Practice Makes Permanent

Charles lives with depression. He has a partner who codependently maintains the “structure” of daily life while Charles is hiding under his pillow. The interesting thing about Charles is he seems to be emotionally attached to his depression. (No pun intended.) He started out with only minor bouts of depression, considering it part and parcel of a highly creative genius’ emotional makeup. He would describe aspects of his bouts with depression, speaking of them almost as one would speak of a good friend who is high maintenance, but fascinating and worth keeping around. Charles’ self-loathing and egotistical defense of his addictive habits are part of the curious mix of his personality. His extraordinary effort to saturate his communication with erudite vocabulary in an effort to convince people of his developed intellect contrasts with his self-expressed impostor complex – an ever-present fear that at any moment he would be discovered to be an inane incompetent. His reaction to the world vacillates between hypersensitive, extreme empathy and highly defensive verbal aggressiveness. He never seems to be able to keep this in balance – he may become extremely angry because a person stands an inch too close to him in a grocery line, and in the next moment he may stress all week over possibly having offended someone with an expression of a harmless opinion that he fears might have been misinterpreted. What does remain consistent is the attraction depression holds for him, -- and one more constant -- his worsening psychological state -- with each bout of depression, Charles goes a bit deeper, a bit longer each time. He disappears for longer and longer periods of time, explaining them away as being sick in bed with “a bad case of the flu.” It is progressive for him. In spite of what he has accomplished, he seems to never really own his achievements. There is only one thing he is very possessive about: his depression -- as part of his identity.

In the August 2000 article, “Why Practice Makes Perfect,” Anne Pycha (http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/practice) speaks of the brain mechanism that aids development of excellence in a skill. “When a skill develops or changes, the cortical maps also change, and neuron populations may be annexed for specific purposes, later abandoned, and sometimes annexed again.” “…Thanks to twenty years of research, we now know that the brain is plastic: it can and does remodel itself, sometimes within a remarkably short period of time.…Just as the migratory behavior of residents can change the map of a city, so can our learning behavior change the maps in our brain, causing neurons populations to synchronize their actions, respond to new inputs, and support new skills.” She continues to explain what it is that causes development of true excellence in a skill. ”So what differentiates expert seamstresses and bakers from the rest of us? They don't just practice their trade every now and again: instead, they have paid special attention to their chosen skill, and have perfected that skill with intensive, repetitive practice.” Returning to the example of acquiring skill at guitar-playing, she explains the critical factor that must be present to actually alter the neural pathways. “You can't really learn how to play the guitar if you pick it up once or twice a month, strum for a while, and then wander into the kitchen for a snack. In fact, it's pretty hard to learn anything this way, as your school teachers probably pointed out. When we approach learning casually, we're unlikely to become experts, and our brain is unlikely to rewire itself. When we approach learning seriously, however, something else happens: we attend to a task, we practice it over and over again, and we become emotionally involved. Under these conditions, brain plasticity happens - the winemaker can sharpen her taste buds, the blind person can learn to read Braille, the musician can perfect his pitch, and you can become an honest-to-goodness guitar player.…When we notice a part of our experiential world or take a selective interest in a new skill, we analyze it - specifically, we take the trouble to examine how it works in space and time.…As we've seen, brain maps change spatially by taking over neighboring neuronal populations on different parts of the cortex. But brain maps can also change in time, by synchronizing the actions of neurons more tightly so that a specific group of neurons may provide near-simultaneous responses to the same input. These timing relationships may actually help support the plasticity of existing cortical maps and the generation of new ones, because a single neuron can participate in the representation of several different sensory or motor representations at different times.” She equates a weak versus a strong neural connection to receiving a postcard once a year versus receiving a love letter every day from someone you are emotionally involved with. It makes a difference. The dark side of this is that when one cortical map grows, another one must shrink. But we know for sure, “Without our attention, without our willingness to practice intensively, the brain just won't budge.”

