Positive Thinking, Negative Thinking, and why it’s better to be on the Fence

Since the publication of Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 book called The Power of Positive Thinking, the world has been bombarded with a plethora of self-help books guaranteed to show us the way to happiness. But is there a down-side to these suggestions?

If we do as instructed, by a multitude of sources, to push away the negative, or bad thoughts and focus only on the positive, or good thoughts, how do we prepare for the bad times of reality?

Come with me, if you will, on a journey through the cluttered half-baked theories of my mind, but watch your step, there’s no liability insurance in here. If you trip into the corpus callosum, you’re on your own.

Part one of the half-baked journey begins with the extreme outcome of pure positive thinking. If I am truly thinking positively, then nothing at all could possibly go wrong, I have nothing to worry about, I am perfect just the way I am, and the world exists just so that I might gain pleasure from it.

If nothing could go wrong, why should I plan for a rainy day? My job will last forever, the roof will never leak, and my kids will remain perfectly healthy. There is only sunshine in my world.

If there is nothing to worry about, then I can count my life savings while walking down a dark alley without fear, my car will last forever- that banging under the hood means nothing and adds an interesting beat to the music playing on the radio, and I will never grow old. Throw away the botox; there are no wrinkles here.

If I am perfect just the way I am, why should I exercise to take off that extra ten pounds, why should I try to improve my mind with literature, the theater, or a higher degree. Why should I get off the couch?

If I buy into this extreme sport of pure positive thinking, why would I work like a dog to get ahead? Wouldn’t I be perfect enough for everything to be given to me?

Now for part two of the half-baked journey; are you still with me? We are getting really deep in the frontal lobes now.

If I remain in a positive thinking mode until I gain a serene, carefree state, does that mean my brain is unstimulated? And in turn, does that mean that the firing of neurons has diminished so much that if danger were to occur, I would not be able to act quickly enough for self-preservation? Would I react at all if I were a true positive thinker? What could happen if I stayed on the couch?

Let’s go back to the unstimulated idea. If I continue to not stimulate my brain, will my brain begin to deteriorate? After all, the old adage “Use it or Lose it” has been around longer than “Think Positively”. Let’s throw in another adage: Necessity is the Mother of Invention. That being said, if we have no necessity because we are positively thinking about everything and therefore need nothing new, why would we trouble ourselves to invent new things?

If I remain unstimulated for an extended period of time, what will happen to my mood? If there are no highs or lows, no release of adrenaline to handle excitement or danger, no need for the release of serotonin or dopamine to stimulate my brain, will these receptors be decommissioned as no longer needed? Will my mood sink into depression?

Now for the flip side of this saga.

What if I experienced continual negative thoughts? Would my life mirror the same lack of moving forward I found while hanging out on the couch with positive thinking? I may have more supplies stored in the basement with negative thinking and the door would be locked, but would my life be any more interesting? Would it be just as flat, but in a negative way?

If danger startled me off of the couch, would I be too paralyzed by negativity to react in time? If I think nothing good will ever happen, have I made this come true simply by closing the door to the possibility?

This leaves us with the good old fence straddlers.

Ordinarily, sitting on the fence is thought of as a bad thing. We are urged to choose a side, be decisive and stick with our convictions. What if I had a mixture of positive and negative thinking tempered with a good dose of reality thinking? Would my life attain a better balance necessary to survival? Would I have happy little neurons firing quickly and efficiently because they were getting a healthy dose of exercise and rest? If I use reality thinking with a mixture of both positive and negative thinking, will I be better prepared to weather hard times?

If I have a huge project due at work, would I be more effective if I used a dose of negative thinking that I don’t have enough time to complete this project, mixed in a little anxiety that if I don’t finish then my job may be finished, added some positive thinking that all I can do is my best, and stirred it around with reality thinking that I’ve proven myself by meeting hard deadlines in the past and have the ability to do so again. My project will most likely be completed on time because I have made this mixture of positive, negative, anxiety and reality work for me instead of against me. Too much positive thinking and I won’t push myself hard enough to make the deadline. Too much negative and I will give up before really trying.

The fence straddlers can enjoy a healthy mixture of both positive and negative thoughts, knowing each has its own value if kept in balance. And the view from the fence is not bad either.

Thank you for coming along on this trip through the half-baked theory region of my mind.

Now that I've shared some of my thoughts, feel free to share some of your own.

Problems with your “Z’s”: New research on treatment of persistent insomnia – help is more than just medication.

The May 20th issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) includes an article on treatments for persistent insomnia. Insomnia is the most common of all the sleep disorders and is described as having problems with the ability to gain sufficient sleep or to feel rested and characterized by difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep. Insomnia may be situational, recurrent, or chronic. Most people know if they have problems with sleep, and most of us have had personal experience with occasional bouts of insomnia.

Lack of adequate sleep over time, or persistent insomnia, can have a very big impact on daily functioning; it will lower your quality of life and can contribute to various health and emotional problems. When untreated, insomnia can also contribute to major depression and other physical problems. When you get behind the wheel with not enough quality sleep, you not only put your life at risk, but those around you as well. A large number of auto accidents are attributed to driving while drowsy. Although it may be tempting to use alcohol as a sleep aid, it will work in the opposite way and create insomnia and other health-related issues as well. And…of course this will not help your driving either!

