How About Exercise for Depression?

QUESTION:

I've heard that exercise is good for depression. Is that true?

ANSWER:

Exercise is more effective than anything else for depressed patients according to studies at Duke University. They have shown that three 30-minute workouts each week brought relief equal to drug treatment. Even hard work makes a person more cheerful. 

It is my opinion that Psychology has been too interested in the study of weakness and damage and not enough interested in the study of strength and virtue 

What Am I Doing Wrong that I Get Depressed?

QUESTION:

What am I doing wrong that I struggle with depression?

ANSWER:

We get depressed not because we are doing something wrong, but because there are a few essential things we have never been taught how to do at all. Depression is essentially a trick of the mind. We can learn how this trick works so that we won't be fooled by it so easily. 

The way out of the trick is to realize that depression is a thought and there is no thought that we are compelled to think. We can choose not to think any thought we want by choosing another thought instead of it.

"Putting the Lie" to a Negative Thought

QUESTION:

If I don't "put the lie" to some of these negative thoughts won't they keep returning? Don't they need looking at? Isn't there any benefit to answering back? Or do we just say "hi thought, I am not going to pay attention to you"?  I ask because I used to do these exercises that David Burns recommends: take the thought, write it down and then categorize it under one of his ten categories of irrational thoughts and "put the lie to it.”

ANSWER:

Any attention you give a negative thought makes it stronger.

The exercise that David Burns uses is a good example of cognitive therapy, changing rational thinking for irrational, emotional thinking. But "putting the lie" to an irrational thought can never erase it. All you can do is keep doing the exercise when the thought pops up. Once you think a thought, it is forever in your memory banks. However, the less you think any thought, the less powerful it is.

David Burns' exercise is good because doing the "putting the lie" exercise is certainly better than thinking the negative thought. But once you understand how the mind works you can see that the exercise is, in a way, just going around in circles. Once you decide that any negative thought is no longer an option, you needn't put the lie to it (which, because the brain works by learned association, can even make the negative thought stronger). The most efficient thing to do is simply turn away from the negative thought, give it no more energy and proceed to think a different, more positive, objective, or productive thought which sets you going ahead in the right way with your day. Even a nonsense thought keeps you from thinking a negative thought. And from the nonsense thought you can move on to more productive thinking.

We All Have Fearful Moments

QUESTION:

It's so helpful to hear about your lack of fear. I long to be like you in that regard, I try to picture it sometimes. Just standing there thinking...ha, I am safe, depression cannot get me for more then a few mins...ha! Now that sounds like living.

ANSWER:

I may have said that I am a pretty fearless person on occasion. I probably meant fearless because I am a risk taker and I don’t mind dumping myself into a situation where I don’t know anybody, and have no idea how the meeting, or conference or whatever will turn out or what others might be expecting of me. I figure I will be able to handle anything that comes up with common sense, a spirit of good will and the fact that I’m not a quitter, I am honest and I always try to do my best and treat other people as I would like to be treated.

But of course I cannot be fearless in the strict sense of the word. Fear is the basic motivating force in a human being. We only have one psychological defense mechanism—the flight or fight response. But to sink down into that fear/anxiety unnecessarily is something I have learned not to tolerate in myself. There is always something I can do other than think about the fact that suddenly find myself full of fear. As soon as I recognize that I am thinking I am afraid I realize that I am not in reality because reality doesn’t contain unnecessary fear.

If you are “in fear for your life” usually you are too busy at the task at hand (trying to save your life) to be afraid. The definition of reality is giving a pure act of attention to the task at hand. Also known as “being in the NOW.”

So when the fear makes its appearance I take steps to situate myself in reality as quickly as possible.

I See the World Through Sad Eyes

QUESTION:

I learned to think of myself as a poor and unwanted creature when I was young, as that is what I was. Do you think that I have some building or rewriting of old programs to do so that life is not filtered through that belief system? What I am saying is that I see the world through my vision which seems to be programmed pretty damn downer and negative...and it is hard for me to believe (though, trust me AB, I really want to) that all I have to do is ignore thoughts and I will feel better about myself.

What if I don't even know they are negative or that I am thinking them?

ANSWER:

You may have an inclination to think poorly about yourself because of the way you were treated as a child. But you did survive and since you are no longer a helpless child you can treat yourself with more love and respect. Our nature is not our enemy, it is our path. When you start feeling down you can check in with what you are thinking and you will usually catch some very negative thoughts chasing each other around.

Sit still. Relax your shoulders. Withdraw you attention from whatever you are thinking and focus it, instead, on RIGHT NOW. Look around. Past history doesn’t need to be rewritten. You are not hurting from past history. You are hurting because you are not situated in reality. Reality is a pure act of attention to what is at hand. If you are outside, focus on the trees and bits of alive nature that are near you. Allow them to nourish you. Nature can nourish us if we just allow ourselves to be nourished.

If inside, focus on the floor, a picture. Notice things around you in an objective way.Look for some small task that you can do and get up and do it. Then do another. And another. Just small things. No need to do great things ever. Just the next small thing. There is always the next thing.

I Have This General "I'm Not Safe" Feeling

Question:

As I practice, how to I keep from feeling like I am under constant threat of thoughts? I have this general "I am not safe" feeling. Like I must be on alert at all times for the negative thoughts and therefore I can't relax.

Answer:

The thought pattern "I am not safe" has become a strong one for you because as you think a thought over and over it becomes dominant. But just because a thought pattern is strong in your brain does not mean that the thought has any basis in reality. In reality you are safe. Your thoughts have no power over you. You can always think any thought you want to think, can't you? Hippoty hop.

Replace the thought "I am not safe" with the thought "I am safe in this moment." Whenever the thought "I am not safe" occurs, replace it with "I am safe in this moment." And then relax your shoulders at the same time. When your body takes a fearful position, just relaxing out of the fearful position helps to lessen the fear.

You always have the power over your own brain to think any thought you want to think. Fear is just a thought. You can replace fear with a nonsense thought or some other more productive or objective thought any time the fear thought comes up. You fear "bank" is full because you keep investing in fear thoughts. Your safe "bank" will fill up as you invest it with more "I am safe" thoughts.
A. B. Curtiss

Why Can't I Be Happy LIke Other People?

QUESTION:

I am practicing techniques from Brainswitch. I am determined to not give in this time. The first big depressed feelings came on Saturday (but there was the build up of negative thinking, and self doubt, and worrying when I’d get the next hit. I was so self-focused on all my fears). So, I immediately lose my appetite and you know , all the familiar symptoms start returning and I think "CRAP...I may not survive this one! Why can't I be like other people? What if I am not strong enough to derail this! Great there goes sleeping!"?

ANSWER:

You have made a wonderful start really. To be self-aware that you are being self-focused is the very way out of self-focus.

And never forget, you are not the only one who suffers negative thinking and depression. You are in the company of millions of people who struggle with the same exact things that you describe.

But remember as well there are also people who have been able to pull themselves out of being a passive prisoner of their own thinking and have proactively taken charge of their thinking enough so they can make a good day out of a bad start by insisting on taking the positive fork in the road as soon as they realize they are on the negative highway of thinking.

One exercise is to actually visualize a sign up ahead—POSITIVE THINKING FORK JUST AHEAD. And then take it.  A. B. Curtiss