[–] CrustyBeaver52 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
The thing you mentioned about your hand - sounds a lot like self hypnotic suggestion - that works in a lot of people - martial artists actively train in self hypnosis to achieve a variety of things - including mood improvement and pain avoidance.
I know that stuff works - and it is very similar to what you mentioned....so that may also be what happened here with you. Self hypnosis seems to work best when you are tired or distracted, because half your brain is either asleep, or otherwise not focused on the moment which somehow allows better access to the subconscious mind.
If self hypnosis is what happened, then full hypnotic therapy might work wonders for you. I know some people are able to quit smoking this way - which is amazing to me.
[–] WhiteRonin ago
I've wondered about hypnosis. It seems that you have to be willing to let it work too and won't make you do something that you would never do.
[–] CrustyBeaver52 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
Not necessarily - it doesn't work like that - it's more like issuing commands directly to the subconscious brain - bypassing the conscious filters of awareness which would normally protect against that.
There is the part of your mind where you reside - the part that says "I am me," and you know who you are - but that is certainly not all of your mind - most of your body is run by your subconscious mind - like breathing, heart beat, etc, the vast majority of you operates on a sort of auto pilot while your conscious mind carries on with your moment by moment thinking. Your body is kind of like a car - you are the driver of the car - but not the whole car.
So, when it comes to emotional states, certainly your conscious thoughts can change your emotions - but it is also true that your chemical state - regulated mostly by your subconscious mind - can also change the pattern of your conscious thought. I know, for example, people who eat a properly balanced diet, and go for a 30 minute walk everyday, generally report they experience a constant state of "happiness" even though they have no reason to be happy. Kind of the opposite of depression. It is the subconscious mind that is controlling that emotional state, through chemistry.
So, the hypnosis trick is to use verbal commands issued directly to the subconscious mind, to turn on and off the various triggers that are influenced or controlled by it. For example - martial artists do Jedi like tricks - like you are feeling no pain (even though you are injured,) you are wide awake and fully alert, (even though you've been training for 24 hours - and are physically exhausted,) You are almost too warm and are sweating, like you are standing on a beach in the summertime, (even though you are shoveling snow in boxer shorts at minus 20.)
So, if you can issue the commands to your subconscious that you are healthy, happy and 100% confident, without anxiety or remorse - the subconscious will adjust your body chemistry to allow your conscious mind to experience exactly that state of mind.
It's a trick - but it is a really good trick. I studied martial arts for more than 6 years and I have experienced these techniques on multiple occasions - they do work. Results sometimes defy everything that we believe to be true. Like I said in the other post above - it's easier to sneak these commands past the filters when you are already tired or distracted - and the conscious mind is not fully paying attention.
The way I see depression is that, for whatever reason, the subconscious mind is regulating your chemical state to be set as if you are sad, or tired, or run down - which has a powerful influence on your conscious thought pattern - and the whole show gets stuck in a kind of feedback loop. The subconscious says we are sad, then the mind says we are sad, then the subconscious says, yes sir, maintain our chemistry setting on sadness.
So the physicians try to break that pattern using pharmaceuticals - which can work - but which have been proven to be very dangerous (SSRI's.) It is entirely possible to achieve desired chemical changes in the body through changes in the diet (which is basically another kind of drug chemistry) and through exercise ( there are certain chemical reactions which occur in humans uniquely from the act of exercise - stuff like endorphins, testosterone, changes to your body ph levels - stuff like that.) Using this more natural approach you can alter the way your subconscious mind is regulating your body chemistry - and break the feedback loop - get it to reset to a more "normal" level to one of say neutral, content, cheerful - Break the down cycle.
I prefer the later approach - first of all because it is safer. Also, it matches what we are designed to be - we are supposed to spend our day moving around and eating natural foods - but our modern lifestyle has us sitting on our ass all day and eating chemical garbage - is it any wonder we are having troubles? Take the unleaded gas car - if we put in diesel fuel - the car chokes on it - same for the humans.
So, the hypnosis trick can be a very powerful shortcut. Like the quit smoking hypnosis - a smoker's brain is physically altered by nicotine addiction, such that it adjust the body's chemistry production to balance with the incoming nicotine. Remove that nicotine, and the human undergoes extreme physical discomfort - sometimes for years - with the subconscious mind sending signals to the conscious mind - the conscious mind seeking and finding all kinds of "logical" reasons to go buy another pack of smokes - it's insidious. Yet, a percentage of smoker's get themselves hypnotized, and simply never smoke again. That is how powerful the subconscious is in influencing our conscious state of mind.
[–] drakesdoom 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Temporarily. Depression feeds itself by making you want to do things you don't want to do like curl in a ball and sleep till you die. Later this makes you depressed because you didn't actually want to do that.
By doing what you didn't want to do while depressed you accomplished goals which lifts your spirits and breaks the cycle.
[–] WhiteRonin 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
From what I can tell, depression is a self motivated state of mind. By you questioning your subconscious with a why question it couldn't come up with a reason so decided fuck it and moved on. Your subconscious feeds off negativity and would rather curl up and sleep than be positive and motivated. It's possibly part of the fight or flight mechanism that we have inherited from our cave dwelling ancestors or even further back.
Your body can produce hormones to fight pain and gets over but that subconscious beast needs to be questioned with why this and why that? You did that and it decided, OK, yep, good point. The problem to be careful of is burning out (I do this a lot) and with talking negatively to yourself (fuck, why did I do that? Shit, I am a dumb ass, etc ...). By doing this your subconscious completely agrees that you are a lazy, good for nothing, dumb ass. And the whole shit depression state returns. So, once again, you have to start the whole why this and why that routine and fight back.
Start your morning with, today's gonna be a great day and I'll get something done (ie, 1 chore).
I doubt ignoring depression cures it but rather more like aspirin. It makes it go away long enough to get shit done. And more days you can do that, the less and less of an issue depression will. If nothing else, it makes you a functional person with depression.
Note: I'm a psychologist or what ever but have read lots about motivation, NLP and love to procrastinate and possibly have some form of depression.