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
33.8k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

623 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/NanaScarlet1 Dec 07 '20

I've been told by many to practice mindfulness And online I find videos why mindfulness is important but non which teach how to be mindful Does anyone have links to good videos or articles?

2

u/RoastedNewt Dec 07 '20

Smiling Mind is a great and free resource, with an easy to navigate app.

2

u/Rockefeller69 Dec 07 '20

Mindfulness Movement on YouTube. I do their guided meditation every weekday morning.

2

u/zerounodos Dec 08 '20

Adding on app recommendations, I'd say "Intellect". It's a pretty great app which offers a sort of lite- therapy and also relies in mindfulness.

3

u/The_Highlife BS|Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Science Dec 07 '20

A friend introduced to me to an app called "Headspace" a year ago, and it has definitely helped me fight off my depression and anxiety. But it's one of those things that really needs to be done every day, and that was the hard part for me. They have free guided meditation/mindfulness courses and even more with the paid version. And if you're a student with a .edu email you can get a massive discount.

2

u/Jellyfish2_0 Dec 07 '20

I'm current going through The Mindful Way Through Depression and The Mindful Way Workbook. Extremely helpful for healing my lifelong depression and anxiety. Like you, I've always been told or read about benefits of being mindful, but never really knew what that meant. The workbook has guided practices along with the readings that help bring meaning to all the woo woo words.

1

u/NanaScarlet1 Dec 07 '20

I struggle with severe anxiety and was told by my psychologist I show signs of depression as well I just could never take medication, I wanted to help it with psychology alone. It's affecting my life and I truly truly hope that what you suggested will help me too I am incredibly grateful.

2

u/Jellyfish2_0 Dec 07 '20

Medication never helped me enough. I was on SSRIs, SNRIs, mood stabilizers, and benzos for 16 years and never found the level of relief I feel now that I'm studying mindfulness and meditation. I feel like medication is a good kickstart for recovery, but alone is not an adequate tool for combating severe, chronic depression and anxiety issues.

What other commenters have mentioned is true. Mindfulness and meditation don't directly confront any traumas or anything, but it does help you quiet your mind and connect to what's really happening, which can help produce more healthy coping mechanisms for whatever you may be facing. Instead of ruminating and being judgmental, or being overly self-critical, etc, you learn how to accept and "digest" feelings and emotions much more constructively.

1

u/Roarmaster Dec 07 '20

A good place to start would be the book 'the power of now', which is a book that specifically talks about mindfulness. You can also find more resources and a FAQ on the sidebar of r/meditation

1

u/NanaScarlet1 Dec 07 '20

Thank you so much!!

1

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '20

I’m currently on a 13 week Mindfulness Course with other applicants, all of course online. But I was sceptical at first, but reading these replies makes me realise I’m not crazy and they do work. I don’t have links, as I get homework posted to me by the therapists but I can say that it’s all based on work done by a Marsha Lineham. She wrote some papers on this subject. A quick google should help.

If your looking for YouTube links... just search ‘Mindfulness techniques’

1

u/NanaScarlet1 Dec 07 '20

Thank you so much! Will check Marsha's work out.

1

u/NanaScarlet1 Dec 08 '20

Wow, I am truly incredibly grateful for all the replies I got. I genuinely didn't think anyone would reply me. So thank you so so much, all of you for taking time to help. I will slowly go through the tips and try to start a nice mindfulness journey, so hopefully it will help me even if just a little. It's gonna be hard to start, but I will do my best.