 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's all about mental health. So if you're into that stuff, if you're into trying to improve your mental health like I am on a daily basis, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And yes, today we are going to be talking about the nine differences between the average brain and the depressed brain, all right? And I think it's important to note before we get started, if you have depression, there is nothing wrong with your brain, all right? It is just tuned a little bit differently, okay? We're gonna be talking about different brain regions. We're gonna be talking about neurotransmitters and all that kind of good stuff. But before we get started, I have a little secret to tell you, all right? So come here real quick. I am not a neuroscientist. I know, I know it's hard to believe. I look like a neuroscientist. I talk like a neuroscientist, but I am not one. But you know who is? This guy, all right? That is Dr. Alex Korb. He is a neuroscientist. And I actually just finished his book for the second time. It's called The Upward Spiral. It is one of the best books on depression I've ever read in my life. And he is super cool. He's actually gonna be a guest on my podcast really soon when I reboot that backup. I have a lot of really cool psychologists lined up for the show. But anyways, if you have any questions about depression that you would like me to ask him on the podcast, make sure you leave some comments down below. All right, so let's get started by talking a little bit about a couple brain regions, okay? So first we got the dorsal anterior cingulate, all right? Now this pays attention to pain, mistakes you made and things that might go wrong, all right? This is the part of the brain that gives the amygdala, all right, the emotional part of the brain fuel to freak the hell out, all right? Then you also got this part of the brain called the ventral anterior cingulate. And it is for optimism. So that part of the brain kind of chills the amygdala out. So we're gonna be talking about those two parts of the brain a little bit, as well as like the amygdala limbic system and all that stuff, okay? Just know like we have two main parts of the brain, okay, you got your limbic system where the amygdala is, that is our very primitive emotional part of the brain. Then there are parts of the prefrontal cortex in that whole brain region. That is responsible for things like emotional regulation, logical decision making. It helps us think rationally and problem solve and all that, but we're gonna be talking about how depressed brains function a little bit differently, all right? So number one, depressed brains actually see facial expressions differently. So check this out, okay? So they did a study where they showed regular people with average brains and people with depressed brains different pictures, okay? People who had different emotions, sadness, happiness or neutral faces, all right? Check this out, okay? People with depression saw neutral faces as being angry or sad or different negative emotions, okay? That is huge, okay? So think about it. When you're hanging out with friends or family members or you're at work or you're on the street or you're at the store, all right? Somebody who has a neutral face, no expression at all, the depressed brain perceives that as that person being angry at you or maybe you think they're sad, right? Because people with depression actually have more empathy than other people like we can feel other people's emotions a lot more than the average brain. But just think about the implications of that, seeing neutral faces as having an emotion that they don't actually have. So number two, the depressed brain actually fixates on the negative longer than the average brain, all right? So in one study, what they did was they showed people different words, okay? They showed them different negative words or words that would imply something like scary or hurt or whatever. And the average brain, the amygdala lit up for an average of about 10 seconds. For the depressed brain, the average was about 25 seconds, okay? So people with depressed brains, they experience negativity longer. So like, think about it as bouncing back. People with depression, it takes them a lot longer if they're lucky to even bounce back, but it takes them longer to bounce back from negativity. Number three, the depressed brain has a stronger negativity bias, okay? All humans have a negativity bias. It's something that kept us safe, kept us from being eaten by lions and tigers and bears back in the day and all that. But today it's not as necessary to notice the negative, all right? But depressed brains notice the negative a lot more than the average brain, okay? But this can also be sort of a positive. Like Alex Corb discusses in his book, like you wouldn't want a super optimistic, like structural engineer, right? Somebody who's like creating a building, they're like, nah, you know what, that's probably safe. You know what I mean? So sometimes that negativity bias can help you see problems that other people don't see. For me personally, like sometimes I need to talk to people and help them kind of balance things out and let me know that everything's gonna be okay or I've been through it before or hey, this isn't as bad as this other situation. I need some people to kind of hit me with that other point of view when my depression is kicking in. Number four, there is a genetic component for depression, okay? If you come from a family where people in your family struggle with depression, you're more likely to get a gene associated with depression. One thing that that gene does is that it affects the way that neurotransmitters kind of are created or how they multiply in your brain. Serotonin is probably one of the leading neurotransmitters where if you don't have much, like it can really make you depressed. Like if you're looking for motivation and you can't find it, like because of your depression, typically that's a serotonin issue, all right? But they also found that the ventral anterior cingulate is less active when you have this gene. And if you remember from what we talked about earlier, that part of the brain is responsible for optimism, all right? So not only does this gene make that part of your brain smaller, but it also makes it less active. So number five, and sorry I gotta look at my notes here real quick, is this one always trips me up. Number five, mood congruent attentional bias, all right? So again, this is how depressed people see the world, okay? Again, this goes back towards the negativity bias, okay? So imagine kind of having this lens of the world. And I hope some people who don't struggle with depression, I hope this is educating people a little bit, but people with depression, this mood congruent attentional bias, it's like having this lens on where Alex Korb talks about it as like, imagine only watching the news, right? And only thinking like this world is a terrible, awful place, all these terrible things are happening, da, da, da, da, da, right? Like you could change the channel, but people with depression, it's hard for them to change that channel. Number six, depressed brains assume the worst. So in one study, what they did was, they were showing people pictures and they tried telling people beforehand like, hey, we're