That huge elephant, I thought to myself for the 100th time,
tethered on that tiny stake. They can weigh up to 7 tons, and
there was this huge elephant rocking back and forth, kept from
moving more than a few feet by … an electric fence? 25 armed
men? No, by a small chain on a tiny stick.
How can this happen? How has it forgotten what it’s capable of?
This can happen to any mammal, including you and me, and here’s
how.
We have three brains - the reptilian, the limbic and the
neocortex. (See The EQ Foundation Course© -
http://www.susandunn.cc/courses.htm ).
Reptiles have only the reptilian brain, the primitive brain that
keeps the heart beating, regulates instincts, pumps oxygen
through the lungs. They’re born miniature adults and already
know all they’re going to learn. So there’s no need for parents
to teach. Reptiles don’t bond with their young; in fact they’ll
eat them if they don’t scurry away.
But the little elephant calf is well cared for. This is where
the limbic brain comes in, the one we share with all mammals.
It’s how we bond and where emotions come from.
The young calf is cared for by all the females in the herd. They
gather ’round to celebrate its birth, trumpeting, and spinning,
with temporal secretions running down their temples. They feel
the bond.
Meanwhile, the mother must get the baby up on its feet to nurse,
or it won’t survive. It already has to learn something. And in
this process, too, all the young females are learning about
mothering. The hormones and the limbic brain drive it all.
Childhood lasts a long time for the elephant, as it does for the
human. They have much to learn about survival and their culture.
They’re dependant on their mothers, emotionally and physically,
for 3-5 years, and often aren’t weaned til their 10th year. Why
this long dependency? Because they aren’t born knowing how to
survive, they must learn it. Similar to humans and apes, much of
the elephant’s brain development takes place after birth. This
allows for (and demands) learned behaviors, not just instinctual
behavior.
Like humans, the elephant is born with minimal “innate”
knowledge. For instance, it’s only through watching adults the
elephant learns its trunk can be used to pick things up, or
scratch or drink with.
Now what if the young elephant calf, with it’s new brain
(”impressionable”) is captured and its leg chained to a stake in
the ground that he can’t pull away from no matter how hard he
pulls? And at the same time, he’s scared. Scientists are
discovering that fear and the memory get stored together in the
cells for a long time. Once coupled with fearful events, they
continue to fire in unison long after the original event is
over. At an early age, the elephant has learned “helplessness,”
that when that thing’s on its leg, no matter what it does, it
can’t get away, so eventually it gives up and quits trying. And
there stands that 7-ton animal tethered by nothing, really,
except its fearful memories.
Has this happened to you? (Think about it.) Could coaching help?
(Think about it.)
Anxiety depression is actually characterized by all sorts of irregularities and erratic behavior from the person who is suffering from it, this is usually due to certain stress triggers that may tend to easily cause a person undue jitters and stress. Also, a lot of people who tend to get easily nervous
over stressful activities are actually prone to having anxiety depression, its just a matter of being strong-willed when it comes to facing difficult and stress-prone activities. It may be pretty hard to overcome at first, but trying to be calm and cool in times of extreme pressure is what’ll actually save your mental health from going totally downward spiral.
When it comes to effectively curing one’s self from a mental illness, one must keep in mind that you have to be actually honest with yourself and assess what kind of depression or mental illness you actually have, go to reputable psychiatrist to get yourself diagnosed correctly as well as be able to get the right depression treatment for yourself. Here are the various types of depression:
Manic or Bipolar depression - characterized by sudden and extreme changes in one’s mood wherein one minute he or she is in an elevated state of euphoria while the
next minute (day or week) he or she is feeling to be in a personal hell.
Postpartum depression - characterized by a prolonged sadness and a feeling of emptiness by a new mother wherein physical stress during child birth, an uncertain sense of responsibility towards the new born baby can be just some of the possible factors why some new mother go through this.
Dysthimia - characterized by a slight similarity with depression, although this time, it’s been proven to be a lot less severe, but of course with any case, should be treated immediately.
Cyclothemia - characterized by a slight similarity with Manic or Bipolar depression wherein the individual suffering from this mental illness may occasionally suffer from severe changes in one’s moods.
Seasonal Affective Disorder - characterized by falling in a rut only during specific seasons (i.e. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall) studies however, prove that more people
actually fall in to a rut more during the Winter and Fall seasons and lastly, Mood swings, wherein a person’s mood may shift from happy to sad to angry in just a short time.
But the type of depression that has actually been proven to be quite common among people is anxiety depression, which is actually characterized by the state of being overly anxious about things. Anxiety, a supposedly normal behavior that’ll actually help a person adjust more to a certain stressful activity like first date jitters or a grueling exam the following day. Anxiety actually helps you get psyched up towards facing certain "difficult situations"; anxiety therefore is actually a good thing. Anxiety depression however, is simply the opposite, not to be easily dismissed as a "case of the nerves"; Anxiety depression is in actuality an illness that can be caused from the biological makeup of an individual, or in other words, a hereditary illness.
Also, there are actually various types of Anxiety depression, each having its own unique characteristics. Take for example Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD, this kind of Anxiety depression is a lot more complicated than the average Anxiety depression, in spite of possibly being a day-to-day habit for those who suffer this kind of Anxiety depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder actually makes the individual quite more paranoid than usual, anxiety attacks are more frequent, even absurd at times. They can even be anxious even when there’s no apparent reason that calls for them to behave in such a way. People suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder actually shows a lot of symptoms, from lack of sleep, to being unable to relax, getting tired easily, cannot concentrate on what they’re doing and even suffering from depression. This kind of Anxiety depression is still curable; just a little work will actually do the trick.
Consult a reputable cognitive behavior therapist who’ll help give the individual the therapy that he or she needs to help him or her loosen up, also prescribed medicines are sort of a must to help these individuals battle anxiety attacks, help them calm down and relax.
Useful Resources:
treatment of anxiety and irritability and depression
symbolic therapy for depression and anxiety
can getting chiropractic adjustments help anxiety