Working with Depression
Challenges, setbacks and overload are part of life... But how we respond to them is up to us. There's more choice than we think: - more choice about the way we handle stress when things get on top of us; more choice when our minds start spiralling into anxiety or depression.
Thanks especially to the pioneering work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness practice is increasingly respected in the West as a tool in the management of stress, pain, depression and addiction. Mindfulness courses are now appearing in ever more cities, while research studies are constantly revealing new applications for mindfulness meditation.
AndrewMc Culloch, CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, has said: "Mindfulness-based therapy could be helping to prevent thousands of people from relapsing into depression every year. This would have a huge knock-on benefits both socially and economically, making it a sensible treatment to be making available even at a time when money is short within the NHS."
Thanks especially to the pioneering work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness practice is increasingly respected in the West as a tool in the management of stress, pain, depression and addiction. Mindfulness courses are now appearing in ever more cities, while research studies are constantly revealing new applications for mindfulness meditation.
AndrewMc Culloch, CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, has said: "Mindfulness-based therapy could be helping to prevent thousands of people from relapsing into depression every year. This would have a huge knock-on benefits both socially and economically, making it a sensible treatment to be making available even at a time when money is short within the NHS."
Why do we Relapse?
Have you ever visited an old school or workplace and suddenly found yourself feeling as if you've stepped back into some old feelings and moods, almost into the person you were back in the days when that place was part of your life?
Our minds have an uncanny ability to make these time-jumps. They do it all the time, triggered by the environments we find ourselves in. These environments can be external, like an old schoolroom or the street we once lived in, or they can be internal: some kind of familiar feeling like a passing upset after an argument, a frustrated desire or a sad memory. It's as if we spend our lives visiting a succession of real and virtual environments, each with the power to take us back into the state of mind associated with it in the past. Associations sparked by the outside world can be easy to spot. The 'internal' ones aren't so easy, and yet the moods that come with them as part of the package play a defining role in the way we interpret and feel our present-moment experience.
The Ruminating Mind
This dynamic is especially relevant to depression. If we've suffered from depression before there's a good chance that even a brief upset or bleak moment will spark a train of associations that echo and 'take us back' into that old familiar environment of depression. Things can go from bad to worse when our busy minds try to understand and 'fix' things We ruminate around our present mood - worrying about how how it began, why it's happening, whether it's getting better or worse, how we might get out of it... inevitably comparing it to that previous dark mood that once turned into a depression. This kind of thinking, barely conscious and taking place in the blink of an eye, can take us spiralling towards a new episode.
Why Mindfulness?
At such times we need to act quickly. We need to find a way of shifting our attention away from its gloomy preoccupation with past episodes of depression and get back into the concrete, sensed reality of the present moment. Then, to weaken the gravitational pull of those old habits so we're less vulnerable to future episodes, we can form a new, lighter relationship with our thoughts, with the way we process our experience of difficult moods and situations. This is where Mindfulness comes in.
Mindfulness meditation has its roots in Buddhism and has been practiced for more than two thousand years. Some thirty years ago, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn offered a course of Mindfulness practice to people working with chronic pain, anxiety and stress. The remarkable success of his work initiated an era in which Mindfulness, as a rigorously researched and developed secular discipline, is being applied to a growing number of conditions, including relapsing depression through the medium of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
There is nothing magical about Mindfulness. It is a skill that anyone can learn. It is practical and down to earth. Although sometimes referred to as a meditation, it is something that can be practised as effectively whilst brushing your teeth or eating a meal as you can when sitting on a chair or cushion with your eyes closed.
The Course
The course is open to all, and it is okay to take the course whilst on medication. If you are in the midst of an episode it would be best to consult your GP before considering a course.
The course consists of eight weekly two-hour sessions. Mindfulness is developed with regular practice over time, so you will be asked to commit to some regular home practice for about 30 minutes a day with the help of CDs and a workbook which we provide. When we come together for a session (and there can be anything between four and twelve of us on the course) we'll do some practice, explore just a little theoretical material, and above all explore the challenges and discoveries we've been encountering in our home practice.
There is no religious content whatsoever, and no need to share anything you don't want to share. We ask only that you take on the practice of Mindfulness in the spirit of an experiment and give yourself to it as fully as you can.
If you'd like to know more or talk things over with us, please give us a call on 01453 883560
Here's something The Mental Health Foundation has to say about Mindfulness:
"Many people speak positively about how MBCT has transformed their lives, and clinical research has proven that it can benefit people suffering from recurrent depression and other clinically diagnosed mental health problems. In fact, the evidence is so robust that the National Institute for Clinical and Health Excellence (NICE) recommends it for all people who have had two or more depressive episodes.
"Evidence from clinical trials across the globe is compelling, and whilst more trials are needed, the case for mindfulness is growing by the day.
MBCT is more effective than maintenance doses of antidepressants in preventing a relapse in depression.
Three-quarters of people taking an MBCT course alongside antidepressants were able to come off their medication within 15 months.
