Dude nice find, this led me down one helluva rabbit hole! I wanted to learn more about the study the article referenced:
“In 2006, a group of researchers at the University of California at San Diego and Boston University studied excessive positivity by gathering 60 people with mood or anxiety disorders. Half of these participants were asked to suppress their emotions while watching an intense, affecting movie; the rest were told to accept the feelings that arose as they watched … the researchers concluded that suppressing emotions was linked to higher levels of negative affect, lower positive feelings, and decreased well-being (Campbell-Sills et al, 2006).”
I found the actual study. It has a lotta high tech medical lingo, but I gather they’re saying that suppressing negative emotions takes up a lot of brain function in the prefrontal cortex. This leads to decreased function in the temporal lobe, which includes attention, short term memory, communication & overall mental state.
In short, faking happiness fucks you up even worse.
Oh, and it gets better. You know what else is adversely affected by suppressing negative emotions? Our risk assessment. Meaning we don’t give a shit about walking into traffic anymore.
AAaaand here’s the moneyshot. We also suffer a decrease in the ability to process rewards.
Anhedonia anyone?
Here’s the actual text, if anyone out there speaks medical lingo:
“The results of reviews and meta-analyses on the neurofunctional correlates of cognitive reappraisal in healthy volunteers have been rather homogenous. Regulating negative affective states involves activation of the prefronto-parietal network, and at times, the middle temporal gyrus. These prefronto-parietal activations are accompanied by significant deactivations of the limbic subcortical network. More specifically, the regions consistently recruited as part of the prefronto-parietal network are the dorsolateral, medial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the inferior parietal lobule. Notably, these regions have been traditionally associated with cognitive processes such as conflict monitoring, selective attention, working memory, mental state attribution, response selection and inhibition and semantic processing . All of these processes are believed to be relevant for implementing successful cognitive reappraisal. Likewise, downregulated regions in the limbic network commonly include the amygdala, the ventral striatum and the insula, regions associated with the detection of arousing and potentially threatening stimuli, reward processing and the integration of information about body states, respectively.”
“AAaaand here’s the moneyshot. We also suffer a decrease in the ability to process rewards.”
So I guess I should be glad I refused to pretend I’m all happy-happy, eh? 😛
Pretending does indeed take a great deal of effort. I know “thinking happy” has NEVER worked for me so I don’t bother with it anymore (tried it a million times before). The problem is that people (both depressed and non-depressed ppl) give me endless shit for “not even trying” when I have in fact, tried a shitload of times, to “think happy and think positive” to no avail.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, isn’t it? I’m a realist and a depressive sack of potatoes, with a host of issues due to trauma and bad shit happening to me, but insane is not one of them. But idk how to get around other ppl’s admonition and hate of me for “not trying to think happy and positive.”
lol there’s the irony… the only way we can be happy is to go ahead and be miserable
wtf
Right, people give us hell for not trying, but they have no idea how hard we’re trying. It just doesn’t work. So they label us as mentally damaged or insane. If you ask me, anyone who’s happy in hell is the insane one. (Not that I wouldn’t trade places in a heartbeat)
they label us as “lazy” for not even “trying” bc to them, the answer is SO simple, and we are just stupid and lazy for not just thinking positive. Like seriously, how TF do ppl think it’s SO easy? If it was, then WHY would MILLIONS of ppl around the world- hell, there’s MILLIONS of ppl in just the US alone- suffering from depression. If it was as simple as “thinking happy” then WHY are so many ppl still depressed? Like ppl dont think about that. Maybe bc THEY are not depressed (bc they were lucky enough to come from good homes, good families, etc) that it should be THAT easy for everyone else. -_-
But yes, basically the article is saying that people who shove “just think happy” generally just want to shut down the conversation and not have to listen or talk to you about it anymore. And that truly shows how ppl just don’t care. If they did, they would listen and be more understanding, rather than being so judgemental. As if the solution is SO easy. But it is to them. To them the solution is right there and all you have to do is just think positive and everything will be fine and dandy. Eeasy-peasy!
