3 ms·

I love the comparison to being paralysed. Being "mentally paralysed" is actually a good description.

dtf 14y ago
It does feel to me to be one of the cognitive routes into a depressive state. A cluster of problems can overwhelm thinking and mood to such a deep level that it descends beyond reasoning. It's "analysis paralysis" that has worked its way deep into less rational parts of the brain to become a standard mode. Once your brain loses its sense of agency it just kind of collapses in on itself, stewing in an abstract gloop of impossibilities.
lusr 14y ago
And even if you move past the paralysis, trying to cure oneself of depression is like trying to debug the operating system of your mind using a debugger running the exact same flawed logic that you're trying to debug! Worse, those bugs are live and their nature is to slowly but surely corrupt the rest of the system software pertaining to beliefs, memory, perception and thought processing. Eventually you reach a point where it's almost impossible to tell what's a lie and what's real, or how to non-dysfunctionally process what you do discover! This is why therapy is so critical - you have an objective third party to help debug things, identify your blindspots and point out where the bugs in your beliefs and thought processes are. A reference manual for identifying and repairing dysfunctional thinking is also incredibly valuable and to that end I recommend David Burns' "Feeling Good" to anybody in this situation.
- pvnick 14y ago
  I just wanted to reply to give another endorsement to David Burns' Feeling Good (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/0380810336 http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/03808...) - I personally use the Feeling Good Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452281326 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452281326) which is the exact same thing but a little condensed. It's a big book which can be hard to tackle with depression. Guys, if you're suffering from depression or anxiety, this is the be all and end all of lasting treatments that works. I actually Ctrl-F'ed for it when I opened this thread.
  - danso 14y ago
    Wow, 700 pages for the 4 dollar Kindle edition. Hard to not give it a try http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Mood-Therapy-ebook/dp/B009UW5X4C/ref=kinw_dp_ke http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Mood-Therapy-ebook/dp/B00...
  - jdp23 14y ago
    Agreed, strongly recommended. My Mom's a librarian, and she's given it to dozens of people over the years; back in the 1990s she even bought a dozen paperbacks on sale and would mail them to friends who were having problems.

dtf 14y ago

It does feel to me to be one of the cognitive routes into a depressive state. A cluster of problems can overwhelm thinking and mood to such a deep level that it descends beyond reasoning. It's "analysis paralysis" that has worked its way deep into less rational parts of the brain to become a standard mode. Once your brain loses its sense of agency it just kind of collapses in on itself, stewing in an abstract gloop of impossibilities.

lusr 14y ago

And even if you move past the paralysis, trying to cure oneself of depression is like trying to debug the operating system of your mind using a debugger running the exact same flawed logic that you're trying to debug! Worse, those bugs are live and their nature is to slowly but surely corrupt the rest of the system software pertaining to beliefs, memory, perception and thought processing. Eventually you reach a point where it's almost impossible to tell what's a lie and what's real, or how to non-dysfunctionally process what you do discover! This is why therapy is so critical - you have an objective third party to help debug things, identify your blindspots and point out where the bugs in your beliefs and thought processes are. A reference manual for identifying and repairing dysfunctional thinking is also incredibly valuable and to that end I recommend David Burns' "Feeling Good" to anybody in this situation.

pvnick 14y ago
I just wanted to reply to give another endorsement to David Burns' Feeling Good (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/0380810336 http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/03808...) - I personally use the Feeling Good Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452281326 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452281326) which is the exact same thing but a little condensed. It's a big book which can be hard to tackle with depression. Guys, if you're suffering from depression or anxiety, this is the be all and end all of lasting treatments that works. I actually Ctrl-F'ed for it when I opened this thread.
- danso 14y ago
  Wow, 700 pages for the 4 dollar Kindle edition. Hard to not give it a try http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Mood-Therapy-ebook/dp/B009UW5X4C/ref=kinw_dp_ke http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Mood-Therapy-ebook/dp/B00...
- jdp23 14y ago
  Agreed, strongly recommended. My Mom's a librarian, and she's given it to dozens of people over the years; back in the 1990s she even bought a dozen paperbacks on sale and would mail them to friends who were having problems.