How RUBY WAX regained her sparkle: The comedian on training her brain to beat depression

 How RUBY WAX regained her sparkle: The comedian on training her brain to beat depression

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2332818/How-RUBY-WAX-trained-brain-beat-depression.html

Brain science is still comparatively in its infancy. For most of the previous century it was assumed that after early childhood, the brain structure remained more or less unchanged. Now scientists have shown that the brain is constantly adapting because of changes in behaviour or environment. What’s more, it is an effect that we can achieve deliberately. Focus on your worries and you’ll develop neural structures of anxiety; but engaging in relaxing activities can rewire your brain for calm. 

‘It’s about working-out the brain like a muscle,’ explains Ruby. ‘You’re not stuck with what you were born with. Gloria Gaynor is going to have to change those lyrics, because I’m not who I am. But what rhymes with neuroplasticity?’ she cackles.

Medication has helped, but not cured her.

And she had so much therapy that she says she grew sick of her own story. But eventually her researches into mental health led her to discover mindfulness. This ancient meditation practice has its roots in Buddhism and, put simply, requires you to spend time paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and sensations – such as, for instance, that whirring noise we heard earlier. ‘You have to train your attention. Once you train that, you can regulate your focus and you won’t stay up all night listening to the voices in your head,’ explains Ruby. 

Since she started practising MBCT, she has not had a full-blown attack of depression. ‘You still have a disease but you can hear it coming before it takes over and take precautions – such as cancel every dinner party, go somewhere quiet, not make so many phone calls. This means it won’t be as intense.

Everyone who has killed themselves probably had depression. 

I suspect she won’t have time. She has a new stage show to write based on this book, and having set up a website, blackdogtribe.com, for people with mental health issues, she hopes to establish a British network of drop-in centres, along the lines of AA. ‘The trouble is, everyone’s too ashamed to admit to having mental illness, and if they come out, their job is affected,’ she says.

What is mindfulness?

The founder of modern-day mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the late 1970s, to help with conditions as diverse as chronic pain, high blood pressure, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy — which Ruby studied — was adapted from MBSR in the 1990s by clinical psychologist Mark Williams and colleagues to aid patients with recurrent depression by helping them to relate differently to their distress.

MBCT has been shown to be as effective as antidepressants in preventing a
relapse into depression and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended it for people who have experienced three or more episodes. 

Now MBSR and MBCT are also used to help anyone with normal everyday anxiety and low mood.
Regular mindfulness meditation has been shown to develop thicker layers of neurons in the attention-focused parts of the brain, and to boost the activation of the left prefrontal cortex which suppresses negative emotions.

 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-courage-be-present/201001/how-practice-mindfulness-meditation

Ruby Wax - How to Tame Your Mind

Ruby Wax - How to Tame Your Mind 

http://youtu.be/P1iVE8wxGwA

Dec 18, 2013

Ruby Wax - comedian, writer and mental health campaigner, visits the RSA to explain how and why our busy, self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and depression, and to provide ways of taming our out-of-control minds.

What do we do about depression? Some facts:

What do we do about depression? Some facts:

• The current annual economic cost of mental illness in the UK is £70 billion, which is equal to the entire National Health budget.
• By 2030, the World Health Organization predicts more people will be affected by depression than any other health problem.
• It already affects more people than all physical illnesses put together.
• Mental illness accounts for nearly half of all people on incapacity benefits in the UK. The official figure is 44%.
• The World Economic Forum estimates that the global cost of mental illness will be about $16 trillion by 2030. Uni-polar depressive disorders are the third biggest global burden in the world.
• Mental illness affects people early (50% of cases occur by age 14).
• Mental health problems also increase the risk of physical illness. People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder die on average 16-25 years sooner than the general population.
• Data accrued from six European countries found that 17% of the population reported some experience with depression in the last six months.
• At any one time, 10% of the US population has
experienced clinical depression in the past year and
between 20-25% women and 7-12% men will suffer
a clinical depression during their lifetimes.

Ruby Wax

(As outlined in my book Sane New World - http://www.rubywax.net/sane-new-world.html)