Monday, February 11, 2013

"PLEASURELESSNESS - THE NEW REPLACEMENT FOR DEPRESSION"

Over the summer I read this fantastic book. THRILLED TO DEATH : DR ARCHIBALD D. HART. This week I'm putting up some quotes from the first section of the book, in the hope of winning you over to go read it. I intend to refer and comment on more from the book in the future, but due to lack of time to think at the moment, some quotes are better than nothing. 
"Despite having more sources of pleasure than ever before in history, we are probably the unhappiest people who have ever lived." p23
"I am convinced that a lot of this pleasure loss is the result of over stress and overdependence on high stimulation." p22
"We are increasingly seeing a different kind of depression where the dominant symptom is not sadness but pleasurelessness." p27
"Many teenagers and even young children today cannot tolerate doing nothing for more than thirty seconds, max - then they demand more stimulation." p28
"The addictive  process that drives our world today not only robs us of pleasure but also takes away the energy we need to pursue things that can bring meaningful enjoyment." p32
"You can only be really happy if you preserve the function of you pleasure  system." p41
"True happiness is more enduring than pleasure." p46
"Real, deep and abiding happiness doesn't come from the excitement of life but from the simple joys of plain living. And this is where unhappy people usually miss the boat." p53
"When you become content with ordinary feelings, you will find that they are more beautiful and far more satisfying than thrill-loaded experiences." p54
"People desperately want reassurance that their hectic life is ok .... They push for help on how to live with their stress ... how they can increase their tolerance for it." p59
"Unless we as a society, learn to slow down, examine our values, change our hectic lifestyles, we will continue to suffer from Cardiovascular disease..... Further we will pass these traits and poor coping skills on to our children." p62
"When stress becomes persistent... - our stress hormones change their focus and shift from helping us cope with our stress to protecting us from self destruction." p66
".... our modern technology, has reduced the availability of recovery time. Every system in the body needs rest.... With enough rest these systems serve us well. But without adequate recovery time, they fail us because we are pushing them outside their normal limits." p68
"Kids today, aided and abetted by parents, as well as by the media and our culture, are slowly moving toward a pleasureless existence." p73
The final chapter in part 1 deals with our loss of pleasure sexually - excellent chapter. Then part 2 of the book is called Seven Steps to Recovering Your Pleasure. 
THISWEEKWITHTHEKIDS ~ "Children should be given space to explore many interests. Families should eat together, play together and hike together and you should create a panoply of family traditions that will reside in their memory and be the source of much pleasure later in life when they recall those happy times together." p79
Cathy

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