it: “I am perfectly imperfect and that is OK.”
THE ANATOMY OF DEPRESSION
The other thing is that if you rely solely on medication to manage depression or anxiety, for example, you have done nothing to train the mind, so that when you come off the medication, you are just as vulnerable to a relapse as though you had never taken the medication.
Daniel Goleman
Have you ever noticed how new knowledge can provide new understanding which in turn opens up new possibilities in life. Take the example of learning to drive a car and how that knowledge and eventual ability opens up a whole new world of places to explore.
Likewise, knowing the anatomy of your physical body and how your brain works can provide your with new understanding into the reasons why things are working the way they do. Like driving, as you discover the body’s natural system, you will be better able to tweak those systems to work better for you in the future. Knowing how your limbic system operates can provide you with a tool for controlling your emotions and defeating depression.
You might not know it, but depression originates inside the brain. Sure there will be outside factors that are problematic and result in negative thinking. And yes, there will be events that are difficult to endure and cause trauma. But really, how does depression form? Where does it reside in the body? And what makes it last long after the trauma has past? To answer these questions we need to know more about the brain and how it functions.
HOW IT WORKS
The brain has a built-in structure with a system that operates in a pre-determined manner. There is a part of your brain that is involved in setting the emotional tone of your life. In the medical world it is called the Limbic System. It is found in the center of the brain and is about the size of a walnut. It is comprised of several parts including the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala and several other nearby areas.
The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating various functions and sub-systems such as hunger, thirst, response to pain, levels of pleasure, sexual satisfaction, anger and aggressive behavior, and other similar systems. It also regulates the functioning of the autonomic nervous system that includes such things as pulse, blood pressure, breathing, and arousal in response to emotional circumstances. Its main assignment is to maintain homeostasis. That means it works to maintain equilibrium in various systems through a balancing process of returning things to normal whenever they go askew. It works like a thermostat on the furnace; if the room is too cold the furnace comes on with heat and then shuts off once the normal temperature is achieved.
The hypothalamus has an effect on emotions in that it signals the pituitary gland to release hormones and chemicals into the bloodstream when they are needed.
Another part of the Limbic system is the hippocampus. It converts things that are in your mind now into long-term memory.
The amygdala, when stimulated, responds with aggression.
Simply described, they all work together as the limbic system that governs human behavior by performing important functions:
• sets the emotional tone of the mind
• processes your sense of smell
• controls your appetite and sleep cycles
• promotes relationships
• modulates libido
• filters and tags events (determines their importance and creates emotional responses).
For the purpose of defeating depression, the first and last noted functions are the most important. Learning how to manage the emotional tone of our mind, in this case managing depression is our goal. Achieving control will be achieved through better evaluating the importance of events and the intensity of our emotional responses. And it is believed to be possible.
Albert Ellis (1913-2007) noted American Psychologist believed that we have more control over our emotion that we know. He insisted we could work with our brain to mold our thoughts, that we could overcome depression by dismantling its hold on us. That’s a thought. Let’s take it as a possibility and work with it.
QUOTE
You largely constructed your depression.
It wasn’t given to you.
Therefore, you can deconstruct it.
Albert Ellis, Psychologist
The Limbic System is the major center for the formation and processing of emotions, for learning and for memory. It is the processor that analyses a lot of incoming data, processes that information and decides what to do with it. Your emotional responses are formed and categorized in this center. The limbic system is responsible for translating our emotional state into physical feelings of relaxation or tension.
From an evolutionary standpoint, the limbic system is the part of the mammalian brain that enabled our ancestors to immediately manage life-threatening situations. For example, fear signals stimulate the body generating a “fight” or “flight” response, a primitive state that gets us ready to fight or flee when we are threatened. This “hard wired response” happens immediately upon activation, such as seeing or experiencing a threat. In computer terms, this ability is deeply “hard-wired” because it is vital for the survival of the person and the race.
It is important to note that the more threatening the incoming data is interpreted, the greater will be the responses generated.
When stimulated, the heart beats faster, breathing rate and blood pressure increases, the hands and feet become cooler to shunt blood from the extremities to the big muscles (so we can fight or flee), and the pupils dilate so we can see better. This limbic response is immediate and powerful. In that light, you can understand that situations you perceive as threatening will immediately generate a significant response.
According to its design, the brain’s systems have the capacity to evolve to meet the demands of today’s society. Daily life clearly exemplifies that, in some ways, the brain has developed the ability to perform necessary complex tasks including problem solving, planning, organization, and rational thought. In other ways, especially the threat assessment system, it remains the same. In our endeavor, we are going to need to use both these aspects to overcome depression.
To gain a better understanding as to how these primal responses work, let us imagine life as it might have been in ancient times. Suppose a Neanderthal man is squatting at his campfire, stirring the ashes. The wife is using a stone knife to cut some meat, while the children are in the mouth of the cave, skirmishing over a particularly shinny stone. Suddenly, the air is torn with the sound of snarling seemingly coming from the bushes overshadowing the mouth of the cave. As expected, the brain immediately kicks the “fight” or “flight” response into action to ensure the survival of the group. As such, each of the humans would be experiencing such feelings as anxiety, alarm, panic, distress and other similar feelings. There would be a rush of adrenaline and every cell in their body would be on high alert. The problem is that many of the natural primal responses are now inappropriate in our culture. Things have changed drastically. We may be experiencing many of the same symptoms but they are inappropriate responses considering
