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    • Your Mind Is Not Always Your Friend

      An excerpt from When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough by Dr. Stuart Eisendrath

      Seventeen years ago, Dr. Stuart Eisendrath piloted research into the therapeutic effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on people experiencing clinical depression. Ever since, he has been helping those who struggle with depression dramatically improve their symptoms and quality of life by changing how they relate to their thoughts and feelings.

      In When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough: Harnessing the Power of Mindfulness to Alleviate Depression (New World Library, October 1, 2019), Dr. Eisendrath outlines an easy-to-implement MBCT program that has been scientifically proven in a National Institute of Health study to bring relief to chronic sufferers of depression by helping them realize that their thoughts are not their reality. We hope you’ll enjoy this except from the book.


      The mind tends to do things it is particularly good at: thinking, problem solving, worrying, judging, and analyzing. But these things are often not in your best interest. It’s somewhat like reading an article from a website or newspaper. What is written may not be accurate. If you suffer from depression, memories and thoughts tend to be biased toward the negative, which diminishes your problem-solving abilities. These factors may lead to misinterpretations, inaccurate assessments, and inappropriate decision making.

      For example, Carol was walking down the street and saw a friend walking the other direction on the other side of the street. She waved to her but got no response. She felt rejected and depressed. Only later did she learn that her friend had been preoccupied by some bad news about a problem in her own life and hadn’t noticed Carol. As she later learned, her friend was watching for an important business email she’d have to respond to.

      Bill assessed himself as being incapable of completing a marathon. Only after joining a special training program did he realize he could be successful.

      Sam thought of refusing a promotion, because he thought his boss was setting him up to fail rather than having confidence in his ability to handle the new position. Such an approach could have severe consequences for his career.

      A key step in coping with such thoughts is trying to decide if such situations are facts or just thoughts. Mindfulness gives you the space to look at the situation from multiple perspectives and without judgment. Then you can decide how to respond to the situation skillfully. You can evaluate your thoughts in several ways. One is to hold back on acting on a thought while you gather more data to assess whether the thought is a valid one. Another way of assessing a thought is to ask yourself how you feel in thinking it. If you feel more depressed (for example, “Yes, my friends really don’t like me”), there is a very good chance the thought is being driven by depression.

      One time, I was teaching a beginning class in meditation. One woman said, “I can’t meditate as well as everybody else here.” This is one of the most common thoughts of beginning meditators. Then several other members of the group expressed a similar idea about themselves. I asked them how they knew this, and as we assessed the situation, it became clear that such a thought was based more in the critical voice of depression rather than in any fact. Since none of the members had had any prior experience with meditation, it would be hard to expect anyone to be “better” than anybody else. Moreover, there actually is no competition in meditation; there is no score as in a game of basketball or golf. Mindful meditation is more about being present than about doing something better or worse than someone else.

      So the woman’s thought that she was somehow worse than others in her meditation practice was a valuable lesson about how her mind generated negative thoughts that were unnecessarily critical of her. She could begin to label them as such and become more able to bring her attention back to a neutral object like her breath. Perhaps just as important, when she was able to recognize such thoughts for what they were, she would not feel compelled to act on them by doing something such as dropping the class.


      Stuart Eisendrath, MD, is the author of When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough and the founding director of the University of California San Francisco Depression Center. Visit him online at www.stuarteisendrath.com.

      Excerpted from the book When Antidepressants Aren’t Enough. Copyright ©2019 by Stuart Eisendrath. Printed with permission from New World Library.

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    • Double Vision: Can Physical Exhaustion Be Spiritual in Nature?
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      I am physically exhausted most of the time. I have had all sorts of medical tests and consultations with various doctors and such, and no biological reason has been found for this. Now I’m wondering if perhaps there is a spiritual reason I feel this way, and if so, what I can do to feel better. Thanks!

      – Patricia

      Dreamchaser:

      In some women, hormones are often overlooked as a source of fatigue, and they are a common cause of the sort of exhaustion you describe. Hormonal balances can cause disrupted sleep, worry, depression, hot flashes and night sweats, adrenal insufficiency due to poor diet, stress, etc.

