Finding value in living

[Guest guest]

Finding value in living.

In the very depths of depression and individual might wonder why he is on this

planet in the first place and if there is any point in remaining there. He

would have to find value in living.

The thought of what suicide would do to love ones very often provides value

enough in hanging on if not an actual answer to the pain.

But quoting my own answer to this problem could provide some insight as to how

this can be done. There was a time when I had to deal with this. But as I

suffer from permanent anhedonia which means that I am emotionally numb when I

feel good or bad this became more difficult. So on the emotional level I cannot

feel anything for anyone. Now that meant that the harm suicide would do to

loved ones carried no weight for me whatsoever. So what did? Well the prospect

of religion offering endless happiness after death became very attractive. This

life was a mess but at least that could be salvaged. This did provide value in

living and a set of values and behaviors and goals roughly the same as what ACT

encapsulates.

That is okay for the religious but what about those who are not? As already

mentioned what it would do to family and friends to top oneself often provides

value enough. But what if it was not enough? What if in addition to that the

person had permanent emotional numbness? All that would remain would be the

prospect of improvement such as that provided by therapy and medication. Going

through that for a while to a successful outcome would provide reason enough to

hang on.

But what if the depression was very very serious? This does happen in cases of

very treatment resistant depression. I visited a website which discussed

treatment for this. It was dealing with people for whom medication

psychotherapy and absolutely everything else had failed. What was being tried

was deep brain stimulation. This takes the form of the surgical implantation of

electrodes in the brain focusing on the brain centers that deal with depression

and these are connected to a kind of peacemaking device implanted in the chest.

In trials so far a substantial improvement has been the effected and in some

cases complete remission. It must be stressed however that this is in its

infancy and has to go through all the appropriate procedures to obtain approval

from the authorities but it does hold out for the very seriously ill great hope

and value for hanging on.

Sometimes sufferers wish fervently for a magic pill that will take it all away

giving the quality of life they always wanted. At first glance this would seem

like wishing for some fairy godmother to come with her magic wand and wave

depression away? But is it really? Last year and interesting development was

reported in the news in the UK. Researchers had identified the gene associated

with depression. They gave depression to mice and then developed a medication

to inhibit the activity of this gene consequently curing the depression.

Research is now ongoing to find a way of doing this for humans. If successful

it would seem that the production of something like a magic pill would be

possible. But a cautionary word was added by a GP for whom I had the greatest

respect. He said he could never envisage the situation where the active

participation of the sufferer would not be needed to cure depression. I feel

there is a lot in what he says because in depression there are so many

maladaptive thought patterns to imagine them all being taken away by a pill.

However it is reasonable to expect that the production of such a medication

would make serious inroads into the severity of depression. The actual

development of therapy and medication over the years clearly indicates that

researchers are getting ever nearer to the answer for this problem and in ACT

the therapeutic answer has been found. All these reasons for hope do add value

to living providing excellent reasons for hanging on.