subject: A Simple Cure For Anxiety And Depression [print this page] Our innate desire is to be happy, and when we move away from it, we encounter fear. This fear is truly millions of years old, for it arises from the biological programming of our species. Although we may not have to contend with a sabre-toothed tiger on any given day, we still use those very reactions to cope with events looming ahead. We think, "Will I be fired for making that error at work?" or "Will I be able to meet the mortgage after I fix the car?" or "Will my health continue to decline?" or "Will my relationship break apart after that argument we just fell into?"
Running questions with this kind of urgency and helplessness teaches our brains to prepare now for future danger by filling our bodies up with the stress hormone cortisol. Anxiety is our anticipation of a dangerous future. We picture having even less of the little that we have today. This anxiety doesn't help us at all to meet the future any better. Actually, it weakens and exhausts us. We usually worry most about things that we cannot even control. Having to worry about your dental visit, for instance, won't make the visit better.
Anxiety, in fact, is a silent killer. It is enervating, and it drains you of purpose and hope, faith and initiative. It fogs up your thinking. And it makes the body vulnerable to illness. When anxiety--a fear of an event in the future--is high enough then you feel a deep sense of helplessness. This, in turn, converts into depression. You even start to view the past as disappointing.
Caught between a miserable past and a terrifying future, you create a structure of emotions that can result in a range of mood disorders, including manic-depression. How do we escape from this vicious cycle?
Here's what I did 20 years ago and I've never since experienced any significant mood disorder. I began to cultivate my awareness of my mood swings--from elation to black despair.
I did this by essentially watching myself when I was manic, and watching myself when I was depressed, and watching what I did to turn on these states. For example to get depressed, I utilized my love of literature to concentrate on dark, morbid, and sad stories about life. And to get elated, I'd talk a lot, move quite rapidly, and do things in a dramatic way. An interesting thing happened when I made my unconscious behavior conscious. I could not take my mood shifts seriously. This is what I learned from that experience: when you are able to watch yourself over the course of a few weeks, you produce a curious detachment. A paradoxical situation developed for me: I found it challenging to remain anxious and depressed when I was observing myself feeling anxious and depressed. Eventually, anxiety and depression are culturally-induced patterns of thinking that can be conquered through a strategic cultivation of awareness. When you become your own observer, you weed out the unconscious habits that afflict you. Despite the billions of dollars spent to heal anxiety and depression, and all the mood disorders and behavioral anomalies that arise from them, the cure is simple, quick, and free.