LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived lack of control over the events in one's life, which may result from prior exposure to (actually or apparently) uncontrollable negative events.



Learned helplessness is a well-established principle in psychology. It can be observed in the effect of inescapable punishment (such as electrical shock) on animal (and by extension, human) behaviour. Learned helplessness may also occur outside the laboratory, in everyday situations or environments in which people perceive (rightly or wrongly) that they have no control over what happens to them. Such environments may include repeated failures, prison, school, war, disability, famine, and drought. A similar example is that of those concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust who refused to care or fend for themselves (so-called Muselmänner). Present-day examples can be found in schools, mental institutions, orphanages, or long-term care facilities where the patients have failed or been stripped of agency for long enough to cause their feelings of inadequacy to persist.

Not all people become depressed as a result of being in a situation where they appear not to have control. In what learned-helplessness pioneer M.E.P. Seligman called "explanatory style," people in a state of learned helplessness view problems as personal, pervasive, or permanent. That is,

* Personal - They may see themselves as the problem; that is, they have internalized the problem.
* Pervasive - They may see the problem as affecting all aspects of life.
* Permanent - They may see the problem as unchangeable.

The concept of "explanatory style" is related to the fundamental attribution error.

Lacrimas Profundere - All Your Radiance

Left, on me
but tears are a part of you
hooked, what is it
all is coming
taste it, to be foolish
on you
embrace the tears
embrace the past
for all what you are dying for
it's the only thing you can decide
o. you forget the breathes, forget
another skin, it's the piece of
unknown peaces
somehow helpless, isn't it

lacrimas.com
wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrimas_Profundere

EMPYRIUM - MOURNERS

Meagre trees in the shrouds,
As olde as the stones…
Mourners of abandoned love,
Forever their woes shall grow silent

O, how many times may the moon has shone
Reflected in these black lakes?
Should it be that we can hear,
The woes of those who ceased their lives?

O, so old they are…
They bare the neverending grief
Age - old miserability
Ancient bitter beauty

Lost is the hope of those
Who walk the moors with pain in heart
…and all joy it sinks,
Buried deep, forever presumed dead

O, so old they are…
They bare the neverending grief
Age - old miserability
A bitter beauty thrilling me

NOONE ELSE CAN KNOW YOUR MIND!

Mind refers to the collective aspects of intellect and consciousness which are manifest in some combination of thought, perception, emotion, will and imagination.

There are many theories of what the mind is and how it works, dating back to Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara, Siddhārtha Gautama, and other Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, which were rooted in theology, concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the supposed supernatural, divine or God-given essence of the human person. Modern theories, based on a scientific understanding of the brain, see the mind as a phenomenon of psychology, and the term is often used more or less synonymously with consciousness.

The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective in nature and should be seen as different in nature or origin to the mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the individual mind.

In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: It is that private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads." Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No-one else can "know our mind." They can only know what we communicate.

DEPRESSED

Depression, or a depressed mood, may in everyday English refer to a state of melancholia, unhappiness or sadness, or to a relatively minor downturn in mood that may last only a few hours or days. This is generally seen as quite distinct from the diagnosis of clinical depression. However, if the depressed mood lasts at least two weeks, and is accompanied by other symptoms that interfere with daily living, it may be seen as a symptom of clinical depression, dysthymia or some other diagnosable mental illness, or alternatively as sub-syndromal depression.

In the field of psychiatry, the word depression can also have this meaning of low mood but more specifically refers to a mental health condition when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis, whether there is an obvious situational cause or not; see Clinical depression for this meaning. A typical psychiatric description of depressed mood (in the DSM) is "... depressed, sad, hopeless, discouraged, or 'down in the dumps'." In a clinical setting, a depressed mood can be something a patient reports (a symptom), or something a clinician observes (a sign), or both.

A depressed mood is generally situational and reactive, and associated with grief, loss, or a major social transition. A change of residence, marriage, divorce, the break-up of a significant relationship, the death of a loved one, graduation, or job loss are all examples of instances that might trigger a depressed mood.

SWEET ADDICTION

DEALING with ANGER

There are various strategies for dealing with anger. Some address individual episodes of anger, and others address an on-going tendency toward anger.

Dealing with each instance of anger represents a choice. The basic alternatives are:

• Respond with hostile action, including overt violence,
• Respond with hostile inaction, such as withdrawing or stonewalling,
• Initiate a dominance contest,
• Harbor resentment,
• Work to better understand and constructively resolve the issue.

Other strategies address on-going tendencies toward anger.

In the 1960s and 1970s, theories about dealing with anger in a therapeutic process were based upon expressing the feelings through action. This ranged from pillow hitting strategies to radical and extreme therapies such as scream therapy. Scream therapy is a therapy where patients stand in a room and simply scream for hours on end. However, these techniques actually do nothing to prevent anger from taking hold. Research into scream therapy actually showed that patients suffer from increased anger problems. This is understandable since modern research into neuroplasticity shows that the more we exercise a brain area - the areas involved with anger in this example - the more efficient that area becomes.

Modern therapies for anger involve restructuring thoughts and beliefs in order to bring about a causal reduction in anger. This therapy often comes within the schools of CBT (or cognitive behavioural therapy) or other modern schools such as REBT (or rational emotional behavioural therapy). Research shows that people who suffer from excessive anger often harbor rational thoughts and beliefs - biased towards negativity. It has been shown that with therapy by a trained professional, individuals can bring their anger to manageable levels. In order for a cathartic effect to occur, the source of the anger must be damaged or destroyed by the aggrieved party.

Spiritual therapies for anger involve observing the feelings of anger as they arise. The basic understanding being that anger is a form of attachment: to ego-of-self, to how things 'should' be which is separate from how things really are. To objectively realize that a relationship with anger exists, in many cases is enough for the anger to subside and eventually be eradicated from the mind. Observation usually begins with a foundation in meditation, although it is not a requirement. Most spiritual teachers are quick to add that observation does not include the suppression of feelings; as this can cause attachment to the idea not being angry.