Depression

 

According to Psychologist, Dr. Lisa Miller, half of all Americans are depressed. And suicide kills more adolescents than anything else. But by honoring our inner wisdom of direct knowing, we build our spiritual core and are are 80% less likely to be addicted and 68% less likely to take our lives. Dr. Miller is Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, Teachers College and is Founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program in spirituality and psychology. She is also a best selling author with a new book out called The Awakened Brain which tells us that ѕріrіtuаl awareness саn protect against dерrеѕsіоn, support health, аnd rеvеаl thе dеер іntеrсоnnесtіоn bеtwееn all lіfе. In an interview with Rich Roll, Dr. Miller says there is a lot of confusion between religion and spirituality, which are two completely different things. And for no reason science has been limited to interpretations of things that are material, only that which we can touch, which we can point to. Spirituality is our innate capacity for transcendent awareness. The following summary of the interview is paraphrased and abbreviated. We have a society that is non-conversant about spirituality. Our culture has foreclosed spiritual growth because we are so anxious about religion. We are depressed when we dismiss half of our ways of human knowing knowing. It's the part that is buoyant and loving and guiding—a relinquishment of intuition. Learning to trust that intuitive, inner-knowing as legitimate, right and true—authenticity, synchronicity. And spiritual practices are no longer confined to religions. In fact we are in the midst of a spiritual revival, what she refers to as a deep field of consciousness. Apparently humans are genetically equipped for spirituality. Not so with religion which is learned. But we have been educated out of spiritual awareness by a false split between science and spirituality. Science is a method, form of observance, a lens of observation. The culture renewed an interest in spirituality before science got onboard because of being arbitrarily limited to secular material. Showing the neural correlates to the brain proves that spirituality is real. And apparently every living being is genetically tapped into this field of consciousness. Dr. Miller has helped pioneer the science of spirituality. Previously there had been no published pier review articles on science and spirituality. Her courage in the face of criticism, and her persistence has established a viable response to a culture that has shut down awakened awareness. She provides a way to strengthen our inner core and be able to get trough painful times. Trauma and suffering are catalysts for growth. Rich Roll comments that neuroscience proves that cultivating spirituality (what Dr. Miller calls The Awakened Brain) leads to greater optimism, greater resilience, and insulates us from things like addiction, trauma, and depression. In her college classes Dr. Miller teaches multiple levels of analysts, starting with epidemiology model of risk and resilience to show that spirituality is foundational to human flourishing, wholeness, and recovery, and that spiritual awareness contributes to psychological wellness. And the deep knowing of the heart is a way to be in connection with all life and “use despair as an invitation to an awakening.” Dr. Rupert Sheldrake reports that England 85% of people are neither religious or atheist. So the science says we are all innately spiritual brings born with a spiritual core, with or without religion.  Listen to our podcast Spirituality Mind Body Institute Dr. Lisa Miller YouTube

