Are You Feeling “Up the River”?
This
morning when the alarm went off I hit the snooze and drifted back to sleep, not
back into a sound sleep, but that
interim state, somewhere between sound asleep and wide awake. Like many mornings, my brain spent the first
few moments figuring out what day it was and what my agenda might be like for
the day. It is Monday morning, the first
day back to work after a long Thanksgiving weekend, and as my brain begins to
process the past 4 days.
Per
usual, my thinking ‘automatically’ took off down the path of evaluating my
‘performance’ and ‘productivity’ over the long weekend. Per usual I was ‘coming up short’ on my ‘internal
performance evaluation.’ My brain was
‘automatically’ focusing on what I didn’t get done. Once my brain got started down that path, it
was as if that spark of negative thinking ignited a flame.
Before
I even seemed to realize what was happening, I had rifled through the usual
negative thoughts about myself: “I should have done this…” “I didn’t get that done either…” “I didn’t
get the garage cleaned, ran out of time to fix the toilet…” “I should have
spent more time, pushed myself further, not
spent as much time relaxing, watching football…”
It
was as if I had been standing in the shallow water at the edge of a raging
river, slipped on a rock, and suddenly found myself in the middle of the
turbulent water, heading for the dam.
All of a sudden it hit me. “This feels
like depression.” In that moment, I
realized that I am really no different from the many clients I have dealt with
who struggle with depression. This is
the essence of what it feels like to be mired in a torrent of negative
thinking. No one can convince me, even
for a minute, that how I felt in that moment was any ‘less’ depressed than
anyone else. I’m just not buying
it. I know how lousy I felt.
So
what did I do? I immediately set to work
to get ‘out of the river.’ It wasn’t
easy, mind you, but I went to work without delay, identifying my negative
thoughts and, one-by-one, registering the ‘positive’ counter thought for each negative
representation. Fortunately, I have
built the ‘positive’ infrastructure of thinking over the years, so I have
‘positive’ thoughts ‘at the ready’ to slide into the slots that were initially
being occupied by negative thoughts. Next
I got on my exercise bike and started pedaling like crazy. Within a relatively short period of time, I
was able to ‘swim out of the torrent’ and back to the calm waters at the ‘edge
of the river.’ Whew!!
It
is beyond the scope of this article to tell you, specifically, how I made it
out of the river this morning. Suffice
it to say that it is a learned process that can be taught to just about anyone.
As
I reflected on my experience, I couldn’t help but wonder how many folks have no
idea how to ‘get out of the river’. Had
I let my negative thoughts go on, doing their dirty work, I am sure that at
some point I might be convinced that I was in serious depression and probably
‘needed an antidepressant’.
Pharmaceutical
companies have done a phenomenal job of marketing antidepressants. They have completely sold most of
How
do researchers support claims that antidepressants work to lift
depression? Quite simple, really, if a
person is feeling ‘depressed’ and he/she takes an antidepressant, and they feel
‘less depressed,’ then the drug has worked.
That seems to be enough proof that antidepressants are ‘effective’ for
treating depression. Have you ever
noticed, though, that researchers are careful to avoid the claim that
depression is ‘caused’ by a deficit of serotonin in the brain? Look for it, you won’t find it anywhere. Folks in the ‘know’ are careful to not make
claims about things that they cannot prove for sure.
There
is little doubt that serotonin is a major player in the phenomenon, but what
really ‘causes’ depression is still very much open for debate. We know enough about the brain to be able to
say that serotonin is ‘related’ to the feeling of depression, but the nature of
this relationship raises questions. Does
a serotonin deficit cause the ‘depression’? Or is it the other way around?
It
is my contention that it is the other way around in many (if not most)
cases. How can I say that with any
degree of authority? Simple, I use the
same logic that is used to support the efficacy of antidepressant drugs. It goes like this: If a person is ‘feeling’ happy, we can
empirically prove that one will find an elevation of serotonin in the
system. Therefore, feeling happy
‘causes’ a rise in serotonin levels and feeling depressed ‘causes’ just the
opposite.
Consider
this: Let’s say you bought a lottery ticket this morning, and you just found
out it was a million $ winner. How might
you feel? If I were able to pull a blood
sample from you, immediately prior to and in the immediate aftermath
of finding out you won the lottery, I could prove to you that there was a marked
spike in serotonin levels in your brain.
What caused this? Or let’s suppose you just received word that a loved
one died. I would, conversely, find a
marked decrease in serotonin. Did the
sudden rise or drop in serotonin cause
the feelings of elation or sadness? Of
course not, it was exactly the opposite.
What if the information about the lottery ticket or the death of a loved
was completely fabricated? Would I still
find the fluctuations? Of course I
would, the perception alone of winning or losing will cause the change, whether
or not it is actually true. So there you have it. The perception of an event can be proven to
change serotonin levels in the brain.
Let
me make it clear here that I am not saying that antidepressants don’t
work. I am simply saying that one’s
perception can be proven to cause significant changes in serotonin levels in
the brain. Change of perception, my
friends, is a powerful antidepressant that each and every one of us has the
ability to employ each and every day.
The
problem lies in how to change one’s perception. It is a bit more complicated than one might
think. Simply deciding to perceive
something in a different way is not the answer.
If it were, I could hand you a new perception, and send you on your way. Changing perception is a process that
takes instruction, proper technique, coaching and time. It is not much different, in essence, from
learning an art form, such as martial arts.
It is easy to understand why people reach for a pill. It is quicker, easier and seems to work quite
well. But do you really want to be
messing with brain chemistry if you might not really need it at all?
In
several prominent, well documented research studies, antidepressants were found
to be no more effective than a placebo 80% of the time. Wow!
This means that of 10 people taking antidepressants, as many as 8 could
be ‘feeling better’ not because of the pill (it’s a sugar pill) but because
they have the perception that they are taking an actual
antidepressant.
I
am not, I repeat not, telling you to stop taking your
anti-depressant. I am telling you
to seriously consider getting to work on learning how to take charge of
shifting your own perceptions. Think
about it. Even if your antidepressant is
‘working’, how much additional benefit could you gain from also learning how to
be in charge of your own perceptions??
Why would one want to leave such a powerful tool in the bag?
Want
to get out of the river – for good? Give
us a call. Take Charge today!
All Rights Reserved. Copyright: December 2008. Take Charge Counseling and Consulting.
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