Chapter 2 foreword

Depression is a scary state of mind.I have spent many years studying depressed patients and listening to many people tell their stories. What impressed me most was the pain caused by depression.Also, I experienced depression first hand, about twenty years ago.At that time, I suffered the biggest setback in my life and suddenly found myself in a state of depression.Even though I studied depression, I was still unprepared for it.Although it is a moderate degree of depression, symptoms such as panic attacks and insomnia often occur.I felt like a failure in life and was terrified of it.Fear symptoms are rarely mentioned by many researchers, but I think the word fear sums up well the full range of feelings experienced by depressed patients.I wasn't devastated like losing a loved one, I was just scared, irritable, and depressed.So I use fear or "living in fear" to describe my state.I've also noticed that depressed people behave strangely: I often take a lukewarm shower at four o'clock in the morning to relieve my irritability; I take a taxi to work because I don't want to face the bus; , I would hide myself in the bathroom until my family dragged me out.However, like some people, I was not overwhelmed by depression, which I basically saw as a "stress-induced brain state".My first book on depression was titled "Depression: From Mental Phenomena to Brain States." Perhaps it wasn't the most revealing title (it's out of print), but experience tells me that when you're depressed , a certain change has taken place in my brain.I wanted to figure out what social and psychological factors were causing these physical changes.

Some people seem to be more prone to certain types of depression.I found that genes do play a certain role in it.However, while I don't want to underestimate the biological basis of depression, some depressive conditions are so common that I think genes may only play a dominant role in some conditions, and that life events and early experiences seem to be more common causes of depression s reason.I think that's exactly what happened to me.My early life was spent in West Africa, a place of great freedom, where I could shout as much as I wanted.For almost a year we lived in the middle of the jungle with no water or electricity, let alone a school! That memory is vividly etched in my mind, and whenever the weather is cold and gloomy, I recall the vastness of Africa The excitement and joy that the blue sky brings to me.Later, when I returned to England, I went to boarding school, where the strict restrictions made it difficult for me to adapt.At the same time, I found that I couldn't keep up with the education there, especially in the study of English, I encountered great difficulties.To this day, I still don't like to be constrained, and I am very sensitive to external restrictions. The life events that trigger my depressive symptoms are basically related to the feeling of failure and trapped.

I see depression as a psychological potential, just as each of us has an underlying capacity to feel pain, fear, and sexual needs.Depression, like any other medical condition, is closely associated with real brain changes.I try to uncover what causes depression by studying the typical events that trigger it.This made me think, is depression an adaptive mechanism formed by human beings constantly facing conflict situations during the long evolutionary process? I don’t want to go into details on this point, but just want to explain that animals are also plagued by depression .Similar to humans, loss of status or control and being trapped in a hostile environment can also trigger a depressive response in animals.Once these events occurred, the animals' brains exhibited a depression-like state of activity.In humans, being respected by others has evolved into an important factor affecting human emotions.

Also, if we continue to look at depression from an evolutionary perspective, the brain, despite being a highly complex organ, is still a "new thing."The deep structure of the brain was adopted by reptiles, and neuropsychologists still refer to this part of the brain as the "reptilian brain".Evolution doesn't create entirely new structures.Instead, old patterns are adopted and perfected during the evolution of the species.It's like making a car. Every new model contains old elements. You can't start from scratch.So a lot of the structure of the brain goes back millions of years, which is why we think of the brain as a collection of different parts, each of which has a job to do, so we have violent, Various potentialities such as fear, greed, love and compassion.Our brain structure determines that we are a combination of various possibilities.

