Whoah, this comes at just the right time. I am going through a major sickness relapse, which is thankfully becoming rarer and rarer nowadays. This is helping me reevaluate my ideas of progressing towards good health. Thank you for writing it!
I found the opposite of this to be true when recovering from depression. My recovery was exactly like the model given as incorrect, moving from days that had 3/10 life satisfaction/happiness to weeks that averaged 6 or 7 out of 10
It was a process that went on over a few years. I've been depression-free or very mildly depressed for about 5 years.
It's hard for me to imagine a recovery from depression that's not something along the lines of 'moving from feeling terrible all the time to feeling less terrible'. That just seems to be inherently what recovering from depression is. Whereas anxiety is generally more trigger-based and short-lasting, so the model of 'less frequent bad days' works there (at least in my experience).
Good one! Another framing I like is that progress is mostly about speed of recovery, which cashes out similarly to your framing, but tracks a slightly different element.
(Copying from Twitter) This seems to clash with the classic "dark night" model where things actually get much worse for a while (months or years) before suddenly clicking. Quite a few contemporary spiritual teachers talk about going through something like a dark night.
Chris how one can utilise coherence therapy/memory reconsolidation/updating unconscious predictions privately? I can't afford a therapist but I've read Unlocking the Emotional Brain, Alun Parry, all your work, and many others.
I've tried to do the work on my own but I never seem to get anywhere. Are my standards for progress too unrealistic or is it just too difficult to do on your own?
Whoah, this comes at just the right time. I am going through a major sickness relapse, which is thankfully becoming rarer and rarer nowadays. This is helping me reevaluate my ideas of progressing towards good health. Thank you for writing it!
I found the opposite of this to be true when recovering from depression. My recovery was exactly like the model given as incorrect, moving from days that had 3/10 life satisfaction/happiness to weeks that averaged 6 or 7 out of 10
No short regressions? How long ago was this?
It was a process that went on over a few years. I've been depression-free or very mildly depressed for about 5 years.
It's hard for me to imagine a recovery from depression that's not something along the lines of 'moving from feeling terrible all the time to feeling less terrible'. That just seems to be inherently what recovering from depression is. Whereas anxiety is generally more trigger-based and short-lasting, so the model of 'less frequent bad days' works there (at least in my experience).
Good one! Another framing I like is that progress is mostly about speed of recovery, which cashes out similarly to your framing, but tracks a slightly different element.
I really like the graphics 👌
(Copying from Twitter) This seems to clash with the classic "dark night" model where things actually get much worse for a while (months or years) before suddenly clicking. Quite a few contemporary spiritual teachers talk about going through something like a dark night.
Chris how one can utilise coherence therapy/memory reconsolidation/updating unconscious predictions privately? I can't afford a therapist but I've read Unlocking the Emotional Brain, Alun Parry, all your work, and many others.
I've tried to do the work on my own but I never seem to get anywhere. Are my standards for progress too unrealistic or is it just too difficult to do on your own?
Any help would be immensely appreciated.
you do need some kind of facilitator, the cheapest way to do this is probably o3 or Claude 4 with Extended Reasoning Turned On
I'm not sure the intensity part is correct and you don't provide any evidence to prove it is.
I do agree with the frequency part, and the implied advice of logging bad moments quantitatively to be able to track and adjust accurately.
so you're not sure that, sometimes, the intensity of a symptom doesn't decrease even while the frequency decreases?
i'm not sure what evidence you're looking for. this is empirical.
i guess more than your own experience, seemed like it's mostly anecdotal.
I am kinda sceptical of the main premise of the article. I feel like intensity does decrease when the right type of work is done.
not sure tho, bit braindead.
others have reported this phenomenon too:
https://x.com/nickcammarata/status/1863305295013065008
https://x.com/meditationstuff/status/1863321287080243505
ty! didn't expect u to reply this quickly.
is this the superiority of parallel twitter?