Here are some sleep-promoting tips that can work well to help you get into a healthy sleep routine:

1. Maintain a regular bedtime and awakening time schedule including weekends. Get up about the same time every day, regardless of what time you fell asleep.
2. Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine. Relaxing rituals prior to bedtime many include a warm bath or shower, aroma therapy, reading, or listening to soothing music.
3. Sleep in a room that is dark, quiet, comfortable, and cool; sleep on comfortable mattress and pillows.
4. Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. Have work materials, computers, and TVs in another room.
5. Finish eating at least 2-3 hours prior to your regular bedtime.
6. Avoid caffeine within 6 hours; alcohol & smoking within 2 hours of bedtime.
7. Exercise regularly; finish a few hours before bedtime.
8. Avoid naps.
9. Go to bed only when sleepy. Lay in bed only for sleeping, not for work or watching TV.
10. Designate another time to write down problems & possible solutions in the late afternoon or early evening, not close to bedtime.
11. After 10-15 minutes of not being able to get to sleep, go to another room to read or watch TV until sleepy.

This latest research in JAMA shows that CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), a structured form of psychological treatment that focuses on modifying thoughts and behavioral patterns, was effective for treating persistent insomnia. The addition of a sleep medication to CBT treatment like zolpidem (generic name for a prescription sleep medication) produced some benefits, although such benefits were modest to treatment outcomes. Such findings suggest CBT may provide an added benefit in treatment of insomnia.

Since you are awake anyway, sign on and leave a comment about how your sleep is going. All comments from those who are sleep-deprived and others are always welcome. Sweet Dreams!

The Measure of a Life Well Lived

When it’s all said and done, when the piper has played his last note, the farm is well and truly purchased, the bucket come to rest, and the fat lady’s final lyrical note but a fond memory, what is the yardstick we use to measure the worth of our lives? Do we tally up bank accounts to see who won? There will always be someone whose net worth is greater than the next guy’s. Mine, unfortunately will not even be a contender for that particular prize. Maybe we could compare the grandeur of our cars. Mine is a clunker well past its warranty, but it holds a lot of good memories. My car’s value is not in its blue book value, but in the memories it holds. So if memories are more important as a measure of a life well lived than monetary possessions, how do we measure memories?

We should measure the worth of our memories by those who will carry them on after we are long gone. How many people have you positively touched in your life? How many of those were a lasting, memorable touch? How many of those went on to touch others because of your actions? This is your measurement. This is your legacy.

Randy Pausch touched millions while he lived, and continues to have a positive impact on people’s lives today. I’ve included a video clip of his address to the graduates of Carnegie Mellon University. I think everyone should watch this clip at least once in their lives. And stay tuned through the end when he carries his wife off stage and gives her a beautiful kiss behind the stage. Your relationships with the special people in your life are what really matter when it’s all said and done. This is what people will remember. Not the degree you earned, not the handy little nest egg you managed to build, not even the size of your office - although it seems very important now.

And when it is your time and they record the important stuff on your tombstone, what will it say? Your name that your parents chose, you didn’t have anything to do with that. Your birth date, again, more your parent’s business than yours. And your death date. You shouldn’t decide that either. No, the only thing you have to show for an entire life is the dash between the dates. And how many of us make it a hard, fast dash to the finish line? So this entire life that is summed up by a mere dash etched in granite is where we insert the memories of the relationships, the love, the life, the passion, the person.

“Even though our culture puts a strong emphasis on attaining wealth and fame, pursuing these goals does not contribute to having a satisfying life. The things that make your life happy are growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community," says co-author Edward Deci in a news release about his article, Achieving Fame, Wealth, and Beauty are Psychological Dead Ends.

So when it’s all said and done, let’s have no regrets on our way to the top of the ivory tower of our choice. Let us be remembered as a person who had a positive impact on others, who loved and lived life to the fullest, and made the most of the time we had. Play on piper. Ours will be a mighty dash. We’ll measure up just fine.

Antidepressants May Not be as Effective as we Think

A report recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that drug companies may have misrepresented the effectiveness of antidepressant medications by publishing those trials which showed better results and witholding other trials that were not as positive.

In the published reports, the drugs were about 60% more effective than placebo, but when the results of the unpublished reports were included, they were only slightly more effective than placebo in treating depression.

Over the past few years, it seems to me that patients and physicians alike have increasingly tended to rely on antidepressant medication to treat patients with depressed mood. It has even been suggested by some that we have been guilty of "medicalizing" sadness and treating relatively normal down times in life as a clinical illness, depression. But, clearly, depression is a common and serious malady in the practice of every primary care physician and we must always strive to maintain an effective approach to helping patients with this problem.

So, then, how do we take this recent finding and incorporate it into our practice? I think that antidepressants should be used, in most cases, as adjunctive, rather than primary treatment of depression. The medication clearly reduces anxiety, improves sleep, and in many cases, does elevate mood. But, we should all be cautious, especially in light of this insightful finding, about over-reliance on drug treatment. Use of psychotherapy and other forms of counselling, exercise, attention to sleep and nutrition, and addressing alcohol or other substance abuse issues are all examples of important aspects of treatment beyond just putting the patient on antidepressant medication.

If you have depression, are taking an antidepressant, but are not improving, you should strongly consider a return trip to your doctor to request a fresh approach!

Your comments are welcome...