{"id":212,"date":"2010-02-27T23:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-27T23:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation\/"},"modified":"2010-02-27T23:19:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-27T23:19:00","slug":"lessons-depression-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons, Depression, Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I got word back from my PhD advisor today: postpone the upgrade (an \u2018upgrade\u2019 is a sort of checking in with your work to see if you\u2019re adequately on track to complete your degree). I have some good work, but it\u2019s all still a bit too scattered and there are still some sizable gaps. Sigh.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough break, but also an opportunity to grow a bit: accept that the world doesn\u2019t always work as we\u2019d like \u2013 especially if we aren\u2019t working as hard as we should, etc. etc.). <\/span>As Ajahn Brahm says in this wonderful video:
<\/iframe> A great story that everyone should check out is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/28\/magazine\/28depression-t.html?pagewanted=1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cDepression\u2019s Upside\u201d from the NYTimes<\/a>. As a past sufferer of depression, and still somewhat prone to seasonal affective disorder, it confirmed a lot of my experiences. It covers a recent publication that speculates that depression must have some evolutionary \u2018reason\u2019 \u2013 namely the promotion of analytic thinking, which helps us deal with difficult situations and move beyond them<\/span>. It also is found to boost creativity \u2013 something quite obvious to many creative depressed people. The problem, of course, is pinning down exactly why this happens and then determining whether it\u2019s worth it<\/span> to be depressed when there are treatments (drugs specifically).<\/p>\n<blockquote>Aristotle was there first [to recognize the value of depression], stating in the fourth century B.C. \u201cthat all men who have attained excellence in philosophy, in poetry, in art and in politics, even Socrates and Plato, had a melancholic habitus; indeed some suffered even from melancholic disease.\u201d<\/p>\n[the article\u2019s authors] Andrews and Thomson see depression as a way of bolstering our feeble analytical skills, making it easier to pay continuous attention to a difficult dilemma.<\/p>\nAlthough Nesse [another researcher] says he admires the analytic-rumination hypothesis, he adds that it fails to capture the heterogeneity of depressive disorder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI can attest to the truth of each of the last statements. Sometimes a little extra rumination on something is great \u2013 I\u2019ll be locking myself in my study a good bit over the coming months to focus on my thesis. <\/span>But sometimes it goes nowhere but in circles. You need breaks, and sometimes depression gets to be an unbroken cycle of repeated thoughts. When that happens, and you can\u2019t break out \u2013 get some drugs. <\/p>\nMeditation vs Medication has been a hot topic in <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhism<\/a> for a while now. <\/span>Based on my own experience and work with others, meditation during times of deep depression can be pretty useless. But in mild or moderate depression, meditation is a highly powerful tool. It has been proven to stimulate the right frontal-cortex, which is associated with euphoric \u201cit\u2019s all good\u201d feelings and thought processes that can break those painful depressive spirals.<\/p>\nDepression is also rightly described as extremely \u2018self\u2019 involved, as one\u2019s thoughts spiral aimlessly around one\u2019s own issues, making it difficult to empathize with others \u2013 sharing either in their joy or pain. Meditators over time develop a clear sense of \u2018expansiveness\u2019 wherein their current problems or issues seem relatively small<\/span>. Meditation also puts one in close touch with the reality of change: just watching the mind, or a pain very closely makes it clear that thoughts or feelings are constantly arising and falling. Difficult thoughts or even sharp physical pains can be seen to dissolve under analysis.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s no cure-all, but it\u2019s pretty amazing stuff. Give it a try, and if you have already, let me know how it\u2019s worked\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-441739480595813475?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I got word back from my PhD advisor today: postpone the upgrade (an \u2018upgrade\u2019 is a sort of checking in with your work to see if you\u2019re adequately on track to complete your degree). I have some good work, but it\u2019s all still a bit too scattered and there are still some sizable gaps. Sigh. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Lessons, Depression, Meditation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I got word back from my PhD advisor today: postpone the upgrade (an 'upgrade' is a sort of checking in with your work to see if you're adequately on track\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons, Depression, Meditation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I got word back from my PhD advisor today: postpone the upgrade (an 'upgrade' is a sort of checking in with your work to see if you're adequately on track\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-27T23:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_fyeYpxfdjuI\/S4m6aYdAgUI\/AAAAAAAAA3Q\/Oo0nsQBC5kg\/s320\/28depression-t_CA0-articleLarge.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html\",\"name\":\"Lessons, Depression, Meditation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-27T23:19:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-02-27T23:19:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"I got word back from my PhD advisor today: postpone the upgrade (an 'upgrade' is a sort of checking in with your work to see if you're adequately on track\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/02\/lessons-depression-meditation.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lessons, Depression, Meditation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. 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