Bryan Johnson describes learning to treat his thoughts as mental events rather than truths, especially during severe depression. Recognizing his brain's negativity as "trash" created distance from suicidal thinking. He realized other people's minds are equally troubled, which freed him from caring what they think.
When I was depressed, I learned this lesson to observe my thoughts, not be my thoughts. And when I could observe my mind in action and it being like, hey, Brian, life is not worth living. Everything's hopeless. Everything sucks. You should probably kill yourself. I could be like, oh, I'm not those things. That's just my brain throwing trash. Like, being a troll. That was, like, the most liberating experience in my entire life. And then I was like, oh, you know what? My brain is probably very similar to other people's brains. I probably shouldn't care what other people think either, because their brain is probably just as fucked up as mine. And that was like, those two in common combo have been the most empowering experiences of my entire life.
