Avoid the "feedback loops from hell", you don't deserve to be anymore depressed than you already are

Yesterday, I started reading The Subtle Art of not giving a f___ by Mark Mason, and came across the concept of feedback loops from hell, it was like a eureka moment for me when I suddenly realized what was the number one factor causing me depression. It was as if my eternally painful and constantly suffering subconscious mind realized it too because soon after reading those first few paragraphs of the book about the feedback loops, I dozed off into a deeply sound sleep, the likes of which I don't remember having since ages!

And as I wake up feeling fully refreshed and cheerful this morning, I realize the cause of it and so I feel like sharing this with everyone.

Depression has probably become a lot more common these days, or maybe it already was but we are only now becoming more aware of it and trying to find ways to cure it. Now, what exactly is this feedback loop from hell? Have you ever felt the following immediately after having an extremely negative emotion like anger or worry or anxiety?

1. You feel angry about X, then after some time you realize that you were angry so you are even more angry about the fact that you got angry in the first place. Now, that thought isn't a very good one is it? So that makes you even more angry (about the fact that you were angry about being angry!).

2. You feel anxious about some X event, soon you start feeling miserable about having that thought, the very fact that you are anxious at all. Soon, you start feeling even more anxious when you realize that all isn't well and you are suffering from anxiety and stress, you start worrying about how long this will continue and what happens if it doesn't stop.

The same could be said about many other negative emotions too, its like an infinite loop, a quirk or feature of our brain which is automatically getting applied in a negative direction and deriving results which we don't want. We all make mistakes but we are good humans, we don't deserve to be depressed or anxious in the first place, let alone have multiple quantities of it. The feedback loop is an evil multiplier which makes stress rise to astronomical levels which it otherwise never would.

If you are suffering from stress or depression, I strongly suggest you to read the whole book as the author also seems to have suggested some ways of tackling this increased level of depression. But even reading the first few paragraphs from the excerpt text might make you instantly get rid of about 90% of it. Because just as realization of depression caused this depression in the first place, the realization of that happening (one meta-level higher) seems to act like an antidote for it (by causing a kind of reverse feedback loop or a break out of that loop perhaps!).