Don't Believe Everything Your Brain is Telling You

should you believe everything that your brain tells you stay tuned and find out [Music] hello my name is Douglas block I'm an author and mental health educator welcome to your depression recovery channel where each week we talk about practical tools and coping strategies for healing from depression and anxiety the title of today's video is don't believe everything your brain is telling you before we go into this and why that's so we need to tell our opening joke and this is a card that was given to me in February when I turned 70 very apropos for a seven-year-old man and as you can see there's a picture it's in the hospital woman answering the phone and she says urology department can you hold freaky so as I was saying the title of today's video is don't believe everything your brain is telling you and you know I got a couple degrees in psychology I studied neuroscience neuron anima Jeannie neuroanatomy and everybody agreed that the brain was the most remarkable phenomenon of nature I mean after all it has billions of neurons connecting with trillions of connections between those neurons and I think as I said the 90s was the decade of the brain and to say that the brain is an organ it's like saying a Maserati as a car it's really a divine phenomenon it's a miracle of life however given the fact we live in the physical universe where imperfections abound even our wonderful brain can sometimes go awry when you're in a major depressive episode or in a state of high anxiety chemical imbalances are created inside your brain and those imbalances present you with a distorted vision of your present your future as well as the distorted perception of yourself just as an underweight person with an eating disorder will look at their mirror and see themselves as fat so too will a person who's in the grips of despair see false visions of himself and of the future that's when I was in the midst of my deep depression one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was don't believe what your brain is telling you it sometimes can be wrong you may not think it's wrong you may feel it's right but it can be wrong so what I like to do now is share with you five common distorted perceptions that people like myself and others have experienced when we've been depressed the clinical name for these are cognitive distortions since the word cognitive means thinking what these really are thinking errors or as they say in a stinking thinking so let's start with distorted perception number one very common when people are in depression very common for me and that perception is I'm always going to feel this way now this is based on the false belief that your suffering is permanent now the problem is it feels that way but that's not the case because the only physical constant in this physical universe is changed the only thing you can guaranteed to happen it has changed so if you're feeling hopeless that things will never get better I would like you to replace the distorted belief without little what I call a new and more empowering belief and that is whatever I am feeling right now won't last forever this too shall pass whatever I am feeling right now will not last forever this too shall pass the second distorted perception that happens when your brain is not working properly is I am trapped and there is no way out this is obviously a variation on the first distorted perception I will feel this way forever and when you feel this way this feeling trapped feeling that there's no escape you're in a tunnel and you know both ends have a sign called no accident that happens over a period of time you really start to think maybe I should exit this existence however here's the point that was told to me and I'm telling to you right now just because you can't see a way out doesn't mean there is no way I'll say it again just because you can't see a way out of predicament that does not mean there is no way circumstances can change like that and so a new belief I'd like you to use to replace the old one is there is a positive future for me I just can't see it yes and an image I like to use is imagine you outside it's overcast like it is here in Oregon all the time and you know things are gray and gloomy well just above the clouds you can see it the sun is shining and once those clouds part you will be able to see it and once the situation that you're in changes then your positive future will unfold itself even though right now it seems impossible all right here's distorted perception number three very common with depressed people who tend to beat themselves up a lot and blame themselves and the perception is it's my fault that I'm depressed now the problem with this is it neglects the fact that the depression is a very complex illness with with roots in biology family history childhood experiences environmental stressors and many other factors that are beyond your control so you can see it really isn't your fault that you've gotten to this position it's sort of been fade karma whatever you say but a much better way to state what's going on now is I ceased to blame myself for having this depression instead I focus on what I can do to promote my healing I like this because it kind of taps into the serenity prayer of a god grant me the serenity to accept the things I kind of change the courage to do the things I can and the wisdom to change the difference so you can't really change what's come up you know from the past to get you into this situation but what you can change is what you do about it and as I've said throughout these videos depression and anxiety are treatable conditions and with the right type of reaching out and the right type of perseverance they can be overcome here's the force distorted belief that occurs when your brain is not working properly having this depression means I am weak and defective now this has been a big one for me because my mother once said god bless her you've been sick since the time you were born I probably didn't really mean it maliciously but she said it you've been sick since the time you were born how's a young boy to feel right defect and I carried this sense of inferiority something wrong with me until I started to work with people who had been battling psychiatric illnesses their whole lives and why discovers these people were not wimps these people were not weak these were strong and courageous people who had the Herculean task of baring and transforming intense pain no these are no weaklings these are heroes so I like your new belief to be I released any shame that I have about having a mental health disorder I'm a normal person battling an abnormal condition and I have to strengthen the perseverance to be victorious so now we're ready for the final distortion at least for this video distorted perception number 5 and that is that there are actually two distortions that are related to reaching out for help I'll read them reaching out for help is a sign of weakness and I don't want to burden other people with my problems I don't deserve support so as far as the first you might be someone who's lived independently your whole life and you're not used to asking for support you think you can beat this on your own however the weight of depression is too great for any person to bear by themselves and you also may be someone who doesn't feel worthy of support maybe your child's conditioning said you were undeserving and besides you don't want to burden other people again these are both counterproductive because the second pillar of my three pillars of menthols recovery our reach out for support so here's a new belief it's ok to reach out for help reaching out for help is a sign of strength and there are other people who would be glad to assist me this has been Douglas block thank you for watching this video I hope you realize now that you shouldn't believe everything your brain is telling you especially when you're in a really dark place obviously there are many other distorted beliefs we haven't been able to go into I might do another video of part 2 in the meantime if you come up with some of your own that I haven't mentioned please write them in the comments section and also if you've had success in overcoming some of these negative plays please share your successes I hope you will give this video a like if you liked it and also you can email me Douglas block at gmail.com with any questions that you have that you didn't write down in the comments section if you want to subscribe to these videos and receive notifications simply click on my photo during the closing credits you'll be taken to the subscribe page and if you click on the bell just to the upper right of the subscribe button you'll be notified every time I do a video and also do a live chat which is Sundays at noon and finally if you want to become a contributing member of this channel simply click on the patreon link and you'll be taken to a crowdfunding page where for as little as $2 a month you can become a supporter and until we meet again I wish you the best in your mana health recovery and remember just because you think something doesn't mean it's true we'll see you next time

Channel: Douglas Bloch

Views: 51,403

Rating: 4.9690795 out of 5

Keywords: Healing from Depression, Cognitive Therapy, Depressive Episode, Depression Test, Prozac Alternatives, Major Depression, Clinical depression, depressive disorder, depression cure, depression healing, treating depression, depression treatments, mental health recovery, healing depression, suicide prevention, preventing suicide, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, healing depression naturally, overcoming depression, suicide hotline, Douglas Bloch

Id: 7_l6xmiiLXk

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 18 2019