Happiness

Happiness writers generally agree that happiness is the result of shifting our attention away from what's wrong, and focusing on better possibilities. It is often said that “happiness is a choice.” But then why aren’t more people happy? Happiness is complicated. Some people find happiness even in situations that would challenge the most optimistic person; some are unhappy despite having it all. For some, happiness is fleeting and depends on their present circumstances, whereas others seem to be generally happy or generally unhappy no matter what is happening in their lives. Biologically there are two basic human motivations: approach or avoid. People pursue pleasure and seek to avoid pain. Being stuck in avoidance is when we are imagining what happens when things go wrong, or when we are somehow inadequate, incompetent. It is a pattern in which we doubt our accomplishments, and there is a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud,"  unsuccessful, or unacceptable, unworthy. We dwell on ways things could possibly go wrong and the possible consequences. But fear is more complex than just forgetting or deleting memories. Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat. It is important to understand that perceived danger can elicit physiological changes in the body are associated with fear, even when there is no actual threat. The fight-or-flight response is an inborn response for coping with danger, it works by accelerating the breathing rate (hyperventilation), heart rate, constriction of the peripheral blood vessels leading to blushing and vasodilation of the central vessels (pooling), increasing muscle tension. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Cortisol, is public health enemy number one. Scientists have known for years that elevated cortisol levels: interfere with learning and memory, lower immune function and bone density, increase weight gain, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease. Chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels also increase risk for depression, mental illness, and lower life expectancy. Some other hormones involved during the state of fight-or-flight include epinephrine, which regulates heart rate and metabolism as well as dilating blood vessels and air passages, norepinephrine increasing heart rate, blood flow to skeletal muscles and the release of glucose from energy stores. Fear is about survival and it triggers the Brain's Fire Alarm System. When there's a fire, you run and pull an alarm that tells everyone in the building to get out right away. Fear is a defense reaction which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. These acquired sets of reactions or responses are not easily forgotten. The animal that survives is the animal that already knows what to fear and how to avoid this threat. Fear responses are often dependent on the reinforcement of a safety signal, and not the aversive conditioned stimuli. In many cases, it may be true that happiness is a choice. To some extent, we choose our own thoughts and reactions, which impact the way we feel, and can improve our happiness quotient by taking steps to change our thinking (e.g., keeping a gratitude journal, staying mindful of the present moment, accepting what is or developing healthier coping mechanisms). We can view our emotions as a signal that some aspect of life needs to change and take action to return to a better state of mind. The reward system contains pleasure centers or hedonic hotspots or brain structures that mediate pleasure or "liking" reactions from intrinsic rewards or even euphoria. One definition of pleasure a form of alleviation of pain.  The feelings of pain (or suffering) and pleasure are part of a continuum. There is a neurochemical relationship between pain and pleasure. However both pain and pleasure originates from neurons in the same locations in the brain. Although we often refer to pain and pleasure as opposites, but in a way, this is incorrect; we have receptors for pain, but none in the same way for pleasure. The linking of pain and pleasure perceptions together allows us to be able to reduce pain to gain a reward necessary for fitness, such as childbirth.  Fear and disgust signal dangers, and we do well, evolutionarily, to pay attention to them in order to maximize our chances for survival and reproduction.  Sex, sports, fighting, lying, stealing, gambling, and substance abuse may yield an adrenaline rush. Evolution doesn't suggest why we seek out fear, disgust, or anger. Some people like anything that gets their minds off their own problems. Car wrecks hijack our attention, action films and horror films may distract us away from our own problems and may allow us to feel we are better off than those who are more unfortunate. Some people are simply wired to enjoy high levels of physiological arousal and wiring may explain why some hate scary movies and some don't. Some have a harder time screening out unwanted stimuli in their environment and are more likely to have intense physiological reactions to fear. For example, childhood trauma can permanently rewire the brain to be more focused on threats. Happiness is an emotional issue. At any given time each cell in out body can be in one of two modes: growth or protection. Dr.Bruce Lipton writes that the only way to go from protection into growth is through the heart. And gratitude is a good starting point. The latest buzzword is Mindfulness, which is simply a good way to manage our attention span so we can move away from the darker emotions into the light of happiness. Levels of the "Stress Hormone" Cortisol Linked to Frailty Loneliness: Perceived Social Isolation Unhealthy Recovering From “Cry It Out” Parenting as an Adult Anxiety Is Now Public Enemy No. 1 Mindfulness Training and the Compassionate Brain POWERFUL ENERGY WAVES BEGINNING IN 2025