Totally. And that’s why I think some “helpers” are doing more harm. For us it can be a huge effort to ask for help, like imagine dragging yourself 10 miles to a hospital with 2 broken legs, and they give you an aspirin and say “cheer up!” You’re gonna wish you never bothered dragging yourself there, and you’ll probably never do it again.
I think that’s why suicidal depression becomes its own prison, because the more we reach out for help, the more we’re hurt in the process. After a while you don’t even bother asking for help, you just sink.
Exactly, bc ppl DON’T want to help. That’s why everyone tells us to “think happy things” and be “grateful” and all that crap, bc that means THEY can deflect everything and don’t have to do a thing to help us. And that’s why depressed ppl stay depressed.
What everyone needs is for someone to actually CARE about them, and not just tell them crap like “think positive.”
If someone is depressed, bring over casserole bc they’re likely not eating (half the depressed ppl eat too much and half don’t eat when they’re depressed), if someone is disabled and has trouble with everyday tasks, then drive them to the grocery store every once in a blue moon. If someone did that for me, it would make a world of difference. I don’t need someone giving me fluff words like “think happy thoughts.” I need ACTUAL help. But telling someone to “just think happy” is a deflection from ANYTHING they might have to do.
If 4 friends did that once every 2mo (just drive me to a grocery store, not asking for the impossible), or let me do laundry in their house (i have no laundry in the house) and for a disabled person hauling my laundry to the laundromat is so hard to do, just simple things like that would help and dramatically improve my life.
Sh*t, for all the non-disabled ppl out there, wouldn’t it feel so much better if someone came over and brought you a pizza or a chicken noodle soup? Or some muffins they baked? Just something simple, and it could be once every 3mo. If 4 friends did that, you’d have someone coming once every month to check up on you and make sure you’re ok, but more than anything, it’s the feeling that SOMEONE gives a damn about you and whether you live or die.
I know, some depressed ppl don’t even have 4 friends, let alone real 4 friends who actually care. So all that sh*t about “thinking happy” is just a way for ppl to PRETEND they are doing something when they are specifically NOT, and putting all the blame and shame on you, the person for being depressed in the first place.
10 comments
Dude nice find, this led me down one helluva rabbit hole! I wanted to learn more about the study the article referenced:
“In 2006, a group of researchers at the University of California at San Diego and Boston University studied excessive positivity by gathering 60 people with mood or anxiety disorders. Half of these participants were asked to suppress their emotions while watching an intense, affecting movie; the rest were told to accept the feelings that arose as they watched … the researchers concluded that suppressing emotions was linked to higher levels of negative affect, lower positive feelings, and decreased well-being (Campbell-Sills et al, 2006).”
I found the actual study. It has a lotta high tech medical lingo, but I gather they’re saying that suppressing negative emotions takes up a lot of brain function in the prefrontal cortex. This leads to decreased function in the temporal lobe, which includes attention, short term memory, communication & overall mental state.
In short, faking happiness fucks you up even worse.
Oh, and it gets better. You know what else is adversely affected by suppressing negative emotions? Our risk assessment. Meaning we don’t give a shit about walking into traffic anymore.
AAaaand here’s the moneyshot. We also suffer a decrease in the ability to process rewards.
Anhedonia anyone?
Here’s the actual text, if anyone out there speaks medical lingo:
“The results of reviews and meta-analyses on the neurofunctional correlates of cognitive reappraisal in healthy volunteers have been rather homogenous. Regulating negative affective states involves activation of the prefronto-parietal network, and at times, the middle temporal gyrus. These prefronto-parietal activations are accompanied by significant deactivations of the limbic subcortical network. More specifically, the regions consistently recruited as part of the prefronto-parietal network are the dorsolateral, medial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the inferior parietal lobule. Notably, these regions have been traditionally associated with cognitive processes such as conflict monitoring, selective attention, working memory, mental state attribution, response selection and inhibition and semantic processing . All of these processes are believed to be relevant for implementing successful cognitive reappraisal. Likewise, downregulated regions in the limbic network commonly include the amygdala, the ventral striatum and the insula, regions associated with the detection of arousing and potentially threatening stimuli, reward processing and the integration of information about body states, respectively.”
nice! what’s the link to that study?
here ya go…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278584616304900
“AAaaand here’s the moneyshot. We also suffer a decrease in the ability to process rewards.”
