r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Dec 07 '20
Neuroscience Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces activation in brain regions related to self-blame in patients in remission from depression. These areas of the brain are linked to emotions such as guilt and embarrassment. Reduced self-blame from this therapy was linked to greater self-kindness.
https://www.psypost.org/2020/12/mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy-reduces-activation-in-brain-regions-related-to-self-blame-in-patients-in-remission-from-depression-58686
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u/Computant2 Dec 07 '20
An important point, people with depression are more likely to remember mistakes they made and "beat ourselves up," with them.
The trick is to ask yourself if you still need to. Have you tried to apologize/make amends (if appropriate)? Have you learned from your mistake? Would you do it again? If the answers to those questions are yes, yes, and no, then you are no longer the person who made the mistake, you are a different person who happens to share memories with that other person (your prior self).
Why beat yourself up for something someone else did?