Up Class: October 2019

Nedley's Depression Recovery Summary

Christus Consolator

Notice how the people in this picture are all clinging to Christ--even the man in chains is longing to believe that he too can be free. The widow, the child, the rich and the poor--all that are heavy laden can come unto Christ and He will give us rest.

As the class for Session 5 speaks of change and addictive behaviors, this picture seems appropriate because all can come unto Christ.

Probably, in one way or another, all of us have addictions. Addictions can be emotional as well as physical. We might be addicted to control in our relationships. It may be we are addicted to narcotics or to caffeine. It may be an addiction to the Internet or to sugar or to distorted thinking or to sleeping. All of us have something we need to change. Change is called repentance.

As Dr. Nedley often states, the most essential part of changing or repenting or becoming whole and healed is the spiritual. It is coming unto Christ through prayer, scriptures, gratitude, and worship in the temples and the Stakes and using the Holy Ghost.

Our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ have given to us a marvelous gift called the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can help us to heal, to become whole or in other words to find the faith and courage to repent--to change. Read the wonderful blessings the Holy Ghost brings.

“The gift of the Holy Ghost adapts itself to all these organs or attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.

“In the presence of such persons, one feels to enjoy the light of their countenances, as the genial rays of a sunbeam. Their very atmosphere diffuses a thrill, a warm glow of pure gladness and sympathy, to the heart and nerves of others who have kindred feelings, or sympathy of spirit.” (Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, p.101.)

A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like a Medicine

Norman Cousins Laughed His Way Back to Health and Life

Norman Cousins was given a few months to live in 1964. He had Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rare disease of the connective tissues. He was told my a doctor who was his friend that he had a 1 in 500 chance of survival. He was told to 'get his affairs in order'.

But Cousins would have none of it. A journalist, he was used to research and set himself to find a solution. He read and discovered that both his disease and the medicines were depleting his body of vitamin 'C', among other things.

He did three things that would be usual today and were unheard of then.

1. He fired his doctor and left the hospital to check into a hotel. He ascertained that the cultural of defeat and over medication in the hospital was not going to be good for his health. He found a doctor who would work with him as a team member as opposed to insisting on being in charge.

2. He began to get injections of massive doses of vitamin 'C'.

3. He obtained a movie projector, no small feat in those days, and a pile of funny movies including the Marx Brothers and 'Candid Camera' shows. He spent a great deal of time watching these films and laughing. And he didn't just laugh. In spite of being in a lot of constant pain, he made a point of laughing until his very stomach hurt from it.

Did it work? Who knows. You should know that Cousins finally died November 30, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: 10 years after his first heart attack, 16 years after his collagen illness, and 26 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease.

Can it be proved that laughing added 26 years to Norman Cousins' life? Not really, but we see above that it strengthens the immune system that fights disease. There can be no double blind tests for this. They can't take two groups of dying people and have one laugh and the other cry and see who lived. The ethical restraints would be enormous and there would be too many variables. We will just have to take his word. Perhaps a version of Pascal's Wager. If laughing doesn't extend life, wouldn't it be better to laugh anyway to make your last more pleasant?

The results of the study also supported research indicating a general decrease in stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity. These were shown to decrease in the study group exposed to humor.

For example, levels of epinephrine were lower in the group both in anticipation of humor and after exposure to humor. Epinephrine levels remained down throughout the experiment.

In addition, dopamine levels (as measured by dopac) were also decreased. Dopamine is involved in the "fight or flight response" and is associated with elevated blood pressure.

Laughing is aerobic, providing a workout for the diaphragm and increasing the body's ability to use oxygen.

Laughter brings in positive emotions that can enhance - not replace -- conventional treatments. Hence it is another tool available to help fight the disease.

Experts believe that, when used as an adjunct to conventional care, laughter can reduce pain and aid the healing process. For one thing, laughter offers a powerful distraction from pain.

In a study published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing, patients were told one-liners after surgery and before painful medication was administered. Those exposed to humor perceived less pain when compared to patients who didn't get a dose of humor as part of their therapy.

Perhaps, the biggest benefit of laughter is that it is free and has no known negative side effects.