Advice Goddess Radio, LIVE Tonight, 7-8pm PT, 10-11pm ET: Dr. Jonathan Rottenberg On Depression -- An Evolutionary Understanding
Amy Alkon's Advice Goddess Radio: "Nerd Your Way To A Better Life!" with the best brains in therapy and research.
We have a depression epidemic in this country, now affecting more than 15% of the population, and it's striking people at younger and younger ages. It seems clear that our current modes of understanding and treating depression just aren't working.
My guest tonight, psychologist Dr. Jonathan Rottenberg, draws on research to show why we are failing to help depression sufferers and turns to our evolutionary roots to offer a nuanced understanding of why we get depressed, explaining why our modern environment's mismatch with our evolved psychology can drag us depression. All of this leads to insights on how we might help depression sufferers get better, or, at the very least, not lead them to feel defective and broken because they are depressed.
His inspiring and scientifically rigorous book we'll be discussing tonight is The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic.
Listen at this link from 7-8 pm Pacific, 10-11 pm Eastern, or download the podcast afterward:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/amyalkon/2014/03/10/dr-jonathan-rottenberg-on-depression-an-evolutionary-understanding
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Don't miss last week's show on successful negotiation.
There have been two major schools on negotiating -- Ury, Fisher and Patton's "win-win"/"relationships are everything" approach and Roger Cohen's "nail 'em to the wall" hardball approach.
Harvard Business School professor Michael Wheeler finds that these rigid, one-size-fits-all strategies often clash with the real-world realities of negotiating. Drawing on his and his colleagues' research, he finds that the most successful negotiating techniques are born of an ability to adapt while negotiating, and use agility, creativity, and wise preparation.
He advises us all on how to adapt (and do all the rest) in order to win in negotiation, the subject of his book we discuss on the show, "The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World."
Listen at this link or download the podcast:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/amyalkon/2014/03/03/harvards-michael-wheeler-adaptation-is-the-key-to-successful-negotiation
Join me and my fascinating guests every Sunday, 7-8 p.m. Pacific Time, 10-11 p.m. Eastern Time, at blogtalkradio.com/amyalkon or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.
Maybe I am a natural rebounder, but I find it difficult to commiserate with people who live in the most prosperous nations on earth and yet cannot realize their advantage.
This is not helped by multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns for antidepressants, all of which seem to have as a major side effect – Depression!
Radwaste at March 9, 2014 1:59 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/advice-goddess-156.html#comment-4350333">comment from RadwasteRad, it is easy to diminish people who have depression as being babies, but I assure you, it is not the case. Perhaps listen to the show and have your eyes opened. This isn't some weenie ailment and the author himself suffered this and, in fact, made me cry with a passage in his book about his daughter and his worry that she would soon find out that she had "a broken dad."
And yes, as George Bonanno, the bereavement researcher points out, most people are resilient. But some are not. And this isn't some character defect.
Amy Alkon
at March 9, 2014 2:45 PM
"but I find it difficult to commiserate with people who live in the most prosperous nations on earth and yet cannot realize their advantage."
I don't even know what that means. Maybe it is just my depression.
Dave B at March 9, 2014 4:14 PM
Amy actually addressed your question in the opening question with Dr. Rottenberg from the get-go of the interview. So maybe it is worth listening too.
Back in 2005 I lost my lady of 13 years suddenly. I went through a period in that I considered having a discussion with Mr. Magnum .45. But between friends and family I made my way through it. It didn't matter that I live in the "most prosperous nation." I was hurting personally. At some points I couldn't give a crap that I had a job, a home, food, or much else.
I worked through it on my own. Would grief counseling have helped? Maybe. Drugs? Maybe. But dismissing psychiatry and drugs off-hand because you haven't experienced it and living in the "most prosperous nation" does not change that.
Jim P. at March 9, 2014 8:35 PM
You assume that I have not suffered a loss. You would be wrong.
However hard that might be to believe.
Radwaste at March 9, 2014 8:47 PM
You assume that I have not suffered a loss. You would be wrong. -- Radwaste at March 9, 2014 8:47 PM
I will admit to the assumption. But when you were in that that period did living in the most prosperous nation really matter?
If it did then more power to you. If it didn't help stop the grief from your loss why are you condemning those who extend it into depression?
Have you ever seen What Dreams May Come? I suggest you watch that. It has some interesting concepts in it.
Jim P. at March 9, 2014 10:12 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/advice-goddess-156.html#comment-4351946">comment from RadwasteI don't assume anything about you or a loss.
Amy Alkon
at March 9, 2014 10:45 PM
Rad,
I have suffered from lifelong depression.
The greatest quote I have ever heard of comes from Stanford professor Robet Sapolsky that calls depression "aggression turned inward".
There are physical manifestations in a depressed brain, and to answer your question on why we can not or will not realize our advantage I can tell you that depression for the most time feels like indifference. When I'm depressed I find no emotion in anything and I mean it.
Let me put it like this....I have had money to pay bills and I wouldn't even go to the computer and do it because I've been too depressed to even move. I would have starved myself if I could (and nearly did).
If you do not feel the indifference then what you feel is that every experience is painful. Dr. Sapolsky has said there is a reason for it--because your brain is acting as if you are feeling real physical pain.
The worst of it for me is the guilt. I feel guilty about everything, deep deep guilt like ive murdered someone. And no I am not exaggerating. I really feel that guilty and about any little thing-like once I borrowed someone's jacket because I was cold and I couldn't stop the guilt for days.
Again it's my brain malfunctioning. The part of my brain that feels guilt, feels guilt over every action. Then I feel guilt over not feeling how lucky I am for living on the most prosperous nation on earth (and my father has told me so) and it makes things soo much worse for me.
When you say that to a depressed person it makes us have more guilt-for me it meant-when my parents would say that to me-that it must mean that what I feel is true that I'm a piece of shit for not being grateful.
We logically know a lot of things but we can't apply them.
Btw love this post Amy! Dr. Jonathan is amazing.
Ppen at March 10, 2014 5:37 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/advice-goddess-156.html#comment-4353688">comment from PpenThank you so much for posting that, Ppen, and I am so, so sorry for what you have gone through.
I really think he is on to something with his thinking and work. After the show, I called him and gave him some connections to help him get his message out and emailed somebody about him to suggest they use him as a speaker. I don't usually do that, but I think his message is extremely important and needs to be heard widely.
Amy Alkon
at March 10, 2014 5:48 AM
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