When the parts of the brain work together, the brain functions normally.Otherwise, the performance of brain function will be affected.Influenced by early traumatic experiences and later stressful life events, we sometimes find it difficult to effectively control the possibilities of our brains.Our brain overestimates the danger we face, causing us to have a panic response; it judges us as inferior, worthless, and subservient, resulting in a negative self-concept.And these self-concepts can further exacerbate our depression. We found that in a depressed state, different brain functional systems cause us to experience a variety of different ideas and emotions, which is difficult to control and difficult to understand.In other words, we seem to have different selves and can play different roles, including children, heroes, lovers, parents, friends, enemies, helpers, and so on.Evolution has given us different brain systems that allow us to play these different roles.Different selves see the world in completely different ways.For example, the hero self dares to venture out and take risks, while the coward self says, "You're not kidding, I'm not going to take that risk." Take risks and make sensible choices.But if the hero does not heed the coward's advice, we are in danger; conversely, if the coward does not take the hero's advice, we cower in a corner.In fact, we do not have the existence of these real selves. Our subjective experience is just the activation of different brain states to different degrees.As long as we pay attention to our thoughts and emotions, we will know which brain system is currently activated.Our thoughts and emotions are the windows into these brain functional systems.

So, what should you do when you are depressed? First of all, the concept of depression tells us that the brain has activated the depression brain function system.This probably won't matter unless we have a way of shutting down the system and getting the parts back into harmony.For example, in a depressed state, the way we think seems to suit our "depressed self," but it doesn't fit with other parts of our self, such as our rational and empathetic selves, which have completely different perceptions.If we tell ourselves, "Depression is a part of me, a brain system, but it's useless to dwell on it," we can take a step toward more effective control of our depression.

Secondly, in a state of depression, our depressed brain function system will disrupt the harmonious operation of other brain function systems, and we will become irritable, prone to anxiety, and rashly judge ourselves and others, which will further aggravate the depression situation .A typical response to depression is to devalue those around you, especially yourself and your grades, but also demeaning others, and the way we see things becomes more negative.Third, a depressed state is how the brain is functioning at a given moment, so that we feel that depression is "inside us" and is about our emotions.The psychological function (evolutionary function) of depression impairs our responsiveness, undermines our self-confidence, and makes us more sensitive to potential loss and threat.It achieves the above functions by changing the working state of our body.However, if we can engage other brain systems, learn to see things differently, and challenge depression, then we may be able to bring the brain back into harmony.This book will teach you how to recognize and challenge the beliefs that keep us depressed.

This book is for those who wish to learn more about depression and to help themselves to relieve their depressive symptoms.But this book is neither a panacea, nor a substitute for psychotherapy and drug treatment, it can't even change the painful reality in life, it is a self-help method.Everyone's depressive symptoms are similar to others, but also have their own unique aspects.Understanding how depression occurs can help you get rid of depression.This book provides many ways to help you challenge the negative thinking that occurs when you are depressed.Moreover, I will also remind you of the "traps" that you should pay attention to, to help you treat yourself in a more rational way.

This book is divided into three parts, the first - the most professional.I meet many depressed patients who want to know more about depression.If you think some parts are difficult to understand, you can skip it.You can even skip the first part without reading.In part two, which describes some basic self-help techniques, we discuss the role thoughts and emotions play in depression, and how to challenge the thoughts and feelings that lead you to depression.This part focuses on how depressed patients treat themselves and how to treat themselves well.The more you respect yourself (or at least stop demeaning yourself), the more likely you are to turn off the depressive brain systems that were activated.In this part, some practice methods are also given at the end of each chapter for your use.The third section focuses on the application of the presented methods to specific problems, such as: desire for approval, anger, shame, lack of self-confidence, disappointment, and perfectionism.

You may read many stories of depressed patients in books, and of course, the people involved use pseudonyms.And, in order to prevent you from being wrong, all the details of the story have been adapted.Sometimes I combine two or three instances into one just to keep you from guessing.Each example is a theme and aims to shed light on a dilemma or complex situation faced by depression. This book may be a bit long, but I hope it will give you some ways to get out of depression.Recovery takes time, energy, and patience, and if you know your goals and path, your efforts are likely to be successful.let's start.