Category: Emotional Health

Depression rates are on the rise, and curiously, rates of anti-depression medication prescriptions are going up also. Either depression is not what we think it is, or drugs are not working. I suggest it is both.

What if depression is not what we think it is?
What if it’s not a chemical imbalance?
What if it is not hereditary or faulty genes?
What if it is not a medical problem at all?
What if it is not helped by dredging up the past looking for reasons?

What if we consider a mood scale that everyone of us is on, with happiness up one end, and sadness down the other; and what if depression was too far and for too long at the sad end of this mood scale? That would sure be a breakthrough.

Moods are emotions – and emotions are a preparation for action. What if there was emotion and no preparation – no action; no movement along that scale. One doesn’t have to be a rocket surgeon to work that out … notice that?

Did you realise that seriously depressed people would miss that (rocket scientist/brain surgeon) because the part of the brain that helps us notice things and sets us up to respond is not working. Called the ‘orientation response mechanism’, this vital mechanism directs our focus and triggers the motivating brain chemical called dopamine to prepare us for action.

Now, with action, the emotion is discharged, and mostly as a reward, a ‘feel-good’ brain chemical floods the brain and then is withdrawn to reward us next time we act in a purposeful way. With no action however, the emotion – the preparation for action – is not discharged, no feel-good reward comes, and we stay where we are on the mood scale, or if the emotion was prompted by a basic physical or emotional need, and the need remains unmet, chances are we move toward the sad end a bit more.

Of course, not all emotions can be acted out. They centre around basic drives like food, sex, love, and status, and in civilised society, we learn to inhibit inappropriate actions. Since 1997 with the first comprehensive explanation of why humans dream – or more specifically the function of REM sleep – we know that these undischarged emotions are discharged by the action being metaphorically completed, allowing us to wake refreshed.

Depressed people however, don’t wake refreshed. They dream a lot, and even after lots of sleep, they wake feeling exhausted, unable to focus, concentrate, or get motivated.

Understanding REM sleep tells us why – the orientation response mechanism used to process the undischarged emotions during the REM sleep phase is exhausted. While a healthy sleep cycle has about 20% REM sleep; depressed people go into REM earlier, stay there longer, and use up a lot of energy so that they wake tired. They wake tired because they missed out on the restorative sleep, but, worse than that, the mechanism that gets us going in the morning –  helps us notice things, focus on what needs to be done, and motivates us toward purposeful action, does not work. They usually have another lousy day; emotions running high (although it doesn’t look like it); but no action, setting them up for another night of poor sleep as the overloaded system wades through a swamp of emotions that prepared us for action that didn’t take place. The dreadful cycle continues, they stay too far, and for too long at the sad end of the mood scale.

See this on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/_0IaguJzDTg

Emotions are a preparation for action with an expectation that the action will meet a need. From this definition, two things can be said with some confidence. Firstly, all behaviour is needs-driven; behaviour is an expression of an individual’s attempt to get a need met; a demonstration of a need being met; or the perception that a need currently being met by that behaviour is threatened. This is a significant principle, for it provides an answer to that rhetorical question: “Why would they do this?” It removes the often frustrating search for an explanation for behaviour that to our minds does not make any sense.

Secondly, the definition allows for this statement to be made:

…if a person with an undamaged brain is getting their emotional needs met well, they will not have psychological problems. There is no more profound statement that can be made about mental health. 

Tyrrell, I. 2005

The Human Givens therapy and education approach is based on the proposition that every human is born with an enormous amount of innate knowledge that has accumulated over centuries. This knowledge facilitates our survival and ability to adapt to and interact with our environment.

This innate or instinctive knowledge is expressed in two ways:

• as needs, physical and emotional expectations seeking fulfilment
• as resources, the guidance systems that help us get our needs met.

This needs and resources balance results in sound emotional health, and problems arise when needs are not met, or resources are not used appropriately.

Physical needs include a wholesome diet, regular exercise, restorative sleep, as well as shelter and security.

Emotional needs, previously thought of as things that get in the way of clear thinking, are becoming recognised as equally important as physical needs. Emotional needs (with the corresponding fears that arise when they are not met or getting them met is threatened) may include:

• Life/growth/survival, and the fear of death, annihilation, danger
• Love/intimacy/connection, and the fear of rejection loneliness and alienation
• Challenge/exploration, and the fear of losing problem-solving ability
• Significance/meaning, and the fear of insignificance, meaninglessness
• Control/autonomy, and the fear of being overwhelmed and not coping.

As well as needs, we are all given a set of resources that can help us get these needs met. Things like imagination, long-term memory, the ability to learn through metaphor, a dreaming brain, and the capacity to observe ourselves. This latter resource, called ‘the observing self’ is particularly useful therapeutically in separating the person from the condition – one can often see the effect of this in response to the question “How does this thing called depression con you into thinking is such black or white; all or nothing thinking?”

Tyrrell, I. (2005) Tuning in to our natural endowment: the human givens. Journal of Holistic Healthcare, Vol 2 – 4.

A basic law of organic life states: every living thing interacts with its environment to get its need met. This is a ‘given’. In other words we are interacting with our physical, social, personal, non-physical and even virtual environment all the time. And while our mind may be elsewhere, part of our brain is scanning the environment, mostly below our awareness, for the opportunity to satisfy an innate need, often one of four basic ones – food, love, sex and achievement.

