Depression isn’t just a thought or a feeling in the mind, it is a whole body experience. Researchers from the University of Toronto published their results in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical where they found that depression was like to the tendency to shut down sensory processing when faced with emotional stressors.
In the experience of an emotional stressors, particularly that of anxiety or sadness, one can experience physical sensations such as chest tightness, abdominal discomfort, lump in throat, etc. Blocking out such sensations can lead to great risk of depression relapses.
For the study, the researchers divided a group of 166 participants, who had recovered from depression but remain vulnerable to relapses, into two groups of an eight-week period of either well-being focused cognitive therapy or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The study took place over a time frame of two years where subjects were checked in with every two months. During this time period, the subjects also received fMRI scans while watching clips from television that may and may not normally trigger emotions between therapy sessions.
The authors found that people who had more tendency to shut down the part of their brain that controls sensations when exposed to emotional charging videos were at high risks of depression relapses. Additionally, high feelings of sadness itself was not associated with relapse.
Lead author, Normal Farb, noted that when brains shutting out sensory information during an emotional stressful experience leaves the person only with their thoughts, and without the sensory inputs, people end up isolated with their negative views. “Our thoughts are there to nail things down so you can hold onto them over time, and that’s fine as long as they keep getting updated—but the thing that updates it is new sensations,” he stated.
“This negative mood gets tied up with thoughts about themselves and can be easily perpetuated over time, and the person can feel worse.\,” added author, Zindel Segal. “If the person suppresses these bodily sensations, their thoughts will compound into more and more depressive reactions.”
This study should encourage men to face the totality of their feelings and not get involved with avoidant behavior whether that be acting out in violence, verbal arguments, or taking a drug. The machismo idea of avoiding feelings is not sustainable and not helpful; instead, men need to learn to face their emotional stressors with mindfulness and wisdom.
N Farb et al. Static and treatment-responsive brain biomarkers of depression relapse vulnerability following prophylactic psychotherapy: evidence from a randomized control trial. NeuroImage: Clinical. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102969
