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Changing Core Beliefs of Depression

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

Forest fire lighting sky

Getting well depends in part on changing core beliefs of depression that often begin to develop early in life. According to recent neuroscience findings, putting together a narrative about who you are is one of the most important parts of mental life. The narrative integrates many dimensions of mind: memory, emotion, thinking, sense perception, awareness, […]

Filed Under: Healing Tagged With: belief, brain, change, identity, mind, story

Mind Over Pit Bull and Depression

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

powerful dog

After a family-rich Thanksgiving week, I was hard at work Sunday morning writing a post on the placebo effect when my wife and I decided to take a refreshing walk with our two dogs. We didn’t know it, but we were on our way this foggy morning to a head-to-head confrontation with a stray pit […]

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: attention, brain, fear, mind, stress

The Divided Brain

by John Folk-Williams 2 Comments

With the aid of rapid-fire animation, this video on the divided brain illustrates part of a lecture by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. McGilchrist describes the right and left sides of the brain as helping us navigate two different dimensions […]

Filed Under: Depression Causes Tagged With: brain, experience

How Does Depression Change You? Can You Ever Be Yourself Again?

by John Folk-Williams 257 Comments

Fractures and Changes

Have you ever wondered if multiple episodes of depression change you so much that you’ll never get back to your old self? Most people I hear from say: I want to be myself again. That’s their definition of recovery. Can it happen?

I found an interesting discussion about long-term changes in an online journal called Medicographia. The editors posed a question to psychiatrists and researchers from around the world and printed their responses together.

Here’s the question: Is the patient really the same after a major depressive episode?

Filed Under: Depression Symptoms, Healing Tagged With: brain, change, remission

3 Questions about Antidepressants

by John Folk-Williams 4 Comments

Multi-Colored Pills and Capsules

If you’re depressed, you will get a prescription for an antidepressant, sooner or later. In fact, medication is likely to be the first treatment you receive, perhaps the only one. Most people are fine with that. They want to feel better fast, and medication seems like the best route. Primary care physicians and psychiatrists prescribe […]

Filed Under: Psychiatric Treatment Tagged With: antidepressants, brain, neurotransmitters, psychiatry

Depression Gets Physical: Pain, Heart, Bone and Beyond

by John Folk-Williams 22 Comments

Just as I was thinking I understood the full range of depression’s impact on my life, I started finding out about links between the mood disorder and some nasty physical problems. I mentioned in this post the prevalence of pain among depressed people seeking treatment from their regular doctors. But depression can do a lot […]

Filed Under: Depression Symptoms, Psychiatric Treatment Tagged With: brain, neurotransmitters, pain

Reading as a Form of Depression Therapy

by John Folk-Williams 8 Comments

Have you ever heard of bibliotherapy? I’m always trying to identify ways to start working on recovery from depression, but I never thought much about one of the first steps I took – reading. I was surprised to learn that reading books for medical treatment dates to World War II, when it proved effective for […]

Filed Under: Psychotherapy, Self-Help Tagged With: brain, cognitive therapy

Why Therapy Can Work: Ideas from Brain Research

by John Folk-Williams 4 Comments

Brain research is one of those many scientific fields that I’ll never know much about, but I find it important to get even a limited understanding of the direction of recent findings. It helps me to know, for example, that emotions are generated unconsciously through multiple brain systems before anything gets to awareness. As I […]

Filed Under: Depression Treatments, Mindfulness, Psychotherapy Tagged With: brain, cognitive therapy, emotion, feelings, memory

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A Mind for Life Ebook Now Available at Major Retailers

A Mind for Life: From Depression to Living Well

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Living Depressed

Depression affects emotions, mental abilities, self-concept, behavior, relationships and the entire body. These core posts describe the full range of symptoms affecting daily life. Read More.

Choices in Healing

Hoping for recovery gives you a motive but not a method for getting there. This section has posts about therapies and healing methods you can work with either on your own or with professional guidance. Read more.

Living Well

If you've learned how to manage your depression, you'll want a fulfilling life rather than one dominated by fear that the illness might return. In this section, you'll find posts about how to work toward that goal. Read More

Relationships in Crisis

One of the hardest challenges of living with depression is holding onto your closest relationships. This section features posts on how to help a relationship survive. Read More.

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