Antidepressants

Apparently psychiatric drugs are the most commonly used medications. Increasingly Americans take a psychiatric drug -- most often antidepressants, sedatives or antipsychotics. And the number of children receiving atypical antipsychotics doubled from 2001 to 2010. ABC news reported that doctors aren’t even sure how antipsychotics work. It is becoming clearer and clearer that antidepressants are far from benign drugs. And unfortunately, the combination of depression and medication, as well as still being very much trial and error, has some unique worries due to the nature of the condition itself. As with all drugs some people react badly to antidepressants, whilst side effects can seem quite mild in others. The irony here of course is that, helpful as antidepressants may be for some people at some times, these side effects can be very depressing in themselves. Because no one antidepressant has been proven to be any more effective than any other, the choice of which drug to prescribe often rests on their different side effects! The overwhelming popularity of SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) was in part due to their apparent "safety" over more toxic drugs when used improperly. Some of the Tricyclics are extremely toxic in overdose.However, in addition to other dangers, there is also an established direct link between suicide and violent behavior and the use of SSRIs. "The main reason for people stopping a course of depression medication  is the side effects of the antidepressant." Antidepressant medication side effects can be physical symptoms like headache, joint pain, muscle aches, nausea, skin rashes, or diarrhea, sleep disturbance such as nightmares and sleepwalking and daytime sleepiness; headache and migraines, flushing, rapid heart rate, weight gain, decreased sexual desire, delayed ejaculation in men, and the inability to have an orgasm in women. But discontinuing your medication on your own is never a good option as there is a dramatically increased risk of suicide. 22 veterans kill themselves each day. "Anti-depressant drugs carry massive risks, not only to the brain, but also to the heart, kidneys, liver, and central nervous system. Scientific research that is independent of the pharmaceutical industry has repeatedly shown that S.S.R.I. drugs can cause severe kidney and liver damage. These drugs also have the potential to cause cardiac arrest and a Parkinson's-like syndrome. Doctors are not required to advise patients of these risks, and they rarely do." So psychiatric drugs may not the best way to treat depression as they are ineffective and fraught with many dangerous side effects. especially among people taking a type of antidepressant known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These so called tranquilizers can produce an acute psychotic reactions. Many people who have taken psychiatric drugs have found out the withdrawal effects of the drugs can persist for months, even years after they stop taking them. Psychotropic drugs are increasingly being exposed as chemical toxins with the power to kill. Anti-depressants can cause death.  Psychiatrists claim their drugs save lives, but according to their own studies, psychotropic drugs can double the risk of suicide. And long-term use has been proven to create a lifetime of physical and mental damage, a fact ignored by psychiatrists. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 23.5 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem in 2009 (9.3 percent of persons aged 12 or older). Of these, only 2.6 million—11.2 percent of those who needed treatment—received it at a specialty facility. And those who do get "professional" treatment are often prescribed psychotropic drugs. Recent figures released by the Army's surgeon general indicate that more than 110,000 U.S. Army personnel were taking antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs that were prescribed to them by doctors. The U.S. military spends billions on antidepressants and narcotic painkillers. Does that seem to be yet another way to profit from war? There was a 682% increase of prescriptions in the military from 2005-2008, from which there are so many terrible stories of lives lost from addiction to medications. Military suicides averaging one per day, far exceeding those killed in battle. 85% of military suicides have not even seen combat, and 52% were never even deployed. Contrary to what the public has been led to believe, the prevailing theories concerning serotonin and serotonin-effecting drugs did not originate from either doctors or scientists. They began life as intensive pharmaceutical marketing programs, which promoted fabricated scientific facts so successfully that they became facts in the minds of doctors, regulators and the general public. Understanding modern serotonin science requires a psychological study of Mass Manipulation. I think there is a good argument to be made that some substantial percentage of the depression epidemic is manufactured by the medical/pharmaceutical industry.  - Dr Andrew Weil Dr. Andrew Huberman offers a good insight into the reward systems of the brain in his YouTube presentation:  How to Optimize Yout Brain to Be ad Happy as Possible. The podcast audio portion MP3 is available here. Links: Peter R. Breggin, MD    search   Media   YouTube Drug Induced Suicide in the Military The Hidden Epidemic -Robert Whitaker Interview The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health Depression Epidemic Suicide epidemic Michael Moore -Sicko Listen to our podcast