5 ms·

I'm not a doctor, of course, but for those who are depressed, but where it's not debilitating, or where you are not suffering from some kind of clinical depress

I'm not a doctor, of course, but for those who are depressed, but where it's not debilitating, or where you are not suffering from some kind of clinical depression where you need medical attention, I highly recommend that you immediately purchase the book "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life" by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and put that information into practice as soon as you can.

ksd482 6y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. Do you have personal experience with this book? Do you mind sharing your thoughts on the book as well as the practice of mindfulness meditation?
- tsumnia 6y ago
  I can't speak for the book, but I was a participant in a mindfulness study a decade ago. The biggest thing about it, I've taken, is that you recognize your feelings and acknowledge how they are causing you to behave. It doesn't transform you into an emotionless monk, but rather aims to make you aware (or mindful) of how you and your actions are being motivated through your emotions and non-awareness. For example, a mindfulness-driven diet would place emphasis on cultivating awareness of mindless snacking and aim to make you aware that you don't actually need to be eating at the moment - you are just snacking out of boredom or instinct. With regard to emotion, like I said, mindfulness isn't meant to eliminate emotions, or even eliminate negative emotions. If something makes you mad or angry, you may carry that emotion into later tasks. Mindfulness is about recognizing the anger, acknowledging it, but understanding not to project onto other things. There's probably more to it, but I was trained in mindfulness by proxy of martial arts (that was the study) [1]. I never studied it outright and only took a Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale survey a few times over a few years. The paper I linked might give you some ideas on what mindfulness is. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/22.23.PMS.116.1.30-39 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/22.23.PMS.116.1...
- ptrhvns 6y ago
  You're welcome. My personal experience with the book, and mindfulness in general, is that it has significantly transformed my life for the better. I say that despite the fact that my practice of mindfulness has been pretty poor, but I keep working on it. I don't subscribe to what I would call woo woo thinking or philosophy, so I was pretty skeptical at first. However, the fact that this book was written by a medical doctor helped me overcome my skepticism. My initial attempts at mindfulness meditation, however unskilled it was, sealed the deal. It has been incredibly helpful (beyond what I originally thought was possible) to use the techniques of mindfulness to be able to notice the thoughts and emotions I was experiencing, without judgement, and then gently, and purposely direct my attention towards something more positive or peaceful. I use the techniques, even if just a little bit, every day. It's helped my emotional self-regulation, my relationships, and my ability to focus on work. It's helped me cope with pain, and maintain resilience even when I was feeling particularly low. There are lots of wonderful books on this subject. Another great one is "Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard (another scientist). Sam Harris talks about mindfulness extensively, so you might check his work, and his app (although the app is a paid service).
lukifer 6y ago
I'll also add a suggestion for Martin Seligman's "Learned Optimism" [0]. A mindfulness practice on self-talk (along with giving up sugar and reducing carbs) has made a huge difference on managing my mental health. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism#Seligman's_method_of_learning_optimism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism#Seligman's_me...
- ptrhvns 6y ago
  Yea, that book is great. Another book, which includes those ideas and many others, is "The Resilience Factor" by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte.
  - meowing 6y ago
    I want to jump on and suggest a CBT book - Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns. It is the single biggest factor for helping me out of depression.
    - Maizor 6y ago
      It looks like Dr. David Burns just released a new book called Feeling Great
    - jodrellblank 6y ago
      I wish more people here could read/listen to some of Dr Burns works, I think his approach to feeling good is a lot like debugging and testing. He gets patients to identify times they feel bad, and what they were doing and thinking when it started, then pick one specific item and work on it to try and help with it - not fixing "depression" as a whole problem, but helping someone get past "I feel hopeless when I think about my future", and then the next one, and the next one, until they feel good. He starts with testing where the patient rates their feelings such as sadness, anxiety, depression, etc. on a scale of 1-10 before every therapy session, then works through one of these events of bad feelings - what triggers it, why, trying different techniques to help get past it, and finishes a couple of hours later with the same test to see if the symptoms improved. Test-driven therapy, honing in on techniques which help people feel better quickly, and rejecting those which don't. He works on distorted thinking patterns and practicing rebalancing them. e.g. when you feel bad in some way, some of these patterns might be happening: https://worksheets.ambrasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pin_on_productivity_3.jpg https://worksheets.ambrasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/p... can you notice them as they happen and use these approaches to change them when they happen: https://glassempty.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/10ways.png https://glassempty.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/10ways.png His more recent work is on identifying and unhooking the thought patterns which resist change, which say "I deserve to be miserable" or "I should feel guilty it's my fault", or "my boss is superior so I have to feel inferior" and then developing techniques to change those. It's a very practical kind of therapy - not ten years of talking, not digging through a lifetime of history, or making grand diagnoses, but what can help you feel better about a specific thing next week, this week, today? Related, his Feeling Good podcast series - contains a lot of updated ideas and techniques since the first book was written - https://feelinggood.com/list-of-feeling-good-podcasts/ https://feelinggood.com/list-of-feeling-good-podcasts/
vasco 6y ago
I would recommend a motorcycle instead
- herman_toothrot 6y ago
  Can anyone expand on the reason behind this recommendation?
  - vasco 6y ago
    A person needs a will to live, so to speak, a purpose. While a higher purpose might be achievable through helping others or religion or whatever, you can also distract yourself and have a really cool time by doing cool shit. And that's motorcycles. It's feeling the breeze and the road changing and the temperature go down as you go into a forest, it's smelling the sea and feeling the breeze in your face, it's the speed and the bit of danger and the fact that you're part of that curve, you're not just steering a wheel, you're committed to it. And it's camping at the end of a long day riding, and riding with your buddies, discovering new roads just because they're twisty. And it's working on your motorcycle or being part of a club, or a group of weekend rider friends. It's a hobby, and it's a cool one at that. And for as long as I've had one, not one bad weekend can't be fixed by a short ride.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ksd482 6y ago

