You've probably seen the image: a tiny, solitary figure, perhaps
in a bright red parka, against an enormous expanse of white, a climber
on a glacier. Imagine that the climber loses his grip and begins to
slide down the glacier. If he does not stop the slide he will fall over
the lip to his death. But the climber, prepared for such an eventuality,
pulls out an ice-axe, jabs it into the glacier, and halts the fatal
slide, a maneuver known as self-arrest.
What does this have to do with depression? If your experience of depression is anything like my own, it will resemble a slide down a gentle slope into something like a vat of tepid water from which you could get out if you absolutely wanted to, but the surroundings are familiar and you lack the motivation to do much of anything.
If the depressed state is relatively harmless, why focus on self-arrest? Let's look at the way the brain works. It used to be thought that the brain was more or less hardwired from childhood. Now we know that the brain is constantly changing, establishing new pathways, pruning back abandoned pathways. The more you use a particular pathway, the wider it becomes: what began as a tiny footpath, through repeated use, eventually turns into a superhighway. By contrast, an unused pathway may shrink from a highway to a goat path. Every time you allow yourself to slide down that familiar slope into a depressed state, you widen the mental pathway associated with depression. To escape from depression you need to do two things: establish a new mental pathway and stop using the old one.
Your therapist will probably help you create a new pathway toward mental health, but you can accelerate your progress by learning to avoid the old pathway through a form of mental self-arrest. During periods when you are not feeling depressed, put together a first-aid kit consisting of a dozen activities that tend to make you feel better. Your kit will be distinctively your own, but it may resemble mine, which includes: going for a walk; going for a run; going for a bike ride; eating chocolate; eating ice cream; calling or visiting a friend; going to a movie; listening to a favorite piece of music; reading something amusing. You get the idea. You need to keep adding to the list until you compile a dozen items.
Suppose you only had one item on your list and, feeling depressed, you didn't feel like doing that thing. You need to have a lot of options so that when you feel yourself beginning to slide down that familiar slope, you can consult the list, find at least one thing that might make you feel better, and thereby prevent yourself from going all the way into a depressed state. As you practice this kind of mental self-arrest, you will begin to reduce the pathway in the brain that leads to depression. This process will not in itself cure depression-it is, after all, only first aid, but when combined with proper therapy, it will likely hasten your recovery.
What does this have to do with depression? If your experience of depression is anything like my own, it will resemble a slide down a gentle slope into something like a vat of tepid water from which you could get out if you absolutely wanted to, but the surroundings are familiar and you lack the motivation to do much of anything.
If the depressed state is relatively harmless, why focus on self-arrest? Let's look at the way the brain works. It used to be thought that the brain was more or less hardwired from childhood. Now we know that the brain is constantly changing, establishing new pathways, pruning back abandoned pathways. The more you use a particular pathway, the wider it becomes: what began as a tiny footpath, through repeated use, eventually turns into a superhighway. By contrast, an unused pathway may shrink from a highway to a goat path. Every time you allow yourself to slide down that familiar slope into a depressed state, you widen the mental pathway associated with depression. To escape from depression you need to do two things: establish a new mental pathway and stop using the old one.
Your therapist will probably help you create a new pathway toward mental health, but you can accelerate your progress by learning to avoid the old pathway through a form of mental self-arrest. During periods when you are not feeling depressed, put together a first-aid kit consisting of a dozen activities that tend to make you feel better. Your kit will be distinctively your own, but it may resemble mine, which includes: going for a walk; going for a run; going for a bike ride; eating chocolate; eating ice cream; calling or visiting a friend; going to a movie; listening to a favorite piece of music; reading something amusing. You get the idea. You need to keep adding to the list until you compile a dozen items.
Suppose you only had one item on your list and, feeling depressed, you didn't feel like doing that thing. You need to have a lot of options so that when you feel yourself beginning to slide down that familiar slope, you can consult the list, find at least one thing that might make you feel better, and thereby prevent yourself from going all the way into a depressed state. As you practice this kind of mental self-arrest, you will begin to reduce the pathway in the brain that leads to depression. This process will not in itself cure depression-it is, after all, only first aid, but when combined with proper therapy, it will likely hasten your recovery.
Arthur Wenk, a psychotherapist practicing in Oakville, Ontario,
combines cognitive-behavioral therapy (discovering techniques for
producing immediate changes) with a psychodynamic approach that helps
make changes permanent by addressing the root causes of mental health
problems. Art is certified by OACCPP (the Ontario organization for
psychotherapists) and EMDRIA (the EMDR International Association). Art's
website, http://www.oakvillepsychotherapy.com,
contains one-page summaries of recommended books on personal growth,
brief explanations of common mental health issues, and lectures on
parenting, the psychology of families, and the functioning of the brain.
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