Don’t you love the oncologists and their way of expressing frightening things in technical ways. Psycho-Oncology teaches us that cancer diagnosis is often associated with depression, and it is often not addressed. Viktor Frankl used to say, “There are certain things that if they happen to you, and you don’t lose your mind, its only because you didn’t have a mind to lose”.  Depression can be “normal”, but it can also be deadly if ignored.

Addressing Depression

Addressing depression is critical for quality of life but also quantity of life. Studies indicate that those who fail to address a depression live between 10-20 years less than those dealing with and eliminating their depression. Remember the chemicals that drop our mood also slow the entire body-survival-system and send a negative message to the survival centre. When there is nothing much to live for the Primal Brain will say, “Goodbye” one morning between 1 and 3am.

Let’s keep sending the positive – “we have something to live for” – message by good cardio-vascular health and activities that pump up our serotonin regularly and consistently.  As we age we need to shift our exercise strategy so we don’t wear joints out but exercise needs to occur daily, or the message to the Primal Brain is – “we appear to be stopping”.  It’s not a message we want to send to the Primal Brain as it may decide we have run our race on this planet.  Its why so many retire and stop meaningful activity and die within six months.

I remember when the Labour Government brought in compulsory retirement in the 1980s. I was doing my doctorate while working on the Auckland waterfront. Just over 500 men were affected, and the Union Secretary said to me one morning, “John, we will have trouble here for many of these men live for their work and their mates here…”. He was proved right. Six months later he sadly handed me a clip board with many names on a number of pages. 127 men had died within 6 months of their compulsory retirement. I can still see that moment in my mind’s eye. I knew many of those men and they were not men you would have thought had limited time, but they stopped meaningful activity and their Primal Brain stopped them within six months.

Let’s keep giving our brain the message that there are things to be done and that we are fit and well fed and ready to do those meaningful things!  Active not Passive is the message to give daily or the Primal Brain may say – “let’s shuffle off….”