Your Book Pulled Me Out of a Depression

Dear A. B. Curtiss,

I recently found an interview with you online and loved the things you said with regard to depression. I know you suggest that the most effective way to heal the causes of depression are some types of regressive therapies. I live in Clearwater, FL and am ready to take the step to healing past mental traumas as I am a new mother and have a great desire to offer my 8 month old daughter information on how to best live with a human mind, if you will. Which types of therapies have you found to be the most effective for healing past traumas? Could you suggest a practitioner in or near Clearwater, FL?

I want to tell you that simply reading the interview with you online helped to pull me out of a depression. I was amazed that by redirecting my thoughts to "green frog" I could end the spiral. I purchased your book, DEPRESSION IS A CHOICE, and am reading it slowly but surely. Would you suggest I finish the book before proceeding into therapies? I am just so excited to get started!!

Thanks you for your work. You are brave and tenacious. If you would have just given into medication, you would never have found these truths!

With great admiration, K. M.


Dear K. M.

You can certainly do therapy before you finish the book if you like and also read my book BRAINSWITCH OUT OF DEPRESSION which synthesizes a lot of the information in DEPRESSION IS A CHOICE. The second book will teach you in more detail about how your brain works, how you get from one thought to another. The main way you heal from past traumas is to confront your repressed fear (see Chapter ten in DEPRESSION IS A CHOICE). Then, when you have established a practical ongoing way to deal with your fear, your past traumas will lessen in their emotional impact.

Because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, the ability of the brain to rewire itself according to new behavior and new thinking, old traumas fade in their importance to the brain as you make new patterns according to your new life experiences. The brain always follows the direction of its most current dominant thought, and although the old traumas will always remain in your memory banks, they will more and more take a back seat to your regular life , take on the role of simple historical facts which don't impact present emotional balance.

You don't really heal old traumas. What happens in that you come to have a different relation to them. They kind of turn into the personal mythological background from which you have sprung. Generally speaking, your present situation determines how you see your past traumas. If you are successful in your present life, your old background seems more okay since it is part of the person you have become and you are stronger and have more depth because of your past suffering. Most wise people agree that it is better to have suffered and survived than never to have suffered at all.

In a way, old traumas is like veterans suffering with post traumatic stress. Psychiatrists often help them by having veterans face the old scenes in the new framework of emotional support until the emotional impact lessens. It's like curing phobias. They also use biofeedback so people can see from their own brain scans how they can actually learn to alter their own brains with new thinking. The scientologists do this in their "clearing" process but it's really just biofeedback. Now the biofeedback includes new technology in neuroimagining of the brain so you can actually see how, by choosing your thoughts, you can power certain sections of your brain at will. My methods work without having to avail yourself of the machines to check your progess. I'll be glad to answer any questions you have.

A. B. Curtiss


Dear A. B.

Thanks for your quick response!
This is the interview I read.

http://www.encognitive.com/depression/getting-out-of-depression-without-drugs-a-cognitive-behavioral-look-at-depression-2007-jun-28.html

I am looking forward to learning about brainswitch and the other activities. Thanks for your willingness to help. I will definitely be in touch.

Best, K.M.