Discipline Rx: The Secret Prescription to ADD, Anxiety & Depression

You’ve talked with your therapist about everything. And still, you’re wracked with depression, or your anxiety hasn’t gotten any better. It has been months, years, of trying to loose yourself from these chains… yet you still find yourself imprisoned by them. You resort to thinking, “what is wrong with me? why am I broken? how am I broken? why can’t I just get better…”

Now, I’ve never been to a therapist… frankly I can’t stand the majority of them. So what I’m about to say here may already be getting said out there in the space. Maybe. But judging from what I have observed for the past decade, and the trends that continue to snowball in potentcy, I’m going to continue with the viewpoint that what I have to say here needs to be heard by many, many individuals.

We need to rework how we think about our minds. Anecdotally, I’ve come across hundreds of individuals across my life that leave behind utterances of nonsense such as “my mind just races out of control.” These utterances are nonsense because one has control over their mind. The difficulty is that we are not taught that mental, willful control requires practice & repetitions no differently than does attaining bodily, physical control. What is very real about the mind is that wrangling control is as much a labor of repetitions and practice as is working out in the gym. Discipline is the remedy. Accountability is the secret sauce. And simply establishing the desire to seize control over the self is the starting point. The mind is not some completely autonomous, standalone operative that is occupying the same vessel as you. Your mind IS you. You ARE your mind. If one lacks control over their mind, they lack control over themselves entirely.

In the process of wrangling control we need to understand the signals that are received. Hunger is a signal that the body requires resources. Thirst is a signal of needing water and electrolytes. Pleasure is a signal of success. Pain of injury is a signal of failure; failure to adhere to safe practices; failure to account for enough variables to avoid taking damage (whether physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological). Pain of growth is a signal that limits are being approached, and that a higher level of performance is around the corner. Being able to differentiate between these signals, and their implications takes practice and real exposure.

This takes us to the three of the most prominent signals in the American population that are being misattributed to disease.

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ADD & ADHD

Having ADD or ADHD is not a disease. These states of mind are not “deficits in attention” they are deficits in interest. You get one of these individuals working on something that interests them and you will find that they curiously do not have a deficit of attention. In fact, oftentimes you will find it difficult to break their attention when they are focused on an area that interests them. Personally, I regard ADD/ADHD as superpowers. Individuals with these minds are capable of pointing 90-100% of their focus, attention, and intent towards the apple of their eye. Capable of pivoting that attention rapidly, and juggling multiple focuses at once.

These individuals simply require different approaches, different ways of structuring a justification for why they need to learn a particular concept or theory. An athlete that has a predisposition for attention deficit behavior may not think that they have a need for learning Pythagorean Theorem from a geometry textbook from a mathematical angle. But, structure the argument as said athlete needing to learn said theorem so that they can understand the biomechanics of their activity so as to improve their performance and become better equipped at besting their competition… see how the interest shifts?

This is not due to a deficit of attention, this is due to a deficit of capable teachers.

Anxiety

Experiencing anxiety is not a disease. Anxiety is signal by the mind that something requires change, that something is wrong. The “disease” is in avoiding making the changes necessary to relieve the chronic anxious pressure. The “disease,” the dis-ease, is a lacking of ease caused by the reluctance to make change. The avoiding of the reality that you need to do something different in order to get to a place where you want to be. This is your mind, and your body, acting as it should. If anxiety is persisting chronically, it is the individual behind the decision-making that is not acting as they should — if their goal is to relieve the anxiety.

Some people simply desire to be the victim; gaining attention out of pity or the desire to want to help. What many who fork over the desired attention don’t realize is that these individuals choose to maintain a perpetual state of victimhood in order to achieve their desired outcome — receiving attention from others.

I am of the position that America today is awash with these cases of weakness. I am also of the position that America is simultaneously awash with swaths of our populations that wish to be shown a different way but are unaware of these kinds of views. That these individuals know that there has to be a better way outside of the heavily commercialized solutions but not knowing what that other avenue could be.

