 We all know that depression sucks and it can be debilitating when you can't even get out of bed or you isolate or you constantly have all these negative thoughts or no emotions at all. But that's not what we're talking about today in this video. In this video, we're going to offer a new perspective about depression and it's purely based on science. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about helping you out with your mental health. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So like I start off every video, I talk about how we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. One of the reasons I do that is because when we stay focused on the problem, we get nowhere. We get absolutely nowhere. And with all terrible things, there is a brighter side to it. And I've been reading a lot of amazing books and articles and things like that. There's actually some good things about having a mental illness. Now, this isn't a video to discredit mental illness in any way. I have suffered from depression as well as anxiety and addiction. And I know how terrible they can be on your life. But as I've mentioned in a million other videos, we got to start changing our perspective even just even just that much just a little bit and we can start getting out of that hole. So today we're going to be talking about why the people who have symptoms of depression, like maybe you or someone you know, are actually pretty awesome people based on science. So the first study that we're going to be looking at is going to be talking about the brain. So this first study comes from neuro image clinical and we're going to be talking about a part of the brain called the subgenual cingulate. Okay, so what this study was called or what the heading of this study says enhanced some genuine cingulate response to altruistic decisions in remitted major depressive disorder. So basically what they did was they hooked up brain scans to people who have major depressive disorder or have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. And this wasn't just only people who have major depressive disorder, but also people who have had their major depressive disorder symptoms go into remission. All right. So basically their conclusion says this, we showed that altruistic decisions probe residual SGACC hypersensitivity in MDD even after symptoms are fully remitted. The SGACC has previously been shown to be associated with guilt, which promotes altruistic decisions. In contrast, the striatum showed common activation to both simple and altruistic rewards and could be involved in the so-called warm glow of donation enhanced neural response in the depression group in areas previously to altruistic decisions supports the hypothesis of a possible association between hyper altruism and depression vulnerability as shown by recent epidemiological studies. All right. So what does all this science mumbo jumbo say? What they are saying is people who have some type of depression, okay, typically major depressive disorder, they have more activation in a part of the brain that makes you a good person that makes you selfless. That means altruism is giving, right? Giving rather than receiving people with depression are more likely to help others. Isn't that awesome? Like that's an amazing, amazing thing. We are more likely to help out other people. And one of the reasons that is, is because we know that pain. We know that suffering and we don't want other people to go through it. Like when I read that, I was like, no wonder why I made this YouTube channel. Like my past is awful and terrible and I've worked so hard on my mental health to get to this amazing place that I am today. But because of my depression and because it goes into remission, sometimes it comes back, but I want to help out all of you and do something altruistic. Like there's a reason why I work 40 plus hours a week and then dedicate another 20 hours to this YouTube channel as well as all my other social media channels. You know what I mean? Like people with depression are more likely to help other people out. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Still don't believe me? Let's check out this other study, all right? While depression is an unmistakable taxing illness that presents what may feel like insurmountable difficulties, a new study published in Nature Human Behavior found that a positive character trait belies this mental illness. As motherboard reports, those who are more susceptible to depression are more selfless and empathetic. To reach this conclusion, the researchers asked participants to play a money-based game with a strong element of economic inequality and unfairness to it. Those who showed elevated brain activity in areas associated with depression while playing the game were also more likely to demonstrate signs of clinical depression down the line. More specifically, some participants dubbed the pro-social's rejected money from unfair offers that didn't promote equality for all, while others, the individualists, were more willing to accept the money despite obvious inequities. People with depression commonly demonstrate increased concern for others for the perspectives of others, explains the science publication. More precisely, pro-social attitudes predict depression, which is in contrast to individualist attitudes individualists here basically just mean selfish or relatively selfish. For example, those with a pro-social attitude are more willing to help others or society as a whole without the expectation of a reward. Pro-socials have an almost unrivaled capacity to give up their time and energy for others, even at a cost to themselves. Write Megan Spear and Mauricio Delgado, psychology researchers from Rutgers University of the New Study. Unfortunately, the same deep empathetic concern for disadvantage can ultimately weigh a pro-social person down emotionally resulting in mental health issues like depression. All right, so to sum that one up, when they do experiments, I love psychological experiments and neuro scientific experiments and stuff like that. Basically what they did was they did an experiment where it was a game based on money. And I don't know the specifics of it, there's a bunch out there, but how likely are they willing to give other people money or accept a situation where they're at a disadvantage if it helps others. So people with depression were more likely to put themselves at a disadvantage to help others. All right, and there were also more likely to just turn a deal down if it might affect others in a negative way. That is like crazy. That's awesome. Like, so compared to other people without depression, we're more likely to look at the greater good. Like, are my actions going to hurt or help others? You see what I mean? Like, that's a really, really beautiful quality. Now, one thing that it talks about, like weighing you down, is this. This is where people with depression really got to be careful. So people with depression, like one thing that we really have to look out for is like codependence, okay? It's all about balance. We have to understand this about ourselves. Like the first step to solving any problem is acknowledging there is a problem. Like self-awareness is a huge, huge, huge thing when it comes to your mental health. So if you realize like your depression is leading to you helping more people, you also, you have to find this balance where you're not putting yourself at risk, right? Because let's say I just went around throwing my money around all willy-nilly and donating to charities and putting myself in a terrible, terrible financial state, then I'm going to get even more depressed and spiral down in that funk. So me personally, like, I give, I give a ton. I help out people wherever I can, but I sit back and I analyze the situation and say, okay, but will the end result put me in a bad situation? So even though I get this good feeling from helping others, which is why I do it so much, like if helping them is going to bring me down lower, I have to set a boundary and not do that thing. All right? But anyways, I really hope that you enjoyed this video. Like I'm going to do more videos like this about anxiety, about people with attention, a deficit hyperactive disorder, like OCD, like there's people who actually have very good qualities who struggle with mental illness. And, you know, aside from like the other videos I've been making the past couple of weeks about all the YouTube drama, like I'm really excited that I was able to make this video and hopefully brighten up your day, help you learn a little bit more about yourself or other people you know who are struggling with depression. But let me hear down below. If you're somebody who struggles with depression, let's leave a comment down below. Give me an example of what you do altruistically, okay? Like what do you do? Like how do you help out other people? And I don't want you to feel like nervous about it or like, oh, well, I don't like to brag or anything. You are getting 1000% permission from your boy, Chris, to brag all you want about yourself. And I need to do a video about that. I'm hoping your comments down below will inspire people to go out and be a little bit more altruistic themselves. All right? But that's all I got for you today. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you're new here, I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health. So make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. And if you're not a Patreon supporter, check it out. There's brand new t-shirts and mugs up in the rewired soul shop. There will be links down in the description below. All right? That's all I got for you today. And I will see you next time.