      Ironically, a lack of physical activity can also be a reason for depression and fatigue. So many women say, “I don’t have the time or energy to go work out.” You must make that time. Go for a walk around your neighborhood for 20 to 30 minutes a day. Do something. The more you work out, the stronger you’ll get.

      Poor diet and improper nutrition can also create a hormonal imbalance that results in fatigue. If you are a yo-yo dieter or follow a low-fat diet, you could very well become fatigued more easily than others. You also may have an insulin issue, which can disrupt your body’s energy metabolism. Also, if you eat a lot of sugar or a high carbohydrate diet, you will tend to get that quick rush followed by an energy crash.

      In addition to reviewing your diet and checking your hormone levels, you should also look at your daily schedule. How busy are you? Stress occurs when we place demands on ourselves that we do not have the capacity to meet. We then have to live in overdrive in order to accomplish everything we’ve taken on. The pressure of deadlines, a lack of proper support, and high expectations of yourself (placed there by you or others around you) will cause burnout and exhaustion.

      When you live with stress day after day, your body tries to compensate for your growing mental and physical exhaustion by shifting into energy conservation mode. That low or no energy feeling you get is your body fighting to conserve its resources.

      In this state, you will become forgetful, you will not have the ability to focus, and you will tend to procrastinate. You will lose interest in work and intimacy and you will begin to feel more and more exhausted, no matter how much you sleep.

      Other common signs include social withdrawal from friends and family, resentment, anger, cynicism, apathy and increased substance use of nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, food or drugs.

      The acute exhaustion stage is where most people finally get a clear sense that something is seriously wrong. That is where you are now. The signs of this stage are chronic sadness, stomach or bowel problems, mental or physical fatigue, headaches, and an almost complete lack of ability to focus. Often times when people get to this stage, they quit work, leave relationships and avoid family and friends.

      Get your hormones checked, but above all, commit to taking good care of yourself. I wish you wonderful health.

      *****

      Astrea:

      It sounds like you’ve been associating with psychic vampires. Psychic vampires don’t drink human blood, they sap human energy! Sometimes recognizing them is difficult, but if you go through all the people with whom you regularly interact, you’ll begin to see certain patterns emerge as relates to your feelings of low energy.

      Just as old-fashioned vampires drained human corpses of blood for survival, psychic vampires must find those of us with abundant, joyous energy to attack and drain. A person under attack feels just the way you describe, and there isn’t any medical test available to detect this problem.

      This creature will also feed off your fear and anxiety that you may have a serious medical problem that is going undiscovered! Worry is sweet nectar to a psychic vampire.

      While the ancient vampires sometimes seemed (in stories, anyway) to regret being bloodsuckers, psychic vampires enjoy the pain and suffering they inflict on others. The evolution of their kind has made them more clever and difficult to identify. Once you figure them out, however, it’s much harder for them to victimize you.

      Usually, people are victimized by a Psychic Vampire at work. Someone around you who seems jealous, envious, or rude is a good candidate. Incompetent bosses and peers who steal your ideas and take credit for your work may meet the criteria.

      Often they will attempt to become your “best office friend” in order to keep draining you. Take a long hard look around you at work, and try to distance yourself from anyone who gives you that tired feeling.

      Wear a religious medal, and carry some rose quartz in your purse or pocket to bring only loving feelings to you while you’re there. This is especially important if the vampire is your boss, as you have to work with that person.

      St. Michael is great protection against psychic vampires, and any religious bookstore will sell St. Michael cards and medals at very reasonable prices. Often, clients who come to me for psychic readings will try that energy draining on me, so I have tons of protection around me and all over my office.

      Family members who themselves have been victimized can also become psychic vampires, and staying overnight at one’s home can sap the light and life right out of you. If you feel worse after you’ve been to a family gathering, go through the guest list and see who you talked to, and review how you felt afterward. Also, this malady tends to run through families, so where you find one, you may find many.

      Learning to recognize psychic vampires will prevent them from sneaking in and stealing your energy, and empower you to manifest a sense of well-being.

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