Living with depression is certainly a miserable existence, one we strive to understand and eradicate from the human psyche. Brain research has made great advances in the area of mood disorder in the last 20 years. We know that depression has biological “markers” in the brain. They now believe that some people have a biological predisposition in the brain which may lead more easily to depression. Research also shows that each bout with depression further damages the structure of the brain. Peter D. Kramer explains in his book, Against Depression, “…Chronic stress leads to the production of stress hormones. Stress hormones damage hippocampal (and other) brain cells, isolating them and pushing them to the brink of destruction. Further stressors push the cells over the edge. As damage progresses, feedback systems fail. Even minor adversity then causes the overproduction of stress hormones. What would otherwise be limited injuries extend, in the presence of stress hormones, into substantial brain damage. The hormones also dampen repair and regeneration functions, so that temporary injuries become permanent.” (p. 118) Kramer poses the possibility (based on the research of Yvette Sheline) that "the brains of depressives are less resilient than they should be", that "defects in the repair mechanism are to blame for depression becoming chronic, with recurring episodes lasting longer than previous ones."

Anne Pyche’s comment regarding brain pathways comes to mind again, “When we approach learning seriously, however, something else happens: we attend to a task, we practice it over and over again, and we become emotionally involved.” If this mechanism of repetition mixed with emotional involvement exists in the brain for acquiring a skill, could it be possible that it also exists when practicing a mood disorder such as depression? If, when practicing depression we damage the brain, as well as damage its repair mechanisms, it would be advisable to avoid even one or two bouts of depression. This must certainly sound simplistic, but if the brain does not discern the difference between practicing guitar and practicing depression, then it may become more efficient at either skill if exposed to the repetition with emotional involvement. The disadvantage of practicing depression would be that it damages the brain.

If we can redistribute the neural pathways in our brains, the question then arises: Could I reprogram my attitude towards an incident or incidents in my life, so that the memory of it doesn’t affect me negatively? Could I change the way I think about an experience, so that it does not control how I feel? And, ultimately, could I arrive at techniques that would steer me away from a negative approach to life experiences so that I am not adversely affected by these experiences in any way, so that I not only survive but thrive, so that I am happy instead of depressed? The answer to these questions could be “yes!” There are several methods for achieving this that are already developed and available. These methods are all related to one thing: getting the “garbage” out of your head, so that your approach to life, how you react to what happens to you, changes from your old, negative patterns to new, positive ones. For some, it might be as simple as reading The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale, or ridding the body of stress with Transcendental Meditation. Others prefer Biofeedback. Both TM and Biofeedback have been documented in scientific research to reduce stress in the physiology.

Years ago I came upon a technique called Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). (http://www.nlpanchorpoint.com/index.html) It is very difficult to define NLP in a few sentences. I do not claim any proficiency at NLP; I am just a novice, but what I know of it makes a lot of sense to me. NLP is a method of personal development for bettering a person’s approach to life. The method provides techniques for training yourself to react to experiences so they are put in a context that permits you to be happy and successful. These techniques enable a person to de-emphasize the negative effects and empower the positive aspects of life experiences and thoughts. The techniques used by NLP are helpful with interpreting present experiences, as well as with reinterpreting past experiences. Another champion of reinventing one's psychological/behavioral approach to life’s experiences for happiness, fulfillment and success is Tony Robbins. (http://www.tonyrobbins.com/Home/Home.aspx) He uses his own technique called neuroassociative conditioning which is an offshoot of NLP. If you’re not the kind that can get through a whole book (He’s written several.), you can buy one of his audio/video series. His products and seminars are a bargain at any price.

Think about the POSSIBILITY for Charles. He has already lived half of his life. Right now he could be living the old analogy of the glass – he could be facing a final half of his life that is full of happiness and contentment. Even if people who have only a few days of life left can learn to filter out the negativity from those life experiences, they will end their life in contentedness, emphasizing the positive experiences. The choice may be in Charles’ hands. Or, if Charles is too weak and damaged, perhaps Charles’ partner could get him help in finding out about learning these techniques for retraining his brain. Think about the POSSIBILITY for a parent, who could learn to recognize depressive symptoms in a child and help the child reframe experiences. A small child could learn to make the sad feelings go away and the happy feelings stay. Think about the POSSIBILITY for the future of our youth. School programs could be developed to help children acquire positive filtering devices for life experiences. A life is a precious thing to waste. If all you ever have is your depression, you will have nothing in the end. Maybe Charles could learn that depression is not such a precious possession after all.