So I guess I should be glad I refused to pretend I’m all happy-happy, eh? 😛
Pretending does indeed take a great deal of effort. I know “thinking happy” has NEVER worked for me so I don’t bother with it anymore (tried it a million times before). The problem is that people (both depressed and non-depressed ppl) give me endless shit for “not even trying” when I have in fact, tried a shitload of times, to “think happy and think positive” to no avail.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, isn’t it? I’m a realist and a depressive sack of potatoes, with a host of issues due to trauma and bad shit happening to me, but insane is not one of them. But idk how to get around other ppl’s admonition and hate of me for “not trying to think happy and positive.”
lol there’s the irony… the only way we can be happy is to go ahead and be miserable
wtf
Right, people give us hell for not trying, but they have no idea how hard we’re trying. It just doesn’t work. So they label us as mentally damaged or insane. If you ask me, anyone who’s happy in hell is the insane one. (Not that I wouldn’t trade places in a heartbeat)
they label us as “lazy” for not even “trying” bc to them, the answer is SO simple, and we are just stupid and lazy for not just thinking positive. Like seriously, how TF do ppl think it’s SO easy? If it was, then WHY would MILLIONS of ppl around the world- hell, there’s MILLIONS of ppl in just the US alone- suffering from depression. If it was as simple as “thinking happy” then WHY are so many ppl still depressed? Like ppl dont think about that. Maybe bc THEY are not depressed (bc they were lucky enough to come from good homes, good families, etc) that it should be THAT easy for everyone else. -_-
right? we live in an insane world, and everyone’s a clown.
But yes, basically the article is saying that people who shove “just think happy” generally just want to shut down the conversation and not have to listen or talk to you about it anymore. And that truly shows how ppl just don’t care. If they did, they would listen and be more understanding, rather than being so judgemental. As if the solution is SO easy. But it is to them. To them the solution is right there and all you have to do is just think positive and everything will be fine and dandy. Eeasy-peasy!
Totally. And that’s why I think some “helpers” are doing more harm. For us it can be a huge effort to ask for help, like imagine dragging yourself 10 miles to a hospital with 2 broken legs, and they give you an aspirin and say “cheer up!” You’re gonna wish you never bothered dragging yourself there, and you’ll probably never do it again.
I think that’s why suicidal depression becomes its own prison, because the more we reach out for help, the more we’re hurt in the process. After a while you don’t even bother asking for help, you just sink.
Exactly, bc ppl DON’T want to help. That’s why everyone tells us to “think happy things” and be “grateful” and all that crap, bc that means THEY can deflect everything and don’t have to do a thing to help us. And that’s why depressed ppl stay depressed.
What everyone needs is for someone to actually CARE about them, and not just tell them crap like “think positive.”
If someone is depressed, bring over casserole bc they’re likely not eating (half the depressed ppl eat too much and half don’t eat when they’re depressed), if someone is disabled and has trouble with everyday tasks, then drive them to the grocery store every once in a blue moon. If someone did that for me, it would make a world of difference. I don’t need someone giving me fluff words like “think happy thoughts.” I need ACTUAL help. But telling someone to “just think happy” is a deflection from ANYTHING they might have to do.
If 4 friends did that once every 2mo (just drive me to a grocery store, not asking for the impossible), or let me do laundry in their house (i have no laundry in the house) and for a disabled person hauling my laundry to the laundromat is so hard to do, just simple things like that would help and dramatically improve my life.
Sh*t, for all the non-disabled ppl out there, wouldn’t it feel so much better if someone came over and brought you a pizza or a chicken noodle soup? Or some muffins they baked? Just something simple, and it could be once every 3mo. If 4 friends did that, you’d have someone coming once every month to check up on you and make sure you’re ok, but more than anything, it’s the feeling that SOMEONE gives a damn about you and whether you live or die.
I know, some depressed ppl don’t even have 4 friends, let alone real 4 friends who actually care. So all that sh*t about “thinking happy” is just a way for ppl to PRETEND they are doing something when they are specifically NOT, and putting all the blame and shame on you, the person for being depressed in the first place.