Of these four needs, you will notice that only one, food, is a physical one, and deprive the organism of this and it will die. The others are non-physical or emotional needs, and while the organism – in this case – humans will not die without them, they will suffer distress. Humans have more in mind than just staying alive. So often the reason life-support is switched off is not because the person can’t be kept alive, but because there is little point in living if there is no chance of meaningful interaction. While survival is important, for humans it is not the main game – they need to interact with their environment to flourish.

If a person displays signs of distress – emotionally charged or agitated, drained of purpose, bereft of joy, suffering low mood or generally not flourishing in their interaction with their environment – according to this law, it comes down to one of two things: poor environment, or insufficient interaction with it. Usually the latter.

Some environments are poor in their capacity to provide opportunity for emotional needs to be met. A situation of constant threat (an abusive relationship for example) will reduce the chance for people living in that climate of fear to flourish.  Their needs for love, connection, privacy, control and autonomy, all important human needs, will have little chance of being met.

Other environments may appear ‘poor’ to one person, and be fine for another. If you have seen the movie Samson and Delilah one could be tempted to explain Samson’s petrol sniffing in the context of limited opportunities for anything else in his environment. Delilah, however, lives in the same environment and has a rich source of meaning and connection. Her behaviour is purposeful (artwork) and caring for her grandmother provides her with a sense of significance. So, it is not necessarily the environment per se, but one’s perception of it that matters.

Given that for most of us, our environment is neither abusive nor an outback settlement, most emotional distress can be attributed to the lack of interaction with it. And while these needs are mostly innate, the successful interaction skills required for western society are not. They are skills that have to be learned by good parenting, positive peer relationships, and, especially during formative years, a supportive and encouraging circle of friends. If the individual has missed out on these vital interaction skills – and it could be their environment prevented or hindered their development – they can be taught later in life. Many of the people I see for therapy are in this category, and given direction and mentoring, can become fluent in negotiating their environment in order to flourish again. The basic law of organic life is a useful starting point to this success.

Emotions are a preparation for action with an expectation that the action will meet a need. Sounds simple, deceptively simple. One of the useful aspects of recent research in psychology is the focus on the emotional brain (often called the ‘limbic system’) or that part of the brain that operates largely automatically and without the influence of the rational thinking part of the brain. Another useful recent focus is the role context plays in our understanding of the brain. Up until fairly recently, cognition (knowing or perceiving) was thought of as an essentially individual affair – what’s going on in a person’s head. However, we don’t think inside a vacuum, it takes place in a context, an environment of some sort. So these two aspects – the part of the brain that has first call on all sensory information and can act without much input from our thinking; and the notion of interaction with our environment,  give us a good start in un-ravelling our definition of emotions.

Let’s look at the three parts of this definition. Firstly emotions prepare us for action. Now there is a chemical (neurotransmitter) explanation for this preparation; certain chemicals get us focused and moving, leading to the somewhat faulty view that if people can’t get focused or moving, it is a lack of certain motivating chemicals. If the problem is defined as a chemical one, it follows that the solution will be framed in chemical terms. However, unless we are in the business of marketing chemical treatments, this explanation has little benefit for people looking for a better understanding of emotions.

A better explanation of the preparation for action can be found in a basic law of organic life: every living thing interacts with its environment to get its need met. (I can feel another blog topic coming on already, and this from a reluctant blogger!) In other words we are interacting with our physical, social, personal, non-physical and even virtual environment all the time. Emotions are a vital part of that interaction, they stimulate the action around four basic drives – food, love, sex and achievement. So, emotions are more than chemistry, they are an essential part of staying alive by interacting with our environment.

Secondly, this interaction with our environment has a purpose: to get a need met. The need may be physical; hunger drives us to search for food, and the act of eating leaves us with a sense of having our appetite satisfied. Or, equally important is the range of non-physical or emotional needs; a need for connection with another person is satisfied with a sense of companionship driven by a powerful emotion called love. While physical needs have been understood for a long time, it is only recently that emotional needs have been recognised as an essential part of being human. For lower forms of organic life, survival is the main game, but with humans, they have more in mind than just staying alive. They need to flourish; to be challenged and solve problems; to feel in control and have some sense of autonomy; they need to derive meaning and significance from their interaction with their environment, and so on. Getting these needs met contributes to emotional wellness; not getting them met arouses the emotional brain to prepare for action, usually with a corresponding reduction in our capacity to think clearly. Remember, emotions are designed for action, not thinking. Raise the emotional arousal – such a someone ‘doing their block’ – and thinking virtually shuts down.

Now, for the third aspect of the definition – the expectation that the action will meet a need. Emotions are innate, they are purposeful (to get a need met), and they are below awareness in that they are pre-thought, pre language. Hunger carries an expectation eating will satisfy the need for food. Love carries the expectation that intimacy will satisfy a deep longing for such connection with another person. Expectation completes the sequence: emotion prepares us to do something; it carries an expectation of result; action usually results in the need being met. In this case the emotion is discharged, the expectation is fulfilled and validated (ready to have the same expectation again), and the need met. A healthy cycle, a characteristic of emotional wellness.