Anxiety’s cure is not the pharmacy, or the couch and a heavy helping of coddling. It is through discipline, and prioritization through rationale, capped-off by execution and follow-through.

Depression

This one is a bit more complex and more heavily nuanced than the other two. The reason for this is that I believe that depression can feed off the other two states, as well as multiple others. I wrestled with depression for a significant portion of my life; it started at a relatively young age (11 years old). It lasted up until I was about 23, with the fight to climb out beginning around 17 years of age, and not fully succeeding until I was deployed overseas spending 11 months in the deserts of the Middle East. What I am about to say may ruffle feathers, and it may strike nerves, but it must be said.

I believe that depression is not a disease, just like the two conditions previously mentioned. I believe that the majority of cases of depression are not something that requires medication to treat. I believe that attempting to use medication to address depression only makes the condition worse, as it weakens the minds of those affected. That willful intent gets dampened as these drugs simply numb the patient to their senses by limiting (inhibiting) serotonin reuptake. What this means, for those unaware, is that these drugs (SSRI’s) selectively limit the (natural) clearance of serotonin from the synaptic cleft. This means that serotonin can accumulate in the cleft as the previous disbursement of serotonin remains. Also meaning greater volumes of exposure to this neurotransmitter; increasing resulting the sensation from its exposure.*

*Some readers here may identify one of the many problems with this band-aid approach; tolerance. The body is built to adapt, even to our own neurotransmitters. Which can result in downregulation, and increased resistance. Requiring greater volumes of exposure to elicit the same outcome.

I believe that what depression actually is is a chronic feeling of powerlessness (versus a lacking of “enough” serotonin). That the individual in question feels an inability to effect proper change in their life, producing a feedback loop of negativity*. That this sense of inability, regardless of where it started, gets compounded when experiencing anxiety. That the depression will result in a response to anxiety that is very akin to shock. These individuals then lock-up, freeze, in the moment that anxiety sets in because they feel powerless. This powerlessness can be a result of not knowing what to do, but can also lead these individuals towards not knowing what to do (a deer in headlights). Oftentimes both being true. This relationship therefore ultimately results in suppressed levels of serotonin.

* The feedback loop of negativity is not to be confused with Rumination. Rumination is closely related but not exactly the same thing. Rumination will be a focus on the negative aspects/events (focusing on the feelings of powerlessness or impotence, or on the negative outcomes), while the feedback loop is merely the relationship between the mechanisms (such as anxiety feeding the depression, and/or the depression feeding the anxiety). They are very much synergistic, but it is important that it is understood that they are not intrinsic or inextricably linked. They can accompany one another, but they are not required for either to exist.

The more granularly we can define these aspects and how they relate, the more we can understand. The greater our understanding and the better the precision with which we can view the granularity; the more we can divide and conquer.

In my experience, both personally and in helping peers tackle their depression, the secret to success is a ruck (of sorts). When looking at depression we have to look at our situation(s) honestly. From that honesty we then also prioritize, honestly, into three separate categories. The first category of prioritization is in what needs to be done; addressing bills, health concerns, job concerns, whatever is necessary to get to the next day/week/month. The second category of prioritization is in what is desired to be done, our wants; hobbies, socialization, things that bring us enjoyment by merely engaging in their activity. The third category is the list of tasks or accomplishments that are desired as an aspect of ambition — not to be confused with our wants (the second category). You can want to play soccer, but your ambition can be to become team captain, or to win your next tournament.

Confidence Is A Byproduct

In establishing our hierarchies of needs, wants, and ambitions, and properly orchestrating their prioritization, we set up an environment that is ripe for establishing a to-do list. As we knock tasks off this to-do list, we provide ourselves with receipts for our own self-efficacy. Being able to look back, and being capable of saying “I did that,” is what provides the building-blocks for real confidence. In trusting that you can get things done, that you did the damn thing, that you have justification for believing that you can find success in the present and in the future.