No Longer Quivering
Debi Pearl has been at it again with her ridiculous ‘Brain Grooving’ ideas, this time about depression. Both she and Michael are claiming now that science is supporting their claims that not thinking happy thoughts causes depression. Depressed? It’s you fault according to Mike and Debi.
Stay tuned and try not to punch the wall. Debi starts off by first demeaning those who take psych drugs to deal with their depression, surprise, surprise…she even bashes her beloved Amish.
Here is the rich irony. Debi is about to start talking about brain chemicals, those same brain chemicals that many people need either temporary or long term help maintaining to keep the depression in check. With medicine.
Oh more irony! Let’s not kid ourselves, the Pearls aren’t paying for anything much less brain scans for virtual strangers! They couldn’t pay for Debi’s neck surgery and the kids had to pay for Michael’s likely useless from a scammy clinic stem cell replacement for his series of strokes. Don’t lie, Debi!
Of course Debi never mentions which studies or scientists prove that negative thinking causes depression, and while some believe it can play a role it’s not the main driver behind most depression. Recognizing when you are having obsessive thoughts that are not grounded in reality is a good coping skill in depression many times this takes the help of a skilled therapist to overcome, it’s not a matter of thinking yourself happy per the Pearls.
Psychology Today offers some helpful options for overcoming negative thought patterns.
Plus they had this to say about overthinking or negative thoughts.
Yet there is a paradox to be resolved with respect to rumination. Thinking a lot about personal difficulties, setbacks, and losses isn’t necessarily a “bad” behavior. More often than not it is a normal and adaptive response. When any of us experience an unexpected setback—the end of a relationship, becoming unemployed—it is natural enough to try and make sense of what happened by thinking it through and looking at our options. Further, there is an extensive literature in psychology on the value of coming to terms with emotional events by repeatedly thinking these events through (a mental ability known as cognitive and emotional processing).
And Harvard Medical School pretty much debunked many of Debi’s claims in this article on how depression can impact your thoughts, including that brains shrink from aging not depression or meds, that meds and talk therapy are sometimes necessary to break the depression cycle, how exercise can sometimes break you out, and that depression could also be a physical health problem manifesting.
Having negative thoughts in depression is pretty normal. Finding a way to deal with them isn’t a bad idea, but they don’t cause depression! They are more like a symptom than a cause. There’s nothing in legitimate studies I could find that backs what Debi is saying, but in a quick few moments of Googling I was able to find a number of legitmate links and studies with advice on overcoming negative thoughts, and the role of negative thinking in depression.
If you think this is bad wait until Part 2 when Debi uses her illogical leaps to make some hideous claims about alcoholism and drug abuse. Everything with these people is geared towards blaming the sufferer.
If you are suffering from depression please start your treatment with getting a complete physical so that illness can be rules out. Taking pyschotropic drugs are necessary for some people, so is talk therapy. There’s nothing demonic going on, and you didn’t cause it with negative thinking. Please don’t even go there in your mind, it is not your fault.
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