3 ms·

I can see how this is effective. I remember reading that people with chronic depression have better memories and dwell on the past. Getting the person focused o

I can see how this is effective. I remember reading that people with chronic depression have better memories and dwell on the past. Getting the person focused on the present could, theoretically, help alleviate painful memories. More studies need to be done. I'm all for natural, non-medicated, means of cures.

teacups 12y ago
I have chronic major depressive disorder. I don't think I have a better memory, maybe I have a predisposition to remember things that feel bad to me. Repeating the same loop in one's mind is not necessarily intelligent, nor does it indicate anything about memory, aside from the mind that clings continuously to a given idea.
- tehchromic 12y ago
  but maybe you do have a better memory! which is why it is so difficult to forget things that feel bad. Leaving aside the question of intelligence, which is so many things that it isn't worth judging any individual by it, I would say your statement supports both the idea that memory is related to depression, and that focusing on the art of creation of new, positive memories, is a path to happiness, for people like you and me. As a person with a damn good memory, who once felt like you do, cheers!
empressplay 12y ago
When mindfulness practice refers to "being present" it doesn't necessarily mean one only focuses on the current moment (although in certain circumstances this can be useful) -- rather, mindfulness is all about "going meta", moving outside your consciousness and looking at your thoughts and memories as they appear without allowing them to induce judgement or bias on your part: accepting how they make you feel, acknowledging those emotions, that you're human and they're perfectly normal, but then letting them go. This way you can minimise their emotional effects so you can then theorise objectively on why you had a disturbing thought, and can then either make a note to modify your behaviour to avoid the situation that generated the thought or rationalise a mental solution to the issue at the core of the thought. You essentially become your own psychoanalyst. Further, you can start to be "mindful" of others: acknowledging (consoling yourself with a little mental self-love is good here, "pet your inner monkey") and letting go of the feelings that resulted from their behaviours that upset you so that you can free yourself from the hurt and resentment they cause early, and allow yourself to explore an understanding as to why they acted the way that they did. Often (almost always) you can quickly establish some reasoning for their actions that don't involve unreasonable malice towards you, and thus you can dispose of thoughts that had they lingered would have festered and contributed further to your already 'sensitive' mental state. So while it seems to an observer that early mindfulness practice is focussed on meditation and the literal present moment, its long-term concern is on giving the practitioner the ability to keep an eye on their "present" -- that is, their stream of consciousness -- so they can manage negative thoughts effectively and mitigate any potential damage they could cause, developing strategies to cope with them more easily and eventually moving to an automatic, unconscious response that instantly changes the malignant "Bob is mad at me, I must have done something horribly wrong" to the far more benign "Bob is mad at me, he must be having a bad day. I wonder why?"
eivarv 12y ago
AFAIK depression is associated with impaired memory [0][1], and sufferers tend to remember more negative experiences [2]. Also, memories are in effect changed by recall [3][4]. This combined with the cognitive distortions [5] linked to depression would seem to suggest even worse performance with regard to memory (i.e. looking for and finding fault that may not have been present, etc.) BTW, "natural" is not really a useful distinction regarding this issue [6]. [0]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18266496 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18266496 [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571468 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571468 [2]: https://www.google.no/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TemvZpgA6uoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA186&dq=Memory+for+emotional+and+nonemotional+events+in+depression:+A+question+of+habit%3F&ots=wVruFRGAjC&sig=mjP0CoUc-syJ0jk-nbTSj3wZw_w&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Memory%20for%20emotional%20and%20nonemotional%20events%20in%20depression%3A%20A%20question%20of%20habit%3F&f=false https://www.google.no/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TemvZpgA6uoC&oi=fnd... [3]: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2014/02/how-your-memory-rewrites-the-past.html http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2014/02/how-y... [4]: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/35/12144.short http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/35/12144.short [5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion#Main_types http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion#Main_types [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

teacups 12y ago

I have chronic major depressive disorder. I don't think I have a better memory, maybe I have a predisposition to remember things that feel bad to me. Repeating the same loop in one's mind is not necessarily intelligent, nor does it indicate anything about memory, aside from the mind that clings continuously to a given idea.

tehchromic 12y ago
but maybe you do have a better memory! which is why it is so difficult to forget things that feel bad. Leaving aside the question of intelligence, which is so many things that it isn't worth judging any individual by it, I would say your statement supports both the idea that memory is related to depression, and that focusing on the art of creation of new, positive memories, is a path to happiness, for people like you and me. As a person with a damn good memory, who once felt like you do, cheers!

empressplay 12y ago

When mindfulness practice refers to "being present" it doesn't necessarily mean one only focuses on the current moment (although in certain circumstances this can be useful) -- rather, mindfulness is all about "going meta", moving outside your consciousness and looking at your thoughts and memories as they appear without allowing them to induce judgement or bias on your part: accepting how they make you feel, acknowledging those emotions, that you're human and they're perfectly normal, but then letting them go. This way you can minimise their emotional effects so you can then theorise objectively on why you had a disturbing thought, and can then either make a note to modify your behaviour to avoid the situation that generated the thought or rationalise a mental solution to the issue at the core of the thought. You essentially become your own psychoanalyst. Further, you can start to be "mindful" of others: acknowledging (consoling yourself with a little mental self-love is good here, "pet your inner monkey") and letting go of the feelings that resulted from their behaviours that upset you so that you can free yourself from the hurt and resentment they cause early, and allow yourself to explore an understanding as to why they acted the way that they did. Often (almost always) you can quickly establish some reasoning for their actions that don't involve unreasonable malice towards you, and thus you can dispose of thoughts that had they lingered would have festered and contributed further to your already 'sensitive' mental state. So while it seems to an observer that early mindfulness practice is focussed on meditation and the literal present moment, its long-term concern is on giving the practitioner the ability to keep an eye on their "present" -- that is, their stream of consciousness -- so they can manage negative thoughts effectively and mitigate any potential damage they could cause, developing strategies to cope with them more easily and eventually moving to an automatic, unconscious response that instantly changes the malignant "Bob is mad at me, I must have done something horribly wrong" to the far more benign "Bob is mad at me, he must be having a bad day. I wonder why?"

eivarv 12y ago

AFAIK depression is associated with impaired memory [0][1], and sufferers tend to remember more negative experiences [2]. Also, memories are in effect changed by recall [3][4]. This combined with the cognitive distortions [5] linked to depression would seem to suggest even worse performance with regard to memory (i.e. looking for and finding fault that may not have been present, etc.) BTW, "natural" is not really a useful distinction regarding this issue [6]. [0]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18266496 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18266496 [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571468 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571468 [2]: https://www.google.no/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TemvZpgA6uoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA186&dq=Memory+for+emotional+and+nonemotional+events+in+depression:+A+question+of+habit%3F&ots=wVruFRGAjC&sig=mjP0CoUc-syJ0jk-nbTSj3wZw_w&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Memory%20for%20emotional%20and%20nonemotional%20events%20in%20depression%3A%20A%20question%20of%20habit%3F&f=false https://www.google.no/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TemvZpgA6uoC&oi=fnd... [3]: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2014/02/how-your-memory-rewrites-the-past.html http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2014/02/how-y... [4]: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/35/12144.short http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/35/12144.short [5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion#Main_types http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion#Main_types [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature