Estelle PlatiniNov 10, 2024

Depression is when we don’t care for anything. We want to stay under the duvet. The duvet is comfortable. We would like to get out of it but we only have the motivation to stay warm.

Depression can develop into a disinterest for the world. Smiles appear bland, uninteresting. Pleasure and displeasure become indistinguishable, leading to a progressive anaesthesia of emotions.

#EstelleSays #depression #selfCare #self #people #disappointing #relationship #relationships #friendship #mentalHealth #predictions #perceptions #beliefs #representations #probabilities #hallucinations #bias #psychology #SilentSunday #fragility

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 10, 2024

"It's like… my head is filled with something black and gooey, it takes up all the space, all the energy.
I try to force myself to do things, to see people.
But it exhausts me so much, it drains me out…
And it's often painful, I can see that people are angry with me."
~ Mirion Malle, in "That's how I disappear"

#depression #quotations #safety #selfCare #self #people #disappointing #relationship #relationships #friendship #mentalHealth #predictions #perceptions #beliefs #representations #probabilities #hallucinations #bias #psychology #SilentSunday #fragility #beliefs #hallucinations #bias #SilentSunday

Show threadDr. Heather Etchevers
@estelle
Very true. But like many human experiences, it's hard to have true empathy for it without experiencing it to some extent oneself. Let us all foster empathy in one another. It is absolutely possible to recover, to heal. Let us help one another do this, those who have been there helping the many thrust therein, paying the help forward. 🫂
Nov 10, 2024 at 8:13amWeb
Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 10, 2024

I'm already absent,
From my body, from my head

My eyes are half closed and they don't open anymore.
I cry like a stream that must
necessarily sink

I'm...
A small hard shell
That breaks slowly
What was inside is gone.

#poem #SilentSunday #QuietSunday #depression

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 10, 2024

Our nervous system is wired to generate meaning from a stream of discontinuous, uncertain, sometimes ambiguous information. To do this, our brain uses probabilistic #beliefs that allow it to filter out its sensory information, but that are deeply disturbed in depression.

If we suffer from depression, we are constantly plagued by dark thoughts. We may tend to believe that we are worthless, that we have made terrible mistakes, that our loved ones reject us, or that our condition is a burden on their shoulders from which we must release them.

These beliefs are also at the heart of repetitive, circular mental content. These ruminations gradually lock us into a smaller and smaller space. They are self-reinforcing, feeding increasingly negative beliefs, invading the entire spectrum of our minds.
These depressive beliefs are critical because they are often associated with the worsening of the disorder and the risk of suicide

#depreciation #psychology #neuroscience

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 10, 2024

…
Studies in non-depressed subjects have shown that we are collectively biased in our #beliefs.
We are much more sensitive to positive than negative information when we adjust our personal beliefs. This bias in updating beliefs tends to favour positive beliefs about our own skills, our own experiences. As a result, we tend to believe that we are better drivers, better lovers, better at sports than the reality of our performance. This bias is present in all civilizations, although it varies according to the groups considered. We know that men tend to have a stronger positive bias than women. The positive bias is also stronger among descendants of settlers compared to Japanese.
It could still be, fundamentally, an effective way to finally protect ourselves from the misfortunes of the world. If we were realistically aware of the dangers of the world around us at all times, then our #mentalHealth would probably be much more fragile. We would be constantly anxious.
…

#bias

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 17, 2024

…
This protective mechanism for our mental health disappears when we suffer from depression. Tali Sharot's team, and later Tobias Kube and Winfried Rief's team, showed that depression reduces the ability to refresh these beliefs after positive information. This loss of the positive may even have led some psychiatrists to say that there was a form of depressive realism, in the sense that depression offered an uncompromising view of the world.
It is not known whether this depressive pseudo-realism is related to increased attention to negative stimuli or to greater porosity of beliefs to such unfavourable information.
…

@psychology 🧶

#selfDepreciation #wellness #knowledge #science #psychology #neuroscience #brain #suicidal #suicide #depression #rumination #confidence #bias #beliefs #mentalHealth #TaliSharot #positive #phenomenology #SilentSunday

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 17, 2024

🧶 …

In pharmacology, an #antidepressant refers to a fairly diverse set of molecules that do not have the same modes of action, the same therapeutic effects or the same undesirable effects.

A common goal: to target monoamines, neuromodulators

Generally speaking, these are molecules that target what are called #neurotransmitters, including serotonin, noradrenaline or dopamine. When a neurotransmitter attaches to receptors in one neuron, it transmits an electrical message that can be transmitted to another neuron. It's kind of like a relay race. There are over 20 different types of synapses, each of which conveys specific messages and are involved in this brain activity differently."

…

#cognition #SilentSunday #wellness #medicine #antidepressants #health #medicines #science #psychology #neurosciences #brain #suicidal #suicide #depression #mood #confidence #bias #beliefs #selfDepreciation #mentalHealth

Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 24, 2024

…
#Antidepressants "change your perception of the world, the kinetics of your movements or your emotional reactivity.
"Several studies have shown that very early changes (before any effect on mood) affect the recognition of facial emotions, the learning of new information or the updating of your beliefs."
[…]
"When you take an antidepressant, it is easier for you to recognize the smiles, the positive feelings on the faces of the people you're meeting on the street. It also is harder for you to recognize the negative feelings, the feelings of anger, the feelings of fear. And you have an easier recall of your positive, pleasant memories of the past.
[…]

Reference in French: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/votre-cerveau/ep5-comment-les-antidepresseurs-corrigent-vos-biais-cognitifs-3339139

#cognition #neurosciences #SilentSunday #wellness #medicine #antidepressants #health #medicines #science #psychology #brain #suicidal #suicide #depression #mood #confidence #bias #beliefs #selfDepreciation #mentalHealth #believe #memory #recall

Comment les antidépresseurs corrigent vos biais cognitifs : épisode 5/6 du podcast Les effets de la dépression

AUDIO • Les effets de la dépression, épisode 5/6 : Comment les antidépresseurs corrigent vos biais cognitifs. Une série inédite proposée par France Culture. Écoutez Votre cerveau, et découvrez nos podcasts en ligne.

France Culture
Show threadEstelle PlatiniNov 24, 2024

[…]
"In depression, movement slows down, speech becomes very rare. Immobility gradually spreads to the body. After a week of antidepressant therapy, you can see a relief of this motor inhibition, as if the movements had regained their amplitude, their kinetics, the muscles were awakening and the tone returned.
[…]
"This release of inhibition is also infamous in psychiatry, because it may temporarily increase the risk of suicide. If you have a death wish that is very powerful, but you no longer have any will, it will be very difficult for you to finally put your thoughts into action."

Reference in French: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/votre-cerveau/ep5-comment-les-antidepresseurs-corrigent-vos-biais-cognitifs-3339139

#psychiatry #cognition #neurosciences #SilentSunday #wellness #medicine #antidepressants #health #medicines #science #psychology #brain #suicidal #suicide #depression #mood #confidence #bias #selfDepreciation #mentalHealth

Comment les antidépresseurs corrigent vos biais cognitifs : épisode 5/6 du podcast Les effets de la dépression

AUDIO • Les effets de la dépression, épisode 5/6 : Comment les antidépresseurs corrigent vos biais cognitifs. Une série inédite proposée par France Culture. Écoutez Votre cerveau, et découvrez nos podcasts en ligne.

France Culture
Show threadUlrike HahnNov 18, 2024

@estelle @psychology Minor point: the literature on “depressive realism” is fundamentally flawed, because the literature supposedly showing “optimism bias” in the first place is fundamentally flawed, see

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010028516301177

A pessimistic view of optimistic belief updating

Received academic wisdom holds that human judgment is characterized by unrealistic optimism, the tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative …

Show threadLuke DuncanApr 18, 2025
@estelle @psychology Fascinating study, and very relevant to an interpretation of neuroticism that I’ve developed. It is almost as if neuroticism, the personality trait of the Big Five most clearly associated with depression, allows individuals to experience a greater breadth of emotions and cognitive aspects of human experience that skew perception away from the optimistic bias. These neurotic individuals are sensitive and attuned to the negativities of the world through the percepts supplied by emotion, and through this tempestuous proclivity towards emotion, their perception is shaped. Thus, they can feel the pain that is naturally associated with depression. This, however, may not be an evolutionary weakness or inherent flaw, but an advantageous ability to accurately perceive threats in the environment. I believe that this may be a sign of a cognition oriented towards self-doubt and recursive checks of truth, thereby raising self-awareness through their more rigorous interpretations at the cost of being self-conscious.
Show threadEstelle PlatiniApr 18, 2025
@luked522
Thank you very much for your thoughtful answer.
Since you present yourself as a student, i dare a suggestion: Do you realize that your explanations contains both assessment=analysis and opinion?
Show threadLuke DuncanApr 18, 2025
@estelle Yes, that’s an excellent observation, thank you for pointing it out. I do believe that opinion and subjective thought inevitably shape both perception and analysis, as interpretation is never fully divorced from the one who interprets. I assume the portion of my post you’re referring to as opinion is the reevaluation of neuroticism not as a weakness, but as an evolutionary advantage. If so, I would clarify that my post was intended as an interpretation of neuroticism, rather than a strictly objective or empirical report.
Show threadEstelle PlatiniApr 19, 2025
@luked522
It was indeed 🙏🏾