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you have personal experience with this book? Do you mind sharing your thoughts on the book as well as the practice of mindfulness meditation?

tsumnia 6y ago
I can't speak for the book, but I was a participant in a mindfulness study a decade ago. The biggest thing about it, I've taken, is that you recognize your feelings and acknowledge how they are causing you to behave. It doesn't transform you into an emotionless monk, but rather aims to make you aware (or mindful) of how you and your actions are being motivated through your emotions and non-awareness. For example, a mindfulness-driven diet would place emphasis on cultivating awareness of mindless snacking and aim to make you aware that you don't actually need to be eating at the moment - you are just snacking out of boredom or instinct. With regard to emotion, like I said, mindfulness isn't meant to eliminate emotions, or even eliminate negative emotions. If something makes you mad or angry, you may carry that emotion into later tasks. Mindfulness is about recognizing the anger, acknowledging it, but understanding not to project onto other things. There's probably more to it, but I was trained in mindfulness by proxy of martial arts (that was the study) [1]. I never studied it outright and only took a Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale survey a few times over a few years. The paper I linked might give you some ideas on what mindfulness is. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/22.23.PMS.116.1.30-39 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/22.23.PMS.116.1...
ptrhvns 6y ago
You're welcome. My personal experience with the book, and mindfulness in general, is that it has significantly transformed my life for the better. I say that despite the fact that my practice of mindfulness has been pretty poor, but I keep working on it. I don't subscribe to what I would call woo woo thinking or philosophy, so I was pretty skeptical at first. However, the fact that this book was written by a medical doctor helped me overcome my skepticism. My initial attempts at mindfulness meditation, however unskilled it was, sealed the deal. It has been incredibly helpful (beyond what I originally thought was possible) to use the techniques of mindfulness to be able to notice the thoughts and emotions I was experiencing, without judgement, and then gently, and purposely direct my attention towards something more positive or peaceful. I use the techniques, even if just a little bit, every day. It's helped my emotional self-regulation, my relationships, and my ability to focus on work. It's helped me cope with pain, and maintain resilience even when I was feeling particularly low. There are lots of wonderful books on this subject. Another great one is "Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard (another scientist). Sam Harris talks about mindfulness extensively, so you might check his work, and his app (although the app is a paid service).

lukifer 6y ago

I'll also add a suggestion for Martin Seligman's "Learned Optimism" [0]. A mindfulness practice on self-talk (along with giving up sugar and reducing carbs) has made a huge difference on managing my mental health. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism#Seligman's_method_of_learning_optimism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism#Seligman's_me...

ptrhvns 6y ago
Yea, that book is great. Another book, which includes those ideas and many others, is "The Resilience Factor" by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte.
- meowing 6y ago
  I want to jump on and suggest a CBT book - Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns. It is the single biggest factor for helping me out of depression.
  - Maizor 6y ago
    It looks like Dr. David Burns just released a new book called Feeling Great
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    I wish more people here could read/listen to some of Dr Burns works, I think his approach to feeling good is a lot like debugging and testing. He gets patients to identify times they feel bad, and what they were doing and thinking when it started, then pick one specific item and work on it to try and help with it - not fixing "depression" as a whole problem, but helping someone get past "I feel hopeless when I think about my future", and then the next one, and the next one, until they feel good. He starts with testing where the patient rates their feelings such as sadness, anxiety, depression, etc. on a scale of 1-10 before every therapy session, then works through one of these events of bad feelings - what triggers it, why, trying different techniques to help get past it, and finishes a couple of hours later with the same test to see if the symptoms improved. Test-driven therapy, honing in on techniques which help people feel better quickly, and rejecting those which don't. He works on distorted thinking patterns and practicing rebalancing them. e.g. when you feel bad in some way, some of these patterns might be happening: https://worksheets.ambrasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pin_on_productivity_3.jpg https://worksheets.ambrasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/p... can you notice them as they happen and use these approaches to change them when they happen: https://glassempty.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/10ways.png https://glassempty.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/10ways.png His more recent work is on identifying and unhooking the thought patterns which resist change, which say "I deserve to be miserable" or "I should feel guilty it's my fault", or "my boss is superior so I have to feel inferior" and then developing techniques to change those. It's a very practical kind of therapy - not ten years of talking, not digging through a lifetime of history, or making grand diagnoses, but what can help you feel better about a specific thing next week, this week, today? Related, his Feeling Good podcast series - contains a lot of updated ideas and techniques since the first book was written - https://feelinggood.com/list-of-feeling-good-podcasts/ https://feelinggood.com/list-of-feeling-good-podcasts/

vasco 6y ago

I would recommend a motorcycle instead

herman_toothrot 6y ago
Can anyone expand on the reason behind this recommendation?
- vasco 6y ago
  A person needs a will to live, so to speak, a purpose. While a higher purpose might be achievable through helping others or religion or whatever, you can also distract yourself and have a really cool time by doing cool shit. And that's motorcycles. It's feeling the breeze and the road changing and the temperature go down as you go into a forest, it's smelling the sea and feeling the breeze in your face, it's the speed and the bit of danger and the fact that you're part of that curve, you're not just steering a wheel, you're committed to it. And it's camping at the end of a long day riding, and riding with your buddies, discovering new roads just because they're twisty. And it's working on your motorcycle or being part of a club, or a group of weekend rider friends. It's a hobby, and it's a cool one at that. And for as long as I've had one, not one bad weekend can't be fixed by a short ride.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]