Dr. Don Wood argues depression isn't a malfunction but the brain shutting down after repeatedly signaling for action that never comes. He describes it as reading old data, and proposes behavioral practices like a one-minute watchful-observer habit to reboot the system and update how the brain processes information.
Questions this video answers
One minute, six times a day.
Currently nine months; considering shortening to 12 weeks.
Chapters
And I talk about, for example, one of the things that really surprises people is when they tell me they have depression.
Yeah.
And I say, what if I told you depression is a function of the brain, not a dysfunction? They say, how could it be a function? And I said, because your mind is looking at old data, Right. And wants it to be different. So it keeps calling you in to make a change in something that you can't change because it doesn't exist anymore. It's a data read error. It's reading old data in real time saying, fix it.
Right.
So if you are used physically or emotionally, and now you're looking at it, your mind's saying, fight back. Do something. You can't do it. So you get this emotion, anger. Most cases, depression's anger. So if your mind keeps getting you angry to answer the call, but you don't answer the call, how does the mind protect itself and protect you? It shuts down. Depression is the absence of an emotion. There's no emotion now because you're flat. Because your mind said, this isn't working. So to protect you from the pain, it goes into a shutdown mode.
Wow.
Very different way of looking at it.
Yeah, completely different way of looking at it.
And so all we have to do is get to what does your mind be trying to fix? And get an update, reboot the system so it understands that that information is just information. It's not something that there's an action for, and then just reset the system to say, okay, it's data. What do we need to do? Like, what do we need to do about World War II? But can you imagine if we kept getting angry about World War II? That would make no sense.
Right.
There's nothing you can do about it now.
Right? Yeah.
So different way of looking at it.
It is. It's pretty amazing. Yeah.
And that's what I really learned from. From a lot of the science that I was looking at. And I think the advantage, sort of like you, which I love about what you, because you're an architect, you saw structure.
Right.
And so everything for you is, how did that get built? And the current mental health system was built on a lot of errors. They didn't understand the brain.
Yeah.
So now that we understand the brain. So you came into it with that architect mindset, saying, tell me why that works or why that doesn't work. And that was easy for you to see it where most people don't see it that way. They just adopt what was they were taught.
Oh, yeah. I appreciate you say that. Don because really, as an architect, at one point I was doing a hospital, like I said, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. And, you know, there's literally billions of decisions. And so an architect's job is to put everything together in a clear way. So my gift is clarity. And again, I feel so blessed to be able to take different modalities and have them all, like, relate to each other. And as you said, when. When you. When you explain this to people, then it's like, okay, I get it. I see a path forward. Right. Rather than being stuck in that program loop. Right.
And that's what I talk about when people come in and say, well, I have anxiety, I have post traumatic stress, whatever they're describing. I say, well, that's just a symptom. That's not the problem. But if you go in and say, I've got anxiety, they're going to want to treat the symptom. Yeah, but the symptom isn't the problem.
In fact, treating the symptom makes it more real. Right. It tells the brain that this is something that needs attention, obviously, because we're treating it so. So treating it, you know, fighting and trying to push it away, but also, you know, treating it and trying to work through it also validates it. It validates the programming. Yes. Okay, this is real. All right. We gotta keep this going. Right.
And there's something wrong with me.
Right, right. It's just stepping back and seeing it. Seeing it as this and not this. Right. Not solid that. That you can start to say, okay, this is a program. And. And that's what the Per Love Pro. Per Love practices are designed to do. You know, it starts with with pledge. Right. Making the habit of watching the mind starts with one minute, six times a day. One minute six times a day. Take a minute just to watch, just to pay attention, to be the observer. You're creating a new habit. That's it.
Yeah. Focus.
The first three practices per are the more cerebral practices. So then you evaluate once you can see things, once you're watching your mind create the space. It's about space, really, in your mind to watch. Instead of being engulfed in it, you can start to evaluate those patterns as. As the observer. You're now watching the patterns. You're. You're evaluating those. And then you can, you know, pick some targets for change and recognize them as they come up in your daily life. Not that I'm anxious. It's like there is that pattern. There is that anxiety coming up. You catch it and, you know, like you said, you can reprogram it. You can have it sit next to you. Just. You can, you know, accept it fully. Yep, it's gonna be there. It's gonna be there. You program this the last 20, 30, 40 years, but in accepting it, you're not engaging. Right. You're not making it more valid. So it has no choice but to kind of go, you know. Right. And start to break up those patterns. So that's. That's really. The three. The first three practices, I do a class, and it's a year long. Right now I'm thinking about making it 12 weeks long, but the first nine months are in those practices because you have to hear something over and over and over again.
Repetition, research.
That's right. That's right. If someone hears this podcast for the first time and goes, wow, that is so cool. I love that I want to do that and doesn't ever listen again, it will be gone. It's purged. Like, there's nothing substantial enough here to keep it going. So, like, he's researching, giving it more ideas. Anyway, so that's the first three practices.
