Depression Days

When faced with negative thoughts our bodies can enter the ‘fight or flight’ response. Our body prepares itself for either fight or flight, it prepares for a physical response. While doing this other functions are put on hold including digestion, blood cell production, some circulation, healing and immunological responses. We also produce natural chemicals to give our muscles the energy they need for the fight or flight.

The triggering of the fight or flight response can put enormous strain and stress on our bodies as our bodies are ready for action, but we don’t usually fulfil that action, we sit and seethe. Therefore we have produced chemicals that our body then doesn’t use, our other functions are put on hold when we really still need them to be working.

This can open us up to diseases since the immune system is on hold when it shouldn’t be, digestive troubles, slower recovery from illnesses, we can also end up with muscle aches, fatigue and a general awful feeling.

The muscles usually remain tense for a long while following the fight or flight response, especially around the shoulders and neck, stomach, chest and lower back which can lead to chronic tension in one or more of these areas. This in turn makes us feel nervous and uptight.

Then the mind starts to generate thoughts to find a reason why we are feeling nervous, usually not taking into account the fight or flight responses we have been reacting to but instead wondering and worrying that there is something wrong to make us feel like this. Of course, then this negative thinking can trigger another fight or flight response from our bodies and the whole things starts over again. This can continue in a downward spiral and can continue for a long, long time if we don’t get on top of it. When you have been going through this spiral for a long time that is when it develops into depression. Some people get stressed just at the thought that they might have depression and then they get depressed about being depressed which then triggers a whole new cycle of the fight or flight response.

Negative thinking is like a disease or an addiction. It is addictive to the body, the mind and the emotions. The body is addicted to the rush of chemicals caused in the fight or flight response, its like a rush of adrenalin.

The mind becomes addicted to being right. So to always predict failure you will always be right.

The emotions become addicted to the intensity of it all. Although the feelings are not happy feelings, at least they are not feelings of boredom. Once they reach a certain level of stimulation they start demanding more and more intensity.

You need to treat negative thinking as you would treat any other addiction. You need to have patience, discipline, commitment to life, forgiveness, a will to get better and believe that recovery is very, very possible.