about to show you some negative pictures. And they saw these people because they had them hooked up to brain scans. Their emotional center of the brain in the limbic system became more active. They expected the worst, right? But with another group of depressed people, they didn't tell them that they were going to show them negative pictures, but when they said we're about to show you pictures, the brain also reacted like it was assuming the worst. Number seven, the depressed brain feels pain, both physical and emotional pain more deeply, okay? So what they've seen is that depressed brains do not release endorphins as frequently or as good as the average brain. Endorphins are the body's natural morphine or opiates, all right? I laugh because I'm a recovering opiate addict, so that kind of makes me chuckle a little bit. But anyways, so when you experience pain or emotional pain, like your body or your brain reacts to that by like, hey, here's some good stuff to make that make you not feel so bad. Well, the depressed brain isn't quite creating those endorphins in the proper way. Number eight, now this one I think is huge. The depressed brain stores bad memories more than the average brain, all right? So in the limbic system, you have a few key parts. So you have the amygdala, right? The emotional center of the brain, but then you also have the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for storing memories, okay? And one of the things it does is it stores emotional memories. So when you're happy, it's like, yo, I'm gonna save this in the hippocampus, right? But when you're seeing the world through a depressed lens, that brings up a negative emotion and those are getting stored in the hippocampus. So depressed people have more bad memories on average. Finally, the depressed brain has a completely different view on winning and losing, all right? So in one study, what they did was they hooked people up to a brain scan. Once again, they loved them some brain scans and they had them playing this like gambling game, all right? And basically when people lost, who struggled with depression, when they lost, they were more likely to have the part of the brain responsible for motivation, that activity decrease, all right? But not only that, not only that, when they experienced a win, their brain didn't store that memory as good, okay? Now think about that, all right? So people with depression, they're less likely to notice these positive events, these wins, these small victories, right? Their brain isn't storing that as well. Now, check this out, the good news about that study is they gave those people antidepressants for four weeks. Four weeks, had them come back, ran the experiment again and when they won, they were able to log those positive memories of winning much better, okay? So let's get into the solution because my videos aren't just like, oh, hey, let's talk about the problem. Nah, baby, we talk about the solution too. So one, obviously, if you haven't yet, talk to a doctor, give antidepressants a try if you haven't yet and the best advice I can give you as somebody who's been on antidepressants for over seven years now is don't think that if the first antidepressant doesn't work for you, no antidepressant will work for you. Like, we all have different biologies and we react to medications differently. One medication that didn't work for you, a different one might work better for you. For example, I was on Lexapro for many years. It worked fantastic for me, but I knew a lot of people where it didn't do squat, okay? It takes time, it takes patience. We have to work with our doctors to find the right ones for us. All right, the next thing, the next thing, I think I mentioned this on my second channel. I have read so many damn books on mental health and depression, all right? So many, like, it's dozens of books. And two things constantly come up. Two things are constantly coming up. One is start getting in more physical activity. This doesn't have to be exercise. If you wanna go to the gym, go to the damn gym, baby. But any kind of physical activity is good. Walking around the block, doing like a few pushups. Like, you don't have to do 100 pushups. Just do a few, get moving. These, like these activities help with depression so much. Second thing is sleep, okay? I know a lot of you struggle with insomnia, bad sleeping habits, you're a night owl, all that kind of stuff. Get your sleep right, all right? If you want me to do a video on how to get better sleep, let me know because that is huge, huge. But good news is, is that exercise and physical activity can actually help you with your sleep. So I don't know if you can notice, but I'm actually down 20 pounds this year. And something that I've noticed is from physical activity and eating better, my sleep is better too. I have so much more energy during the day, all right? And the last thing we're gonna talk about is therapy. Go get you some therapy, okay? If you have health insurance, all right? You can call your provider and ask them what therapists are in your network. And you can typically find therapists who specialize in certain things, depression, trauma, anxiety, or if you wanna try a specific type of therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, EMDR, R-E-B-T, right? You can find therapists who specialize in those things, all right? If you're seeing a doctor, sometimes your doctor can recommend you to a good therapist, a good psychologist or something like that. Me personally, I use BetterHelp online therapy and I absolutely love my therapist, all right? And BetterHelp actually supports the channel. So in the description of all my videos, there is a BetterHelp affiliate link. What that means is that you get affordable online therapy and when you sign up, some of it comes back to help support the channel, all right? Lastly, if you don't have insurance, if you don't have money, in the United States, almost every, I don't know, decent-sized city has government-funded mental health programs, all right? I'm not talking about state-funded mental health facilities, right, even though a lot of them do, but some of them will provide you with free therapy or when I was working at the rehab center, I had some clients have to go to these state-funded organizations just to get their meds refilled because they lost their insurance or whatever the case may be, all right? You can find access to the government-funded stuff through calling, I believe it's 211 or go into the SAMHSA website, okay? S-A-M-H-S-A, Google it, all right? But anyways, like I said, I will have Dr. Alex Korb on my podcast very soon. If you have any questions about depression, let me know down in the comments. If you want me to make a video about how to get better sleep, let me know down in the comments. And what was I missing? There was something else. I don't know, check the description. There's gonna be stuff down there, okay? Anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And if you think somebody will benefit by being educated about depression, share this video with them, all right? But before I let you go, I wanna send out a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at theRewiredSoul.com and everybody who gets merch from the RewiredSoul merch store. You're all amazing, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.