Depression Help

When American writer David Foster Wallace committed suicide it did not just mark the death of a novelist. Rather, it perhaps was one of the first few indications of the death of the American novel. Wallace, 46, best known for his novel Infinite Jest was driven to taking his own life as he could not cope with his demons, and a chronic depression that lasted 20 years.

And this was a man who could write insightfully on any subject — from tennis to boiling a lobster. Which makes one wonder why Americans have a high incidence of depression, what with 10% of adults affected in a given year. Naturally, it gets reflected in contemporary American writing. Much of what comes out through American fiction are personal accounts of dysfunctional families, depression-related disorders and frustrations.

Studies say that many of the disorders are being caused by recent recession-related woes, low wages, rising unemployment and the trauma of war. However, Wallace’s condition was of a different kind. He was down because he found it difficult to put his views across in a world that is in love with advertisements, cheap entertainment, acquired and affected tastes and sophisticated sarcasm. Above all, his primary concern was telling the truth, and he feared he was not succeeding since he didn’t see any signs of change around him.

The contemporary American novel is guilty of encouraging all that he derided. Which is why it is driving away readers from American prose. That could also be the reason why readers the world over are turning to writers from elsewhere, particularly in translations. In his book A Reader’s Manifesto author B R Myers argues that proof of the decline of American prose is most visible in the disappearance of the long sentence and any attempt to look for genuine stories.

He hopes that one day readers would stand up to the literary establishment. He argues against the current trend of ‘genre’ writing which is replete with pretentious prose ornamented with wordplay and clever turn of phrases. His grouse is against stories mostly about an insular society. Now, that’s another symptom of the American illness!


source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Depression is not a part of getting older. If you are one in the senior age groups and you are feeling more depressed today than yesterday and days before yesterday try to determine what it is that is causing your "down" feelings.

First of all, are you one that focuses on the flaws and failures of your life? If you sit and ponder about all the mistakes you have made thus far you could be suffering a bit from low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can result in a "distorted self-image that can feed your depressed mood. In fact, as long as you have a low self concept of yourself you are going to feel down and depressed much of the time. This is probably not a clinical or serious bout of depression, but something you can work on daily to improve.

Most people feel bad about themselves from time to time. I truly do not think there is anyone who is on top of the mountain all the time. Your temporary feelings of low self-esteem may also be triggered by being treated poorly by someone else recently or in the past. Don't let low-esteem be your constant companion especially if it progresses to affecting your mood. There is no need for anyone to go through life feeling badly about their present or past life. Low self-esteem keeps you from enjoying life, and doing the things you truly want to do each day of your life.

Instead of sitting and thinking about your flaws and your failures try to some tips to help you battle those feelings of low self-esteem. Try making lists. Reread your lists often. Rewrite your list from time to time. If you have a journal, write your lists there. If you don't, any kind of notebook or piece of paper will work. Your list should include:

• At least 5 of your strengths
• At least 5 of things you admire about yourself
• Five of the greatest achievements in your life so far
• At least 20 other accomplishments (can be as simple as learning to sew a button on a shirt) to as great as a Masters Degree in Business Management.
• 10 ways you can "treat" or "reward" yourself that does not include food and does not cost you anything, such as a walking in a favorite park or wooded area, shopping just to be browsing around, or chatting with a favorite friend
• 10 things you can do to make yourself laugh
• 10 things you could do to help someone else
• As many things as you can think of that makes you feel good about yourself.
•  Walking outdoors, shopping malls or fitness centers.    
• Gardening, Dancing, and Swimming (if you can swim, this is one activity that works out every muscle in your body).

Severely depressed patients who do not respond to conventional therapy may be helped by deep brain stimulation (DBS), according to the most-extensive study to date of the experimental procedure.

In a clinical trial in Toronto, Canada, 12 out of 20 patients who had stimulating electrodes placed in a brain area called the subcallosal cingulated gyrus showed significant improvement in their depression, with seven of them going into full remission.



source : http://www.nature.com

A study about the fragility of eyewitness identification used within the criminal justice system, has conducted by researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London. According to this study, stress and fear reduce the likelihood of successful identification, bringing into question a victim’s ability to identify the perpetrator of a crime.

Visitors to the London Dungeon were asked to describe and identify an actor encountered in the ‘Labyrinth of the Lost’ who stepped out to block their path. Whilst they were in the labyrinth, some participants wore a heart rate monitor to measure the level of their anxiety.

The researchers found that participants who had experienced a higher state of anxiety were less likely to report correct descriptions of the actor and were less likely to correctly identify him/her in a line-up than participants who had experienced less anxiety.

Most research on the effectiveness of eyewitness identification is likely to overestimate accuracy because the participant witnesses do not feel the fear or stress evoked by crime that would be present in real situations.

For ethical reasons, participants in experiments cannot be subjected to the same stress that a victim of crime may experience. This study sought to recreate a similar level of fear and stress, however, by using the scare in the London Dungeon so as to understand what effect such stress may have on memory.

Professor of Psychology, Tim Valentine, who headed the research, emphasised the significance of the results: "We know already that mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the USA. This research takes us a step closer to understanding the problem.”

“The experience in the Labyrinth of the Lost is much less extreme than the stress a victim of crime may experience, but we still observed a catastrophic failure of identification by visitors who found the experience stressful.”

“The research doesn't suggest there is anything wrong with the identification procedures that the police use, but does demonstrate just how difficult it can be for a victim to identify the offender."

Evidence shows that mistaken eyewitness identification is a common cause of miscarriages of justice. 218 people wrongly convicted in the USA have been exonerated by new DNA analysis from crime scene samples. 75% of these cases were the result of mistaken eyewitness identification.

source: http://www.sciencedaily.com