You may not have the fanciest thing in the world to play with, but deep inside you have that gratitude with what you have. Asking no more. That happy energy is just overflowing from your body, like the fire hose that the firemen forgot to tighten. Everyone is asking why you're so happy?
In a snap of a finger, life barge in through the door, and like an evil mailman saying hey your medical report just sets in, you got yourself some diseases! Your girlfriend no longer wants to stay with you! Suddenly, you have a massive bill to pay for your health!!
First, you lost the motivation to act toward your daily goal. Then the negative self-talks start sprouting like mushroom after rain. Just before you know it, you lost that willingness to move and eventually lost your power to control your life. Depression settles in like a rope tied to your four limbs and cripples your performance. And the only thing you can do or even good at is staying still and let that negative self-talk reroll like a broken tape.
The harsh truth is that :
Negativity will continue to wrap around you and suffocate you if you don't make an effort to escape from it
So, what can we do to combat this? First, let us understand depression from the scientific point of view...
How Depression relates to your brain?
As depicted in the picture, the frontal of your brain is responsible for emotion and behavioral control. The left side of the frontal lobe is found to be largely responsible for positive emotions while the right side of frontal lobe is responsible for negative emotions.Quoted from a neurology study (HarmonJones et al., 2002):
Brain scan and EEG recordings show that emotions also activate different areas of the brain’s cortex, with some tendency for negative emotions to be linked to the right hemisphere and positive emotions to the left. Disgust, for example, triggers more activity in the right prefrontal cortex than in the left. Depression-prone people, and those with generally negative personalities, also show more right frontal activity
Another study from Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine also supported these findings, stated that :
We have consistently found, however, a strong association between development of major depression and left anterior brain injury. Recent studies have demonstrated that either left anterior cortical or subcortical lesions may lead to the development of major depression and that preexisting subcortical atrophy may play an important permissive role in the development of major depression.
The point of the study above is to show that there's a correlation between parts of the frontal lobe and the emotion you're experiencing. Once you understand that depression is mostly activation of the right frontal lobe, we can trigger the positive emotions ( happiness, excitement, joy) just by stimulating left frontal lobe. How is this possible? This is because our brain is neuroplastic. This means we can "mould" our brain to produce the behaviour we want. As Donald Hebb used to say :
How To Control Your brain to fight off negativity
1. Trick your brain that everything is "OK"
When a person is struck by negativity, most of the people will curl into his/her own cocoon and retreat from any activities. They find it incredibly hard to fight off the negative events that keep playing in their mind. In order to fight this loop of negativity, you have to apply conscious effort. You need to fake a smile! Yes! faking a smile!
This is because the brain will interpret every single behaviour as important.
This is called :
BEHAVIOURAL ACTIVATION
When you smile, you are actually activating the parts of your brain which is associated with positive emotions. There are neural pathways that link the facial muscles to the cortex of the brain. Information is constantly flowing between them. The right side of the brain controls what's on the left side of the body, it is called "contralateral functioning" So, when you smile, you're using the right side of a facial muscle, you're also stimulating the left side of the frontal lobe. Thus, more likely to trigger positive emotions!
2. Be more active than you currently are
When you're depressed, you hardly will do anything. You let that broken tape of yours keep replaying in your mind. Making you more prone to depression and anxiety. You chose to have more excuses for carrying out any activities.
Just by doing this, you're attracting the number one enemy of productivity: PASSIVITY
Passivity further increases depression. So you get caught in this vicious cycle of passivity and depression. One process amplifies another.
That's why you need to get your lazy ass off and start working out! The simple movement can actually create a tremendous difference in your mood. When you're exercising, you're promoting better blood flow to brain, lungs and the rest of your body, you'll feel alert and calm.
Other than that, exercise also forces increased output of Norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is a hormone that not only revs up your heart rate, but it also occurs in the brain. Norepinephrine helps to boost up the mood of a person. Antidepressant medicine actually just increases the transmission of norepinephrine achievable by just doing exercises!
3. Give me all the sunshine!
A depressive person usually locks himself/herself out from the outside world. Just like Dracula the vampire, they prefer to stay in a dark room surrounded by heavy drapes as if even a beam of light ray might burn their skin.
But little do they know, low level of light does have an effect on the biochemistry of the brain.
As shown in the picture above, the brain picks up a signal from retina whether it is dark or light outside and then sends that information to the pineal gland. Melatonin which is a sleeping hormone will be secreted if its dark. So, when you constantly stay in a dark place, your brain will secrete tonnes of melatonin. An abundance of melatonin will compete with serotonin - a feel-good hormone in the brain, as they have similar molecular structure. Thus making the person even more depressed.
Next time, make sure your windows and doors are all opened! Don't lock yourself and caught in the vicious cycle of depression!
4. Put yourself in other's shoes!
As you're stuck thinking about how unfair your life is compared to others, there are people who are going through worse scenario than yours. But most people like to think that they suffered the most when they encountered some issues in their life. They complained for hours about what happened to them. And they become oblivious to see how fortunate they are to have certain things in their life!
Here you can try to harness the power of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are cells in the brain that makes us react or feel an action that someone else is performing.
For example, you see someone who accidentally kicked his foot to a metal bar. You'll feel the pain even though you're not experiencing it. This is mirror neuron at work.
When you feel terribly sorry for yourself, try to think about others who are less fortunate than you! There are poor children in another country who hardly have anything to drink or eat. Some even get abandoned for some stupid reason such as witchcraft. You can see the video below :
When mirror neurones come into play, you'll realise that a positive turn occurs. You'll be more empathetic towards this young soul undergone most ridiculous suffering on earth. Every time you're complaining that you have the worst day, try to watch this video over and over again.
In any circumstances, there is always an opportunity to look to the brighter side provided that you initiate the effort to see it.
References :
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10420428
- http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.aspx
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/neuroplasticity
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201702/how-do-neuroplasticity-and-neurogenesis-rewire-your-brain