the human mind

watched a pbs special on human emotions tonight. it really is very interesting and disconcerting how our very own brains can be so empowering or detrimental to our lives. whether we choose to listen to our doubts or don't make a concerted effort to overcome our own subconscious, we can really screw ourselves over. here's a couple of the more interesting points that stood out:

anger: the frontal lobe, where reason comes from, is a "new" part of the brain - developed much longer after the primitive emotions. for some reason, emotions are quickly and easily sent directly to the frontal lobe, but it is much more complicated and difficult for the lobe to send "reason" messages back to shut off or override the emotion. this gives me good medical grounding for why i feel full of rage when watching the new chase credit card ski lift commercial and the customer service "massage dare" only to realize minutes later that i just hate horrible marketing ideas.

depression: strong physical evidence continues to emerge that in addition to its emotional effects, depression has significant physical corollaries/causes/effects. in addition to a spike in "stress molecules" found in the saliva of those with depression, they have found that depressed individuals tend to have a significantly smaller hypothalamus than healthy people and that it can continue to shrink if untreated. the hypothalamus contributes to stress sensory and reaction and is usually about the size of an almond (which is really kind of a sick description i think. can't they compare it to a non-edible? maybe something not brown and wrinkly with a milkish taste? sick). most recently, they have found a couple of treatments that can not only treat the shrinkage (not that kind), but reverse it and grow new neurons: anti-depressants and shock therapy. yea, like randle mcmurphie in cuckoo's nest.