Posted by dj on July 5, 2000, at 20:39:58
In reply to Interesting article--might relate to social phobia, posted by noa on July 5, 2000, at 18:39:45
> http://www.salon.com/health/books/2000/07/05/lonely/index.html
>
> The article is about how when people talk, their blood pressure shoots up, and the effect is more dramatic in lonely people. Not convincing, but very interesting, as it could possibly shed light on some of the panic symptoms associated >with social phobias.Noa,
I don't have time to read the article write now but I know from self-observation and reading that there are certainly some links there. Public speaking is one of the # 1 fears many people have. Link that with perfectionistic tendencies (either toward self or others, or expectations of what others expect) which have been linked with excessive anxiety and depression in some cases (including a study I participated in at the Univ. of British Columbia by an associate of Prof. Paul Hewitt who has done lots of research on this)which has genetic links and presto, panic, internal chaos, etc...
Certainly I've experienced the scenario in public situations like presentations where I've been evaluated but probably evaluated myself more harshly in the process and so went the cycle, which I am still working on disengaging...
This a.m. I was puzzling over why I was so tired, drained and non-refreshed I was when I awoke, as
I sometimes am though not always nor consistnetly which is the bugaboo for me...Last night when attempting to do some writing that's been hanging over me and needs to be finished with and is worth some $$, I felt that way put it aside and decided to read before crashing. Then I found myself refreshed and attentive as I sometimes do when I turn away from something that I find onerous...(publically or privately) to something that I find interesting...
Some answers may lie in "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert M. Sapoloslky (referenced on in Dr. Bob's READ section) where he discusses the links between stress and depression or at least what he knows of them...
He talks about how: "...major depressives often experience elevated levels of glucocortocoids..." and how an accurate description of a depressive is not someone energyless but as "...a tightly coiled spool of wire, tense, straining, active - but all inside..." Certainly that is often the way I experience it...
And is his learned and insightful chapter on stress-depression links in which he thoughtfully reviews various theories of depression and the physical manifestations (which I need to reread a few times, along with the whole book)he ends by noting: "...as the evidence in this chapter makes abundantly clear, depression is a genetic disorder of being vunerable to a stressful environment."
He also touches on the role we may play in eliciting and dampening stress. And he goes on to note in another chapter that: "...the workings of the stress response can change over time. We grow, learn, adapt, get bored, develop an interest, drift apart, mature, harden, forget. We are malleable beasts. What are the buttons we can use to manipulate the system in a way that will benefit us?..."
Core question! One that I am going to be pondering for some time, as I suspect many shall...
Sante!
dj
poster:dj
thread:39484
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000630/msgs/39506.html