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As a school, we would like to know how to make all students more resilient, how to turn depressing thoughts into positive ones. The article really seems to tre

by kirse 18y ago

As a school, we would like to know how to make all students more resilient, how to turn depressing thoughts into positive ones. The article really seems to treat depressive, angry, and other emotions as "negative", when in fact these emotions are really just neutral. It is completely positive and OK to be depressed when someone dies or angry when you've been hurt, and treating them as 100% "negative" emotions is one of the reasons people can get stuck in the cyclical downward thinking: 1. "I'm experiencing depressive emotions" 2. "Oh no! These are negative and bad emotions. Therefore I'm not happy!" (Brain releases more depressive feelings based on these thoughts) 3. Start at step 1. Instead of fearing oneself, it's much easier to understand that all feelings are simply feelings, in the same way that all thoughts are simply thoughts. This ties in very closely to mindfulness and not just reacting to your mind, but engaging it and choosing what to do with thoughts and feelings. Edit: Just to clarify, this is not to say depressive thoughts are always positive, but to encourage others to be aware and engage their feelings from a neutral perspective, then decide what to do with them. That is the point of mindfulness.

electromagnetic 18y ago
Depression has been shown to be one of the forces that teaches our brain. Basically, when we're depressed our brain is using the time to restructure itself so the next time an event occurs we're ready for it. If my wife left me because I didn't pay enough attention to her then I'd get depressed, but the next time I'm married I'd be unlikely to make the same mistake because of the profound effect of depression. However, anti-depressants can hinder this learning process, so quite literally if I took anti-depressants after my wife (hypothetically) left me, it would be quite probable that I'd make the exact same mistake again. Clinical depression, of course, is different as it's like the emotional equivalent of palpitations. Personally I quite like depression, it's helped me a lot with my writing. It's odd as I seem to get a new perspective afterwards, I'd be interested to know if my depression is sometimes caused by my writing so I do learn a new perspective because I've been depressed at some pretty weird times before, but this is the kind of question that'll never be answered.
- JoelSutherland 18y ago
  Divorce probably isn't the best example to support your point: Fifty percent of first marriages, 67 percent of second and 74 percent of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=363986 http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=363986 I tend to see a stronger distinction between pain and depression.
  - yummyfajitas 18y ago
    Your numbers suggest very little, one way or the other. People who make bad marriage choices are more likely to get divorced. Bayes rule implies that divorcees are therefore more likely to be the type of people who make bad marriage choices, and second/third marriages are more likely to fail. I'll give a simple numerical example. I assume some people marry badly, and have an intrinsically higher probability of divorce. I assume the probability of divorce does not change after the first marriage. Let MB = Marries Badly, and D = Divorce. Assume P(MB)=0.5, P(D|MB)=0.9 and P(D|!MB)=0.1. Then: P(MB | D) = P(D | MB) P(MB) / P(D) = 0.9 x 0.5 / 0.5 = 0.9. So 90% of divorcees marry badly. Therefore, a person who has gotten one divorce has a probability of getting divorced on their second marriage of: P(D | MB) x 0.9 + P(D | !MB) x 0.1 = 0.82 Therefore, in this model, 50% of first marriages and 82% of second marriages will end in divorce.
    - electromagnetic 18y ago
      I agree, the statistics seem to show that divorcees should have a huge failure rate, however all evidence seems to indicate that their judgment improves after they've been divorced, as the second marriage rate is surprisingly close to first marriages to say its composed almost entirely of people who failed the first time.
      - yummyfajitas 18y ago
        Other statistics might show this (if so, please post them), but my model proves little. I could tweak it to get 67% second marriage failure rate (first marriage has no effect, good or bad), or 60% failure rate (first marriage adversely affects the second). More complex models are possible too. My point is simply that the numbers provided prove nothing.
jcl 18y ago
It is completely positive and OK to be depressed when someone dies or angry when you've been hurt Granted, but it is detrimental to be feeling "negative" emotions frequently for no significant reason. Seligman's research in particular suggests that a person's outlook can be changed through specific mental exercises and that these changes have real-world effects, including improvements in health, career success, and how the person is perceived.
narag 18y ago
"It is completely positive and OK to be depressed when someone dies ..." Depression is not the same as sadness. Depression is a vicious circle, often fueled by inner chemicals. Sadness can be OK, depression is never.

by kirse 18y ago

electromagnetic 18y ago

Depression has been shown to be one of the forces that teaches our brain. Basically, when we're depressed our brain is using the time to restructure itself so the next time an event occurs we're ready for it. If my wife left me because I didn't pay enough attention to her then I'd get depressed, but the next time I'm married I'd be unlikely to make the same mistake because of the profound effect of depression. However, anti-depressants can hinder this learning process, so quite literally if I took anti-depressants after my wife (hypothetically) left me, it would be quite probable that I'd make the exact same mistake again. Clinical depression, of course, is different as it's like the emotional equivalent of palpitations. Personally I quite like depression, it's helped me a lot with my writing. It's odd as I seem to get a new perspective afterwards, I'd be interested to know if my depression is sometimes caused by my writing so I do learn a new perspective because I've been depressed at some pretty weird times before, but this is the kind of question that'll never be answered.

JoelSutherland 18y ago
Divorce probably isn't the best example to support your point: Fifty percent of first marriages, 67 percent of second and 74 percent of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=363986 http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=363986 I tend to see a stronger distinction between pain and depression.
- yummyfajitas 18y ago
  Your numbers suggest very little, one way or the other. People who make bad marriage choices are more likely to get divorced. Bayes rule implies that divorcees are therefore more likely to be the type of people who make bad marriage choices, and second/third marriages are more likely to fail. I'll give a simple numerical example. I assume some people marry badly, and have an intrinsically higher probability of divorce. I assume the probability of divorce does not change after the first marriage. Let MB = Marries Badly, and D = Divorce. Assume P(MB)=0.5, P(D|MB)=0.9 and P(D|!MB)=0.1. Then: P(MB | D) = P(D | MB) P(MB) / P(D) = 0.9 x 0.5 / 0.5 = 0.9. So 90% of divorcees marry badly. Therefore, a person who has gotten one divorce has a probability of getting divorced on their second marriage of: P(D | MB) x 0.9 + P(D | !MB) x 0.1 = 0.82 Therefore, in this model, 50% of first marriages and 82% of second marriages will end in divorce.
  - electromagnetic 18y ago
    I agree, the statistics seem to show that divorcees should have a huge failure rate, however all evidence seems to indicate that their judgment improves after they've been divorced, as the second marriage rate is surprisingly close to first marriages to say its composed almost entirely of people who failed the first time.
    - yummyfajitas 18y ago
      Other statistics might show this (if so, please post them), but my model proves little. I could tweak it to get 67% second marriage failure rate (first marriage has no effect, good or bad), or 60% failure rate (first marriage adversely affects the second). More complex models are possible too. My point is simply that the numbers provided prove nothing.

jcl 18y ago

It is completely positive and OK to be depressed when someone dies or angry when you've been hurt Granted, but it is detrimental to be feeling "negative" emotions frequently for no significant reason. Seligman's research in particular suggests that a person's outlook can be changed through specific mental exercises and that these changes have real-world effects, including improvements in health, career success, and how the person is perceived.

narag 18y ago

"It is completely positive and OK to be depressed when someone dies ..." Depression is not the same as sadness. Depression is a vicious circle, often fueled by inner chemicals. Sadness can be OK, depression is never.