Monday, Mar 23, 2020

They were talking about the brain today, on my psychology podcast. People. More research is needed, he said. More research is always needed. When are we going to understand the brain, I ask you?  Does the brain really cause our behaviors like you’re thinking?  Or doesn’t it reflect our behaviors?  Don’t we cause our behaviors?  I think we do, more than “the brain”. Just a personal opinion.

What does it mean to look beyond the mark?  It’s the same as seeking for things we can’t understand, is it not?  Surely. And why do we do that?  The answer is right before us, if we’ll have it, isn’t it. It’s easier than we’re thinking. We over-complicate things. That’s what we do, isn’t it. Some of us, at least.

This is it. We have the answers not that far from us sometimes, but we don’t want them. Is that what I do?

Friday, Mar 27, 2020

But is it possible that as a society we could all be missing the mark together on a subject as big as this?  Well we do with religion, right?  We can all miss it together.  But not everybody.  Necessarily.  Some people might know the truth, and it’s just the general population that’s missing it.  But with depression and anxiety, seems like there’s no group of people that get it, even an enlightened group.  It would be on the internet, right?  Somewhere.  Surely somebody can figure it out and the word can spread, even if to a small number who are willing to hear it and understand it.

Here’s the thing.  Satan is involved, and self-deception is involved, but the person isn’t necessarily condemned before the Lord.  We can’t judge, right?  You go against the light, you self-deceive, and your path is darkened.  We’re all fallen.  We all fall short.  We are all in need of the atonement.  Why do we need to judge each other?  We can say in our hearts that another has caused his own difficulties.  Well that may be true, right, but isn’t it the same with our own difficulties?  Surely it’s possible for us all to cause some of our own difficulties.  And some not.  We want to say officially that nobody causes their own difficulties, but that’s not true.  Sometimes we do.  But that’s no reason not to have compassion on one another.  Right?  Because don’t we all do the same, in one way or another?  We all do it, from the least to the greatest.  Just not Jesus Christ.

We talked about “What can we do?”  What do you think we can do?  What’s the answer to that question?  Or the answers?  Is it many possible things, and they may be different for each situation?  Surely that’s it.  But surely we can also find some commonality in our answers and give suggestions to each other.  Which we do. 

Saturday, Mar 28, 2020

I want this podcast to be more fun.  I imagine more laughing.  Do I need Skye?  Or do I need to be more relaxed when I do it?

Tues, Mar 31, 2020

Isn’t anxiety just a big excuse?  Think about addiction.  There is something appealing about anxiety and depression. There’s a reward, make no mistake about it. Addiction needs a reward. Well anxiety and depression have rewards. The excuse is the reward. Excuse for what?  In the case of anxiety, for not doing what you need to do that’s hard and requires ignoring your fear.

In the case of depression the reward is the excuse for being happy. That’s why it’s expressly miserable. That’s the definition of depression – misery, the opposite of happiness. Misery gives us our excuse for…not being happy. It can be hard to be happy. It requires giving up our pride sometimes. Giving up our misery can be hard, it can take a hard swallow of pride. We can humble ourselves by being happy, by being grateful, by realizing how blessed we are.

Surely this is it.

This mechanism of self-justification and self-deception is hard to pinpoint – what the excuse is and what the deception is. It’s a little hard to think about.  Can I make some headway that way?  Find the pattern, the universal description?

But depression is a big excuse. And anxiety is a big excuse. Not like we think maybe, but it is.  Excuse for what?  For not being happy, and for not being peaceful, respectively. It can be hard to be peaceful. You don’t get to have the excuse of being nerve-wracked. You have to face whatever it is alone, with just you and your laziness. “I was lazy, and a little bit rebellious.”  Look that up.

This is good. (Is not this real?). Thinking about it from the outside though this sounds terrible. How do I say this?  With love.

It is a trap. It gets worse the more you indulge.

I say anxiety is a big excuse, and depression.  But remember we are not necessarily condemned by God (right?)  There are many reasons we can be in that pattern.  But oh, it’s there.  You can’t throw that away just because it’s hard.  And none of this is an excuse to stop loving anybody.  That’s always there, too.  You can have issues and still deserve love.  Everyone deserves our love.  Surely the two are true at the same time.  That we are excusing ourselves from going against the light in one way or another, and that we deserve love and are loved by our Heavenly Father.  It’s just the mechanics of this fallen world.  Yea, this is going to go over great in the world.

And there’s a chemical aspect of depression and anxiety, like a bunch of things, and whatever else goes along with it.  But I tell you that these things with self-deception are going on too, in every case.  Oh yes, every case.  Does that mean it’s the “cause”?  We’ve gone over this.  No, not necessarily.  This is a principle, like internal combustion, that is necessary but goes without saying, as long as you understand it.  But understand it.  Understand it.  You would want to know about internal combustion to understand your car, and you might as well understand this to understand psychology.  Understand self-deception.  Understand there is a light we either conform to or self-deceive.  Take it or perish.  You never win going against it.  But we do all the time, and that’s part of life and frankly, it’s ok as long as we’re trying and if we believe in Jesus Christ and do works meet for repentance then we’ll be saved, we’ll be ok. 

But you can’t do evil to yourself or anybody else, with impunity.  Depression is doing evil to yourself. 

So since self-deception, self-justification are part of depression and anxiety, how do you combat them?  Exercise.  Sleep.  Eat better.  Work on your relationships.  All those things they say to do.  But just don’t expect that you can do them and hold on to your grudge against yourself, or give in to the lie of anxiety.  Those things have to be done, too.

This is an imperfect podcast…  I try to be as right as I can, while treading on some ground that is new.  I hope you’ll forgive me if I lead you astray in any way.  I think, I hope, you understand the nature of this podcast.  It’s theoretical, it’s not meant to take the place of therapy.  I’m not saying all the things you need to hear, necessarily.  It’s imperfect and I’m acknowledging that.  Most of all I hope you don’t think that since you’re doing these things that there’s something wrong with you.  Believe me, you’re very normal.  And I can tell you your Father in Heaven loves you, more than you can imagine.  Maybe with His help you can deal with this thing.  Maybe you’ll get a lot better, maybe you will continue to struggle with it for the rest of your life to some extent.  I pray you’ll be able to get to a point where it will be at least tolerable and you’ll be able to perform whatever mission your Father in Heaven has for you on this earth, despite your difficulties.  None of us are perfect and many of us have to deal with very hard things, perhaps our whole lives to some extent.  Hang in there.  Don’t stop trying.  Maybe pray that we’ll get a better understanding of these things.  Try to do the things you can do.  Your Heavenly Father loves you.

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Satan is involved.  He sure is.  No question about it.  Hate to say it, I know it’s unpopular, but he is.  He’s involved.  These things are traps.  His traps.  And his lies.  And his power.  All darkness is of him.  All captivity is of him.  You better believe it.  Don’t have to, but if you want to understand psychology and life then you do.  No other way, sorry.  (The brain.) 

None of this means God doesn’t love you – He does, and though you may be in a trap, He’s there for you, He’s with you and wants you to be happy.