MBCT can also reduce the severity of symptoms for people who are experiencing an episode of depression.
MBCT has been shown to reduce insomnia in people with anxiety disorders.
People who are more mindful have greater self-esteem and feel less neurotic.
Meditation-based practices like mindfulness reduce people’s dependence on alcohol, caffeine, prescription medication and illegal drugs."
Have you ever visited an old school or workplace and suddenly found yourself feeling as if you've stepped back into some old feelings and moods, almost into the person you were back in the days when that place was part of your life?
Our minds have an uncanny ability to make these time-jumps. They do it all the time, triggered by the environments we find ourselves in. These environments can be external, like an old schoolroom or the street we once lived in, or they can be internal: some kind of familiar feeling like a passing upset after an argument, a frustrated desire or a sad memory. It's as if we spend our lives visiting a succession of real and virtual environments, each with the power to take us back into the state of mind associated with it in the past. Associations sparked by the outside world can be easy to spot. The 'internal' ones aren't so easy, and yet the moods that come with them as part of the package play a defining role in the way we interpret and feel our present-moment experience.
The Ruminating Mind
This dynamic is especially relevant to depression. If we've suffered from depression before there's a good chance that even a brief upset or bleak moment will spark a train of associations that echo and 'take us back' into that old familiar environment of depression. Things can go from bad to worse when our busy minds try to understand and 'fix' things We ruminate around our present mood - worrying about how how it began, why it's happening, whether it's getting better or worse, how we might get out of it... inevitably comparing it to that previous dark mood that once turned into a depression. This kind of thinking, barely conscious and taking place in the blink of an eye, can take us spiralling towards a new episode.
Why Mindfulness?
At such times we need to act quickly. We need to find a way of shifting our attention away from its gloomy preoccupation with past episodes of depression and get back into the concrete, sensed reality of the present moment. Then, to weaken the gravitational pull of those old habits so we're less vulnerable to future episodes, we can form a new, lighter relationship with our thoughts, with the way we process our experience of difficult moods and situations. This is where Mindfulness comes in.
Mindfulness meditation has its roots in Buddhism and has been practiced for more than two thousand years. Some thirty years ago, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn offered a course of Mindfulness practice to people working with chronic pain, anxiety and stress. The remarkable success of his work initiated an era in which Mindfulness, as a rigorously researched and developed secular discipline, is being applied to a growing number of conditions, including relapsing depression through the medium of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
There is nothing magical about Mindfulness. It is a skill that anyone can learn. It is practical and down to earth. Although sometimes referred to as a meditation, it is something that can be practised as effectively whilst brushing your teeth or eating a meal as you can when sitting on a chair or cushion with your eyes closed.
The Course
The course is open to all, and it is okay to take the course whilst on medication. If you are in the midst of an episode it would be best to consult your GP before considering a course.
The course consists of eight weekly two-hour sessions. Mindfulness is developed with regular practice over time, so you will be asked to commit to some regular home practice for about 30 minutes a day with the help of CDs and a workbook which we provide. When we come together for a session (and there can be anything between four and twelve of us on the course) we'll do some practice, explore just a little theoretical material, and above all explore the challenges and discoveries we've been encountering in our home practice.
There is no religious content whatsoever, and no need to share anything you don't want to share. We ask only that you take on the practice of Mindfulness in the spirit of an experiment and give yourself to it as fully as you can.
If you'd like to know more or talk things over with us, please give us a call on 01453 883560
Here's something The Mental Health Foundation has to say about Mindfulness:
"Many people speak positively about how MBCT has transformed their lives, and clinical research has proven that it can benefit people suffering from recurrent depression and other clinically diagnosed mental health problems. In fact, the evidence is so robust that the National Institute for Clinical and Health Excellence (NICE) recommends it for all people who have had two or more depressive episodes.
"Evidence from clinical trials across the globe is compelling, and whilst more trials are needed, the case for mindfulness is growing by the day.
MBCT is more effective than maintenance doses of antidepressants in preventing a relapse in depression.
Three-quarters of people taking an MBCT course alongside antidepressants were able to come off their medication within 15 months.
MBCT can also reduce the severity of symptoms for people who are experiencing an episode of depression.
MBCT has been shown to reduce insomnia in people with anxiety disorders.
People who are more mindful have greater self-esteem and feel less neurotic.
Meditation-based practices like mindfulness reduce people’s dependence on alcohol, caffeine, prescription medication and illegal drugs."
Some online material on Mindfulness for Depression:
For the more scholarly inclined:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005796709000333
ftp://ftp.cs.ru.nl/pub/CompMath.Found/teasdale.pdf
From the popular scientific press:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindfulness-approach/201004/mindfulness-counseling-depression
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081130201928.htm
For the more scholarly inclined:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005796709000333
ftp://ftp.cs.ru.nl/pub/CompMath.Found/teasdale.pdf
From the popular scientific press:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindfulness-approach/201004/mindfulness-counseling-depression
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081130201928.htm
