What's my intention? Perhaps most importantly, is the sense of gratitude actually being felt in my body?
If you don't mind self-help type books, 'Hardwiring Happiness' by Rick Hanson is a fairly accessible resource that stresses the importance of the somatic side of this type of work. The tl;dr is that if more parts of the mind pay _sustained_ attention to the embodied experience of gratitude, compassion, joy etc. then we're increasing the chances of training our minds. So if I find myself enumerating things in a journal that I believe I'm grateful for but the exercise feels contrived or flat then that's a sign I should either tune even more into large parts of the body (can be anywhere but for me it's usually my face, chest, and arms) or just attempt to evoke warm feelings in those areas. That last part can feel fake at times but there's probably value in learning how to encourage more mind processes to sign up for the practice. The OP alluded to this bit with "sometimes it can help to simply sit up straight and smile". If the body remembers what gratitude feels like then chances are that's going to influence the mind for the next few moments.
'Awakening Joy' by James Baraz is another book in this vein. In it the author makes the case that learning how to shift our baseline towards one coloured with joy and gratitude usually requires someone repeatedly and genuinely appreciating seemingly trivial things over the course of each day (food, shelter, mobility, pet, access to nature, etc.). Whereas shifts occurring solely due to significant positive life events are potentially less common.
Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#115Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#116Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's why it's best to sow plants as close to each other as possible, as they will help each other thrive. Or maybe that leads to famine and disaster, as it usually does when people try to apply their personal political beliefs to nature.
I struggle to see how that at all follows what I said
[deleted]
Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened… I am curious about whether your model of how the current Administration in the U.S. has benefited various countries so strikingly includes the United States itself.
The jury is very much out on that. Market’s up, unemployment rising but relatively low. Our place in the world stage not as good as 30 years ago, but arguably a tad bit better than the days between our Afghan withdrawal and Putin’s blitz on Ukraine, or the dark days of pandemic lockdowns. Sometimes the darkest hour is before dawn. To be sure I ask myself your question nearly everyday and the concerns are obvious: a d…
At least there was some good music back then that you coulf cling to and have hope
Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#119Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults
#120Repetitive negative thinking associated WITH EVERYTHING.
Stop being so negative maaaaan